What Is Good?

I had an interesting conversation with my mom recently. My mother made the statement, “If everyone just focused less on this and more on putting good out into the world… the world would be a better place.”

I know this response came from God, because I wouldn’t have thought to respond in this way on my own, but I trusted in Him and I asked her…

What is good?

Does everyone have the same definition of good?

If we were to look up the definition of “good,” it is defined as:

– An adjective that means to be desired or approved of (ex: a good quality of life), or having qualities required for a particular role (ex: the schools here are good).

-A noun which means that which is morally right or righteous, or a benefit or advantage to someone or something.

-A informal adverb used in the place of the word “well” (ex: my mother could never cook this good).

What do we find in common with all of these definitions?

These definitions are all subjective.  Good is based on or influenced by our personal feelings, tastes, opinions, thoughts, upbringings, etc.

To humanity, good is subjective. To God, it is not.

That question, “What is good?” was followed with silence and my mother saying, “I’m not sure.”

The truth is that we can wish for everyone to put out good into the world, but what is good is different from person to person.

There may be some who intend to do evil, but I do feel that a majority of people feel that they are putting good out into the world by their own definitions and standards.

As the world continues to do as it deems good, our fallen world will continue to fall… because humanity is doing what they deem good in their own eyes and not what is good in God’s eyes. Humanity is doing what is pleasing for them and not what is pleasing to God.

My mother then asked, “So how do we know what is good?”

We cannot depend on our own definition of good. Good in our own worldly definition and subjectiveness is also subject to change.

We can see all throughout history horrible events because people were doing what they deemed as “good.” Let’s look at medicine for example. There are treatments such as lobotomies that were deemed to be good in their time, but today are not considered good at all but are considered unethical, torturous, and cruel. How many times have we seen campaigns of genocide because people had it made up in their mind that it was good to deliberately take the lives of many people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the mind to destroy them all?

We cannot trust man to determine what is good.

In a world where goodness is subjective, we need an authoritative source and standard by which we consider what is good.

What we can do is go to the Word of God, because we can trust it to be true and unwavering. God does not change, and His word does not change.

“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” – Psalms 119:89 NKJV

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8 KJV

If we cling to His word and plant it into our hearts, this can help us to not project our human ideas of goodness onto God and instead allows the scriptures to define goodness.

What does the bible say about goodness?

“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering*, and abundant in goodness and truth,” – Exodus 34:6

All through scripture, we see that God does good and is good. Good is not just a word to describe God, but good IS God.

We see in Genesis 1, as God is at work in creation and sees that it is good.

God as the creator of the universe is the ultimate authority on what is good.

Goodness is not just an adjective to describe God in our own subjectiveness, but it is a literal attribute – or a quality that is an inherent part of God. It is His being and character.

Because God Himself is good, that makes Him the standard by which goodness is determined.

Sometimes, it’s hard for our flesh to understand His goodness, especially when hardships hit. It’s hard to understand His goodness when life doesn’t go our way or when unfair and unjust things happen in this world. Some of the things God requires of us that are good may not seem so good in our own human thinking as well.

We are not always called to always understand. We must still be obedient. We may not see the good in everything that God does at surface level, but we know that He works all things together for good.

I’m sure Mary and Martha did not understand in John chapter 11. They sent word to Jesus, “He whom You love is sick.”

They probably thought Jesus would simply speak a word and Lazarus would be healed instantly, or that Jesus would have rushed to Bethany to lay His hand on Lazarus to heal them.

But instead, their brother died.

We see in scripture that Jesus delayed his arrival into Bethany. When Jesus received word about Lazarus being sick, he proclaimed that “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

This probably didn’t make sense to the disciples either that Jesus let Lazarus, His friend, die. Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

Jesus allowed Lazarus to die… but then He raised Lazarus from the dead. There was greater good brought out of this, and it was all for the glory of God.

Jesus loves us all, and He wants to be glorified through our lives. Suffering and the struggles of this life can give us a platform which we can glorify God and point others toward Him.

While it’s true that God loves us so much and works all things together for good, we have to push aside our ideas of how God should show that love and what we feel like that “good” ought to be in our lives. We think that good means no pain, no suffering, no struggle, no hardship. We want to think that good means a problem-free life.

Our ideas of good only takes into account what will benefit us here and now. We are often interested in what will benefit us temporarily, but God is more concerned with what will benefit us and His Kingdom eternally.

We are interested in what will make us happy, while God is far more interested in what will make us Holy.

When we aren’t obedient to His goodness and aren’t using His goodness as a standard, that opens the door for sin and wickedness to enter our lives. 

Our own ideas or acts of goodness cannot save us. Being a good person cannot save us, but it’s by His goodness that we can be saved. Salvation is not based on our goodness, but it is based on God’s goodness.

Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV instructs us to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

That word acknowledge (yaw-dah’) means to know, to learn to know, to find out, and to discern. It does not mean to just merely recognize the quality or importance of God but to actively seek Him so that we can better know Him and His ways.. and if we do that, He will guide us and lead us by His goodness. The more we get to know Him and the more we learn of His ways, the more we know what is good. The word may say that we are not good in ourselves, but God is the good in us.  When we receive the Holy Ghost and have His Spirit living inside of us, we have a constant companion and friend that helps us and guides us along the path of righteousness.