Err on the side of doing good

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I was on a train today. It was fairly full when I got on, but after a couple of stops a lot of people got off and I was able to get a seat. At the next stop a lady, probably in her 20's (I'm horrible at guessing age...), got on the train and, having no open seats in the carriage, grabbed a handrail in front of me. I immediately felt the urge to offer her my seat (which would have made my mum proud), and just at that moment I had a tinge of uncertainty. What if she was the type of feminist who might take offence at a man offering her a seat? What if she tells me off for being patronising (which I was not!) in front of a train carriage full of people? There was no way of knowing...

Though this would probably have been the weakest type of suffering I would have faced all week, it still reminded me of something Peter wrote in his first epistle.

"For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."
~1 Peter 3:17~

 The rest of that chapter gives great practical advice on Christian living, so please do read it all. But this verse on its own holds a very true and relevant principle all who call themselves Christians should live by. If you want to do something, do good. Even if it might mean suffering for it. If you don't know what to do, do what is good.

So, risking being yelled at, I offered the lady my seat. She very kindly and politely rejected the offer and stood there for the rest of her journey. This isn't always the case when we try and do good, though. Good and Godly deeds aren't always met with kindness and courtesy. Sometimes we do suffer for doing good. Sometimes our efforts to help is met with indignant dismissal, or worse.

But that shouldn't stop us from doing good. Because of love. It is, after all, love that drives us. It is love to our neighbour that makes us want to do good things for them. It is the neverending love and goodness we daily receive from Christ that gives us the opportunity and means to love and do good to those who welcome it and those who reject it. Jesus, as our perfect example, showed us this on the cross, praying for those who were literally killing Him. He died for the sake of His disciples as well as the Pharisees.

May you have the courage to do small and great acts of kindness, doing good wherever you are for whomever you meet, all to the glory of God. May you have the courage to err on the side of doing good, rather than doing evil.

Selah.

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