Mark 10:18
Only God is Good
18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone."
Romans 7:14-25
Paul's Struggles with Sin
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Mark 7:1-23
7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16]
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
St. Paul had a view of the world about man, and I think it he expressed it in his epistle to the Romans...I think chapter seven in Paul's letter to the Romans is very interesting from a mankind standpoint, as Paul writes about himself...Paul writes of his personal struggles with sin...I think there are many people, who struggle with sin...It is the nature of man...Paul is taking the view that man and mankind has a sinful nature and we struggle each and everyday to be good and to do good...We know that we should be good all the time, but we struggle with that and often we are not good...Temptations are in life, and man gets a fork in the road, and sometimes we take the tempting path...St. Paul thanks God that He sent Jesus to us, to help deliver us from our sins and our sinful nature...
There is another view in the world that man is essentially good, and he is slowly evolving toward goodness and is getting better...The view is that the world has improved since the beginning, and the world continues to get better...Man is making a better world...So it is man, that is making this world a better place to live...The world will continue this route of getting better and more peaceful as this majesty of man worldview moves forward over time...I think this view is often just presumed by many, as we work and stay busy with family and friends -and take less of a broad and worldview approach in our thinking...As time passes, man's intolerant beliefs seem to become less rough and more tolerable...So the majority overtime wind up being more tolerable of old and passing ideas and of older beliefs...I believe, that many think over time, man will become more tolerant, and thus somehow more loving and the world will somehow get better in more and more ways...Man is somehow capable of doing better and getting better, and making this world a better place on our own...This view of thinking do not seem to need Someone to help us out of our sinful nature...
I think that St. Paul and other followers of Jesus follow believe what Jesus said...He said that only God is good...The world in itself has never been the problem...It has always been man, and what is in man's heart, and what man does that causes the world problems...And yet, nothing outside of man, can defile him, unless he lets it...Jesus makes it clear it is not the world causing the problems, it is man's ways and what he does and what he believes that are the problems...