A Good Life?

    A couple of years ago I attended a funeral of a distant relative of mine.  I didn’t know this person very well at all.  During the course of the funeral the preacher made some interesting statements.  He compared this man’s life to that of the apostle Paul.  He talked about how hard of a life he had.  He was such a good person and lived a good life.

   It has always been interesting to me how people view the life of others.  The preacher talked much about how good this person was but not much was said about spiritual things, other than talking about all the things that Paul had to endure.

   The term “good” is very subjective.  You can apply being good to all sorts of things.  What really makes for a good life, however, is not how well you play sports or how well you carry a tune.  In a nutshell, a good life consists of one who obeyed the teachings of Jesus.  In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, the only soil that produced the kind of results that were acceptable was the ‘good’ soil.  This is the man who "heard the word and understood it; who indeed bears fruit,” (vs. 23).  To be considered ‘good’ we have to obey the word.  This is why the gospel is called the “good news”.  The gospel tells us what we must do to take advantage of the sacrifice of Christ.  What wonderful news it is that Christ came down on this earth and paid the price for our sins with His own life!  Peter said, “he himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” (I Peter 2:24). 

   This is what they were teaching in the first century.  Acts 8:12, “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.” The outcome of the good news being preached was obedience.  This resulted in baptism.

   Let us understand that we will not make it to heaven based upon what the world calls ‘good’.  The only way we will be right in the sight of God is by obeying Him on His terms.  We have to make sure that we are the result of the seed being planted in the ‘good’ soil.  We do this by having the right attitude and heart in obeying the ‘good’ news.

                                                        -- Shane Williams