‘No one is good’ is a phrase that has made me think about being good or being called a good person because inherently we are a villain or a bad person in someone’s story.
What does it mean to be a good person? And is being a good person more of a social construct passed down to us from generation to generation?
The more I think on the idea of what it means to be a good person the more I think to myself that perhaps no one is good.
If I act good towards a person and behave in another manner towards another does that make me a good person or an in-between person?
If I choose to act good towards you this minute and decide to act in an unkind manner the next minutes, does that make me a bad or good person or does that just make me human?
So who then is good and what does it mean to be good? The more I think about it, I’m reminded of the question that was asked to Jesus in the Bible ‘’And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Matthew 19:16’’.
This sentence by Jesus states that ‘no one is good except God. So, the question that lingers on in my mind is if no one is good except God why is goodness a character every human strives to attain?
However, the continuation of the Bible verse from earlier (Matthew 19:16_26) says in a way that it is possible to attain goodness to enter into eternal life by keeping God’s commandments and then it goes on to list the various commandments.
But then again, this further drives the question about having two kinds of goodness. The one we practice here among ourselves and the one God expects from us.
Amidst, the various questions that have come up I think the idea of being good is one in which we humans will keep failing because we are deeply flawed. Circumstances, happenings, mood, surroundings and personal biases greatly influence our actions and behaviours.
This means that as humans we’re prone to mistakes, and will most times act out of selfishness, innate desires or ignorance.
In between our desires to be good, we are also selfish, self-centred, and self-absorbed to constantly be in a place where we are being good to one another and so in a way there’s always going to be a fight within us between our desires to be self-focused and us spreading goodness.
It’s this very imperfection that makes us human.
In the end, maybe no one is entirely good or bad, since goodness is a state of striving to be better, being self-aware and making a conscious effort to be better, grow and improve every day.
So who then is good and what does it mean to be good?
And that’s okay. Being human is about the journey, not the destination.
If you made it to the end of this post, leave me a comment or like this post. Also, do check out my previous post on ‘The Lie That Nobody Is Coming to Save You’ here and check out the latest episode from my podcast here.
