We live in an environment of rapidly changing standards. One such standard is the mental conditioning that has changed what is considered “good”. In our vocabulary, good is a positive quality having positive or desirable qualities, in excellent condition, superior to average, satisfactory. All these things qualify “good” as we understand it.
The Pew Research Center, a very noted research center, released some information on Facts About Love and Marriage in America:
- The landscape of relationships in America has shifted dramatically in recent decades.
- Median age for first marriages is at the highest point on record, delaying marriage later and later.
- Divorce rate among older Americans is increasing.
- The number of adults cohabiting is on the rise.
- Support for same sex marriage has grown.
- About half of the younger generation think the changes are good for society.
In round figures from their research about half of those who are in their mid-30’s and below think that the rapidly changing standards are positive for our overall society. They think they are good. This should not come as a surprise to us for a couple of reasons:
One, the social conditioning which has produced this has been in progress for quite some time. There are those in our society who have had an agenda to produce the situation that we now find ourselves in. And the second reason is simply that God has foretold these: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
The Commentary of the Old Testament makes this statement about Isaiah 5:20:
“This fourth woe relates to those who adopted a code of morals that completely overturned the first principles of ethics and was utterly opposed to the law of God; And although it may be sweet to the material taste, …after a brief period of self-deception, is turned into the bitter woe of fatal results.” (Completely turning what is good upside down and there will be subsequent results from that.)
How can something that is evil be considered as being positive or a desirable quality? How can that happen?
“This I (Paul) say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the [unbelievers] walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4:17).
Matthew Henry’s commentary point out that the Ephesians: “. . . made it their common practice to commit all sorts of uncleanness, and even the most unnatural and monstrous sins, and that with insatiable desires. Observe, when men’s consciences are once seared, there are no bounds to their sins. When they set their hearts upon the gratification of their lusts, what can be expected but the most abominable sensuality and lewdness, and that their horrid enormities will abound?”
The Churches today find themselves in the midst of massive changes which conflict with their understanding of God’s scriptural values which build healthy societies: “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:18-24).
Clearly the work of “putting off” and “putting on” is a process over a period of time. The nature of the old man is one of deceit (verse 22: “according to the deceitful lusts”). But, how could we be deceived in this area of transposing good for evil?
There are 2 symbols that depict the two ways of life that exemplify the old man and the new man. One is the old man represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The new man is represented by the tree of life; having the Holy Spirit as a part of the person, enabling him to become a new man. So, we have a mind without God’s Spirit, and we have a mind with God’s Spirit. However, those who have God’s Spirit guiding them, can still be influenced by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God used the words “very good” referring to Creation week in Genesis 1. It was inherently beneficial to His recipients. The carnal mind can see good in the natural environment that God created, godly good. However, we need to remember how Satan deceived Eve; he can entrap and delude by subtle beguiling ways, to bait by false reasoning: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ . . . . And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:3,14).
It’s possible for the “new man” to be deceived into thinking that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is good for food. Or, to put it another way, to replace the goodness of God with the good from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
When the good from this source is measured against the evil – we’ve got good and we’ve got evil all in one tree…. it appears to be good in the moral sense. Very deceptive. It’s the same tree. And so, if we look at the good in the physical environment around us we see that it is good, but when we see the evil around us, it only reinforces how good this physical environment appears to be.
However, man without God cannot know the true source of goodness because that source is God: “For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations” (Psalms 100:5).
This goodness is clearly from a source of moral value. Quoting Wycliff’s Bible Encyclopedia: “Good is that which is worthy of approbation because of its inherently moral value and because of its beneficial external effect.”
We saw in Psalms 100, two qualities that are good that flow from God – mercy and truth. The true source of mercy, the true source of truth is God, who is good. God’s goodness can be contrasted to man’s “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, the nature that that depicts:
“Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction, Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, Lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah You love all devouring words, You deceitful tongue” (Psalm 52:1–4). Humankind in his carnal state turns good upside down. We can do evil while believing it to be good.
There gets to be some contention between worldly good and godly good because they are not the same thing. And so, we see the situation here where those who are trying to draw the goodness from the tree of life, from God, are going to be scorned by those who are happy with the good from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from the physical realm.
So, looking at the Hebrew word for “good” we see there are five general areas of meaning. 1) Good in a practical or material sense, in other words, wealth and/or prosperity. 2) Good can be expressed as abstract perspectives such as a good name, pleasantness, beauty or loyalty – an abstract perspective. 3) Good as in superior quality or relative worth. 4) Good can refer to moral goodness. And 5) philosophical goodness, in other words, seeking meaning in life.
Within the physical realm there is a great deal of good. The good produced by a physical mind in a physical world. Satan uses this to conceal much of the evil that he is perpetrating. We need to make sure we understand that it is good, but it is good in the physical sense and can be misapplied. The true “good “is only obtainable from God. It’s not obtainable from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is why we’ve gone through the five areas of meaning of the Hebrew word “good”.
1) Material goods are a poor measure of godly good. Now, a godly good person can prosper and gain wealth. But an evil person can also prosper and gain wealth. 2) We don’t want to rely on the emotions of feeling good to equate with godly goodness. 3) Attending Church does not mean we are better than those not called at this time. 4) There is moral goodness at the human level, especially when it is contrasted with evil. There are some very good people in this physical environment, however, true goodness has a spiritual base. 5) Some religions in the world have a philosophical base, man using his mind to determine what is good. They determine what God is and how He should be worshipped.
The bottom line, however, is that human goodness will not lead anyone to repentance. It takes the goodness of God to help one understand what true “good” is. Godly “good” strips away the physical good that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil puts forth. However, the knowledge of the tree of good and evil is what people grasp onto, and they think they are good because of that assessment.
Whereas, what we want is the goodness from God that is going to lead us to a relationship with Him, to be like Him through repentance. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). So “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God” (3 John 11).
We need to be very careful that we do not call evil good and good evil because that’s the pressure of the society around us. God is the standard of all that is good.
Brian Orchard