Good is Good and Bad is Bad.

I’ve been reminded of a picture recently. It’s the title of this post.

In the picture, good and bad meet up to play a game. The outcome of the game will determine whether good or bad will be poured out onto a situation.

As they are playing, good is playing good and bad is playing bad.

A neutral observer watches the game, and immediately makes a complaint to good. “Hey Good, did you see that. Bad just cheated!”

Good just smiled at the observer and said, “Of course bad cheated. It’s what bad does. I wouldn’t expect anything else. After all, bad is bad. You just need to know that the outcome of these games are determined by who we are.”

The observer was a bit upset and perplexed by good’s response. He thought, “If bad keeps cheating like this, then bad is going to win through blatant cheating. This just isn’t right!”

Good had no such concerns. Good knew, that in order to be good, good needed to play by the rules and not concern itself with what bad was doing.
If good was to cheat, then he would no longer be good, but would become the very thing that he was trying to defeat.

When the final score was in, Good had won.

Good turned to the observer and said, “I knew that we would win, you see good always triumphs over evil, if good can just remain true to itself.”

I know that the above picture doesn’t always appear to be true in real life, but can the principal of good being good and bad being bad, be something that is worth reflecting on?

Does the ends of doing …… justify the means???
What if the means, that we do, then becomes the something that we don’t like?

Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

As I have been writing this, the words of Psalm 73 have been coming to my mind. Verses 16 and 17 mainly.

Psalm 73:16-17
¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this,
    it troubled me deeply
¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God;
    then I understood their final destiny.

It’s a bit like, before verse 16 the writer of Psalm 73 is looking at the world and is seeing the wicked prosper.
But after the writer comes to God, in verse 17, he then sees the final result. You could consider reading psalm 73 to get the whole picture.

So, will we endeavour to remain true to who we are?

Will we allow God and His Goodness be the main guiding force in our lives?

Father.
I know that You are Good.
Please help me to hear, know and follow You that much better, so that I can follow Your Good example.
Please help me to remain in Your sanctuary all the days of my life.
Amen.