Satan’s temptation is that we can find good outside of God, or that there is something good that He is withholding from us. But without God, we have no way of even defining “good” vs. “bad”.

Good Requires God

From the beginning in the garden, Satan told Eve that God was holding out on her. He pointed out the one tree that God had forbidden, and said that God had lied about it. Where God had said “If you eat from it, you will die.”, Satan said “No, you won’t. God is only above you because of this one tree. He doesn’t want you to eat from it because He doesn’t want you to become His equal. He’s keeping you from something good.” Eve fell for the lie, and things have gone downhill ever since ¹.

We still fall for the same lie, at every stage of our lives.

• As toddlers, we pitch tantrums because Daddy won’t let us run in the parking lot.
• As children, we pout because Mommy makes us eat our vegetables.
• As tweens, we complain when Dad limits who we can hang out with.
• As teenagers, we rebel when Mom insists that we be home by curfew.
• As twenty- and thirty-somethings, we reject moral standards and use our bodies in any way we choose.
• As middle-agers, we bounce between relationships and cut ethical corners at work.
• Then, as seniors, we wonder why life seems empty and wasted.

Each time something blocks our instinct to do whatever we want at the moment, we think that we are being suppressed…and we see that as a bad thing. We chafe at the thought of any authority holding us down or making us do something against our will. But the reality is that our will is warped by sin. What we want is often bad for us, but we can’t see that.

Parents are looking out for their child’s best interests by limiting their freedom to run in the street or hang out late into the night with bad influences. God is looking out for our interests by saying “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) or “Don’t murder, steal, lie, covet, or commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:13-17). The authority, whether parents or God, sees farther ahead than we do. The limitations they place on us help us avoid life-ruining pitfalls.

God then goes even farther. Besides the “don’t’s” to avoid trouble, He gives “do’s” that lead to a richer life. Those life-enhancing commands revolve around maintaining a healthy relationship with Him. “Ignore other excuses for gods; honor the One who created and rescued you; put Him first in everything; take time to connect with Him regularly.” (Exodus 20:2-11).

The closer we stay to the Source of life, the more life we have. That makes sense that we take for granted in other contexts: We stay close to water if we’re thirsty, or close to a fire if we’re cold. But for some reason (sin), we pull away from Life and expect to get more enjoyment rather than less. That’s backwards!

Even Bad Requires God

Just as we need to know and obey God in order to have true “good” in our lives, there is an opposing concept that is often neglected: Without God (or some other ultimate authority), we have no valid reason to call anything “bad”.

Much of our society rejects God and says that everyone has the right to make their own way. Yet that same society insists that some ideas and behaviors are wrong. I see a couple of flavors of this.

Right, but without God

One, there are those who adhere to the same or very similar standards as Christians and Jews. They are against murder, theft, cruelty, deceit, etc. But they can’t say why such things are wrong.

If there is no true standard set by an authority who has the right to make rules, then it follows that there are no rules. I can avoid murder if I choose, but I have no basis to say that you should avoid it also. If you think murder is OK, who am I to say otherwise?

Wrong, but without God

Two, there are those who have accepted that first premise: Everything, even murder, is a matter of personal preference that can shift with the occasion. There is no universal Right or Wrong. But…they definitely have one universal standard: Anyone who says that objective Right and Wrong exist is wrong!

These are the people who can call others “intolerant” while refusing to tolerate their differing opinions. But, like the first group, they have no basis to say that being different from them is a bad thing. That’s only their own view, but they’ve already asserted that all views are equally valid.

We Need God

We need God to give structure to our world. Physically, He does so by creating and maintaining the natural laws that govern the universe: gravity, speed of light, etc. Morally, He does so by setting the standard, defining Right and Wrong. Then He steers us away from wrong things that will hurt us, and toward right things that will help us.

Best of all, when we mess up and still fall for the lie, chasing toward Wrong and expecting Good to come from it, He doesn’t abandon us. He came to our rescue, and provided a way that we can have the benefits of Right without earning them. Jesus came to be our Savior. Thank God!

1. See Genesis 3, and article “Knowledge of Good and Evil“.