February 8 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

We are surprised by Jesus' question: "Why do you call me good?" If we may not call Jesus Christ a "good teacher," there aren't any good teachers.

"Nobody is good but God alone." But isn't Jesus the eternal Son of God? And doesn't the Bible itself say of a certain Joseph (Luke 23:50) and of a certain Barnabas (Acts 11:24) that they were "good men"?

Jesus is not denying his goodness, but he is correcting the one-level vision of the young man who came to him. This young ruler must learn to be very careful in his use of the word good. The young man is typical of a kind of religious moralism that continues to plague us. Our ideas of goodness are based on comparison with other people. And on that basis we get and give our grades, just as the marks in school are usually based on comparison with the performance of other students.

But Jesus always places a person before God. "Nobody is good but God alone." He teaches us to ask for the will of God for our lives. And when Christ revealed the will of God to the young man ("Sell everything you have. . . . Then come, follow me"), the ruler thought the demand was too high. When he compared himself to fellow believers, he was not doing badly ("All these I have kept since I was a boy"). But the new demand was incomparably high.

Every person lives in the presence of God. Our fellow believers do not set the standards. And we may not label others as "good" and "better" Christians. Our reward is from the Lord.

Those who know their Judge will not be swept off their feet by the compliments of people. And, by the same token, the condemnation of people is not final either.

REFLECTIONS

In what situations or settings might you be tempted to let other believers, rather than God, set the standard?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.