What do we mean when we say "God is good"?

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Venite_Adoremus_1

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From what I understand, when we say “God is good”, we are ascribing a property of God; but if ‘good’ is simply ‘what God commands or wills’, we aren’t really attributing any property to God. So when we say “God is good”, do we really mean ‘God does whatever He wills to do’?

Similarly, does the statement “God commands us to do what is good” really mean ‘God commands us to do what God commands us to do’?
 
God Is Goodness itself. Good is a predicate nominative here, rather than predicate adjective. Being Goodness Itself, what he commands is good (adjective).
 
Venite_Adoremus said:
From what I understand, when we say “God is good”, we are ascribing a property of God; but if ‘good’ is simply ‘what God commands or wills’, we aren’t really attributing any property to God. So when we say “God is good”, do we really mean ‘God does whatever He wills to do’?
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There are two reasons we call God Good. The first way is philosophical. God simply Is, He simply Exists. His so called attributes such as He is Good, One, True, Beautiful, etc are just different view of His Existence. In God each " attribute " is just another way of describing His Existence, each one amounts to and is identified with His Existence. So no matter how you look at it, God is One, He simply Is.

Secondly we call Him Good because the things of this world are good in so far as they exist. And because they are good and because He created them, we call Him Good as well. But the Good that He Is is so far above the goodness we find in this world that it is in fact Infinite ( another " attribute of God).
Similarly, does the statement “God commands us to do what is good” really mean ‘God commands us to do what God commands us to do’?
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Sure, that’s the general idea. You obey your parents because they brought you into the world and have done all sorts of good things to make sure you have a chance in life and made a lot of sacrefices to do it.

And since God created you and your parents, your Grandparents, etc, all the way back to Adam and Eve, He must love you very much. So that is one reason we do what He tells us to do ( at least most of the time and certainly the big things.). He created us, so He really does know what is best for us, that is what will get us to Heaven.

Linus2nd
 
I see “good” as something in harmony with the life. When you do something ‘good’ you will enjoy the benefits for the rest of your existence, maybe only a little enjoyment in some cases, but somehow every day.
 
“God is good” could be meaningless, if it just means “God wills what he wills.”

However, “God is good” would be meaningful if there were some standard outside of God from which God could recognize and choose good. This solution, though, makes it look like there is something outside of God that did not create.

I resolve this by realizing that God did not create himself, or his own nature. His nature is the standard for goodness, and he cannot depart from this nature, so he is necessarily good. But God’s nature is not under God’s voluntary control – after all, this would make his actions arbitrary.

Hope this helps!
 
Thank you for the responses! They were all very helpful.
 
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