Do Christians look down on GOOD caring people who do not follow Jesus?

Generally most can agree that caring means to be selfless in showing concern or care for others. However, Christians and non-Christian often disagree on the definition of good and that's where the misunderstanding arises.

By what standard are we measuring good?

If we are selfless and mean well in our hearts and do well for others and for society, does that make us good and caring people? Christians would agree with the caring part, but have some objections about what we mean by good.

What if caring for our people or society means we need to kill disobedient insiders to keep order, like honour killing in some cultures, or eliminate outsiders because they don’t share our views. Does that still make us good and caring? Maybe yes to our own people, but no to others. Even if we don’t go to the extremes for our society, and just want to live quietly in our side of the woods, are we still good in the eyes of all people? I don’t think so.

Christians understand that cultural morality is subjective morality, and it is not a sufficient way of measuring what good is. Subjective morality cannot be an absolute or a golden standard for good because it changes all the time between different people groups, in different times and different places.

Christians look to the Bible for the definition of good and evil. This is objective or absolute morality. At its core this morality must be true for all people, at all times, in all locations. It is important that this morality is rooted in God, and not in any personal opinion, nor any civil law put down by people. An example of a Biblical absolute morality is that all people are made in the image of God, so all people have inherent value no matter who they are. Cultures who do not accept this absolute, will be fine with treating some people as less than human, especially those they don’t like or consider as enemies.

The Bible acknowledges that non-believers have a sense of right and wrong.

According to the Bible the requirements of the law are written on people’s hearts (Romans 2:15 ). It's a good start, but it needs to be anchored in absolute morality, lest it gets corrupted by opinions. So yes; you CAN be a gentile or a non-believer and still have a sense of right and wrong, but just because you have this sense and you try to follow it to the best of your ability, it does not make you a good person according to how the Bible defines good. Having an idea of what is good internally, and being good are two different things. Even if we know it and even if we do our very best to obey this inner morality, we must admit that we all fall short somewhere. This falling short, despite our best efforts, is a hint that we are not good according to how Christians see good defined.

We all fail morally.

We often fail our own standards, unless our standards are extremely low.  But Christians acknowledge that we all fail God’s perfect standards.

The Bible is clear that we ALL sin, and we all need God to wash us clean.

"There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:22-24

Just because a Christian says we have all sinned, it does not mean they are looking down on “good” caring people. Please notice, they are also including themselves in the statement. Yes, there are many caring people out there who do not believe in Jesus. However, a Christian would point out that Jesus said “No one is good – except God alone” Mark 10:18. Again, the Christian is including themselves in saying no one is good but God.

Christians and non-Christians can be caring towards others, but Christians accept the definition of good according to the Bible. Christians admit that even they are not good and cannot meet God's standards of good on their own. That's why they cling to the last part of Romans 3:24 where it says that we are all justified or made good in the eyes of God through Christ.

How can Christians be looking down on any people, when they know themselves they are nothing good without God?

James 1:17

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

If you have any thoughts or comments on what I wrote here, please send me a message privately via the contact link at the bottom of this page, and we can discuss this further. God bless you.

Below is a chart of the concepts above.