Christians believe they are saved in Christ Jesus to do good works. We receive salvation not by our works but for us to do good works.

One problem area for many Christians is they define “being good” passively.

They did not yell at the lady at the supermarket. When everyone else was speaking meanly about a coworker, they remained silent. As their anger increased at the spouse, they chose to walk away. At the time, they could have made things worse, but they decided to let things go. 

In reality, they did not DO anything. They refrained from doing what felt natural in the moment.

While this may be an excellent first step in changing your life for Jesus, the next step is to become actively good. Jesus gives us the “Golden Rule” in Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Actively doing for others what we would want them to do for us is different than passively not doing to others what we would not want people to do for us.

One enormous step in your spiritual growth is to make the shift from passivity to activity.