How do we know what is good? The Bible tells us that God is good; in fact it speaks of His goodness throughout Scripture.
“For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” Psalm 100:5.
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:25-26.
Yet most of the world’s opinion is that what is good is what is right at the time and that God is either too busy or too uncaring to help.
Oftentimes it is easiest to tell the real from the counterfeit by comparing the real with the bogus; for instance, you cannot know if a dollar bill is counterfeit without knowing what the real one looks like.
And so you cannot easily know the difference between good and evil without knowing what good looks like.
The following verses are taken out of Romans chapters 1 and 2. Please read both chapters for context if you will.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:28-32.
The first phrase says that they did not want to retain the knowledge of God, so He gave them over to a debased mind. This goes back to shortly after the flood of Noah.
At that time there were only eight people, eight God fearing people disembarked from Noah’s ark to replenish the earth. Surely they would have told their children, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren about the flood and the one true God. What happened?
“They did not like to retain God in their knowledge”, men simply decided that they wanted a god who was more in tune with their own lusts.
In this Satan was more than happy to accommodate them. He supplied the power behind the gods and idols, men supplied the slavish worship.
Since men were intent on forgetting Him, God let them go down that path, so, He, “gave them over to a debased mind”. The further they went into Satan’s teachings the more he enslaved them. Yes they were and are slaves.
“Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.’” John 8:34.
According to one expositor, a debased mind is defined as a mind that does not work.
People who push the politically correct agenda and those who follow it unquestioningly are a good modern example of a mind that does not work.
Though they profess to be open-minded, you simply cannot reason with these bigoted folks because they consider those in opposition to be haters.
“Professing to be wise, they became fools…” Romans 1:22.
Now look at a description of the results of this debased mind beginning with Romans 1:29 shown earlier.
“Being filled with all unrighteousness”, righteousness has the simple idea of doing what is right or just. Unrighteousness is not only the opposite but it is even stronger here, it is evil, sinful, self-centered.
“Sexual immorality”, the definition of this is simple; it is any sex outside of marriage. I am sorry, and I am not being cynical here, but the definition is that narrow, it is all fornication.
It is difficult to take a stand on this because our entire society says that it is okay to have sex out of wedlock. And adultery is okay if you do not get caught.
The perversities of incest are acceptable between consenting adults; pedophilia, sadism/bondage, and bestiality are being pushed now and will soon become acceptable.
Homosexuality is also fornication and for all the beating of the breasts and crying, “Oh why does God hate us so?” the truth is my friend that God hates the sin not the sinner.
The homosexual who has rejected Christ as their Savior will find themselves alongside the heterosexual fornicator, whoremonger, adulterer, rapist, pedophile and sundry other sexually perverted individuals on judgment day. Many of whom will fall under far greater condemnation than the homosexual.
If it can be made to sound like a harmless form of enjoyment, people can be swayed to allow it.
Prostitution is seen to be a victimless crime, yet in areas where it is prevalent, crime increases. And the victims are the families of those who indulge in this practice, or those who contract the diseases passed along during illicit sex and then to the marriage bed.
Africa is dying of aids primarily because of rampant heterosexual indulgence in this victimless crime.
Women are the biggest losers; they are less likely to be able to detect sexually transmitted diseases (STDs, aka, venereal diseases) at an early stage.
They are the ones who get pregnant and usually have to endure the hardships alone. If they abort, it is a dangerous process and sometimes they come down with post traumatic stress syndrome.
It has been conjectured that an increase in breast cancer risk is due to the dumping of hormones into the system after an abortion.
I am not addressing the issue of the killing of 60 million babies here (combined 2013 population of California and Florida is 58.32 million), nor the sale of baby parts for research, that is for you to do.
If you are interested in confirming my statements, the internet has everything you will need to decide for yourself. But please look at both sides.
For you courageous young ladies who choose a better path by giving your little one life and a chance by adopting out, remember this, you will never forget your child whether you abort or adopt out.
Save yourself the anguish and keep sex for marriage. You will never regret it, particularly if you are careful in selecting a husband who loves you as much as you love him.
Please indulge, if you will, a few last thoughts. Television shows like “Beverly Hills, 90210”, “90210” and “The O.C.” and numerous teen exploitation prom night type of movies along with snickering references to virgins as losers comments have confused young people for years now.
So much so that young people think that promiscuous sex is normal life.
You do not have to have sex at your senior prom, you do not have to go to the prom with someone you do not like or feel uneasy with, you are not obligated to go out with someone even if they call you a racist, or frigid, or any other fancy or woke name, you do not have to have sex with someone because they took you to dinner or on a fancy date.
Young ladies, it is your body and your life, it is up to you to guard yourself, do not leave someplace with a stranger, do not go to anyplace remote with a stranger, do not accept some woman’s word that a person you meet is safe. Some women, some girlfriends are absolutely clueless when it comes to judging character. Get to know a person well before getting into something you cannot get out of!
These movies and television shows are written by frustrated people who wish that they had indulged in their teen fantasies and are now enticing youth to engage in these dangerous practices so they can get a vicarious thrill out of it.
Teenagers get pregnant (it is hard enough for adults to avoid pregnancy), teenagers get diseases, they become burdened with guilt, they become cynical, they lose respect for the opposite sex, their moral compass dissolves in a sea of filth. It is your life, choose wisely.
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Isaiah 1:16-17
We will continue with What is Good? Part 2 next.
What is Good? Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 11-7-15, updated on 6-10-24 ck.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.