What is good anyway? (part 2)
Eleanor: No.
Michael: Did you ever have a vanity license plate, like MAMASBMW, LEXUS4LIZ or BOOBGUY?
Eleanor: No.
Michael: Did you ever reheat fish in an office microwave?
Eleanor: Ew, no.
Michael: Have you ever paid money to hear music performed by California funk rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers?
Eleanor: No.
Michael: Did you ever take off your shoes and socks on a commercial airline?
Eleanor: And socks? Ew, who would do that?
Michael: People who go to the Bad Place, Eleanor, that’s the point. And unless I can figure out a compelling reason to keep you here, you will spend eternity with murderers and arsonists and people who take off their shoes and socks on commercial airlines.
(Season 1, episode 8)
The last post looked at some conceptions of what makes an action “good.” Here is the Christian perspective.
The bottom line is whether an action was done out of love. The apostle Paul said that if he was incredibly gifted and knowledgeable, had a faith that could move mountains, gave everything to the poor and died as a martyr, it would all be worthless without love.
In the first century there was a group of religious people called the Pharisees. They have a reputation now as hypocrites, but at the time they were looked up to as being close to God and very “holy.” They were scrupulous about minor issues, but Jesus said they missed the big things – justice and mercy – and didn’t have the love of God in their hearts, and were even keeping people away from God. The Pharisees were outwardly good, but their lack of love undermined it completely.
If love is the defining trait of good actions, there are a few implications:
☛ Spectacular looking actions may have no real value. This might seem really weird; could starting a worldwide charity that saves the lives of millions really be worthless, even if it was done for loveless reasons? From God’s point of view, yes. He might work through such an action to achieve his purposes in the world, but the act itself gains the person nothing.
☛ Small actions may be incredibly valuable. Jesus said even giving a cup of cold water to one of his brothers will be rewarded (not in the sense of points towards going to heaven, but as an act that God values – a topic for a future post). Things done in secret out of love for God and people may have the greatest eternal value.
☛ It’s OK to fail or make mistakes. Something done from a heart of genuine love is worthwhile even if it doesn’t seem to succeed. Not to mention that we don’t always know the long term impact of our actions.
☛ People are more important than rules and traditions. Sometimes a tradition that was originally meant to serve people becomes more important than the ones it was meant to serve, which is completely backwards.
Speaking of rules, the impression many people have is that Christianity is about following a bunch of rules about how to be good. It may come as a surprise, but the definition of a Christian includes being free from religious rules and laws, and living out of love (and “by the Spirit”) instead. Which requires a bit of explanation.
Rules like “You shall not kill” and “Love your neighbour as yourself” are part of the Law of Moses, or just the Law. They are written in the Old Testament half of the Bible, and there are over 600 individual laws when your break them down. They were given to the Jews after they escaped from slavery in Egypt and were about to form the nation of Israel, so the Law was a combination of religious duties and a law of the land – and also included moral absolutes that apply universally.
So the apparent reasons for the Law were (1) so that the God’s people would know how to relate to him, and how he was different to the “gods” of the surrounding nations; (2) to ensure that the new nation of Israel had a fair justice system; (3) to reveal God’s perfect standard of righteousness and be clear about what sin was.
But there is more to it.
Although much of the Law refers to external behaviour, it includes internal motivations as well: “Do not think evil of your brother in your heart”; “Love the Lord your God with all you heart, mind, soul and strength”; “Do not covet your neighbour’s possessions.” That last one is what finally undid Paul before he was a Christian, when he was still a Pharisee. He was faultless by external appearances, but the very command to not covet stirred up all kinds of desires. He discovered that having rules about being good can backfire and make you want to break them.
The Law sounds hopeful at first: “If we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness” (being righteous means you are right with God and accepted by him). Then you find out that the consequences for not keeping the Law are a bunch of curses. OK, fine, so it’s a matter of making sure you really try your best to be good. Then you discover that you have to keep the whole Law continuously; it’s a test with pass mark of 100%. If you blew it yesterday then there is no point trying again because now there is no possible way to reach 100%. To paraphrase Paul, the Law is a heavy yoke that no one can bear – and everyone just ends up cursed.
It turns out that the Law was never meant to make anyone into a better person. The purpose of the Law is to show people that they can never save themselves by their own good behaviour. Basically the Law kills and condemns you (fun!) so that you have to look elsewhere for a saviour – ultimately to Jesus and his death for our sins. Then he himself becomes our righteousness.
Creating a whole system of laws just to make a point about needing a saviour may sound like a pretty elaborate thing to do. But people can need a lot of convincing; the deep compulsion to “justify ourselves” by being good is incredibly strong, not to mention subtle. God wanted to once and for all settle the question of whether we can make up for our sins if we just make ourselves good enough to balance the scales.
Another term for the Law is the Old Covenant (a binding agreement between two parties). Christians are not under the Old Covenant. Paul goes so far as to say that we are “dead to the Law.” When the Galatian church was tempted by outsiders to go back under the Law, Paul told them to guard their freedom: “Stand firm and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.“
To be specific, Christians are not under the Ten Commandments (gasp!), are not required to tithe a percentage of their income (another gasp) and are certainly not required to have a sabbath day (further gasping).
Instead, Christians are under the New Covenant, which is based on grace instead of law. Everything we get from God is for free, not earned by our actions. Grace also includes being given new life that pulls us towards the things God loves; we are not left to our own resources. And under the New Covenant, laws and rules are replaced with love.
The New Testament says that love is the fulfillment of the Law. Even though the Law “kills,” what it demands is reasonable; of course it isn’t right to murder people or steal from them. But the essence of what makes those actions wrong is that they are a violation of love. Jesus summed up the whole Law in two commands: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbour as yourself. If you do those two things then you fulfill the standards of the Law automatically – in fact, you go way beyond them. Love will do things (such as self sacrifice) that mere obedience to rules would never do.
Rules are a whole wrong approach to being good anyway. It would be impossible to create a rule for every situation; stringent rules provoke people to break them; and people can tell whether or not you genuinely care about them. Would you rather a person did something for you out of love, or because rule 23 said they had to?
Next: Judgement and rewards – if good actions are worth 0.00 points, what is the deal with “heavenly rewards”?
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