All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. – Psalm 14:3

Today's Scripture Reading (June 20, 2022): Psalms 13 & 14

One day, as Jesus was ministering, a certain ruler came up to him and asked, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life" (Luke 18:18)? There is nothing wrong with the question. I meet people weekly who seek an answer to the same question; tell me, what hoops do I have to jump through to be a Christian? What do I have to do to be loved by God?

But Jesus's answer to the man's query is surprising in two ways. His first answer was another question. "Why do you call me good" (Luke 18:19)? Why did you call me a good teacher? You know what the Psalmist has written. There is no one who does good, so there is no one who is good except God. Our pushback is often that the man had actually gotten it right; Jesus was good. But that jumps away from the real issue that Jesus was investigating. The real question that Jesus asked of this powerful man was, are you willing to admit that I am God? Is that why you call me good? Because he is the only one who can rightly be called good.

The second response to the ruler's question was, ^"You know the commandments: 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother'" (Luke 18:20). What is interesting about the answer is that Jesus omits the first four commandments. He doesn't ask whether this man loves God, has rejected anything that could be an idol, whether he takes the name of God in vain, or if he observes the Sabbath. Maybe he just assumes that this powerful man, being a good Jew, follows all of those commandments. And so, Jesus concentrates on the latter five commandments (he also appears to omit the last commandment, you shall not covet anything belonging to your neighbor).

But maybe, the two are more closely related than we think. Maybe, none are good, not because of our lack of a relationship with God, but because of our strained relationships with each other. Sometimes, loving God is easy; loving each other is tough, especially loving those we find annoying or who have wronged us in the past. Sometimes, Christians are really good at holding grudges. But the truth is that we shouldn't be good at fueling a feud.

David argues that all have turned away from God, and no one is good. But we already know that because we know that we struggle with our relationships. We shouldn't, but we do. And as long as we hold something against our brothers and sister, as long as we struggle with loving our neighbors as ourselves, then we cannot be considered good.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 17