Good Master

ClassAvenger

They asked me why in Mark 10:17-18 did Jesus did not accept the adjetive "Good Master" and said "there is none good but one, that is God". He knows I believe in the Trinity and said that if Jesus was God, how come he didn't accept this simple adjetive? He also asked me why if Jesus is God and is called the "firstborn" in many verses in the Bible such as Colossians 1:15, 16, isn't this adjetive applied to the Father or the Holy Spirit, since we believe that firstborn here means having greater rank, preeminence. Again, as in past posts, I am a Christian and I don't want to turn this into a Trinity thread, please only answer Trinitarians or from a Trinitarian point of view. Thanks everyone!

Navigator

Jesus certainly understood that the basic problem of mankind is the belief in duality; that is, the belief in good and in evil. Jesus understood that there is only one power and one presence and that is God. He was correcting his questioner at the root of his problem. It is just as much a mistake to judge someone good as to judge someone evil. The advice that Jesus gave is "don't judge"!. There is a great book by Walter Starke that deals in detail with this question. It is titled "It's All God".

ClassAvenger

I see this was a pretty hard question for some people to answer.

ClassAvenger

I went to a Baptist forum and I got many responses. The explanation was that he was rebuking the person to be careful with his words, and how he addresses people. He never refuted this adjetive, but said God was only good. If he had refuted this adjetive then he would have denied his deity, but since he accepted this adjetive, he confirmed his divinity. I think my question was hard to answer because the question was worded from a Jehovah Witness.

Frannie Banannie

CA, here's something to think about in relation to Jesus being quoted as saying "There is none good but one, that is God.." Remember where it says "In the beginning.......the word was god..."? Also, along with these two scriptures, you can research the fact that Jesus is quoted as saying that he HAD to do this...(come as a sacrifice, etc...don't recall the exact words or scripture) ....IMHO, Jesus, being the word of God, God's offspring, in the beginning (Genesis means "beginning") inspired the scriptures to be written presenting his own activities as God's...ie: the word posed as God doing the creating, and his presence here on earth in person as Jesus to be sacrificed was a penalty for having usurped God's place in the scriptures.....

The above is what I'd say if I believed in all that shtuff that earthling men wrote....

Frannie B (of the "don't everyone jump on me at once" class)

NeonMadman

The footnote in the NIV Study Bible for Mark 10:18 makes a lot of sense to me:

Jesus was not denying his own goodness but was forcing the man to recognize that his only hope was in total reliance on God, who alone can give eternal life. He may also have been encouraging the young man to consider the full identity and nature of the One he was addressing.

It seems clear from the context that the young man had some issues with regard to his view of himself; it seems possible to me that he approached Jesus with a superior attitude. If this is the case, he may have used the form of address, "good teacher," as a simple formality - it was obviously the young man who viewed himself as being good, after all, he said that he had kept all the commandments since youth (which was clearly not true, since all have sinned). Jesus may have been telling him in a backhanded way that he was not as good as he thought he was.

ClassAvenger

On the Baptist forum the argument has already progressed more and there are some opposing the idea of him confirming his Deity. They are saying that in the actual scriptures, it says "why do you call me good?" According to some of them, he wasn't accepting this adjetive. What Neonmadman said makes a lot more sense to me. - CA

LittleToe

"Since only God is good (and He is one), are you acknowledging I am God?"

The JW question is a red herring because there is no spoon (denial).

Just my 2p.

Good Master

Share this