Genesis 20.11 - The Virtuous Pagan

Genesis 20.11 - The Virtuous Pagan

There are many fine, respectable, law-abiding, people – who make no claim of Christian faith - that behave far better than me. If we were asked, “Who is the good man in Genesis 20?” The answer would not be Abraham. Our “Father of Faith” lost faith here. The noble one in today’s text is Abimelech – the virtuous pagan. Abraham rudely says, “…I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place” (v. 11). Sometimes we have such proud opinions too. We’re the “Christian good guys!” But occasionally those of other faiths – especially those who think they must try to save themselves by their good works – even people of no faith, behave better than believers. The sinner’s default setting is that they must ‘do something.’ But the first step to believe the Gospel is knowing that if our salvation depended on our goodness we’d be toast!