This meme presents a good opportunity to talk about a certain stubborn disposition I find in a good number of Christians. Yes, Jesus said these words:
Mark 10:18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” NIV
Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19. NIV
But some will stubbornly seize upon this statement in order to create on a doctrine that does not agree with other scripture.
Just for the record, the word for “good” here is agathos (ἀγαθὸς) in the Greek. But if we take this statement as a hard-and-fast rule, it’s going to cause us some trouble with other passages of scripture that use this same word to describe humans. Consider these:
…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς), and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Jesus. Matthew 5:45b. NIV
If only God is good, then why would Jesus suggest that the sun rises on good people?
A good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς) man brings good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς) things out of the good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς) stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
Jesus. Matthew 12:45. NIV
Again, if he knew there were no good men, why would he be speaking here as if there were?
So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς), and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Jesus. Matthew 22:10. NIV
If there are no good humans, where did the servants in Jesus’ parable find these good people?
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς) and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Jesus. Matthew 25:23. NIV
And yet again, Jesus tells a parable with a good servant in it. And in this next passage, Luke’s gospel mentions a real-life “good” man:
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς) and upright man,
Luke 23:50. NIV
And in Acts, Luke mentions yet another “good” man:
He [Barnabas] was a good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς) man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
Acts 11:24. NIV
And Paul mentions good people quite matter-of-factly here:
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good (agathos / ἀγαθὸς) person someone might possibly dare to die.
Paul. Romans 5:7. NIV
So, why was there so much talk about “good” people in the scriptures if in fact it was an impossibility? Obviuosly, it seemed to be common knowledge that there were indeed good people.
But you’ll meet certain believers today who will staunchly claim it isn’t so, and they’ll quote Jesus in the passage above as “proof” of the notion. Rather than to sit down and weigh it all out, they still rather stupidly ignore the possibility that anyone but God could be good—even though it’s not really all that hard to figure this one out.
Obviously, God is good. And obviously, Jesus was good, too. And when Jesus says this to that man, I think he’s implying, “You’re right to call me ‘good’, but just for the record, I want you to know that all goodness comes from God.”
The Christians were taught to imitate Jesus and to abide in his teachings. They were taught to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. They were supposed to imitate his goodness. Here’s just one example of many passages that teach such things:
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
Peter. 2 Peter 1:3-7. NIV
But even so, a great many, it seems, are quite happy insisting that it is impossible for people to be good. It’s as if they prefer it this way. That is, rather than mourning about it, because they think goodness is a good thing, and is beyond their grasp, they are actually relieved at the thought that it is impossible for them.
And that’s some twisted business right there!
As we see in the passage above, the Christians were taught to participate in that divine nature, and not to count themselves disqualified from it!:
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature
2 Peter 1:4. NIV
But this kind of highly-developed mind is not welcomed in all circles of those who claim Jesus as Lord. And I see many arguments of this type, where a position is taken adamantly, even though it argues against other scripture, and could easily be resolved with some honest, rational, and responsible thinking and investigation.
And what a pity that so many bajillions of Jesus fans have come to believe that they have no option for becoming like him themselves! But that sure would explain some things about the sad state of the churches today!
NOTE ADDED ON 31 JULY 2023. This is similar to the flat earth business, which is commonly derived by a poor interpretation of certain Old Testament passages, coupled with a similarly-stubborn insistence that “if the Bible says it, it must be true”. And I have no problem with the Bible being true, but there’s a considerable problem with the idea that everything a guy thinks the Bible says is what the authors actually intended to convey.
It’s a matter of Interpretation Neglect, therefore:
