A good man

[I]n men who are justly loved, it is rather love itself that is loved; for he is not justly called a good man who knows what is good, but who loves it. (Augustine City of God p372)

In parenting there is the grave danger of giving our children the impression that knowing the things of the Gospel is sufficient, which the Gospel itself repudiates. A child (or adult), can very naturally assume himself better than his peers because he knows what is good through being educated in the Scriptures. Yet "he is not justly called a good man who knows what is good, but who loves it."

This is essential to the nature and proclamation of the Gospel, that by the new birth we begin to love the good. The glory of this doctrine is that it utterly humbles us; it is not within our power to love the good. Our hearts must be awakened to its beauty in order that we should love it; and since this awakening comes from without (the Holy Spirit) and not from within, we cannot boast in it, or take pride in it. We can only ask, and receive, and honor the Giver.

Why is this so important? Through syncretism with modernism, many Western churches have come to present the Gospel as if saving knowledge is just knowing what is good, rather than loving it. Many professing Christians have no love for God; they have simply believed a set of true statements about God - and their evangelism is to convince other people to believe what they believe about God.

To spare our children from our errors and the errors of our forebears, we must present to them the beauty of God, with the full conviction that their merely knowing about Him is not saving knowledge; their loving Him through the work of the Holy Spirit is our hope and our aim.