Our news has been awash in the sordid story of sexual assault at a fraternity house at Cornell University. The details are too ugly for this blog but suffice to say – the behaviors recounted all around sicken me with sadness. Young adults degraded themselves while turning another person into an object for their own gratification.

Terrible behavior is nothing new. History is replete with examples of depravity and cruelty. Yet, I believe it is time for Americans to take a long look at the results of our culture in which music and entertainment for the last generation has regularly mocked what is good all the while celebrating sensuality and unrestrained sexual pleasure as a virtual right and something quite sophisticated. We have redefined our most basic understanding of what it means to be human.

• Pornography has become a $100 billion business with digital content available anywhere at any time.
• A majority of babies are now born outside of the covenant of marriage.
• Protection for those who are homosexual has morphed into gross parades of depravity on our city streets.
• We demonize those who are different, speaking words that show no regard for humanity at large.
• The discussion of ending the lives of the elderly or disabled no longer brings revulsion.
  And the list could go on …

Christian, let’s reclaim ‘goodness’ as something beautiful, to be celebrated and taught to our children.

Jesus says – “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  (Matthew 5) The word He uses, “tob” -is packed with meaning – “good; favorable; festive; pleasing; pleasant; well; better; right; best.”

The wisdom of Scripture tells us not to surrender to the baser things of the world which we live thinking that ‘is just the way things are.’  Instead, we who belong to Christ are told – “Don’t let evil get the best of you but conquer evil by doing good.” (Romans 12:21, NLT)

At one time we praised people who were careful to be kind, to pursue excellence in character, who trained themselves to avoid coarse and profane speech, who honored their parents, who did not even allow a hint the ugliness of sin to be tolerated. Were we always perfect? Of course not! I am not naïve. Hypocrisy has always been a part of humanity and many times our professed ‘good’ did not match our private reality. Never the less, we are fools to abandon God’s call to goodness, thinking that being able to ‘tolerate’ sin is a mark of sophistication or maturity.

Another passage tells us that the key to knowing peace with God is our commitment to true ‘goodness.’ The passage is often quoted but truly lived much less often. Take a look. “And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9, NLT)

Join me in praying that the Holy Spirit will lead us to a kind of life that marked by “tob,” a commitment to that which is pure, worthy of the Light, that causes us to keep the royal law in our thoughts, words, and actions. What is that law? James defines it for us: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”   

Jesus taught us that there are just two rules for life that will create true goodness in us-
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NLT)

How about it, friend? Shall we recapture the good for the glory of God?

Amen.