I suggest to you that the bedrock of all morality is God’s nature. That is to say, God calls and commands us to be as he is and to always think and act in ways that correspond to his nature.
What has he revealed to us as to his nature? Jesus himself was the full and final revelation of God, and the apostle John writes that this — in essence — is what he revealed: “This is the message we heard from him and declare to you, God is light, and in him there is no darkness whatsoever.” 1 John 1:5.
In other words, God is good — thoroughly good.
Then he writes that “God is love.” 1 John 4:16.
So God, by nature, is perfectly good and he is love. How are these two qualities related to each other? Perhaps we could say that his love is not only innate, but is the active expression of his goodness. And for the sake of clarity, I would like to differentiate God’s kind of love from all other kinds of love. I see God’s kind of love as being simply this: total, self-giving helpfulness.
In other words, it is God’s nature to be continually helpful. That is to say, anything that comes into contact with him is always helped. It can be no other way, because it is about who he is and not some thing he chooses to do or not. God cannot deny himself — his nature.
Upon creating the universe, God imbued his creation with different degrees of value. For example, Jesus speaks of our being more valuable than birds or flowers. But upon creating us, God went all the way to the top of the value chart, if you will, and placed on every human being intrinsic, infinite value. We know this from looking at the price tag of our redemption. Here it is:
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:18-19 (NIV)
If we could calculate the value of the blood of Christ then we would know the value of a human being. But the truth is that the blood of Christ is incalculably precious. Consequently, every man, woman, and child, is incalculably precious to God. That is how God sees us, and when he manifests his inherent goodness through his helpfulness, this is what he has in mind.
With his nature as our standard then, goodness for us would be defined as anything we may think, say, or do, that respects, affirms, or magnifies the value of someone to God. The active expression of that goodness — love, i.e., helpfulness — would be to think, say, or do what affirms the value of another to God (including oneself).
By this definition we can also infer what evil is. It is anything anyone thinks, says, or does that in anyway disrespects, depreciates, or disregards the value of someone to God (including oneself).
