What is Good? This question came to my mind Sunday after the sermon. The pastor spoke about the two extremes of legalism and liberalism, our tendency to be to restrictive based on the law of God or to be too free based on the grace we receive from God.
Why do we need rules or ethics or morals? Who chooses? I keep coming back to the question: What is good? Not what taste good or what feels good but what is good? I think this is how we get trapped in sin, how we become distracted by the world.
We confuse good feelings with good being.
In the end, my answer is this: God is Good. This is why we have the scriptures, Jesus, grace, and the Holy Spirit. God has revealed himself, his goodness and offered us guides in this life to help us find truth.
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” - Matthew 19:16-17 (emphasis mine)
I think about the allegory of “The Cave” by Plato (1, 2, 3). In this story people live in darkness and only know of the shadows of real things. We, humanity, are like that. For the longest time I wanted to say that those of us who know the truth have climbed out of the cave. This is untrue.
The good news is that Jesus Christ came from the light of eternity, entered our darkness, limited himself, chaining himself down, living among us. He tried to teach those in the darkness the truth about their shadows and how they could have real and abundant life. For this they mocked and killed him; yet he was not held down or bound by the darkness of that place, of those people.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. - John 1: 4-5, 14Christ and his followers of The Way (Acts 9:2) have ever since been leading people from the darkness of this world into the light of the Kingdom of God. See, it was never us who climbed out of the cave of our own darkness when we were trapped; it was Jesus who pulled us out of that darkness, dimness, and our own weakness and into his good light, clarity, and strength.
Why then as Christians do we so easily desire to jump back into that darkness once again? What is it about our flesh, earthly desires, and that darkness that we find so tempting? Why do sin and evil so easily return to and entangle us? It is when we lack trust, when we desire temporal fulfillment over the long-term and eternal fulfillment that Jesus Christ has given us.
So, what do you chose today? Will you be stuck in that darkness, merely seeing and believing in shadows of life or do want light and abundance? Are you in the light but often find yourself tempted to run back into that darkness, back to that old self again?
What is good? God is Good. God sent his son so that we may have life. We were not meant to live lifeless life’s, meaningless life's, distracted life's, nor temporal ones. When we understand that, I think true, ongoing, and continual transformation is possible.
~ Daniel Brockhan
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This always goes screwy and I don't know if it posts the first time. If so, my apologies, and delete the duplicate. :-)
ReplyDeleteHey, wanted to drop some (hopefully) thoughts on this. First, this is an intriguing use of Plato’s cave analogy. I think your big points are pretty good, but would urge some caution to just be aware that you are using it in a way Plato would not have. In fact, in Plato’s worldview, the cave analogy would ne distinctly opposed to a Christian take on reality, most particularly its emphasis on full embodiment and Incarnation. This is because the light represents the really real world, which for Plato is the spiritual (ie, defleshed) world where the Forms exist. The darkness and ‘shadows’ of the cave represent the embodied, enfleshed world which keeps us enslaved from the really real spiritual world. This is actually opposed to incarnational posture of the gospel of John where light and darkness are doing different work than they do in Plato’s cave analogy. If you can’t tell this is the same Greek philosophy that would turn into proto-gnosticism (which the gospel of John fights) and later Gnosticism. Like I said, I see what you’re doing with it, just be aware its contrary to Plato’s own philosophy.
Second, you do well with the focus on the Kingdom, the focus on Jesus (who is autobasileia), and that God is good. However, you should keep in mind that around the corner lurks what is known in ethical studies as the Euthyphro Dilemma. Simply stated the question is: is something good because God commands it, or does God command something because it is good? There are different pitfalls either way you answer the dilemma (see the link below for a good discussion). What this reveals is that its necessary but ultimately insufficient to answer “God” to question of the good. Sure that’s certainly true, but then the question becomes how to conceive of God (and all this is a live debate right now in USAmerican evangelicalism with the resurgence of the deterministic theism of Calvinism). So, there’s needed work to do in one’s doctrine of God at this point: which for me means not starting with abstract divine attributes, but rather a strong cruciform Christology, the story of Jesus in the gospel, and a robust and communal Trinitarian theism.
http://www.davidopderbeck.com/tgdarkly/?p=2698
Indeed, I used the analogy in a way Plato would have not used and most likely disagreed with; however, I think sometimes that is the beauty of art and thought. Where is the answer found in it? Always in the eye of the author or creator... or can it be found or widened by those who view and perceive it? At least, so long as those coming to it are aware of its origins.
DeleteI like to give a huge prime example of people looking at Superman as a Jesus figure, sent from above to bring salvation and fix wrongs. Superman is the savior of the world. Right? Well, actually Superman was created by two Jewish men who actually used the Hebrew narrative of Moses being sent off down the river as a boy, away by his family, only to go and save others later down the road. So, can we only see Superman as a Jewish motif or can Christ also be seen as a motif? I think both can be argued and to say one is right or wrong misses the point. So, I feel free to do something similar here in writing about light and dark and yes, indeed, I purposefully use the cave for many reasons.
First because of the passages in John which speak regarding light and dark, which does have a connection to Gnosticism. I spoke to by stating it is not us but God who brings us out of the darkness. Secondly, and not so obviously, there is a thought in there about the darkness of the tomb and Christ not being held by the tomb, or the cave, and the resurrection. I wanted to be more vague about this connection and could have written more but saw no place where I could word it or fit it in without taking away from the flow I already had going.
I do agree the question what is good can become confusing. We know that God is good, but then what next? How do we make decisions? how do we know if God is speaking or ourselves? I think we seek wisdom from that which God has already revealed to us, as well as the wider community. however, your thoughts do make sense here. I think the real pitfall is what happens when we are left with two choices in life, both seemingly "good" or "evil". Then, how does one choose? For instance: I have a child and a person threatens their life. Do I let them take the life of my child or do I kill them? Neither is good but what is right? What is the correct answer? A lot depends on the situation and I think this is why we have reason, why we have community, and why we have the scriptures. So, while the specifics of goodness here are certainly up for debate, I would still stand that "God" as an answer to "what is good?" does still make sense; yet there is more complexity there to explore. I do invite that exploration for myself and others. I think God wants us to explore it as well!
Great thoughts! I'll look forward to reading the article as well!
~ Daniel Brockhan