What is good? What does good mean?
We use the word good so much that it almost feels meaningless. Good morning, it’s good for you, be good, good work, goodness gracious, the greater good, good intentions, God is good…
It’s exact meaning may be vague, but the point that the word good conveys is central to our being. The word good can be used in many different contexts. To be morally good is to be upright in heart and character. To be practically good is to be useful, beneficial, and worth-while. To be conceptually good is to be pleasing, stimulating, and satisfying. The concept of goodness is so fundamental to our experience of life that it is hard to define the word good without using the word good.
Before I go further, I want to distinguish goodness from pleasure. Goodness is a holistic, no exceptions, unequivocally beneficial thing. Pleasure can be good, and goodness is ultimately pleasing, but goodness is not always pleasing, and pleasure is not necessarily good. Goodness is like eating healthy and exercising. Pleasure is like eating whatever you want and doing whatever you want. Sometimes they cross paths, but not always.
Everything that we call good ultimately grants us a fuller, more meaningful experience of life. We drink in goodness as if it were nourishment, and, in a way, it is. We treasure goodness. The better (more good) something is, the higher a value we place on it. Things that we consider to be the best (most good) we give labels such as pure, priceless, invaluable.
But where does this intrinsic, underlying current of goodness come from? Why do we feel it, and enjoy it, and pursue it, and value it?
It is because God is good, and we are woven into the fabric of Him. His goodness courses through our spirit and gives nourishment to our soul. His goodness draws us along the ever flowing river of His presence. It is what we were made to enjoy and celebrate.
But God’s goodness is not like our goodness. God’s goodness is the source of our goodness. God’s goodness is goodness itself. God doesn’t just have a quality of goodness. He doesn’t just do good deeds. God IS goodness. God is the very source of goodness itself. God’s goodness is not a result of His efforts in “doing the right thing.” God’s goodness is the very definition of what “the right thing” is.
When we do good, or feel good, or define good, we draw closer to God. We, on some level, connect with that bond that we have with Him. We experience that sense of being woven together with Him. We cannot conceptualize goodness without having that bond. So, when we do, or feel, or define badness (the opposite of goodness) we experience being torn away from the fabric of God. Goodness is bonding and embracing. Badness is separating and rejecting.
And our bond with God is so fundamental to our experience of goodness that goodness itself is called a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Without God we cannot experience goodness, but the closer we draw to God, the more connected we are to Him, the more fully we can experience goodness.
These days we throw around the phrase “God is good” as a way of showing our pleasure and satisfaction with something that happened. We admit that God is in control, and that He is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in our lives, and that He did something that gave us pleasure, or appreciation, or relief. But we should not take God’s goodness for granted. We should not reduce our thoughts of God’s goodness to merely “God is a good boy, for doing good to me.” God is good, in all things, always - even if we don’t particularly like it at the moment. God’s goodness is a thread in the fabric of our bond with Him, and we would not, and could not, have that bond without it.
God is good in the same way that we are human. I can’t tell you what it’s like to be a dog, or a bird, or a fish. I only know what it’s like to be a human. That’s how God is good. God can’t tell you what it’s like not to be good. He can recognize things that are not good, but He cannot be them.
Our incompatibility with other species is as close, as I can think right now, of an analogy of God’s incompatibility with anything that is not good. I can have a dog, but I can’t be a dog. I can love a dog, but I can’t reproduce with a dog. I can train a dog, but I can’t have a meaningful conversation with a dog. God is good like that. God is good in a way that anything that is not good is completely, fundamentally incompatible with Him. He can, and does, provide for and allow the existence of things that are not good, but He can never bond, unite, or associate with them - nor they with Him.
So, meditate on God’s goodness. Not just on the pleasing things He has done for you, but on the fact that He is the very source of goodness itself.
Exodus 34:6-7 (NLT) The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.”
Psalm 25:8 (NLT) The LORD is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray.
Mark 10:18 (NLT) “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good.
James 1:17 (NASB95) Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.