Recently I pointed out that “doing good to others” cannot be the definition of good. Today I will ask:
1) What is the good for others?
2) Does an action need to be good for someone else in order to be good?
First, what is the good for others? The two best candidates are “whatever pleases them” and “whatever leads to their flourishing.”
Is art a commodity? No, says Mike Cosper. Mainly, it is a gift. This was a major theme of the writing conference: “Word and Words.”
Hosted by Sojourn Community Church, the conference brought together a prestigious group of writers and teachers, including Gregory Thornbury and Mike Cosper.
Why do you follow God?
At foundation, the proper motivation is self-interest. Many don’t want to believe this. How do you convince them?
Keep asking “why?”
If there is an answer at all to the question of “why?” it must be a reason and it must be a reason for that person. If you can convince a person to keep asking why, he will keep getting closer to the inevitable answer of self-interest.
Do you ever wonder about God and evil? The problem of evil?
How do we really know that God is good, and what does the Bible even mean, “God is good?”
Upstairs in a cozy corner of the church, my youth pastor put down his guitar and asked a question:
“What are you reading in the Bible? What’s hard to wrap your mind around?”
I thought I had a show-stopper:
I advocate an unusual approach to these topics based what I see as a foundational principle in Scripture: Holy Self-Interest.
The principle says:
“It is always in your rational self-interest to do the right thing.”
Rightly understood, self-interest and morality are inseparable. The right thing is the right thing because it leads to your own rational self-interest.
