What Is Good?

In the confused culture in which we live, there are many ideas that pass as good. The word good is used as a subjective term, arbitrarily thrown around without firm boundaries or parameters. Obviously there are some areas of taste and opinion in which this is harmless. For example, the beauty of different kinds of art and the attractiveness of fashion styles are matters of opinion. In such cases, what is good is genuinely debatable. Unfortunately, many in our culture also view moral issues through a similarly subjective lens. The subjects of gender and marriage, for example, are now treated like a Picasso painting, dissected and appraised depending on the preferences and whims of the viewer.

In these turbulent times, the familiar words of Isaiah come to mind, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil" (Isaiah 5.20). In order to dismiss the seriousness of their sins, evil people often seek to switch moral labels. But if goodness is in the eye of the beholder, it is drained of its significance! When someone describes an action as good, they're trying to distinguish it from other things that are bad. That implies the existence of an objective standard by which they measure everything else.

What is goodness? According to the scriptures, human beings are incapable of directing their own steps (Jeremiah 10.23). Therefore, goodness in morality is not possible for us to determine. God claims the exclusive right to label objects and actions as good within his creation. This idea is established very early in the Bible when Moses wrote that God stopped to look at his world at the end of every day of creation and "saw that it was good" (Genesis 1. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). Then at the conclusion of the entire process, we're told that he looked at everything he had made "and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 2.18). Before the creation of Eve, God took note of Adam and said "It is not good" that Adam be alone in his work of cultivating the garden of Eden. The implicit message of these passages is difficult to miss: since God made the world, he defines how it should work or not work.

Goodness, therefore, is not defined by our emotions and what we feel is right. Nor is it defined by what logically makes the most sense to us personally. Twice in the Proverbs (14.12 and 16.25) we are duly warned that "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Since we are prone to misjudgment and sin, we humbly acknowledge that the way to understanding good and evil is not through human philosophy or vast life experience. Instead, "constant practice" in the "oracles of God" yields an accurate understanding of goodness (Hebrews 5.12-14). God has, and always will, define what is good. Nathan