Good: sandwiched between duty and reason

Whatever "good" is, it is sandwiched between a duty and a reason.

The duty : Give thanks to God.

All are called to give thanks to their Creator without condition. This is why the Book says elsewhere: "Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord ... to the glory of God the Father." This is, in the final accounting, a duty.

The reason : His love endures forever.

There is no logical necessity that God ... turns out to be a God whose love endures forever. He could have been a God whose anger endures forever. Or some other attribute. But it turns out that it is his love that endures forever. It gives "dodging a bullet" a whole new depth of meaning. This is reason for thanksgiving.

Now, in between this duty and this reason, where it is supposed to be, is Good. So, here we go:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

We noted that "good" tends to be devalued nowadays. It is not quite good enough to be good; one must be excellent, tremendous, and so on -- even though the achievements we assign these superlatives to are usually not clear.

The lexicon tells us that the Hebrew word for good means pleasant and agreeable to the senses; valuable in estimation, appropriate and becoming; prosperity and welfare; it means moral good.

So to protect the value of Good in society and culture, we must be reminded of our duty: to give thanks to God. And also be reminded of the reason: that God's love endures forever. When we cultivate the Duty and the Reason ...

... Good comes sandwiched in between.

Conversely, when Duty and Reason are not cultivated, the value of Good loses its meaning.

And then we must scamper around calling everything that is mediocre excellent.

And that would be the least of the troublesome symptoms of a loss of Good.

Logos2Go

Psalm 118.1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Philippians 2.9-11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.