He went about doing good
The pattern of Jesus
When Peter summed up the whole earthly life of Jesus in a single phrase, he chose a beautifully simple one: he went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Of all the ways to describe the Son of God's years among us — his teaching, his miracles, his authority — Peter distills it to this: he went about doing good. His life was a steady overflow of mercy wherever he went.
Notice the unhurried, pervasive quality of it. He went about doing good — not a few dramatic acts of mercy punctuating an ordinary life, but a continual, moving stream of goodness, doing good as he went, wherever he was, to whomever he met. Goodness was not an occasional project for Jesus but the very texture of his days, flowing out of him constantly.
And Peter names the source: for God was with him. The overflow of good was the outflow of a life full of God. This is the pattern for the active life — not a few heroic deeds, but a life that goes about doing good, a steady overflow of mercy fed by the presence of God within. The inner life full of God becomes a life that, almost without trying, does good wherever it goes. Could your life be summed up, even in part, as one that goes about doing good?
“Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with him.”
— Peter, of Jesus — Acts 10:38 (WEB)
Become the kind of person who goes about doing good — a steady overflow of mercy wherever you go, fed by the presence of God within.
“Those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to all.”
We file goodness under occasion, saving it for the rare heroic chance and so missing what Peter saw in Jesus — a life summed up as simply going about doing good, mercy as the ordinary texture of his days. The interior work is to want that continual stream more than the dramatic exception, and to trace it to its spring: a soul full of God overflows, almost without trying, wherever it goes.
This week, go about doing good: rather than waiting for a heroic opportunity, do good continually as you go — small mercies to whomever you meet along the way — letting the presence of God within overflow into a steady stream of goodness.
The enemy is glad to let you reserve goodness for the grand gesture, so the small, steady mercies that should fill your days never start to flow. But a life so full of God that good spills out continually, to whomever it meets along the way, spreads the goodness of Christ in a current he cannot dam.
When Peter summed up the entire earthly life of Jesus, he chose a strikingly simple phrase: he went about doing good. Of all he could have said about the Son of God, he distilled it to a steady overflow of mercy wherever Jesus went. And the quality is unhurried and pervasive — not a few dramatic acts punctuating an ordinary life, but goodness as the very texture of his days, flowing out continually as he went.
This is the pattern for the active life, and Peter names its source: for God was with him. The overflow of good was the outflow of a life full of God. The active life, then, is not mainly about heroic projects but about becoming the kind of person who goes about doing good — a steady stream of mercy, fed by the presence of God within, given to whomever we meet along the way. A life full of God becomes, almost without trying, a life that does good wherever it goes. Could your life be summed up, even in part, as one that goes about doing good?
- Is goodness an occasional project for me, or the texture of my days?
- Does a life full of God overflow from me into good wherever I go?
- Could my life be summed up, even in part, as going about doing good?
Lord, Jesus went about doing good, a steady overflow of mercy, because God was with him. Fill me with your presence, that good might flow from me continually wherever I go — not a few heroic deeds, but a life that goes about doing good. Amen.