Looking for the Goodness in People – Sunday, July 31, 1983
One of the great lessons of the scriptures is that of God’s faith and hope in all His children. He believes in us. He counts on us to do the right thing, and He trusts that ultimately, we will.
It is because of His trust in us to choose the right—to do the right thing—that He has prepared the way for our choice. The sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, not only saves us from eternal death, but opens the way for our repentance so that we need not be forever condemned by our failures into sin.
So, if God in His infinite wisdom has chosen to trust in our goodness, should not we trust in that goodness, too?
We live in a world that appears unable to trust, a world in which trust is difficult and can even be dangerous. How often have we seen motorists broken down on lonely roads and wondered if it was safe to stop and help? How many times have we been asked to contribute to charities and wondered if they were legitimate?
There is so much fraud and deception in our world that we may be tempted into doubting the fundamental goodness of people, or even of ourselves. Indeed, many philosophers have argued that man is basically sinful or, at best, neither good nor evil but controlled by whatever conditioning is imposed on him. However, in Ecclesiastes, the preacher considers the human predicament, looks upon all our failings and disappointments, and concludes, “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright.”1
God has made us “upright.” He has made us to choose the right, to be like Him. Why then is there so much in the world that is unlike him? Why are there so many people who are not fulfilling their destinies as children of God? The preacher answered that question, too. Having said that God has made men upright, he goes on to say that men “have sought out many inventions.”2
The goodness in us is of God. It is that goodness which we must magnify, and which we must seek in others. And if at times we are disappointed, if at times we find not decency but deceit, not godliness but falsehood, we must remember that God, too, is disappointed.
But He does not give up; He does not surrender us to despair or cynicism.
Nor should we surrender, either ourselves or to others, but search always for the goodness in our fellow men, and encourage it, and ultimately find it.
1 Ecclesiastes 7:29
2 Ibid
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July 31, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,815