Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. — 1 Thessalonians 5:15
Nowadays the common approach towards ethical (good) living is expressed negatively. Businesses, schools, and other organizations establish policies that tell people what not to do: do not sexually harass, do not abuse company time, do not steal company resources, do not cheat on tests, etc.
These are good, and have their place, but they almost guarantee the continuation of such evils. For as long as the line that shouldn’t cross is the focal point, you can be sure that some will tight rope on it until they fall to the “bad” side.
Such policies will never create a good person, not even one. To become good something else is needed. A different kind of ethic, to be sure, but also a different kind of effort.
The ethic that is needed is one that doesn’t describe good and bad on human terms, but theological terms. “No one is good but One, that is, God,” says Jesus in Matthew 19:17. Therefore any pursuit towards the good, will necessarily aim a persons life towards the God Jesus revealed.
But knowing this is just the first part towards becoming good. To aim is one thing, to make progress is another. Paul says “always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.” Stated differently, “strive to bring the reality of God upon ourselves and others through our actions.”
Striving is not something that is done to earn anything, but it describes the effort one puts in when they truly want something. One doesn’t strive half-heartedly, but single-mindedly. And as we do so, God’s grace that has been bestowed upon us abundantly by his Spirit, will enable us to draw closer to what we were aiming at.
We will do this imperfectly, but a group that makes this their intention will experience much more goodness than the one that merely draws lines in the sand that read “do not.”
Gracious God, you are the source of all that is good. Indeed, as you are love, so you are also goodness personified. Forgive us when we have settled for our own definitions of goodness, we pray. Grant that we might not be content with counterfeit goodness, but that we will aim our lives at you, and strive with all the energy you are working within us, to be conduits of your goodness in this world. Amen.