Galatians 6:10 :

So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.

The Bible tells us here to do good to everyone. The message of Christianity is not only that we shouldn’t do evil, it’s that we should do good. We don’t get to choose who we do good to either. We do good to everyone, even our enemies.

I want to take a minute to clarify that doing good isn’t always “being nice.” There is quite a difference. Sometimes doing good doesn’t seem very nice at all. Paul was being good in this letter even though he was obviously upset and telling others that they would be facing judgment.

I like how C. S. Lewis puts it in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” when he says that Aslan isn’t a tame lion, but that he is good one. Somehow, in my culture, we’ve inappropriately fused tameness with goodness. That’s not what we are talking about here. Now we should be gentle but there is a time when the only good thing to do is to come down hard against evil. There certainly has been a lot to do in this area recently.

Another important thing to recognize about this verse is that it does apply a priority to who get’s first place when we give out goodness. God doesn’t tell us to not be good to sinners, but He does tell us to give “those who are of the household of the faith” priority by using the word “especially” here.

Remember that Jesus told the disciples when Judas had left that they were to obey His commandment to love each other. Jesus didn’t tell them to “love the world.” It isn’t that He didn’t want us to love the world too, but that was not the focus.

This is one of the reasons why we “go to church” or go to meet together as Christians. It’s difficult to fulfill Jesus command to do good to each other if you don’t ever see each other! Too much focus is given to feeling comfortable at church. Really, we should all be going to meet in order to do good to each other. If everyone has that focus, it would be a nice place to go. As soon as we start thinking about our own comfort, things really break down.

Also, with our priorities firmly in place in regard to goodness, we attract people from the outside. If we just distribute good without priority, it doesn’t express the proper way to God. The only way to God is through Jesus by becoming one who is “of the household of faith.” This is an appropriate attraction unbelievers should feel. They need to witness the love we have for each other and want to be inside. We do a great disservice to Christianity to not express a clear distinction for the sake of those who need salvation. This is why an attempt to equalize religions, whether intended or not, is an attack against the purpose of God in the Church of Jesus Christ in this world.