How would you complete that phrase? Good? Bad? Something else? On what do you base your answer?
If you are an apprentice of Christ, how does your relationship with Him impact your answer? You might want to skim though Matthew...
I was going to write about this at some length tonight but, I am having too much fun with the question I asked on the 2nd. So I am going to leave this here and ask you to tell me what you think.
Here are the rules. You have to answer in the comments below and you have to give a reason for your answer.
While you are doing that I am working on my answer to the question about Peter’s salvation. I will share my thoughts on this question sometime later.
I was going to write about this at some length tonight but, I am having too much fun with the question I asked on the 2nd. So I am going to leave this here and ask you to tell me what you think.
Here are the rules. You have to answer in the comments below and you have to give a reason for your answer.
While you are doing that I am working on my answer to the question about Peter’s salvation. I will share my thoughts on this question sometime later.
OK, so you are trying to get us to think again; not sure it can help but I'll try anyway. Ignorance hasn't stopped me yet.
ReplyDeleteBut, I won't try until at least tomorrow as I want to chew on it some. I'm wondering if you have a particular passage in mind. That might help to define "good" and "bad," which might make a difference in the answer.
Doesn't look like much traffic on this. Here's a thought or two. The answer would depend on our definitions; what do we mean by "good" and "bad?" Just for fun I consulted a dictionary; for "good" they said, "morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious." Pretty good, but by whose definition of those terms? Freud? Darwin? ISIS? Doesn't really help me much. If I compare myself with myself I come out pretty well.
ReplyDeleteSince this is a blog about Bible study, it seems that should be our source. I think immediately of Jesus' interaction with the rich young man in Mark 10:17-22. Setting aside a great deal in the passage, when he addressed Jesus as "Good Teacher..." Jesus replied, "...no one is good but God only." He then followed by relating that keeping God's commandments are the way to eternal life, which would seem to be the result of
being good, which the young man could not do for his covetousness.
If I am to be "good," then, in Jesus' definition I must obey the Law of God. To this adds the observation of the Apostle Paul (drawing on the lament of David centuries earlier) in Romans 3:9-18 (in part) "...no one does good, not even one." (v.12b.) If I can't "do good," it certainly seems I can't be good.
This doesn't even begin to deal with Mark 12:29-31 where Jesus, answering a questions about the greatest commandment said the most important was to love God with all our being, and the second is just as important, to love my neighbor as I love myself.
The last I checked (about one minute ago) I haven't come close to either one of these just today. My sole commitment is to my own selfish ways, and only by extraordinary effort do I inconvenience myself for the sake of other's welfare.
The solution to this terrible reality needs discussion in another blog post.