Goodness is not enough.

[Arsenios]

Without a doubt, goodness alone (without wisdom) is not enough to make the world a better place. Science represents the quest for ‘goodness’ (the betterment of mankind) independent of any divine moral guidance and the result is a history full of accidental mysery caused by unintended consequences. Is anyone familiar with Thalidomide babies?


I suspect that even “fear of the Lord” (and the wisdom that comes from it) would not be enough without “goodness” added to it. I am thinking of the desperate cries of a man who has the wisdom to know WHAT to do, but is powerless to act on what he knows:

[Romans 7:19-25 NASB] 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

For this reason, our Lord Christ incarnated... The next line he writes is: "I am thanking God through Jesus Christ our Lord..." He then re-states his point: With the nous he serves Christ, so he follows Christ in a purified heart, whereas with the body he is a servant of sin, and so he does not follow his body, and for all this, he is thanking God through Christ... For he is walking after Christ, and not after the desires of his flesh... All with thanks to Christ's and His incarnation...

Arsenios

 

[MoreCoffee]

Without a doubt, goodness alone (without wisdom) is not enough to make the world a better place. Science represents the quest for ‘goodness’ (the betterment of mankind) independent of any divine moral guidance and the result is a history full of accidental mysery caused by unintended consequences. Is anyone familiar with Thalidomide babies?


I suspect that even “fear of the Lord” (and the wisdom that comes from it) would not be enough without “goodness” added to it. I am thinking of the desperate cries of a man who has the wisdom to know WHAT to do, but is powerless to act on what he knows:

[Romans 7:19-25 NASB] 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

You made excellent points. Thanks for doing that.

Human goodness needs wisdom to accomplish great things while human goodness alone only manages to create beautiful monuments and pictures that some will admire but that no more changes the world and human nature than does a beautiful painting.