A Christian man, on his way home from work one night determines to do something nice for his family. He picks out a nice family movie to watch from the movie store, and orders pizza on his cell phone, so that just after he arrives home the pizza should come.

He pictures the evening in his mind, his children happy about the pizza, his wife about the family movie, and the loving thoughts that went into it. His heart is full of love as he unlocks the door and enters the empty house.

He gets out of his working clothes and wonders where everyone is. Perhaps there is a note somewhere? He looks about and finds nothing, and before he has an opportunity to worry, the pizza arrives.

He pays the fellow at the door, and takes the hot pizza into the living room, and sets up all the TV tables and gets out all the cutlery and whatnot - and in his mind he changes gears a bit - this could work to his advantage - the family being out at the moment, this turns the treat into a "great surprise" for when they walk in...

But they don't walk in. The pizza grows cold as the hours roll on, and something changes in his heart. The joy of providing a wonderful treat and surprise is replaced by anger. Why aren't they home? He remembers every time his wife has ever "forgotten" to mention that she would be taking the kids out somewhere, and his countenance does indeed change. Anger begins to creep in, and with each glance at the clock it builds.

When the wife and children come home, they find that dear old loving dad has become a seething volcano waiting for the opportunity to go "krakatoa." The cold pizza, the elaborate TV trays all set up around the movie and whatnot - these become the weapons he uses to make his wife feel absolutely miserable for "forgetting" to call.

Can this be the same person who only hours ago had a heart filled with love and a desire to do something good for his family?

Yes and no.

Some might see here the difference between the spiritual and the carnal - they see his original good deed as something spiritual - "born of God", a nicety that couldn't come from the flesh; and they consequently see the anger and poor behavior as coming from the flesh and therefore being reprehensible.

The reality is however, that both attitudes come from the flesh.

From the flesh came the original nice thought, and from the flesh came the anger. This is betrayed when he uses the cold pizza and prepared movie as a means to make his wife feel miserable for not calling. He is angry because things didn't go his way, and now he wants pity - nay, he feels he deserves pity, and that justice can only be served in proportion to how perfectly miserable they feel for not having shown up to partake of his generous heart. Can you not see his motive? He truly believes that he deserve to be treated according to the dictates of his own heart, and feels justified in doing so.

His "good deed" was never really a good deed, because what he was doing all along was "purchasing" a desired response from his wife and children by doing a deed that he felt warranted a particular reaction - a reaction that would gratify --him--. The ultimate reason he does anything - a seemingly good deed, or the anger that comes when it falls apart - both are driven by the same desire to be satisfied. He feels he has a right to their charitable reaction to his "good" deed, just as he feels he has a right to their misery when it falls apart. It is all about him, and always was.

We see in this, I hope, the radical flaw in thinking that we have some good in us. The reality is everything that we we imagine is "good" is actually, deep down, motivated by our desire to be treated in a certain way. We love our wives (or husbands) when doing so produces a desired effect. If my wife is clearly in the wrong, I feel I deserve an apology, and I am justified in being cold towards her until I get one.

In every other religion in the world people do good deeds externally - that is - whatever moral code they live up to, they do so ultimately in order to benefit themselves. Not that they understand this, but this is how really it is.

In Christianity, we have this too - but only amongst those who don't live in the Spirit. Carnal Christians run about trying to do good just as spiritual Christians do, and from the casual observer both may look the same, but ultimately the good that is done in the strength of the flesh is entirely for the benefit of that flesh (that which is born of the flesh is flesh).

Unless a thing is done with the mind set firmly on the things of the Spirit (done out of a love of God, and only and entirely out of a love of God) it is selfish and worthless.