Fightings Sin With a Knowledge of God's Goodness

Good has lost much of its meaning today. Usually today we say something is good if we think that it is accetable, but not the best. As little kids are often prone to say: there is good, goodest, and best. Good seems to be a the low end of the measuring stick. But the word good had a place of beauty and significance in years gone by.

Plato spoke of the good and the beautiful as the ultimate realities of life. Good meant a plethora of things, such true, honest, beautiful, and more. It is with this greater definition and higher understanding of good that the Bible speaks of God as being good.

Luke 18:19 tells us that "No one is good but God alone." Psalm 100:5 reads, "The LORD is good." That famous Psalm (34:8) exhorts us to "Taste and see that the LORD is good!"
One of the most beautiful descriptions of God in all of Scripture refers to Him as good. Exodus 34:6-7 reads, "Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.'"

What a God! His goodness should compel us to come to Him, to rush into His big arms, and to trust that "Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow" (James 1:17).