Being Good
What does a good person look like? Obviously, it’s not about looks at all! When a man came to Jesus and addressed him as “Good Teacher”, the reaction was not what he expected. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18). Yet the Bible tells us that Jesus spent his life doing only good. Perhaps we need to examine what “being good” actually means.
​How does one measure goodness? It probably depends on who sets the standard. If somebody gets 70 percent in an exam and everyone else got below 50 percent, then 70 percent is a good result. However, that changes if everyone else got over 80 percent.
​
Is being good just a case of being better than somebody else?
That’s not what Jesus taught. God sets the standard, and even as God’s Son, Jesus was not willing to accept that description of himself. In the Old Testament of the Bible, the word “goodness” is always about God. In the New Testament, it extends to those who are sincerely trying to follow Jesus. Galatians 5:22-23 lists what those who belong to Jesus should aim for: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
​
The man who came to Jesus was asking what he could do to inherit eternal life, as if it were something he could earn. Jesus reminded him of God’s commandments and when the man said he had kept them from his youth, Jesus could see that he was telling the truth. But he could also see that there was something hindering the man from committing himself completely. He owned a lot of property. It meant so much to him that he couldn’t bear to think of selling it, giving the proceeds away and following Jesus.
​
Doing something good doesn’t make us good people. God asks us to be willing to change and become the sort of people He wants in His kingdom. Some changes are painful; we might need to get rid of an attitude or habit that has become a big part of our life. Jesus reassured his disciples that “all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27).
​
Jesus lived out the example of putting God first in every part of his life. Even so, he didn’t regard himself as good. He was still mortal when the man called him “Good Teacher”, and could still have chosen to do wrong. When he was raised from the dead and God made him immortal, he was no longer having to struggle against temptation to sin. If we focus on being the people God wants us to be, He will work with us: "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 1:6).
​
The Best Selling Book of all Time
The bestselling book of all time is probably one of the least read books. This book is the Bible. You probably have one, but have you ever opened it and read it?
​The Bible is one volume comprising of sixty-six books. Books containing accounts of heroes and villains, acts of bravery, love stories, books of historical record, and books of poetry, letters and prophecy.
​
The Bible claims to be a revelation of God’s plan and purpose for mankind, and uniquely it invites us to test and challenge what it says: “Test all things; hold fast to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5 verse 21).
​
The revelation of God’s plan and purpose was given by the prophets through prophecy. These prophecies concern all the nations on the earth and particularly the Jews.
It is said that the Bible stands or falls by the prophecies it contains, some of which have yet to be fulfilled, many of which have been fulfilled in full or in part.
​
Consider one of the prophecies that has been partially fulfilled which is found in the second chapter of the book of Daniel, where there is recorded the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian Empire. Historical artefacts confirm the existence of this king. In his dream he saw the statue of a man. This image had a head of gold, breast of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet made of iron mixed with clay. The prophet Daniel explained the dream to the king, four great empires of which the king was represented by the head of gold. After the fall of the last empire there would be no further great empire, but a mixture of strong and weak nations.
​
History tells us that the four empires were Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece and Rome. Since the fall of the Roman empire there has been no other great empire. The king’s dream continued, and he saw a stone cut from a mountain without human intervention. This stone destroyed the image and grew and filled the earth.
​
Daniel stated that at the time of the end God would intervene in the affairs of mankind, by destroying the kingdoms of men and establish his own world-encompassing righteous kingdom, inhabited by faithful men and women. Most of this prophecy has been fulfilled. It is therefore both reasonable and logical to presume that the last part of this prophecy will also be fulfilled.
​
To find out more, you are warmly invited to a free Bible talk, every Sunday evening at 5pm, at the Christadelphian Hall, Creswell Road, Clowne, or contact us for a free Bible reading plan and start to read the Bible for yourself.