Isn’t Being a Good Person Good Enough?

We’ve talked before about whether being kind alone would get us into heaven. Proverbs 21: 21 seems to indicate the two characteristics of good and kind are enough. This daily devotional looks at how being good effects eternal life.

Nuggets

Good and righteous are two different things.
Even though God’s wrath is tempered by His mercy and love, that doesn’t mean we get a free pass without accepting the payment for those sins.
God wrote His moral code within all of us by instilling a conscience within us.

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

“If you try to be kind and good, you will be blessed with life and goodness and honor” (Prov. 21: 21 CEV).

This verse taken by itself in the Contemporary English Version translation makes it appear that being good and kind are exactly what God is looking for. They are fruits of the spirit, aren’t they? “… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5: 22-23 HCSB emphasis added).

When we add the Proverbs verse to a verse in Luke, it seems to substantiate the thought it is enough. “I didn’t come to invite good people to turn to God. I came to invite sinners” (Lk. 5: 32 CEV). That makes it sound like the good people are, well, good.

Let’s dig in to see what it really says.

Good and Righteous

“He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour” (Prov. 21: 21 KJV).

Good and righteous are two different things.

First, let’s look at all the translations on this verse. I always go back to King James. Yes, that it is one I grew up with, but it was translated before things had to be politically correct.

The Good News Translation is the only other version that doesn’t say righteous. “Be kind and honest and you will live a long life; others will respect you and treat you fairly” (Prov. 21: 21 GNT). Every other one on Bible Hub says righteous.

Ooo, baby. Good and righteous are two different things.

The Holman Bible Dictionary has something interesting to say on good. “In contrast to the Greek view of ‘the good’ as an ideal, the biblical concept focuses on concrete experiences of what God has done and is doing in the lives of God’s people.”

Resource

Let’s see if we can hone that definition down. Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people through His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.

Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.

- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
  - Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
  - Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
  - Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.

Virtues are standards of moral excellence.

Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.

When we look up righteousness, Holman Bible Dictionary says, “The actions and positive results of a sound relationship within a local community or between God and a person or His people.”

Resource

If we think of good as just something to be approved of, it can be independent of God. If we think of good as a moral value, it is more than following rules to be kind to others.

Oh, yeah. A thought is jumping up and down in my mind, screaming for attention.

How can we think being good is enough when we don’t follow God’s rules? I don’t think so!

Let’s get there by circling around it.

Unrighteousness

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1: 18 ESV)

Even though God’s wrath is tempered by His mercy and love, that doesn’t mean we get a free pass without accepting the payment for those sins.

We’ve talked about God’s wrath before. God’s wrath is the anger He expresses when we break His laws and commandments.

God cannot condone sin. In fact, sin makes Him angry.

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

Who are the recipients of that wrath? The ungodly and unrighteous.

What do they do? Suppress the truth.

What is the truth? “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NLT).

What is the way and life? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 ESV).

In case we still haven’t gotten it — “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4: 12 ESV).

If we connect the dots, we see that God’s wrath is tempered by His mercy and love. God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.

But that doesn’t mean we get a free pass without accepting the payment for those sins.

Jesus’ taking on our guilt changed our moral existence. Some may feel that there are non-believers who are even more moral than Jesus’ disciples. Let’s address that next.

Natural Obedience

“For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 2: 14-16 ESV)

God wrote His moral code within all of us by instilling a conscience within us.

I found this verse the other day when writing Is God Real? We talked about how some people innately obey God’s laws — even if they don’t prescribe to His laws.

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

This is because we all have a conscience. Our conscience is the part of our nature that impacts our moral decisions as it points us to what is right and gives us pain or pleasure depending on the choice.

It is that little voice within us guiding us what is right and what is wrong.

God wrote His moral code within all of us by instilling a conscience within us. Our conscience is God’s watermark that He created us. It is the evidence that we are His creation.

There is a problem. “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Rom. 3: 12 ESV emphasis added).

Yes, they may do okay by the worldview definitions. But if they haven’t given their lives to God, they are not operating under the right motives.

And it won’t help them in the end. “I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books” (Rev. 20: 12 CSB).

Making the Connections

Being a good person does not make us closer to God — unless we have made the decision to accept Jesus as our Savior and God as our Sovereign God.

It isn’t about obedience. It is about a relationship.

It isn’t about us and what we do or don’t do. It is about God and what He has done through Jesus’ sacrifice.

Let’s go back to the fruits a second. “… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5: 22-23 HCSB).

Those are the rewards we get after we have ABCDed and are obeying God’s laws and commandments.

If we think about our lives — whether or not God is in them — aren’t we “… blessed with life and goodness and honor” (Prov. 21: 21 CEV) when the fruits are present?

Blessed at least by the worldview definition. We talked about that in a couple of devotions recently.

To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.

The worldview has a different definition of success and love. It is going to evaluate things by these flawed definitions.

But the worldview doesn’t really define what is “good enough.” Being good is open to a lot of different interpretations. This is critical because “for everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Rom. 3: 23 NLT). No one is good.

One other thing is flawed in the worldview. It isn’t about being good or bad. It is about being spiritually dead and spiritually alive.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 ESV). End of debate.

How Do We Apply This?

If the only way to spiritual life is believing in Jesus, we have to search for and seek Him. Go back to the King James Version of the Proverbs verse. “He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour” (Prov. 21: 21 KJV emphasis added).

We first have to search for God and give our lives to Him. We do that by doing our ABCDs.

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

Then we seek Him. We grow in grace and knowledge

Searching for and Seeking God

Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).

Yes, God wants us to be good and kind — using His definitions. No, we won’t be fruit-of-the-spirit perfect.

We will still be forgiven when we ask.

Loving Father. You are Sovereign God. You have defined what is good and kind. You have decided what are sins and what aren’t. You have given us laws and commandments, so we know what Your expectations are. You know we won’t be perfect in following them. You will forgive us when we ask. We have to ask in the name of Your Son Jesus, Who You sent to restore our relationship with You. Help us to admit our sins, believe on Jesus as Redeemer, confess You as Sovereign Lord, and demonstrate that commitment by following our laws and commandments. Amen.

What do you think?

Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.

If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.

If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.

If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.

Seeking to imitate God in our lives