Is It Time We Stopped Describing God as Good?

This guest post is by Bill King.

First, just to be clear: no, I’m not arguing that God is evil, amoral, or anything less than the God of love, mercy, and justice portrayed in the Bible, and made known to us through the person of Jesus Christ. This is an issue not about God’s character, but about vocabulary.

The way we talk about things matters. The words we use affect how we view the world and how others view us. The trouble is that human language is limited and trying to use a finite language to describe the infinite is never going to be easy.

We simply do not have the words to describe God. That’s not a new or ground-breaking thought, but it is relevant when it comes to talking about goodness, because, as Jesus himself says (Mark 10:18), if you describe God as good, then you have nowhere to go when talking about mere humans. By comparison, if God and God alone is good, then humans–all humans–must, by definition, be evil, right? And that’s a real problem.

It’s a problem because it defines us by our failures. It creates the view, which I’ve heard many times from more conservative Christians, of humanity as disgusting, corrupt, and miserable creatures reveling in sin and debauchery. It leads to the sort of unhealthy obsession over sin that becomes not a recognition of shortcomings and a desire to repent and do better, but a cause for despair. Sin becomes the defining characteristic of human life. And when you see humanity in those terms it becomes difficult to understand God’s unconditional and perfect love for all of us. At its worst, this leads not only to overwhelming guilt for one’s own failures, but contempt for those of others. “Love the sinner but hate the sin” may be the motto, but if humanity is so steeped in filth and failure, how can you differentiate one from other?

Such attitudes are a stumbling block for those outside the church and a stick used to bash those of faith, because it goes against their experience of the world and against common sense. There is plenty of genuine evil in the world, but to be told that they and everyone they know and love are essentially wicked does not sit well with many people. It fails to differentiate between the genuine evils–the murders, the abusers, and the rapists–and mere imperfect but doing-their-best humanity.

It’s like describing the world from an ant’s perspective. To an ant, a dog is huge, but how then do you describe a mountain? Trying to use the same word is meaningless; we need an entirely new concept. In the same way, we need a new way to talk about God, one that doesn’t try to compare us to Him, or Him to us. Good just isn’t enough.

Photo via Unsplash.

About Bill King
Bill King lives in the UK, and is an active member of his local Church. After many years of questioning many of the ideas he heard, he decided to investigate the issues by studying for a degree in theology. Still with more questions than answers, Bill continues to explore his faith and remains hopeful that a more open and inclusive Christianity can prevail.