An Incentive To Live The Good Life

"The heart has reasons the mind knows not of."  --Blaise Pascal
[No nation has been able to maintain] "a moral life without the aid of religion."   --Will Durant, humanist and historian.  
"God must exist for ethics to be possible."  --Immanuel Kant
"If God does not exist, all things are permissible."  --Fydor Dostoevsky
"For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command:  'Love your neighbor as yourself'"  (Gal. 5:14, NIV).  
"...The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love"  (Gal. 5:6, NIV, emphasis mine).  
DEFINITIONS:  RELIGION IS KNOWLEDGE OF A CREED; CHRISTIANITY KNOWLEDGE OF A PERSON

Some philosophers reduce moral living to living the good life (however they define it!), but this is impossible without getting one's thinking straightened out and beginning to think clearly to do it.  The path to enlightenment is not an easy one (Jesus said the truth would set us free) and once we've found it we want to share as contagious believers--you'll want to pass it on!  Our goal in life must not be our own happiness, but to unselfishly seek the happiness of others and to glorify God. The goal is spiritual and moral goodness which will have fruit, not to be on a blind pursuit of happiness which can have no anchor or moral compass but have the problem of excess or abuse.   Man always seems to do what is right in his own eyes,  but the Lord sees the heart and considers motive. (Cf. Prov. 16:2; cf. 21:2)  Happiness can be seen as the fruit of moral and right living as the byproduct not aim.   We all ought to live beyond reproach in order to have maximum influence and impact with our lives--to make a difference!

Ethics, then, is about the good life.  But goodness without God is evil because it's a sham.  Many have pondered, "How shall we then live?"  I'm not just talking about being a goody-goody or do-gooder but living a fulfilling life that counts.  If you just want to be a good person, any religion will do! Everyone has a religion or faith, and to some, they reduce Christianity to a code of conduct or ethics or make it simplistic like "My religion is the Golden Rule." We must not reduce Christianity to the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man--it's simply knowing God and then making Him known, which brings Him glory and will be rewarded.  According to John Stott, Christianity is Christ, all else is peripheral or circumference.   But the valued spiritual life is about a relationship, salvation being the restoration of it, not just studying Him academically.   We don't study or read the Bible to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.

We soon discover that there's a moral center to the universe--God!   And that without Him life makes no sense!  Without God in the picture there's no basis of absolute right and wrong and character doesn't count--it's all relative.  But we all are convicted of the moral and divine order of the universe; that's why we see justice, love, fair play, courage, integrity, etc.).  But we all have the same weakness as far as morals go:  we tend to justify ourselves and hope we don't get caught or no one will know our flaws or faults.  We are a moon with a dark side no one sees!  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!  Being a Christian isn't about rules or a list of dos and don'ts but dedication and commitment to Christ, who said, "Follow Me!"  Even Plato realized that to know how to live in reality, we must know what God is really like.   We experience God and grow in the knowledge of Him as we put it to use and apply what we know:  "Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."  (Cf. John 13:17).

Now a good person learns to live according to faith, not feeling, which can be as variable as a weather vane in a storm.  There's no walking around on cloud nine or on some spiritual, perpetual high either.  He doesn't necessarily feel on top of things all the times, or even in control, but keeps the faith--he does 't go by feelings.  He doesn't know all the answers or what's going sometimes but knows the Answerer and the One in control.   He learns to know right leads to thinking right, which leads to doing right and finally feeling right.   The good life is the byproduct of being focused and living on purpose to glorify God and never for oneself.  The only truly happy people, according to Albert Schweitzer, are those who've learned to serve.  We never know how bad we are until we've tried to be good, and we cannot be good without realizing how bad we are!            Soli Deo Gloria!