Thought for Today
Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Psalm 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Luke 6:33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
I wrote 2 days ago, “Repeatedly, in the Creation narrative of Genesis, we read “And God saw that it was good.” (Gen. 1:4, 1:10,1:12, 1:18) What is good? Is there a quantifiable, objective good? The Greek word Micah used is καλός (k los). It is the word used in Genesis chapter 1. That word appears 600-700 times in the Bible. My lexicon tells me that word means good, beautiful, healthy, sound, fit. There are other Greek words used in the Bible which we translate as good. But, what is good?
A word search on my computer yields, “1. To be desired or approved of; 2. Having the qualities required for a particular role; 3. Possessing or displaying moral value; 4. Giving pleasure; enjoyable or satisfying; 4. Thorough.” (MSWord) From a theological perspective, all of those seem to be applicable to the general idea of ‘good’ we encounter in the Bible.
My theological dictionary offers, “Excellence of quality, particularly in regard to moral qualities. God is the supreme good who not only ‘does good’ but ‘is good,’ and thus is the standard by which all grades of ‘goodness’ are assessed.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms).
I must admit that when I ask the question ‘what is good,’ I am thinking more in terms of my own thoughts and deeds, in the human situation encompassing me and my own life. I certainly agree with and acknowledge that God is the supreme good and the standard by which all goodness is assessed. But, by that standard, Paul is correct, “Romans 3:22 . . . For there is no distinction, 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
How are Christians to evaluate (judge?) the world around us? If by the standard of God, it is obvious we no longer live in Eden. Compared to the standard set by God, we do all fall short. We are God’s creation, God’s creatures. Only God is God; none of us are!
When we read Micah 6:8, we are confronted with the necessity of understanding and responding to what God has shown us to be good, to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God. Short, simple, but in our world, rarely easy.
In the U.S.A. we speak of our criminal justice system. Yet, our entire system is predicated on the specifics of our enacted laws and being able to prove someone has or has not violated one of those written laws. We make no attempt at all to prove innocence, only whether or not someone is proven guilty according to those laws. That is how we ‘define’ justice. Our criminal justice system does not address kindness. Our society as a whole obviously eschews any valuation of humility, even before our Creator God.
The Bible speaks more to righteousness. That same theological dictionary defines righteousness as, “Biblically the term embraces a number of dimensions relating to God’s actions in establishing and maintaining right relationships. Ethically it is a state of moral purity or doing that which is right.”
What is good? What is just? What is kind? That term ‘righteousness’ seems to me to encompass goodness, justice and kindness. Note, that idea is based on relationships, on right relationships. Jesus identified the priority commandments as, "Luke 10:27 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." That answers the question. To love God, to love each other, to live that sort of life, is good.
Stay safe, love, trust God,
Pastor Ray