God's goodness

God is good.

God’s original creation was good.

We can overcome evil with good.

There is good news!

There are over 600 occurrences of “good,” or variations on it, in scripture. Below is a sample. Many of these are much like other occurrences not listed. Warning: all of them are out of context! Quotes are from the public domain World English Bible.

Genesis 1:31a God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (In this chapter, there are six previous references to a good creation.)

Psalm 31:19a Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you,

Psalm 34:8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 16:2 My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.”

Psalm 84:11 For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.

Psalm 106:1 Praise Yahweh! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. (A similar phrase occurs in several Psalms.)

Amos 5:15a Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts.

Nahum 1:15a Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!

Matthew 12:35 The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things. (Luke 6:43 For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.)

Matthew 19:17 He said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God.

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, 19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Quoting Isaiah 62:1-2)

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Acts 13:32 We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers …

Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 12:21 Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. 18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Thanks for reading!

Psalm 84:11 poster

For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly. Psalm 84:11, World English Bible, public domain.

This blog gets its name from this verse.

Some of the "good things" that God will not withhold from us are these:

Joy: Psalm 5:11 But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice,
Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them.
Let them also who love your name be joyful in you.

Abundant life: John 10:10b I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. (And also see the next verse, below.)

Worthwhile purpose: 1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms. 

Beauty: Genesis 1:31a God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think about these things.

Food, clothing and shelter: Matthew 6:25 Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?
27 “Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan? 28 Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin, 29 yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?
31 “Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’ The passage quoted doesn't mention shelter, but it seems to be implied.

God's love: Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Even as it is written,
“For your sake we are killed all day long.
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”*
37 No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(*The quotation is from Psalm 44:22.)

This promise, and the "good things" that it was talking about, whatever they are, are God's general will for believers. That is not an endorsement for the Prosperity Gospel. And Psalm 84:11 doesn't mean that bad things, sometimes very bad things, won't happen. An internet source tells me that 322 Christians are martyred, around the world, every month. Paul listed some of the hardships he had gone through, in 2 Corinthians 11:21-32. The list of heroes of faith, in Hebrews 11, includes a list of anonymous followers of God who were tortured, neglected, and generally treated very badly. Christ, Himself, suffered a great deal, and was never well off. He apparently didn't own any shelter. according to Matthew 8:20 and Luke 9:58.

But forget the previous paragraph! God loves us, and wants the best for us. Don't forget the condition, however. This promise is for those who "walk blamelessly." It's possible to do that, with God's help.

Thanks for reading.

Augustine on God's goodness

 

The graphic above is my attempt to illustrate a simple, but profound truth from Augustine, in his Confessions, Book VII. His statement is "For never soul was, nor shall be, able to conceive any thing which may be better than You, who are the sovereign and the best good."

I used a triangle to represent the Trinity, and the apex is colored gold for God's royalty and sovereignty. The apex is also the point furthest from the dark area at the bottom. Don't take the graphic, with its symbolism as anything but a feeble attempt to represent something -- the symbols are imperfect, and imperfectly arranged.

Mark has a related passage: 10:17 As he was going out into the way, one ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. ..." I'm not sure why Jesus seemed to leave Himself, God in flesh, out of the goodness group.

Thanks for looking!

Why do sickness and death bother us so much?

Why do sickness and death bother us so much? Every one reading this, and the vast number who won't, will die, barring some miraculous event. All of us get sick, sometimes as a minor inconvenience, sometimes as a crippling incapacitation, and sometimes to death.

Why, then, don't we just accept this state of things? Why do we expect things to go right, when they almost never do?

There are probably a lot of different reasons for our rebellion against the way things are. I hope I understand part of the reasons.

I think that, deep in our DNA, or our unconscious, is the knowledge that things shouldn't be like this. So we complain, and rebel against the way things are. What do I mean, things shouldn't be like this? The Bible teaches us that the first humans lived in a world without human sickness and death. (Plants and animals probably died, or were killed by humans.) But that world changed drastically, because those first humans disobeyed God, the Creator. I believe that we somehow know that there has been a change, and long for it to be reversed, and complain at the consequences of that change, the Fall.

Some of us question God's goodness, or even His existence, because of the consequences of sin in the world. How could a loving God allow such terrible things to happen? If I had the full answer to that, I would be God, which I certainly am not. But part of the answer is that God suffers with us, probably more than we suffer ourselves. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus also took the consequences of our sin upon Himself, for those who are willing to let Him do so for them. In the process, Jesus, Himself, suffered. Granted, He didn't suffer as long as, say, a burn victim, but He did suffer.

Another part of the answer is that God is going to provide a Heaven for those who believe, free from sickness and death.

It is not wrong to want to do something about sickness. Jesus healed every person who asked Him to do so. He also raised a few people from death. The Bible suggests that we pray for sick believers. But healing everyone is not God's final answer. (See here for more of what the Bible says on that subject.) Consider, also, that everyone Jesus healed died, most likely of sickness, later in their life. Those He raised from the dead  
died a second time. The Bible says that death is the last enemy to be defeated.

I think we, including me, concentrate too much on sickness. Although all the churches I have attended, and can remember, prayed most of their prayers for the sick, the New Testament church didn't pray in that pattern.

Thanks for reading.