Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil.
Job’s response to God in his life was that he lived blamelessly, feared God and shunned evil. But he still suffered terribly at the hands of the devil and with the permission of God. His good life did not guarantee peace, health, and prosperity. His faith was tested when he lost everything but his life. He ultimately learned that he was still a sinner who needed to repent. God was gracious to grant it.
In Job’s experience, we learn that we live in a fallen world. Sin has twisted justice and made our world unpredictable, unfair, and ugly. How will faith respond? How can we learn the lesson that God is God and that there is none good but God alone? We are experientially taught by the Word and the Spirit that we must look to God alone for all good, and nowhere else, especially to ourself. So Jesus comes.
It is hard for us to learn to be good and upright just because God is God, and not because of the reward and blessing we get out of such behavior. Job, and we, too, are good because God is good no matter what. We are not good because we are good, for we are not. We are not good so that we will be abundantly blessed. Experience teaches us that it doesn’t always work out that way. Life is not fair. We, or He in us, are good in response to His goodness and mercy.
As Christians, we do live a good life, not for what we get out of it, but we live a good life, in spite of our sin and self, in response to God’s free gift in the Gospel. Faith and thankfulness produces a blameless and upright life.