Only God Is Good
When a rich young man came to Jesus and addressed Him as “Good Teacher” and then asked Him what good things he should do to enter into the kingdom of heaven, Jesus responded by saying, “No one is good but One, that is God,” (Mat. 19.16-17).
We all have our concept of being good. This young man had kept all the commandments, he had been a “good” boy, yet felt that something was still lacking.
Most define goodness by comparing it to evil, such as “better than” or as the “absence of evil,” etc. But Good is a Divine quality, thus cannot be defined by man, but rather by God Himself. Let me show you how God defines good.
Good is:
- Giving honor to the detestable. He bestows honor on all of us.
Man honors by merit. He gives honor to the winners, achievers, the beautiful and talented. He gives to those who deserve to be honored.
- Loving the unlovable, that is, the bad people, before they change, while yet in their sin.
Man withholds his love until there is change. Guards himself from being hurt and so is careful not to give his love to just anyone.
- Showing care and attention to those who have stolen from the poor, killed the innocent and abused the helpless.
Man wants justice to rule. The sins of man can become so hideous that our response is so often, “You deserve to burn in hell.” No mercy for Hitler, Bin Laden, Stalin, the pedophiles, the rapists or who we hate.
- Forgiving all sin and healing all disease.
Man forgives most sins, especially ones own, but not all. He also desires that his sicknesses be healed, yet is satisfied when the homosexual get AIDS, knowing that it is well deserved.
- Giving a chance or even second chance to the victims of rape, divorce and abuse.
Man condemns the innocent life to death, (in abortion), in cases of rape and incest, stigmatizes the divorcee, and ostracizes those scared by abuse and deformation.
- Extending the life of the miserable, knowing that as long as there is life there is hope.
Man gives up too soon. God is longsuffering not desiring that any one perish. Man wants to hurry up death through euthanasia, killing the deformed child, so as not to burden society with prolonged health care and pulling the plug on those barely hanging on to life.
No, only God is good. There is no good in man. He cannot save himself nor can he apart from God be like God. Some have said that there will be many good men in hell. But, no, there are no good people in hell. All who are there well deserve being there, for all have sinned. Only God is Good and we need Him in our lives.
Scriptures to meditate on: Mat. 19.16-22; 25.34-46; Romans 3.23; Psalms 103.3; I Peter 2.17.