There are two ways to define the word “Good”. One is a moral definition where a person is good because they have the virtue of goodness. “He is a good man.” The other is a functional definition where something or someone is performing well. “He does good work.”
Biblically, I don’t think you can separate the two. “He is a good man, because he does good.” You cannot have the virtue of goodness without having it showing in the life of the person. Without works, faith is dead.
Who is good? Jesus said that only God is good. He is the sole person in the universe who is truly good. He alone fulfills His function completely. Every man and woman who has ever lived, including you and me, were uniquely created to fulfill a function in this world, but we failed.
Sin has warped us so that we cannot perform as we should. We do not have the ability by ourselves to do the good work which God calls us to. We are like broken tools useless for anything except to be thrown into the fire and melted down.
But God is good. He has no sin. He is capable of fulfilling any task He sets upon Himself. He created us for a purpose and out of His love for us was willing to have Jesus sacrifice Himself on a cross. That sacrifice saved us from the fire and gave us a new life where with His help we can fulfill the purpose God has for us.
God has set out for Himself the purpose of loving us. His function is to love. His love is so far above what can understand, that sometimes we miss seeing just how good He is. It’s not just a inward goodness, but it is expressed in His constant blessings upon us.
Let us bless God with our love as well. Our lives should be filled with our acts of love towards our Lord and towards the people He loves.
Photo Credit: Real Life Fun House Mirrors by Jeremy Brook
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