Quote Originally Posted by stevo View Post
At first, I thought what a bizarre question to ask. But then the more I thought about it, the more I realised my definition of a good person will be different from yours, so thanks for asking.

For me, a good person is one who puts others before themselves so is kind and considerate. One who identifies when people are in need and goes out of their way to help out. This is why I could ever vote for a right wing party as these are people just put themselves and their country first over others.

A good person will not judge others on their age, gender, sexuality or race. If I was to be politically correct here, I should include religion here too, but I can't. For example, I cannot respect people who deny their innocent children from life saving medical treatment and are happy to put their child's fate in God's hands. That to me, is just pure evil. Besides, those first four characteristics are ones that people have no choice over. Religion on the other hand is one that people do have a choice by the time they get to a certain age, where they can draw their own conclusions. But at the risk of stating the obvious, being of a religious persuasion doesn't make you either a good or bad person. That's down to the individual.

That said, I'm not perfect, but then nobody is. Sometimes I wish I could control my anger better. The things that get me angry are all bad things happening in the world. Violence and hatred is everywhere including but not limited to the Middle East, Ukraine and parts of Africa. Everything is so divisive these days and I no doubt play my part in that by calling out the likes of the Tories, Reform, Trump and the whole MAGA movement. Sometimes I wish I could be more like a Buddhist. Ever seen a Buddhist get angry? Lots to learn from them, I think.
Thanks for investing your consideration into the question instead of what can be knee jerk reactions by some on this and other boards.

When called 'good' by one individual, Jesus asked - "Why do you call me good?” ... “Only God is truly good".

You also said, "But at the risk of stating the obvious, being of a religious persuasion doesn't make you either a good or bad person. That's down to the individual".

I would say, any religion that says you can become religious and therefore be accepted by God as good enough is 100% lying to you. When Jesus met a very religious man to attending the local temple three times each day (!!) He didn't congratulate him, he told him he lacked something.

You see, like you, Nicodemus (in John 3) was a very "good" person, but Jesus told Him (in effect), to be accepted by God He needed a to be born again/ born from above, or if you like, he required a 'heart' operation. This would give him new priorities, a new direction, the power of God working within him and a new final destination.

Of course unlike you Nicodemus was extremely religious, but in the end, his religion only gave him false hope, Nicodemus knew there was an Almighty God, he knew lots about this Almighty God, but he didn't yet KNOW this God, ie he didn't know Him personally!
Yet stood in front of him was Jesus Christ, as Matthew 1:23 wrote of Him, 'Immanuel, God with us'.

Then you said, "I'm not perfect, but then nobody is. Sometimes I wish I could control my anger better. The things that get me angry are all bad things happening in the world. Violence and hatred is everywhere"

Even if you choose to repent and serve Christ for all your earthly days you won't ever be perfect down here, but thankfully that's not the aim anyway. Peter before he received the Holy Spirit was hot headed and often acted before he thought. After he accepted Christ and had the Holy Spirit he was a powerful evangelist, but he was still in some ways that hot headed individual. God starts working on us and we do change in some ways, but God isn't looking to wipe our 'hard drive' and replace it with Mr Perfect! Thankfully He accepts us just as we are, warts and all. As you will have noticed, my feisty no nonsense approach is very different to some Christians, but just as there was room for a John & Paul who were more measured as individuals, there was also room for the occasionally impetuous Peter.