2. The Scriptural Conception
The phrase "your good" of Romans xiv. 16
might be referred to the Highest Good and to the
"kingdom of God" in the following
verse; but telos nowhere in the New
Testament denotes the Highest Good.
Ps. xvi.
is
sometimes superscribed
"God the Highest Good"; though
the text of verse 2 is uncertain, throughout the
psalm Yahweh is the "portion" of the rights pus,
from whom they derive all good things (cf. also
Pa. Ixxiii. 25, 26,
28). Schleiermacher remarks
(Werke, III., ii. 456) that the designation of God as
the Highest Good is an improper expression, and
that it is more correctly defined as love for God.
But we are in the habit of referring to persons (such
as a wife or a child) as our good in the sense of a
possession that makes us happy, without thinking
it necessary to speak definitely of our love for them.
God is thus Israel's Highest Good; he has given
himself to this people as their lord and king. As
such be is their lawgiver, their national good
(Deut. iv. 8),
more to be desired than gold
(Ps. xix. 10),
and provides all other good things for them. If
"your good" in
Rom. xiv. 16
is not directly to be
referred to the kingdom of God, this kingdom is still,
according to the words of Jesus
(Matt. vi. 33;
cf.
xiii. 44, 46) that which is first to be sought.
When
God is perfectly recognized as king, he will as such
bless his people with all good things and thus be
the Highest Good of men. Even at present it is
the good (best) part
(Luke x. 42)
to hear the words
of Jesus, through which the kingdom of God is
established within the soul (cf. also
Matt. xiii. 16;
John iv. 10).
That he is our Highest Good is expressed most clearly in
Phil. iii. 7-10, i. 21-23;
II Cor. xii. 9;
Heb. iii. 14.
The "good things" of
Matt. vii. 11
are summed up by Luke (xi. 13) in the
Holy Spirit as the Highest Good, including all the
others. It would, however, be unscriptural to confine the idea of the kingdom of God as the Highest
Good to these relations with him. His rule implies
the blessing of his people with social and natural
good things. But if any religion may be taken as
having an eschatological conception of the
Highest
Good, it is the religion of the Bible, which understands the term of that which is really highest (" that
which is perfect,"
I Cor. xiii. 10).
Such passages as
I Cor. viii. 8;
Rom. mi. 36;
Eph. iv. 8
imply that
God, who directs all things toward himself, is the end
of the world, or that the course of its history is to
tend to his glory. The expressions of
I Cor. xv. 28
and
Rev. i. 8
have contributed to a metaphysical
conception of God as the Highest Good in the sense
of the ultimate end of all things. The maintenance
of his glory in this sense is the devout purpose of
those who
desire his beneficent rule to prevail
(
Matt. v. 16;
I Cor. x. 31;
Eph. f. 12;
Phil. i. 11, ii. 11;
I Peter iv. 11).
