Do Good

Ecclesiastes 3:10-12 “I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives.”

 

Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary gives 40 definitions for the word “good”, and for the account of God’s “good” creation in Genesis 1, it is defined as: Complete or sufficiently perfect in its kind; having the physical qualities best adapted to its design and use; opposed to bad, imperfect, corrupted, impaired. In Genesis 1:29-31 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. [note: our Creator created all creatures in His creation as vegetarians]. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. The Hebrew word for “good” in this passage of holy Scripture is “ṭôḇ”, meaning pleasant to a higher nature: agreeable to the senses, excellent of its kind, valuable in estimation, appropriate and becoming, comparative as standard, prosperous of man’s sensuous nature, understanding of man’s intellect, kind and benign, right and ethical. 

 

Bad, imperfect, corrupt and imparted were not in this world until the Fall of Man ushered sin and death into creation. The Law of decay God’s creation changed from eternal to temporal. In Genesis 3:17-19, 23 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. Scores of distinguished scientists have carefully examined the most basic laws of nature. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics describes basic principles familiar in everyday life. It is partially a universal law of decay and entropy; the ultimate cause of why everything ultimately falls apart and disintegrates over time. Because of “original sin”, material things are not eternal now, but souls are ... good was corrupted by sin.  

 

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. By the grace of God, there is a plan of Salvation, redemption for the repentant, born-again Believer. We have the capacity to do another definition of “good”. Webster’s dictionary defines this “good” as: Having moral qualities best adapted to its design and use, or the qualities which God's law requires; virtuous; pious; religious; applied to persons – ethical and moral in the sight of the Lord, and opposed to bad, vitious, wicked, evil. 

 

There is a term for people who do good called being a goody two-shoes often used to describe someone seen as excessively virtuous, overly good, or goody-goody. This term can be used in various social settings, sometimes with a slightly negative or teasing connotation by secular society where doing “less than best” is the norm. The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is a children's story published by John Newbery in London in 1765. The story popularized the phrase "goody two-shoes" as a descriptor for an excessively virtuous person or do-gooder. A "do-gooder" refers to a person who deviates from the majority in terms of behavior, because of their godly and holy morality. 

 

In a moral sense, Holy is defined as: pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. We call a person holy when their heart is conformed to the image of God, and their life is regulated by the divine precepts. Hence, holy is used as nearly synonymous with good, pious, godly. Hallowed; consecrated or set apart to a sacred use as God designed, or to the service or worship of God. Proceeding from pious principles, or directed to pious purposes. There is nothing bad about “good”, so do good!

 

In Christ, Brian