James 1:17
Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Some Christians hold to a theory of grace which makes a stark division between “the works of man” and “the works of God.” For such Christians, if a person has not been “born again” by making an explicit, public confession of “Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior” then that person is firmly consigned to the unsaved and Hell-bound and “all their righteous works are as filthy rags”. This mindset, once it is given its head, can arrive at some astonishing conclusions in some sects, such as declaring that Mother Teresa is burning in hell because, as a Catholic who held an allegedly “wrong” theology, her charitable works were worthless in God’s sight. In contrast to this sort of lunacy is today’s passage of Scripture, which teaches us to see any act of charity or goodness or beauty as being some sort of opening to the working of the Holy Spirit in the human person, even in the non-Christian. “Every” good endowment is a gift of some kind from the Father of lights, even in the worst sinner. This is not to say that mere niceness, or musical ability, or a pleasant personality is tantamount to receiving the life of Christ in baptism. But it is to say that we simply do not know and cannot make judgements about where the Holy Spirit is and is not at work, so we are bound to hope that he is at work in every human person and to do what we can to foster that work wherever we see it. Today, thank the Father of lights for whatever light he has given you—-through whatever channel he has chosen to give it.
