There is no more striking proof that most men are bad than the notion
which they have of what is good. The word has been degraded to mean in
common speech little more than amiability, and is applied with little
discrimination to characters of which little more can be said than
that they are facile and indulgent of evil. 'A good fellow' may be a
very bad man. At the highest the epithet connotes merely more or less
admirable motives and more or less admirable deeds as their results,
whilst often its use is no more than a piece of unmeaning politeness.
That was what the young ruler meant by addressing Christ as 'Good
Master'; and Christ's answer to him set him, and should set us, on
asking ourselves why we call very ordinary men and very ordinary
actions 'good.' The scriptural notion is immensely deeper, and the
scriptural employment of the word is immensely more restricted. It is
more inward: it means that motives should be right before it calls any
action good; it means that our central and all-influencing motive
should be love to God and regard to His will. That is the Old
Testament point of view as well as the New. Or to put it in other
words, the 'good man' of the Bible is a man in whom outward
righteousness flows from inward devotion and love to God. These two
elements make up the character: godliness is an inseparable part of
goodness, is the inseparable foundation of goodness, and the sole
condition on which it is possible. But from this conception follows,
that a man may be truly called good, although not perfect. He may be
so and yet have many failures. The direction of his aspirations, not
the degree to which these are fulfilled, determines his character, and
his right to be reckoned a good man. Why was David called 'a man after
God's own heart,' notwithstanding his frightful fall? Was it not
because that sin was contrary to the main direction of his life, and
because he had struggled to his feet again, and with tears and
self-abasement, yet with unconquerable desire and hope, 'pressed
toward the mark for the prize of his high calling'? David in the Old
Testament and Peter in the New bid us be of good cheer, and warn us
against the too common error of thinking that goodness means
perfection. 'The new moon with a ragged edge' is even in its
imperfections beautiful, and in its thinnest circlet prophesies the
perfect round.
Remembering this inseparable connection between godliness and goodness
we further note that--