Good Deeds are A Manifestation of a healthy spiritual life. Good deeds promote friendship and harmony in our dealings with people. Good deeds create merit for heaven and improve our relationship with God.
While religions often emphasize faith as the key to salvation, all genuine faith is manifested outwardly in transformed behavior.
Father Moon recommends unflagging efforts to do good deeds, whether they are appreciated or not, both to fulfill love in our hearts and as spiritual training to love more profoundly.
Many garlands can be made from a heap of flowers. Many good deeds should be done by one born a mortal. Dhammapada 53 (Buddhism)
Be mindful of your duty [to God], and do good works; and again, be mindful of your duty, and believe; and once again: be mindful of your duty, and do right. God loves the doers of good. Qur’an 5.93
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2.10
Every selfless act, Arjuna, is born from the eternal, infinite Godhead. God is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law. Bhagavad-Gita 3.16 (Hinduism)
Every person’s every joint must perform a charity every day the sun comes up: to act justly between two people is a charity; to help a man with his mount, lifting him onto it or hoisting up his belongings onto it is a charity; a good word is a charity; every step you take in prayers is a charity; and removing a harmful thing from the road is a charity. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 26 (Islam)
Good deeds annul evil deeds. This is a reminder for the mindful. Qur’an 11.114
Whoever, by a good deed, covers the evil done, such a one illumines this world like the moon freed from clouds. Dhammapada 173 (Buddhism)
He who carries out one good deed acquires for himself one advocate in his own behalf, and he who commits one transgression acquires one accuser against himself. Repentance and good works are like a shield against calamity. Mishnah, Avot 4.13 (Judaism)
Heaven is not attained without good deeds. Adi Granth, Ramkali-ki-Var, M.1, p. 952 (Sikhism)
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, without works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone… For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.24 James 2.14-26
Is there a “righteous man” who is good and a righteous man who is not good? He who is good to Heaven and good to man, he is a righteous man who is good; good to Heaven but not good to man, that is a righteous man who is evil. Talmud, Kiddushin 40a (Judaism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
A good person has both unwavering faith and accumulated good deeds. (73:116, August 16, 1974)
Pay attention to people and treat each one with a loving heart and with truth. Say at least three good and positive things each day. Along with your words, do three good deeds each day, no matter how small. When you greet someone, do not say words out of habit but with sincerity and genuineness. (99:142, September 10, 1978)
Do a good deed and forget about it. Although you forget, it remains in God’s memory, connected to His goodness. (Way of God’s Will 1.1.2)
Carry out the difficult tasks others avoid, while remaining detached from the things you like. Solve your parents’ most difficult problems for them and take upon yourself all their outside difficulties as well. (17:338, April 30, 1967)
Good people are those who willingly take responsibility for other people’s debts. (41:90, February 13, 1971)
Good or evil in the conduct of the physical self is the main determinant of whether the spirit self becomes good or evil. This is because the physical self provides a certain element, which we call the vitality element, to the spirit self.
In our everyday experience, our mind rejoices when our physical self performs good deeds but feels anxiety after evil conduct. This is because vitality elements, which can be good or evil according to the deeds of the physical self, are infused into our spirit self. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 6.3.1)
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