“No one is good but One, that is, God.” – Mark 10:18

We live in an over stimulated world. Marketing professionals inundate with messages promoting “good” products that appeal to the five senses and woo us to go after them. After all we certainly don’t work hard to attain the “bad” things in life.

Or what about the uber-Christian comments when new opportunities arise, “Girl, that’s the favor of God” or “she’s a good woman, definitely a keeper.” We typically take the assessment of “good” in this sense to mean God’s very best for our lives. Now, let’s time travel to a time when Jesus Himself was faced with this idea by a wealthy young leader who approached Him saying, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus' response is shocking. The young man was surely trying to honor him and show reverence but Jesus was hesitant to accept before first checking him saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good – except God alone.”

Bevere examines the response questioning, “Why would Jesus correct a man who called Him good? Was Jesus not good? Of course He was! So why did He say this? Could it have been that “good" was the wrong standard of judgment? In other words, is it possible that man’s standard of what is good is different from God’s standard?”

The answer is yes.

Bevere shares that it was not the evil side of the tree of knowledge that enticed Adam and Eve, it was the good, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eye, a and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of it’s fruit and ate.” Genesis 3:6

Something perceived as good, pleasant, and desirable actually robbed the first man and woman of present intimacy with God. Therefore, going back to Jesus questioning the young man’s claim, the reason He did this because man’s standard of good differs greatly from the divine standard.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but is end is the way of death.” - Proverbs 14:12

The key to deciphering good from God is spiritual discernment that only comes from The Holy Spirit. The Scripture above shows that Christians can go down many paths believing they are in the will of God moving to the beat of His drum, only to find that in the end they have veered horrifically from the path.

Bevere admonishes all believers to sharpen their sensitivity here warning, “If Eve, who was perfect and living in a flawless environment, could still be deceived, how much easier is it for those of us with imperfect minds and living in a corrupted world – a skewed society – to be deceived into judging what is damaging to be good?”

A question we should all ask ourselves.

Go hard after God and the good things He originally intended for your life will follow! (Matthew 6:33)