In the Bible, men and women who were known for their goodness were honored. Moses was saved from death by his parents because they saw he was a good child. (Exodus 2:2) Study the character of God’s “heroes” such as Joshua, Ruth, Esther, Samuel, David, Daniel, Joseph and Mary, Peter, Mary and Martha, Paul and Barnabas, Lydia, Cornelius, and a host of other good men and women “of whom the world was not worthy”, according to the Word of God. (Hebrews 11:38) Shouldn’t we teach our children to emulate real life heroes rather than fictionalized media characters?

Some time ago I asked a young lady what she was looking for in a prospective husband. I was shocked when she replied, “One who is not too good. Not a goody two shoes - probably a bad guy.” I’ll leave it to you to interpret what she really meant. I believe that we get what we look for. Perhaps she should have been more like Lucy – “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.”

What exactly is goodness? In the New Testament goodness is one of the fruit of the spirit. (Galatians 5:22) It develops in the believer when God dwells within and flows out of them in evident fruit. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists some of these characteristics of good: “of a favorable character; bountiful; attractive; wholesome; sound; whole; agreeable; true; legally valid or effectual; adequate; conforming to a standard; commendable; kind; loyal.”

For many years products were valued that were approved by the “Good Housekeeping” seal. In Palestine, vessels of pottery were sold in the marketplace. When a vessel had a crack in it, many times the merchant would cover the crack with wax or paint. Wise shoppers learned to hold the vessels up to the light. If they could see light shining through, they knew the piece was not good. The standard of goodness is the light. We have opposition between good and evil – light and darkness. God is light. (James 1:17; I John 1:5) He is the standard of goodness. Sinful man doesn’t want to come into the light lest their deeds be exposed. (Ephesians 5:8-14)

Jesus made an interesting statement concerning goodness, “And a certain ruler asked him, saying, ‘Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? None is good, save one, that is, God’” (Luke 18:18-19). What did Jesus mean? Was he saying that he was not good? Was he saying that he was not God? No! On the contrary, He wanted this rich young ruler to realize that Jesus was more than just a mere good teacher. “No one is good but God.” Jesus is God come in the flesh - the very Son of God. He wanted this wealthy young man who claimed to have kept all of the commandments to know that God alone is our standard of goodness. No matter how good we are, we have “all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Our salvation is not earned by our good ness, but is a free gift given to us by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross. (Ephesians 2:8-9) “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown” doesn’t cut it when it comes to inheriting eternal life. We could never be good enough. We were born with Adam’s sin nature. We need the second Adam – Jesus – to redeem us and give us a new nature and new heart. (John 3:3; II Corinthians 5:17)

What is good? God is good. In kindergarten, before public prayer was banned in school, we used to pray this simple but profound prayer before we ate our snack, “God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen.” God revealed His glory to Moses. He saw God and heard Him proclaim, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 33:18-23; 34:5-7). Come into the goodness of God. Experience God’s goodness by receiving the gift of His grace through His Son, Jesus Christ. (John 1:9-18) “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).