“For the good of society, the good of society must not be the primary good.”
- John Piper
On the surface this statement would appear to be a tautology. Either the “good of society” is the primary good or it is not. What keeps this statement from being a tautology is Piper’s definition of the word “good”. This is where many people who claim Christianity get a bit mixed up.
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19:16-17, a wealthy, young politician came to Jesus asking Him the same question; almost identical to the one in the title of this post. Jesus gave him this reply,
And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
If you think that you are even capable of doing any good, think again. There is only one who is good. The one that Jesus is referring to in this passage is Himself. Only God, and Jesus is God (John 1:1), is good and only those who love Him and are empowered by Him can do any good for other people. If this were not true, I could claim that killing unborn children is “good for society” and rush about driving pregnant teenage girls to abortion clinics and feel good about myself for doing it. Some people do this everyday, they are called Planned Parenthood employees.
So, I return to my original question, “Is doing good for society good enough?” The answer has to be unequivocally , “No.” Unless we first enter into a right relationahip with God through His son Jesus and love Him supremely, we cannot do ourselves, or society any authentic good.
