What's your standard of goodness?

The righteous character of God is the mirror in which we examine ourselves for the standard of righteousness.

I have a friend in Cincinnati.

Every time I see him and I say hi, Gil, how are you doing?

He gives me the same response.

Compared to what?

I said, you know what I mean when I say, how are you doing?

I'm just inquiring about your health and how life is treating you at this moment?

I don't need a detailed autobiography in response.

It's just a mere courtesy.

I imagine.

Compared to what?

Because my friend Gil understood that how are you doing is a relative question.

Now I'm not a relative, it's he's not a relative.

But there are certain terms that can only be understood as they relate to an

objective standard and the term term good is one such term. When I say that somebody is good, I have to add, compared to what? What's your standard of goodness? I have a good dog. Now what does it mean when I say my dog is good? Here's what it means. Here's what it means. She comes when I call her. She's house broken and she doesn't bite the mailman on the leg when he comes to the front door.

Because what I'm saying is as far as dogs go, this is a good one. Now if I say that you are a good person, what am I saying? You come

when I call you?

That your house broken?

And you don't run around and bite the mailman on the leg? Of course not. I'm using a whole different standard now of goodness

when I'm describing human beings than the standard I use when I'm describing canines.

But what is the standard for goodness?

...