'the good life'

In his book, “Kingdom Triangle – Recover The Christian Mind” J.P. Moreland has correctly pointed out, “Another modern change is a change in what people mean by ‘the good life.’ From Old Testament times and ancient Greece until this century, the good life was widely understood to mean a life of human flourishing constituted by intellectual and moral virtue. The good life is the life of ideal human functioning according to the nature that God himself gave us…happiness was understood as a life of virtue, and the successful person was the person who knew how to live life well according to what we are by nature because of the creative design of God.” Remove God from the equation and this can no longer be the case, as there is no objective standard for moral, virtue, nor happiness. Perhaps it makes me happy to break away from all virtues and to rebel against a multiplicity of established moral standards. Maybe stealing makes me happier than actually working, after all I may not find work to be pleasurable. What then could be said about my actions? Remember now that there is no objective moral standard. Moreland continues on show what is now true within our society, “Note carefully that happiness is identified with a feeling, and more specifically, a feeling close to pleasure. So understood, the essence of happiness becomes the unbridled satisfaction of desire…Think about it. If happiness is having an internal feeling of fun or pleasurable satisfaction and if it is our main goal, where will people place their focus each day? It will be on them, and the result will be a culture of self-absorbed narcissists who cannot live for something bigger than they are.” This is where our society finds itself today. And most unfortunately the church finds herself here as well, on many levels. Church is no longer about God, but about oneself. The music must focus and them and they need to be entertained by it (bright lights and fog machines help out greatly). Likewise, the word of God is not about living a holy life that pleases God, but about the self-absorbed individual finding out how God wants to bless their lives with happiness and possessions, while all along not caring about their lifestyle of sin and overall narcissistic demeanor. When people only live for themselves and their individual pleasures then there can be no middle ground on a regular basis. When there is no middle ground division rules the day. We must return to considering God and one another even before ourselves. Take the time to read the Ten Commandments and you will find that each of them is focused on our relationship with God, and with other people. Our only hope is to return to a true biblical worldview. To God goes all of the glory!