Questions #3 and 4...

These two are closely related and so get double billing.

Question 3:  Are you a good person?
Question 4: What do you need to do to become a good person?

Most of us like to think we are good people.  And most of us get offended if others consider us not good.  I remember a friend telling me that a church in her community put her on their prayer list because they were concerned about her "goodness."  Ouch.  None of us like that.

And, who are we to decide other people aren't good?  Are only Christians good?  Who decides?  On what basis?  What happens to "bad" people?  Do we want to go there?

Begin with the definition of terms.  If we are talking theological understandings of who God is and who we are--and we need to understand that if we are the people of God--then we are talking the theological definition of "good."  It has to do with sin and sinlessness,  not whether we are nice people.  Most of the people I know are nice.  Most of us try not to be offensive and to play well with others.  After all, we learned that in Kindergarten.  A friend of a friend posted her kindergartener's learnings in his first two weeks.  Week one:  Don't cut yourself with scissors.  Week two:  Don't cut other people with scissors.  That about says it all.  That's what it means to be nice...but even total restraint from scissor-cutting does not make us good.  

When Jesus is asked by the rich, young man what it takes to be good, Jesus says "only God is good."  (Matthew 19) This young man worked hard at doing the right things, at following the laws--which probably made him a pretty nice person.  In his own estimation, he was a pretty darn good Jew...not an easy accomplishment.  But he didn't even get a pat on the back from Jesus...only this worthy-of-a-politician-statement that "only God is good."

What makes us good?  Well, frankly, being nice to each other ought to go a long way!  The nice young man thought he had dedicated his life to eliminating sin by following the law.  Why would that not make him good?  Well, the young man challenges, which commands am I supposed to be keeping?  Jesus summarizes.  The young man insists, "I have kept all these."  (SCORE!)  And Jesus says, "If you wish to be perfect (also translated merciful or compassionate), sell your possessions and give the money to the poor...then come and follow me."  Oops.

The very nice, rich, young man is not, after all, good.  You could list his reasons for not selling his possessions.  He earned them.  He can do more good if he keeps them.  Those people will just waste the resources.  He doesn't want to be a burden on someone else.  It's not fair.  Whatever.  But the bottom line is Jesus knew that the money was his real focus.  Keeping the commandments was easy for him.  Being poor was hard.  He wanted to be a nice, rich person, not a good poor person.

And the bottom line for each of us is that there is always something that will keep us from being good because we are not God.  And there is the answer to question 4...what can we do to make ourselves good?  Nothing. If we as individuals could, maybe, possibly, be good by following law, being completely unselfish, living in full relationship with God as Jesus did...even if we might, possibly, could...we live in a world so deep in sin that we really can't escape it.  Does an oppressed worker anywhere make an article of clothing or morsel of food that we consume?  Do any of our actions result in oppression, whether we know it or not?  as a racial group?  a political group?  a nationality?  And lest we think that perhaps living alone as a hermit as many early Christians did to escape sin, is the avoidance of relationship not another sinful behavior?  Well, we will just hang out with other good people--which leads to judgment--and we're back to sin.

What's a nice person to do?  and where do we go from here...

Next.