The Christian culture has developed several phrases, slogans, and sound bites over the years. These phrases get used so much they become part of the Christian vernacular, and as such, are frequently recited without much thought as to what they actually mean. I have heard this type of jargon referred to as “Christianese”.

One such phrase that popped into my head recently was “God is good”. I’ve heard this phrase used as a call and response before. The preacher states to the congregation “God is good” and the congregation responds, “All the time”. Sometimes the preacher will then say “All the time” to which the congregation responds, “God is good”.

I’m not a big fan of Christianese. I think these types of platitudes and cliches tend to separate Christianity from the culture at large and create a feeling of exclusivity while sometimes watering down the meaning of the phrase. Certainly, Christianity is distinct from secularism, other religions, belief systems and spiritual pursuits. But if we are to spread the “good news” (more Christianese?), shouldn’t we be making our teachings more accessible and understandable to the masses, rather than vague and exclusionary? Please understand, I am merely venting a small pet peeve here, not mounting a soap box.

When we say, “God is good”, my take is that the person verbalizing this phrase is understanding its meaning from a subjective point of view. In other words, they are stating that God is good to them or treats them in a way that they find pleasing. Now, I think it is very good and important to express our thanks to God from the gifts He gives us. I find nothing objectionable about using this phrase in a totally subjective way, even if it doesn’t elicit deep thinking. But as I rolled the phrase over in my mind it occurred to me that we were perhaps missing another understanding of the phrase.

When we look at the statement, “God is good” from a more objective perspective we can understand it to mean that God is the originator and personification of all that is good. His nature is the supreme standard and explanation of what good is. And, without God there is no good.

Let me reiterate, I am not advocating for a change in use or understanding of the phrase “God is good”. We should freely acknowledge the wonderful things God does for us personally. But in addition to the personal application of the phrase I think it is also good to understand that God is the highest standard of good and that we should strive to live up to those standards of good to the best of our ability in order open ourselves to enjoying even more of the blessings God so generously gives us.

God is good.