“Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.”
‭‭3 John‬ ‭1‬:‭11‬ ‭CSB‬‬

In order to “do good” I have to know what good is. (I don’t need to know what evil is because once I know what good is, evil is instantly defined — it’s anything that is not good.)

So what is good?

Well, God is good. But that’s not very helpful because I can’t “do” God. I’m not all-powerful and all-knowing and ever present.

God built good into our hearts when He created us. However, evil came and tempted us, and we were seduced by it. So, the good we were created with was spoiled and confused. It remains confused to this day.

At first God sent the law and the prophets to help straighten it out for us. But the law was really only meant to show us how far from good we were. We are very far.

So then God sent His Son to bridge that gap and show us “good” the way the law could not. Jesus lived out what it means to be good, and because of Him I can be good too. He said to be good, I must love God and love other people as much as I love myself. The way He did.

So what is good? Love is good. Love is the standard by which I should measure all my actions and decisions. If something I do is loving another person — putting their priorities first, meeting their need, improving their life, lifting them up — it is good. If it does anything other than that, it is evil.

Dear God,

Thank you for sending your Son to clarify the question of what is good. Thank you for building good into my heart. Forgive me for allowing it to be confused and buried beneath definitions proclaimed by society and customs and anything other than you. Teach me to do good, to imitate you, and show me what that means for me today.