The Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys

God alone is good

There’s a simplistic mindset we are all fond of. There are good guys and bad guys. Karl Marx claimed the insight that all of history is a struggle between oppressors and the oppressed. He was concerned about the bourgeoisie oppressing the proletariat. Less than a century later, Adolph Hitler thought he had realized Marx’s mistake—he said the problem was the Jews persecuting the Aryan people.

Today, we believe the “bad guys” are illegal immigrants, or white people, men, feminists, conservative Christians, or transgender people. It depends on your politics. But we should be leery of “you people” politics, no matter where on the political spectrum it comes from.

That communists and fascists thought they were the good guys is a cautionary tale. Each saw the problem in the other, but not in themselves. Similarly, the problem with fallen angels is not that they decided, “Hey, let’s be evil today.” The problem is that they believed in their own goodness instead of believing that God alone is good and that any goodness in anyone else comes from God.

Of course, Democrats are not communists and Republicans are not fascists. Hyperbole is a boy crying wolf. Yet, both think they’re the good guys. But St. Paul wrote that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We are fallen—every single one of us. We must seek the good, which is found only in God, but we must never think that the good is our possession.