9 Points to consider as we engage in works of compassion (from Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline):
- Self-righteous service relies on human effort, whereas true service flows out of a relationship with God.
- Self-righteous service is impressed with the “big deal,” whereas true service makes no distinction between the large and the small.
- Self-righteous service requires external rewards, whereas true service rests contented in hiddenness.
- Self-righteous service is concerned with results, whereas true service is free of the need to calculate them.
- Self-righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve, whereas true service is indiscriminate in its ministry.
- Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims, whereas true service ministers on the basis of need.
- Self-righteous service is temporary, whereas true service is ongoing.
- Self-righteous service is insensitive, whereas true service withholds as freely as it gives.
- Self-righteous service fractures community, whereas true service builds community.
