Mark 10:18 Only God is Good

Mark 10:18

"'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good—except God alone.'"

There is a story in the gospels (the four books about Jesus' life titled Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), and this story appears in three of the four gospels. It's the story where Jesus encountered the rich young ruler, and this story begins with a very wealthy man falling on his knees before Jesus and saying, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17). In the accounts of this story in Mark, Matthew and Luke Jesus then asks the rich young ruller this, "Why do you call me good?...No one is good—except God alone." (Luke 18:19). What Jesus and the rich young ruler discuss next is worth reading and understanding, however this post will focus on Jesus' first statement in this conversation, "There is only One who is good" (Matthew 19:17).

Unlike as it is often used in the english language, the word "good" biblically is not a synonym for the word "great." The word Jesus uses for good is ἀγαθός (agathos) and it's the same word used in Matthew 7:18 where Jesus talks about how "only good trees can bear good fruit" and in Luke 19:17 where Jesus says that the father will say, "Well done, my good servant!" to those who can be trusted with what God gives them. This good is not about a quality of a product or person but about the level of righteousness that something can have; it's about how close something follows God and abides in Him. Bibilically, the opposite of "good" is not "bad," but "evil," and those who are evil seek to oppose God and stay away from what He commands. We, as believers, should keep this in mind, when we use the word "good" in our daily lives. From a Biblical standpoint, only God and everything He deems righteous is good; only what abides in Him can be good.

Since only God is good, we need to look to Him as the sole example for what is good. We, as believers, will not find anything good where God is not present. Everything we long for that is apart from God will never satisfy our thirst for good things, but Jesus says, "Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst" (John 4:14). Jesus later on explains the good water flowing from Him is His words. If we have faith in what Jesus says and who He is, then we drink His water that satisfies. Jesus says, "Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them" (John 7:38). In answer to the rich young ruler's question, Jesus says that believing in Him is how anyone can inherit eternal life. When the living water of Jesus Christ wells up inside of us, we can then pass it on to others. We can lead them to who God He is and what He says, so that they too can have eternal life. We can direct them to the one who is good and from whom all good things flow; God alone.

Sources

• The Bible (New International Version)
• Biblehub.com (good)
• Dictionary.com (good)