It's Not About Being Good

In our do-good American culture, our love for God compels us to teach our kids that a major part of being a Christian is being a “good person”; however, this lesson is usually very misguided.

There are plenty of good people (though “good” is actually a relative term… but that’s a whole different entry for another day) who are not believers. So what distinguishes us (Christians) from the rest of the good people? What makes us distinctly Christian? Is it our good deeds? No, but this is the sort of thing we unintentionally teach our children when we tell them to be good people.

We are often do so well at focusing on being good, that we unintentionally camouflage our faith from the world! Then when people look at us and say “he/she is a good person” and their words of praise are all about us, not the One who changed our hearts.

Case in point: My wife and I were talking about her work place and discussing who might be followers of Christ. When it came down to it, she really did not know because of how incognito the believers seemed to be. Even many of those who she knew were Christians seemed to be in hiding, only revealing their faith in their good deeds. The only real way to know for sure was to ask them.

I'm not saying we should be people who do not do or teach good. However, when our "good" is the only measurable tool the public has to go on for determining our faith, it is DANGEROUS ground.

So What Should We Do/Teach?

There is a great part in the movie Fireproof that is a good illustration of how we ought to function in our work places and how people ought to know us. Kirk Cameron’s character (a non-Christian firefighter) is talking with another non-Christian firefighter about life and death. Without giving you the whole conversation, suffice it to say that Kirk’s character mentioned another firefighter in their unit who is a very strong believer and works hard to make that known by his words, actions, and lifestyle. He said (referencing the Christian firefighter) “what he believes may be hard to believe, but you got to admit - he’s the real deal.”

Our lessons to our kids and lifestyles ought to reflect the words of John Piper who states that believers ought to seek to “make much of Christ.” This doesn’t mean we go around saying “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…”, but what it does mean is that we intentionally seek to make MUCH of Him in our lives.

• When people come to us for advice, we share with them from Scripture.

• When we make decisions on life, we try to look at this life through the lens of Scripture (in other words, we develop a Biblical Worldview).

• We don’t live self righteous lives (“I’m less of a sinner than so-and-so” or “at least I go to church” or “I am a good person…”), but instead practice GRACE. We don’t seek to get “what’s mine” or “what’s due to me” but instead serve, love and give regardless of who notices (and do so with absolute joy)!

• We seek to be intentional in loving God! Too often we set out to love God only if it is convenient, then justify ourselves in front of the world when we fall short (“No one’s perfect”). As DC Talk once said on one of their albums… “that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Teaching good behavior alone is not Biblical. Teaching "do right", alone, is not Biblical. We do "good" things as a way of worshiping. We ought to be living daily to make much of Christ and teaching children to live the same way!

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16, emphasis mine)

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