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.
Matthew 5:16 ESV
When we consider this verse, we might think of the specific works that we do that are collected into a mass of “works. ” We might be tempted to think of those individual good works and not the quality of our work. In other words, we think of the quantity of our works rather than the quality of our work. Would you approach this command differently if Jesus had said, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good work and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
I just changed one letter in that verse, but did I change the meaning or intent? I can ask it this way, since Jesus is talking about our good works (plural), does that mean we can get away with shoddy work? Is He trying to take our attention off of quality work and allow us to attract attention by our many works, even though the work is junk?
Jesus’ assumption is that we will be working as to the Lord and not to men so that the quality of our work will be attractive and impressive. If we neglect this, we have lots of garbage work and we will be attracting flies, not people.
God cares about the quality of your work. Love your work. Love through work.
