When someone
asks, “How are you?” it has become common for the response to be, “I’m good.”
When we say this, we are really saying, “I’m well” or “I’m doing fine,”
speaking of our general well-being and not our character. I have answered with
that response more times than I can count, but lately it has begun to bother
me. Because, whether we realize it or not, we are saying something specific
when we use the word good.
Jesus
once encountered a wealthy young man who called Him “Good Teacher” (Matt.
19:16). The young man was right, for Jesus is both good (completely perfect)
and the Teacher. He is the only One who can truly make that claim.
The Lord,
however, challenged the man to think about what he was saying in using that
term good. “So He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good
but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the
commandments’” (v.17). Jesus wanted the man to understand that the assertion he
was making needed to be taken seriously. Jesus can be called “good” because He
is God.
Next time
someone asks you, “How are you?” it is great to be able to say, “I’m well.” But
remember, only Jesus is good.
God is great and God
is good, but without Him we are neither. (RBC)
