Episode 297: Christianity 202, Part Four--Doing Good

You'd hope it's obvious that we should do good in the world rather than evil.  Christians should pretty much be on board with that premise--we are supposed to do good in the world.  And yet--we find all sorts of ways to complicate that pretty simple directive.  Sometimes we slide into thinking that we need to impress other people with our good deeds, or even worse, that we need to impress God with them.  Sometimes we are so worried about looking like we are trying to get gold-stars or special recognition that we downplay doing good at all in the name of avoiding self-righteousness.  Sometimes we assume we know what other people need rather than asking them, and we end up doing more harm than good with well-intentioned but misguided attempts at "good."  And sometimes we end up reducing other people to being passive props for our moral self-improvement rather than doing good out of genuine love for others to respond to their needs.  So how did we end up making the clear idea of "doing good in the world" so complicated? And how do we avoid those pitfalls?  That's today's conversation in our latest episode of "Christianity 202" here on Crazy Faith Talk--join pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve around the microphone for today's conversation.