What is a good person? It’s quite an important question. Have you ever felt like you knew someone who seemed like such a good person and then one day, it all came crashing down?
Have you ever wondered if you are a good person?
Consider these 4 parables that Jesus preaches in the Sermon of the Plain:
- The Blind Leading the Blind
- The Speck and the Log
- The Fruit and the Tree
- The House Built on a Rock
In each of these 4 parables, Jesus offers a critique and a calling, as he teaches us what it means to be a good person.
The Blind Leading the Blind
Critique: You’re helplessly lost in the dark.
- You can’t see to save yourself.
Calling: I’m here to lead you into the light.
- If you want to become a good person, you need to step into the light.
- Jesus is here to lead you into the light.
The Speck and the Log
Critique: You’re obsessed with the problems of others.
- A symptom of our spiritual blindness is easily identifying the sins of others while remaining oblivious to our own sins.
Calling: I’ll teach you to be responsible for yourself.
- Take the log out of your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly enough to help others.
- Because the biggest problem in your life isn’t somebody else, it’s you.
The Fruit and the Tree
Critique: You’re attempting behavior modification.
- Behavior flows from being.
- No amount of behavior modification will change the badness that’s in your heart.
Calling: I’m offering you heart transformation.
- I’m calling you to come to me because I can give you a new heart.
- If you want to become a good person, you’ll need a good heart.
The House Built on a Rock
Critique: You’re in for a catastrophic wipeout
- A storm will come along that’ll expose your lack of foundation, and that “good person” image will collapse.
Calling: I’m giving you the blueprint for an enduring life
Takeaway: Come to me. Hear my words. Do them. And live!
