God is The Good in Everything

Reflection

As Shawna Janko, George Janko's wife discussed, the idea is that when someone chooses what is genuinely good, they are reflecting God's character because God is goodness itself. Goodness isn't an independent standard that exists apart from Him. Several biblical passages support this idea: James 1:17, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father..." Psalm 16:2, "Apart from you I have no good thing." Mark 10:18, Jesus says, "No one is good except God alone." That doesn't necessarily mean God is making every decision for us. Christianity teaches that humans have real moral agency, we can choose good or evil. However, when we choose what is truly good, we are acting in line with God's nature, whether we consciously acknowledge Him or not. This also connects to the doctrine of common grace: God restrains evil and enables all people, not just Christians, to recognise truth, love others, create beauty, seek justice, and make good moral choices. Christians would say those good things are possible because God sustains creation and has written aspects of His moral law on the human heart (Romans 2:14–15). So a Christian might put it like this: Every truly good decision reflects God's character because He is the source and standard of all goodness. We freely make decisions, but whenever we choose what is genuinely good, we are aligning ourselves with the goodness that originates in God. This is slightly different from saying every good decision is directly caused by God. Instead, it's saying every good decision ultimately derives its goodness from Him, because without God there would be no objective standard of good in the first place.

Questions to sit with

• If God is the source of all goodness, where have you seen His character reflected in decisions you never credited to Him?
• What would change if you saw every genuinely good choice as aligning with God rather than apart from Him?
• Where in your life are you being invited to choose the good, even when it costs you something?

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