Dorcas was a woman marked by service for God. She lived in Joppa, the place where Jonah tried to run from doing service assigned to him by God. Though women are to respect the position of men, they need not let the poor service of men hinder them from doing their work for God. Women can still fulfill their personal ministries, in their own realms.
Dorcas was called a “disciple,” which is often thought to be a term describing men in the Bible. But here we see this title is available to women as well. The Lord taught that, denying self for the sake of the Lord, every follower of His could be a disciple. Obviously, being “full” of good works, she must have denied herself time and things that would, by most others, be spent on themselves.
Some may see it redundant to read “which she did” after saying she was full of good works, but how we need to be reminded to do less talking about things and more doing.
Her work was done “while she was with them.” This again may seem obvious, but all too often we wait until somebody leaves us to realize we didn’t do what we should have done for that person for the Lord’s sake. Let us learn by Dorcas’ example to do for others, not only while we are with them, (meaning during our lifetime on this earth), but also while we are with them, arranged by God, in the same location.
Our ministries will vary as to how we serve others, but it is worthy of notice that her good works included taking care of the widows. James 1:27 tells us that “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” Is there one of us that is exempt in knowing some of these?
Beauty is vain (Prov. 31:30), but not your labors in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). So how can we be full of good works like Dorcas? The Lord is good (Ps. 145:9); enjoy Him. He will give you all things richly to enjoy and then we cannot help but want to do good works for Him (1 Tim. 6:17-18).