Fruit of the Spirit - Goodness - Luke 18:18-30

Luke 18:18–27 (ESV) 18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ”

21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”

22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”

27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

[Illustration - Good question, awkward time - During a college history lecture on World War II atrocities, a student raised an inappropriate question: "What was Hitler's favorite color?" The timing stunned everyone, but the professor responded calmly. He explained that while seemingly unrelated, it reminded them that history shouldn't define individuals entirely. The professor briefly discussed Hitler's alleged favorite color (blue) before redirecting the conversation to the gravity of the topic. He emphasized critical examination of history, learning from mistakes, and preventing future atrocities. Though the student's question seemed inappropriate, it led to a meaningful discussion about human nature, comprehensive historical understanding, and the importance of empathy and vigilance. This story reminds us that questions, even in inappropriate moments, can yield unexpected insights when handled with openness and sensitivity.]

If you are going to ask a question, you want to be ready for the result, whatever it might be.

In today’s passage, we see a wealthy Jewish leader asking Jesus a very good question, but it doesn’t go the way the ruler wants. That’s because he doesn’t know what’s he’s asking and he’s not ready to act on what he learns.

Today we will look at the next fruit of the Spirit - the 6th fruit … the fruit of goodness. And one of the things that stands out to us as we read this, is the rulers use of the word “good”.

Most of us are like this man, in that we think we know what goodness is. But he is in for a real surprise, and I think we are too. He also thinks he knows a good person when he sees one, but he fails to realize just how good Jesus is. Finally, this encounter with Jesus challenged him to consider if he was really good and if he was ready to do good. It challenges us too.

First, let’s look at the passage.

1. A Misplaced Confidence (Luke 18:18)

Luke 18:18 ESV

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

We need to notice two things about this question. First is how he identifies Jesus. Second is the question itself.

If you are going to ask someone a question, to understand something, you want to go to an expert, right? Every year, almost 20 million Americans take classes in college from someone they call “Professor” or “Doctor”. They go to learn the knowledge and skills they need to succeed from the people who have proven themselves.

So, when this man goes to Jesus, he goes to him as an expert. What does he want? He wants to know what he must do to have eternal life. He wants to live forever. He wants to be with God now and forever. He wants to go to heaven when he dies. He doesn’t want to go to hell. And who can blame him? This is a very good question. I wish more people would ask it. So many people refuse to ask the question, and in their pride they will die and go to hell. But this man at least asks.

Now, there is an assumption in this man’s question. The assumption is that to go to heaven, he must be good enough to go there. He makes the assumption that the vast amount of people in the world make. He assumes that if his good deeds outweigh his bad, he will go to heaven. If just he does enough good things, he will ensure himself a place of heaven.

Verse 23 tells us that this was a rich man. We get the sense that he had already accomplished so much in his life. He was a local leader within the community, maybe the Jewish synagogue. He wasn’t worried about food or making ends meet. He had time to be attentive to life after this world. And, just like he worked hard to have earthly riches and power, he wants to be sure to work hard enough to get the heavenly riches.

And now he has an expert he can ask about getting there. By this time of His ministry, Jesus was very popular. He had performed many miracles. He had healed the sick and the lame. He had fed the poor.

And so, the man reasons, Jesus must be good. Anyone with those kinds of miracles must be good. He must be good that God has blessed him and infused Him with that power. Makes sense, right?

What is Jesus’ response to his question? Look at verse 19.

Luke 18:19 ESV

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

This is an interesting response. In it Jesus makes a number of points.

First, he shows that no human person is good. In this, Jesus affirms what the rest of the Bible affirms, that everyone has sinned. Look Romans 3:12

Romans 3:12 ESV

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

This man thinks that goodness is a human achievement. He is like so many people when he thinks that a little bit of badness is okay as long as there is more goodness than badness. But this totally fails to understand what sin is and it’s consequence.

Sin defiles us - it leaves us unacceptable to God. Sin is rebellion against God, an act of treason. Sin is using God’s gifts contrary to God. The Bible says, the wages of sin is death. It has permanently and irreversibly damaged us so that we cannot be good. This ruler is not going to be able to be good enough, and he needs to see it. He has already sinned and broken God’s command. If he thinks Jesus’ goodness comes as a human accomplishment or human attainment, then he completely misses the point.

It’s a good reminder that Jesus did not simply bring some sort of moral improvement plan. This passage destroys the notion that Jesus is a human example we should simply follow. This passage makes that idea impossible. Jesus wanted to destroy that notion … the notion that if you do enough good things, like he did, then you will be okay. No, our situation is much worse than that. We cannot be good.

The second thing Jesus shows, even if he does it indirectly, is that He is God. When the man calls Jesus “Good Teacher”, he believes that Jesus is a ordinary human person who has somehow managed to accomplish a life of extra goodness. But when Jesus says “No one is good but God alone”, he points out that goodness is not simply a human achievement to be gained by diligent effort. If that’s what the man comes away with from this encounter with Jesus, he will have missed the whole reason Jesus came to the world.

Now that sin has come into the world, only God is unstained. Only God is good. And so if we want to be good, that goodness needs to come from God, it will not come from ourselves. Sure, we will do some good things. By God’s common grace, there are some things people do that are good, at least outwardly. But, if we are honest, we often find that even our best deeds are tainted with sinful and selfish reasons.

No, if we want to be good, it needs to come from God and this man will not have it if he tries to do it out of His own efforts.

But, the goodness that the man sees in Jesus, it is genuinely there. Jesus is not saying He is bad. He does not say He is not good. If the man sees true goodness in Jesus, he needs to see that Jesus is God. The power, the moral perfection, and the righteousness … these all come from Jesus being the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. He is God come in the flesh.

So while the question is good, the man overestimates his own ability to be good and he underestimates the goodness of Jesus. That’s the kind of belief that will leave us in our sins and separated from eternal life.

Let’s look at our second point.

2. A Well-placed Challenge (Luke 18:20-22)

So Jesus has challenged the man’s assumptions. Now he challenges his actions.

In verse 20, Jesus sets out the standard of good - the moral law of God.

Luke 18:20 ESV

You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ”

To which the man replies that

Luke 18:21 ESV

And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”

This man thinks he has lived a pretty good life and he just wants to do enough to get him all the way to heaven. It’s like his life is a bridge that is 90% built and he just needs that last 10%. Well, Jesus shows him the impossibility of the task.

Let’s just pause here and see what Jesus has said and what He hasn’t said. He uses the Ten Commandments to show the man the standard of goodness, but it’s noteworthy that Jesus doesn’t use all of them. He only uses 5 of them. Though he doesn’t use them in the strict order, Jesus points out the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th commandments. And the ruler says, “Yeah, I did all those”.

Jesus knew the ruler would say that. I mean if you ask most people if they are good people, they will say, “I obey the law, I haven’t killed anyone, I’ve not cheated on my wife, I don’t steal, I usually tell the truth”. Most people think they are basically good people and that sin isn’t a big problem. If we were to put ourselves on a “goodness scale”, most people would put themselves as being “better than average”. This keeps us from seeing our need. The biggest problem for any of us being saved is our own sense of self-righteousness.

But there are 5 commandments Jesus doesn’t mention. You know why? Because he is going to reveal each of those in verse 22 by making one single demand on the man’s life.

Luke 18:22 ESV

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Like I said, this one question will address five of the 10 commandments. Let’s start with the 10th commandment. The 10th commandment is “You shall not covet”. Jesus didn’t ask him about that one earlier. He doesn’t need to, because it is going to be part of this question.. Verse 22 is a direct confrontation of the man’s covetous heart.

Will the man trust in his riches and wealth or will he trust God? Covetousness reveals our love of money and our trust in it. A covetous heart rejects the idea of living with less. A covetous heart wants more. A covetous heart is discontent with what it has and always wants more. The ruler does not want to have less possessions, but he wants to add to his accomplishments by ensuring he goes to heaven also.

The law of God is given to us to reveal sin in our lives, not to show how good we are.

Romans 3:19–20 (ESV)

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

If you are using God’s law to justify yourself, you are missing the point. It only takes one question, one life challenge like this, to show how we fall short of God’s standard. Let the law of God show your failure and your need of Jesus. But, in his kindness, Jesus is doing more than just confronting this man. He is giving the man a real chance for eternal life. The ruler needs to see his weaknesses and envy and sin, and turn to God for GRACE. He needs to see hos God can forgive Him of His sin. He is living by his flimsy works when God offers POWERFUL grace. But he has to see what is missing.

Let’s go on to our third observation from this passage:

3. A Powerful Idol in the Heart (Luke 18:23-27)

Now, there were 4 other commandments Jesus did not initially mention to the ruler, the first 4 Commandments, the commandments about God. He doesn’t mention the command to only have one God , the command to not worship idols, the command to not taking God’s name in vain, and the command to honor the Sabbath day.

When Jesus challenges the ruler to sell all of his goods, He is challenging this man’s worship … He is challenging the man to consider what he is really trusting.

That’s because money has real power in this man’s life. It is the power of an idol, it is the power of worship.

Look at

Luke 18:23 ESV

But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

Here the man has a chance to do something good, something really good, but his love of money got in the way. He could have given to the poor and he had a lot of money to give away. It could have helped others. He could have followed Jesus, but he leaves dejected and sad. He leaves Jesus still controlled by his love of money. Things could have been different for him, but he chose his status quo and his trust of the world.

Jesus addresses the power of idols in verse 24

Luke 18:24–25 ESV

Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

There is something about money that keeps many from seeing our need of God. That’s Jesus’ point here. If we have a lot of it, we tend to think that we accomplished our own success, and we tend to think that we can do anything. Instead of trusting in God, it is easy to trust in ourselves and our own ability to be good, and our money to protect us.

Jesus’ disciples get concerned. Usually the rich are the people who have been blessed by God, they are the ones who can be good enough for heaven, they are the ones who ultimately deserve it, right? I mean, if the rich can’t be saved, what chance does the ordinary person have? What chance does the poor have? Who can be good enough for heaven?

Luke 18:26–27 ESV

Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

What was the man’s problem? It was that he thought he could save himself, and the disciples had come into that way of thinking. The thought was that if they could be good enough, if they accomplished enough, then they would be okay. But this man needed to see his own failure to be good and ask God, our good God, to have mercy and forgive him. The man could not inherit eternal life, but it would be a gift. That is what Ephesians 2:8-9 says,

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Okay, now that we’ve looked at the passage, I want to get back to the spiritual fruit of goodness, it underlies the whole discussion here and this passage has a real ability to help us grow in this fruit.

First of all, let’s understand what goodness is.

When we talk about good people, we usually talk about two different qualities. One is a person who lives an upright and a moral life. We say they are good because they measure to God’s standards and they do not take advantage of God or other for their own selfish purposes.

But there is another way we talk about good people … we see it in people who work to improve the lives of others. And I think this is what really dominates the descriptions of goodness in the Bible, especially in this passage. The man calls Jesus the good teacher, asks what good things he needs to do to go to heaven, and then Jesus gives a single act of goodness for him to follow. The action of selling his possessions and giving to the poor is a truly good action.

You can see God’s heart for goodness in the demand that Jesus him - to actively work for the benefit of others around us. And while God may not demand each of us to sell everything we have, He does command that we help the people around us.

Last week, we spoke about kindness and this week we are talking about goodness. I wondered if I could even make this two sermons. My favorite book on the Fruit of the Spirit combines these into a single chapter. How could I do two different sermons? Well, they are two slightly different things and we need to see both in our lives.

Kindness grows out out tenderheartedness and forgiveness for the people in our lives. It is a gracious response to offense and a desire to help a person in need.

Goodness, from the Greek word, ἀγαθωσύνη (agathōsynē), carries the sense of moral obligation toward our fellow mankind in obedience to God. It isn’t based on the individual in front of us, but it based on God’s command to care for the suffering. God’s system of justice is for God’s people to voluntarily give from their excess resources to those who have less resources.

So the, goodness is being morally upright, yes, but it is not enough to be a person who observes all the rules. Goodness is taking all that law of God and our resources and using those things to benefit others.

I keep coming back to this next passage, but it is still relevant. We can’t think that we in God’s love if we do not do good to the people around us. In God’s economy, this generosity with others is a matter of justice and our failure to do it is evidence of unbelief.

1 John 3:16–17 ESV

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

One think you will notice, and this is critical in understanding goodness, is that the things you “own” do not ultimately belong to you. They belong to God and you are taking care of that. That money in your bank account? It’s God’s and he expects you to use it for good. That number in your retirement account? It’s not just for you, but for you to do good to others. That business, that real estate, that time, that skill? All things God gives you to steward it well and be attentive to others.

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,” (Psalm 24:1, ESV)

[A good human example … a man who dives to the bottom of lakes to retrieve objects off the bottom, he publicizes it so people can get them back. This week I heard about a man whose prosthetic leg came off the bottom. He said, “I was so uplifted to know that good people still exist in the world”. Goodness is principled, repeated and comes out of a knowledge of helping people even if we don’t know who those people are.]

And when we talk about the goodness of God, while we talk about how He is morally true, we really see His goodness in the way He provides for our needs. He pours out of his wealth so that we would know provision, and love and joy in this world.

Psalm 34:8–9 (ESV)

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!

So goodness is the provision for the needs of others as stewards of God’s resources and in obedience to His commands.

The second thing we need to see about goodness is the source of goodness.

2. The Source of Goodness

When the rich ruler came to Jesus, he came to the source of goodness, but he didn’t plug himself into that source. He failed to really see who he was talking to. He had the wrong motive as he wanted to prove himself instead of finding grace. He had the wrong question by asking how he could inherit eternal life instead of asking how he could have been forgiven and find grace. And he had the wrong response by walking away instead of obeying, instead of saying “Lord, have mercy on me”, and instead of saying “Lord, increase my faith”. He did none of these.

But Jesus was right there. He was the Good Teacher. He obeyed all of God’s commandments, completely obeying the law of God. The ruler had no idea how good Jesus really was and how much good Jesus would ultimately do.

Jesus was good in that he gave His life that we might have life. He let His body be broken and He let His blood be shed to forgive sins. Even His body and blood were given for others. He did good. [[#1]

His death on the cross was to pay the penalty of your sins. Through faith in Him, He gives you all His righteousness. He makes you acceptable to God. He took what He had, his righteousness, and he gave it to us.

We have sin and we need God to make you good, to forgive your sins, to make us morally upright, and to generate goodness in us.

The rich young ruler would not let God make him truly good. He never confessed his sin. He trusted in his idols. But his idol of money would not make him good.

We need to be able to say to God, “God, being good is so hard to do. I struggle with the idols of my heart. I don’t want to do the things you say I should do for others. Free me from my sin.”

The only thing that will free us from an idol like money is to know a security that is greater than money. That’s what we find through faith in Jesus. He is good, he has provided everything we need, he will never let us go, so we can do good to others.

He is the good shepherd.

John 10:11 ESV

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He is good and he protects. No one can take His sheep from his hand.

John 10:27–28 ESV

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Jesus gives something that no other idol could give. He gives spiritual power and strength. He gives forgiveness and eternal life. Whatever the ruler thought that money could do, it couldn’t. Through Jesus Christ, God is so good to His people. He has provided everything we needed.

Psalm 23:6 (ESV)

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So God has been so good to us and that should spill over to our own growth in goodness. Let’s hit our last point then, because goodness should be part of your life.

3. Created and Redeemed for Good Works (Ephesians 2:10)

Don’t let the fate of the rich young ruler discourage you from being good. But realize the idols you will have to address if you really want to be good, and good for God’s sake. Your idol may not be money though. Maybe it is control, maybe it is anger, maybe it is acceptance of others. That idol is keeping you from being really good. That is what you need to get rid of.

You were created for good works. You were created to use your vocation and time and resources to benefit others. We have all fallen short of God’s requirement for that.

But you were also redeemed for good works.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

And now that we are redeemed, we glorify God by our good works. We show how good He is, we show how good the world could be if good works took their place in the world.

Matthew 5:16 (ESV)

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

[#2] If you look in the bulletin, you can see a whole list of passages that talk about good works. I don’t have time for them today, but look them up. I want to highlight one though … Hebrews 10:24-25

We even meet together as a church to stir up one another to good works, because we know that apart from others, we are less inclined to do good works. Being together and hearing what God is doing, hearing opportunities that are there, and finding things to go and do with others … those things help us all do more work.

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

This is why I am so excited to be part of the church.

[Note, the problem when people DONT do good in the church, when they do bad like abuse … to be contrary to the goodness required of us][Note, the problem when people DONT do good in the church … to be contrary to the goodness required of us]

Short term trips - need to pray for them … opportunities to do good, but also learn to be good in Christ’s name

Caring for one another … in helping one another in trials, in providing food

But also in making Christ known

In ESOL, caring for parents with unplanned pregnancies, in supporting the work against human trafficking, or helping foster or adoption.

The church is God’s powerhouse for doing good and sending out others to do good.

If you knew the things that happen here, you would be so encouraged … homes repaired, the sick being visited, and needs being met.

I think we can do better with this. We do a lot in our church with our community, but I think we could do more in the mercy needs of our community. There is a lot of suffering and we have resources to deploy. Not just to Cherokee, Peru, or WV but here. [I’m thinking of Paint the Town Red here] … Lets stir one another up here …

but if you are not part of the church, you may have an idealized sense of helping others, but not actually doing it. It takes work. It takes sacrifice, but we can do it together.

So what do we do?

Look at your time and your money … Are you actually doing good for others? What is it that makes good so hard? Isn’t it the cost of it? We see that in the life of Jesus, and the price he paid to do good in our lives. For us, the real cost of doing good is the need to deal with our greed, our selfish ambitions, our discontent, our anger, our lusts, and our fears. But we have a command to be good.

I don’t know what that means for you … for the rich young ruler, he needed to sell everything. It will be different for you. The command to sell everything was specific to him, but we must not think that Jesus’ demands will be easier for us. What would you sell, give up, or sacrifice for the good of others? Your time? To spend time with people experiencing difficulties? Your money? To sacrificially give to those in need? Or, maybe you have two competing ambitions for life … one is leisure and comfort and the other does good works for others. It may pay less or be harder, but would Jesus’ words here help you think about what you can do. Or how about giving up your anger? Your resentments?

And, here’s a big question, would you sell everything if Jesus came and asked you to do it? I hope we all would, that all of us who call ourselves true followers of Christ would do what he asked. Whatever it takes.

But here is how it works out for us, if we can do some good, that it is within our awareness and power, we should do it. That’s our assignment this week. Look for one way we can do good.

Is it worth it? Yes, because God has done us the greatest good in Christ and we want nothing to get in the way of enjoying His good.

Why do you think the rich ruler approached Jesus with the question about eternal life? What might have motivated him? In the end, the ruler ended up rejecting Jesus’ instructions, and he left feeling sad. What does this help us understand about his questions?

In Jesus' response to the rich ruler, why do you think He challenged the ruler's understanding of goodness? What point was He trying to make?

How does Jesus' statement that "no one is good except God alone" challenge common notions of goodness and morality?

When Jesus answered the ruler’s question, he started his answer by using five of the Ten Commandments, but left five of them out. The ruler thought he was doing pretty well with those. We tend to grade ourselves and being more good than maybe we actually are. How can we get a more accurate assessment of our life?

Jesus addressed the other 5 commandments with the instruction to sell all of his possessions. Why does an instruction like this cut to the heart of the matter? Has anyone ever said something to you that cut the heart of your obedience or disobedience to God’s commands?

The rich ruler rejected Jesus' instructions and became sad. What does this say about the power of money? See 1 Timothy 6:10 and Matthew 6:24.

Jesus said it was difficult for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. How does money carry the power of an idol in the human heart? How are you tempted to trust money?

Jesus asks the rich ruler to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. This was a command given to him at a specific situation. Still, God’s word challenges us to sacrificially pursuing good works in obediently following Him. What should we expect God to challenge us with, in our obedience to Him?

How can we as a church better practice good deeds? What will be required for that to happen?

How can you better practice good deeds? What is getting in your way of following Jesus in this? Trust? Time? Stress? Are your reasons just excuses that you need to submit to God?

How has God been good to you? How would you say that Psalm 23:6 applies to your life?

Deleted Items

[#1] Our own goodness does not come from ourselves, but it comes from our connection with God, the source of goodness itself. It starts in seeing God’s goodness to you and then obeying His command to do good to others. James 1:17 shows God’s goodness to you.

James 1:17 ESV

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Even Jesus’ coming to earth was His way to do good for us.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

#2

1 Timothy 2:10 and 5:10 says that women show their godliness by their good works, by their work in the community

1 Timothy 2:8–10 (ESV)

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.

1 Timothy 5:9–10 (ESV)

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.

Our good works are the most conspicuous part of our faith, the things that will show the reality of Jesus Christ

1 Timothy 5:25 ESV

So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Rich people especially are to have good works

1 Timothy 6:18 ESV

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,

If you have time and money to do things for others, you need to be doing it.

Pastors and elders should be models of good works

Titus 2:7 ESV

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,

Good works is something for all of us

Titus 3:14 ESV

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.