Doing Right and Pleasing God

Many friends of mine who are atheistic, irreligious or agnostic or even somewhat religious in another belief system, do "good" deeds.

They actually from time to time, shine a light on my own shortfalls of my behaviour.

I can think of one friend right now, who constantly does "good deeds" for others. He sometimes refers to these as feeling "quite virtuous".

Almost in a way of "doing right by the universe", if you will.

I want to note, he's not trying to show off, or get some level of acclaim. He was brought up in a Christian Protestant family and culture of scarcity and conservatism.
He's an agnostic, with a heavy lean towards atheism.


Here's a thing, despite doing good deeds, if the motivation of the deed is misdirected, then in God's kingdom, a.k.a the world we exist in, the deed is rendered worthless....

"Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God."

Romans 8:5‭-‬8 NLT

In reading Hebrews 11.6 it says

"And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him."

Hebrews 11:6 NLT

If i read 1 Corinthians 13, the Bible informs me that "If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing."

1 Corinthians 13:3 NLT

When we "do good" there is a motivation behind it. It can be for a myriad of reasons, many aren't to please God, in fact far from it.

Doing good, especially towards others can be motivated by a love for them.

But if i don't have the vertical right, then my horizontal motivations for doing good are 100% misplaced. I have not pleased God at all.

Think about like this : you're married. Your spouse does lots of good deeds for you. But she doesn't love you. In fact she doesn't even want to really be in any relationship with you.

She has sex with you, more than you ever want. She supports you in your aspirations, laughs at your jokes, speaks well of you publicly.

Has she pleased you? You could argue, in the flesh, yes. But in reality, her motivation to have done these things, is vacant.

Similarly with my friend. He, in the flesh, is many times a "better man than i". If we potentially stacked our "good deeds" up and compared over our lifetime, i wouldn't be surprised if his tower was considerably higher than mine.

But that's not how God's Kingdom works.

It works on a loving relationship, where love, being a motivational construct, a verb, combined with faith, is the basis on living in the ultimate reality - God's Kingdom.

I'm a jack#ss. And i've got to get my motivation centred on Him, otherwise my good deeds do nothing to "please God".

Before someone gets upset about the notion of "pleasing God". Just think about it - God is Love. God sent His Son to die for us. God is for us, not against us, God forgives amd redeems us. If i take my cue of what love is, then i am left with no choice but to want to please God, becuase he is the locus of Love.
By pleaseing God, by loving Him, i am automatically loving others, my enemies, my adversaries, my wife and family. I am loving them in the format of 1 Corinthians 13.

Secondly, for those that listen to Dennis Prager, an orthodox Jew and very religious and guy. He is motivated to "do good" becuase God is good. He often states that he doesn't care about your motives, just your behaviour.

His pursuit of God is genuine. But his pursuit to please God through Faith in Jesus is not there.

It's such a missed opoortunity to have his good deeds count for something in the currency of God's Kingdom - loving and pleasing God.