Good Above All Other

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 16 and John 20:19-21.

When reading the lectionary passages for this Sunday, one phrase really stuck with me. It's the second line in Psalm 16, which goes, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.” This is a key truth about our faith. God is our good above all other good things. If you don't subscribe to that, whatever moral or ethical system you replace it with will not stand up to all the challenges of life.

This may upset some people. They think that putting God above everything else can lead to fanaticism. Which is true but only if you have a distorted view of God. If you think of him as a giant narcissist and cosmic killjoy, then, yes, prioritizing that kind of god above all other things will lead to people doing horrible things in his name. So before we even consider putting God first, we need to define what we mean by God.

There are lots of conceptions of God out there, from that of various religions to those conceived by certain philosophers. Because we are Christians, we are going to be using the Bible as our database. And right off the bat, in the first line of the first book of the Bible, we are told that God created everything. This is important because not all gods were seen as creators. In some cases, a god became the primary one by defeating a monster or serpent or other god. In some cases, the material world is not real but an illusion created by faulty thinking or a lack of connection with the divine mind. But the God of the Bible created everything and pronounced his creation good. Matter, the earth, our bodies and our minds are all good things.

Next we are told, again in the first chapter of Genesis, that God created humans in his image. (Genesis 1:27) What exactly that image is does not get spelled out. But if we look at the rest of the chapter we see that God is intelligent, creative, communicative and delights in all that he has made. And we see that humans also have, to a higher degree than all other animals, intelligence, creativity, the ability to communicate, and an ability to appreciate the goodness of creation.

In the second chapter we learn something else about humans. We are social animals. It is not good for us to be alone. (Genesis 2:18) We need other humans and we form pair-bonds. We don't merely seek out the opposite sex to mate with and then go about our ways like some animals, such as the Key deer. We don't give birth and then let the offspring fend for themselves, like sea turtles. We become families. (Genesis 2:24) We love our spouses and our children. Is this another way in which we reflect God?

In 1 John 4:8, we are told that God is love. It doesn't merely say that God is loving but that God is love. We were created in the image of an eternal love relationship. One way to make sense of the Trinity is that God is the Father loving the Son loving the Father in the unity of the Spirit of that love so that the three are essentially one in mind and will.

And the fact that God is love is essential. To put a god who is not primarily love above all else leads to the distorted versions of religion that have justified atrocities. If God is primarily a creator, he doesn't necessarily have to love his creatures. He could be like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who grew to hate his creation, Sherlock Holmes, and killed him off because he drew attention from his more “serious” books. And God certainly has a right to get mad at us for the way we have used his gifts to harm each other and the rest of his creation. But just as you may not always like your child because of what they have done (hit their brother or sister, stolen money, developed habits that are harmful to them and others) you still love them. And so God continues to love us even though he is not happy with all the things we have done.

Some see God as primarily just. But justice without love is harsh and merciless. And there are societies today where there are some rather brutal punishments, like caning for vandalism in Singapore, flogging for criticizing religion in Afghanistan, and amputation for theft and beheading for drug offenses in Saudi Arabia. And in some places simply being suspected of being illegally in the country can get you locked up in overcrowded cages and warehouses.

God's justice comes out of his love. If you have more than one kid and love them all, you don't want to play favorites. You treat them all with the same standard of fairness. Yet at times you are also merciful. If a child has given his brother a black eye and is upset at himself for doing so and is sorry and in tears, you treat him differently than if he were without remorse. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting all that you deserve.

But God is more than merciful. He is gracious. Grace is getting what you do not and could not deserve. God gives us second chances and more. Peter denied Jesus three times while his master was being tried. After his resurrection Jesus gave him three opportunities to confirm his love. (John 21:15-17) Paul persecuted the church. Jesus appeared to him and commissioned him to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. Then there is what happened at his crucifixion. The criminal on the very next cross rebuked his fellow insurrectionist for insulting Jesus. “Don't you fear God,” he said, “for you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:40-43) That man is the only person Jesus ever said that to. And there was no way that man could undo the harm he had done. But he admitted his guilt, asserted Jesus' innocence and recognized him as a king. And Jesus accepted that as faith in him and promised that they would enjoy paradise together.

So if we acknowledge that the God revealed in Jesus—loving, just, merciful, forgiving and gracious—is the true God, then he is worthy to be our good above all others.

And it follows from the fact that all humans are created in the image of this God that we must treat others with love as well. Indeed when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, he gave not one but two: “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40) He also says, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)

All Christian morality derives from these two commandments. We are to love God above all and we love our neighbors as we do ourselves. But why should we treat them as we do ourselves? Because we cut ourselves a great deal of slack. For instance, when we are in conflict with others, we blame them for the results of what they did, but we judge ourselves by our intentions. When someone breaks something important or messes up a situation, we don't accept their protests that they didn't mean to do that. But when we are the ones who are responsible for creating a problem, we quickly say, “I didn't mean to do that!” and expect to be excused. We need to be as forgiving of others as we are of ourselves. As Jesus said, “In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

But just as it is important to define what we mean by God, we also need to define what we mean by neighbor. Is it just the people next door? Is it just the people in my town, or state or country? No, says Jesus. When asked just who was our neighbor, Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan. The Jews and Samaritans had a long history of hating one another. Each regarded the other as heretics and worse. But in Jesus' parable two supposedly pious Jews, a priest and a Levite, see a man beaten and left for dead and avoid him. The Samaritan, whom Jesus' original audience thought would be the villain, turns out to be the hero. He gives the victim first aid, takes him to an inn, nurses him through the night and then pays for any further care the man needs. Jesus asks the scribe who posed the question, which of the three in the parable acted as a neighbor to the victim? The expert in religious law could not even say “The Samaritan,” but instead says, “The one who showed mercy to him.” To which Jesus replies, “Go and do the same.” (Luke 10:29-37) Our neighbor, according to Jesus, is anyone we encounter, regardless of race, creed or any other descriptor. We are to love them all.

But people still try to draw the line between who is our neighbor and who is not, and therefore whom we do not have to love. Jesus erases that line. In the Sermon on the Mount, he addresses this unwritten corollary to the commandments. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors do the same, don't they? And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do? Even the Gentiles do the same, don't they? So then, be completely good, as your heavenly Father is completely good.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

Again Jesus takes it back to God, who is “perfect” or as I translated it, “completely good.” And he gives examples of God's common grace, his goodness to all, whether or not they deserve it. He sends sun and rain on all, both good things, especially in an agricultural society. It goes beyond that. Scientists have noted that our universe is apparently fine-tuned for the existence of life. If any of several universal constants, such as gravity, the strong and electromagnetic forces, the universe's expansion rate and other conditions, were even a tiny bit different, then stars, chemistry and life would not be possible. We are here because of God's grace, his unreserved, undeserved goodness.

And it is vital that we not restrict the definition of goodness. We recognize it as selfishness when someone's personal definition of goodness is “what is good for me and to hell with everyone else.” But we often get confused when that definition of goodness is expanded to “what is good for me and mine.” Mine could be my family or my country or my race or my party. But the corollary is always “and to hell with everyone else.” Ma Barker loved her sons. It didn't matter to her that they robbed and killed other people. Hitler loved his adopted country of Germany. He loved it so much he wanted to purify it of all non-white Germans. He called them “vermin” who were contaminating his country's blood. He saw the sick and handicapped as “useless eaters” and eliminated them before moving on to Jews, Slavs, gypsies, gays, Roman Catholics and other Christians who spoke up about how the Nazis were subverting the real gospel of Jesus.

The only useful definition of goodness is “what is good for all.” And that's why we need to define goodness by referring to God and not to humans. If there is no God and if humans are not created in his image and therefore don't have inherent worth, we have no solid basis for saying we need to treat everyone fairly or with love. So as the final arbiters of morality, why not just eliminate everyone we see as bad? That's what we do in our popular entertainment. The good guys win by killing all the bad guys. Sometimes we disguise this kind of genocide by making the enemies monsters or robots or space aliens. In other words, we make our enemies non-humans. And in real world rhetoric, demagogues paint their enemies as less than human. Because deep down they realize they first have to destroy the idea that they are people made in God's image as well.

God made us to reflect his goodness: his love, his intelligence, his creativity, his justice, his mercy and his graciousness. He gave us all we needed to maintain the finely tuned world he created. We have decided to misuse, abuse and neglect these gifts because we think we know better than the one who made them and made us. Consequently it is hard to see the image of God in people at times. But then God gave us the ultimate in good gifts: his son Jesus. He told us how to live and showed us how in his life. And when we tried to snuff out that life, God raised Jesus from the dead and graciously offered his life, eternal life, to all who turn to him with trust and love. God keeps giving us chances to love him and each other, not merely with our lips but with our lives. One day all the seconds of our lives, all the second chances to change, will run out. One day all of us will see Jesus face to face. Some will do so with hatred. Some will do so with fear. Some will do so with love, saying “My Lord and my God,” as we reach out and embrace the One who is our good above all others.