Infected
Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20 NASB
Who continually– Isn’t it nice to know that the Teacher (Qohelet) allows for the ups and downs of ethical behavior? He notes that no one continually does good. And we agree, of course, since his observation matches ours. Sometimes we do what is good. Sometimes we don’t, even if we want to. Perhaps this is Qohelet’s version of Paul’s seventh chapter in Romans. Perhaps this ancient philosopher was merely stating the obvious. We vacillate.
Ah, but there’s only one small problem here. The Hebrew text doesn’t contain these words. The Hebrew text doesn’t allow for this duality. The translators have added “who continually,” to make Qohelet’s statement fit our desire for excuse. What Qohelet really says is this: There is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin. That leaves us with some ambiguity. Does the Teacher mean that no one ever does good or does he mean that even the good person sins? Or perhaps he means something deeper.
“‘There is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin,’ declares Ecclesiastes (7:20). Yosef Albo reads this: ‘There is no righteous person who, in doing good, does not sin.’ Even in good deeds, the loving acts, there remains a vestige of some proto-fantasy about self and the world. This constitutes a ‘missing of the mark’—the underlying meaning of ‘sin’ (the Hebrew chet).”[1]
If we’re careful (and honest), we will notice that even our desire to be “saved” is self-serving. God may overlook this fact, but it is still there. We want to be saved because we see personal advantage in it. We want to serve God because, at the bottom, we believe it is good for us. We act righteously because there is something to gain. Underlying it all is personal benefit, even if we are martyred in the cause. If sin is missing the mark of complete and utter submission to God, then this little bit of selfish concern means that even in our salvation there is a hint of sinful behavior.
But maybe that’s just what it means to be human. Maybe the human condition is always the interaction between the yetzer ha’ra and the yetzer ha’tov. Maybe we can never have the purity of motive like YHVH because we aren’t really gods. Of course, that doesn’t give us the excuse of saying, “Well, I’m only human.” No, the objective is still to learn to submit the yetzer ha’ra to the purposes of the yetzer ha’ tov, but I’m not altogether sure that this process is intended to eliminate the moral conflict. It is the moral conflict that makes me something other than the angels. I have free will. I will always have free will. Free will is what makes me who I am and it isn’t going to be erased in heaven. I may learn to choose His way on every occasion, but I will still have to choose. And that tiny bit of potential self-serving will be there.
Topical Index: continually, self-serving, yetzer ha’ra, sin, Ecclesiastes 7:20
[1]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Bewilderments: Reflections of the Book of Numbers, p. xx.
I don’t practice it, but I have been in very low places, then asked myself the question, ‘Is God still good?” Once when I was close to losing my home and I felt like the invisible man I was weeping as everything I held dear was being taken away from me. I remembered someone in the Book saying, “You have the words of life, where else can we go?” I love God’s mercy and love. I want His face to shine upon me, but the reality is if He wants to crush me for His glory He is still good for He alone is God.
That’s the way I think about it, ‘Who is man that you should be mindful of him?’
My wife just reminded me last night. That are works of righteousness are but dung and I remind her to look at the references to that verse. And as I look at it it is that way compared to his righteousness and Glory
Saying that we can ‘be’ good, I believe is already speaking like a god. I do not believe we were created to ‘be’ good, for “only God is good”: no, we were created to be an IMAGE of that good – a channel for love from beyond. Yeshua came to show us what that looked like: “I do nothing of myself”, the perfect Man declared; and then went on to say that He always did the will of His Father. There is our Example. I have noticed that He was able to also say that “the prince of this world comes, but he has nothing in me”. Interesting statement.
“Of ourselves” we can “do nothing”, either, says the scripture. I am convinced that even evil does not originate with us: it rules over us as a force from beyond us. The prince of this world DOES have something in us, declares both OT and New, for “all have sinned and come short OF THE GLORY OF GOD”. It seems to me that if we were sources of good, then we would be able to claim that glory, but we were created to manifest the glory of God.
Thus, I think the doctrine of original sin, likewise, contains within itself the seeds of a god complex: the notion that we are (at least) sources of sin. We are sources of nothing! I think we were designed to be a perfect reflection of spiritual realities from beyond us, either for good or for evil. What credit can an image claim? I think our power lies in the choice of which side gets to be imaged by our image – gets to be expressed through our image. Thus, either God gets all the credit (for when He is perfectly expressed in us, all others can see is Him) or the prince of this world gets to be reflected. Have you met someone that is so perfectly expressing evil that you can see nothing of the human in them? Evil is the subsuming of our identity; for our identity, as images, is the character of our Father. Evil is the erasure of who we are: death in every sense.
Life or death: neither originate with us, but we were made to choose which one we are expressing (imaging). (I have noticed that both are choices – not commands – therefore both must come from beyond us.) Choose life, and a source (God) from beyond makes that choice true: choose death, and a power (source) from beyond also makes that choice true. Death is not us – does not originate with us: death, declares 1Cor. 15:26, is our enemy. Death can go and we can stay. Halleluah! Let us choose life – which is all the goodness of God IN US – today, and so glorify Him, and “let not our enemy, sin, reign in (our) mortal bodies” (Rom. 6:12).
Jeremiah 17:9 (BBE) The heart is a twisted thing , not to be searched out by man: who is able to have knowledge of it?
Not me! But I know the goodness of God has lead me to return and repent.
When I praise and worship Him, read His Word, I change to reflect Him and am compelled to tell others, walk worthy, ask Him for the ancient paths created for me to do good works from long ago!
I do not get up daily aimless and hopeless. The closer I am to him through communion with Him the more I see Him at work in my life to bring His kingdom come, His will to be done and others see His light in me!
The question is from Jesus to Peter, “Do you love me?” If you do not, go in the closet and shut the door. Spend that time with Him. He will reveal Himself to you. He says, “Cone unto me..”
Yes, we chose. The benefits are more rewarding than anything the world has made.
It’s not a question of being good, it’s a question
of choosing wisely. And we have.
I like how John puts it. “He who has the Son has life;
he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Having this life is as good as it’s gonna get!
I pray the world sees us all, and takes notice of our choice
to have something other-worldly working through us.
Hi Skip
I am a newcomer to your teachings. I am a Christian of over 30 years but of late have been srptruggling to understand the one and only true God, and seeking for his absolute truth. So many things I see and hear today disturb me, and I often want to throw my hands in the air and shout “ What are we doing?” I have often held my bible in my hand and cried out to God saying there has to be more !!!!!! Finding your page has been a true inspiration for me, God has answered my prayer, you have opened the eyes of my heart and given me a greater understanding of the truth much of which I fear has been lost in translation. I have for many years felt a heart attachment to the Jewish community, I have wanted to share Friday night Shabbat but up to now not managed to do so. The reason for this is because of a question I have been asking for a while now… am I to become Jewish, feeling convicted on not celebrating some of the Jewish feasts. Any way out of the blue today I came across a question that had been sent to you back in September of 2013, I have no idea ( well actually I do ) as to how I came across this l letter, but the guy who wrote it was asking all the qusetsins I was asking. You pointed him in. The direction of looking at the 613 commandments given to the Jewish nation all those years ago. You suggested that he take a look at those commandments and see which ones which were relevant for today and for his situation, and to understand that not ALL of them are relevant today. I am going to take a look at them myself, I think you mentioned that you were already observing ten and needed to look at three more. Any way thank God for answering my prayer, I look forward every day reading your word for today Skip. Thank you for your obedience in sharing and opening up Gods word to me, I pray that you and your family are blessed, and moving forward into all that God has in store for you.
Fond Regards
Sue Theron.
Welcome to the life-time journey
Love your post! As someone who was in a very similar place to you 7 years ago almost to the day, you can rest assured that you are in a safe and meaningful place. Bien venue as we say in Canada. Welcome.
Such a blessing to know that I am not alone. I have no one to share my heart with, the church of today appears to be so insulated. I am inside my cocoon waiting to burst forth into glorious colour….and FLY..
Susan, As my husband just said, “The journey is hard, but the inner peace is awesome!”
We’d like to suggest that you look into a local Chabad house. I found much acceptance there as a “gentile” seeking understanding. They lovingly embrace and carefully teach without judgment and consider it a high calling to help the gentile. You can share Shabbat and perhaps attend a Passover seder – amazing timing on your part, on Yah’s part.
Someone once advised us to just start keeping Sabbath. It all fell in place after that for us. We’ve been traveling this journey since 2005 and are still “figuring it all out” as we go. Skip has been a wonderful guide along the way.
Another wonderful guide has been Ross Nichols at United Israel World Union – united israel dot org. He just taught about Torah in the Heart yesterday. You can access it on YouTube. It is “part 4” of what was to be a three-part message, all available at the website or the YouTube channel.
Welcome to the table and the journey, grafted-in one!