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[Tristan Christan]

I got this question after watching a show called the Good place (S3 ep.10)

Timestamp: (18:03 - 18:55)

Just incase you wanna see the clip. It is also on Netflix.

But it shows a clip of this guy named Micheal and he is confused on why people have not been able to get to the Good place (basically heaven) in the last 500+ years. And its because:

"There are so many unintended consequences to well-intentioned actions."

-Tahani

You can grow your own roses and give it to your dying grandmother, and that good action can give you points so that you can get into the Good place.

But now its easier to buy online using a cellphone that was probably made in a sweatshop. The flowers were probably grown with toxic pesticides and probably picked by exploited migrant workers. And it was probably delivered from thousands of miles away, which created a massive carbon footprint, and the money you used was probably sent to a billionaire racist CEO, who is probably not the nicest person.

I know we arent saved by works but instead we are saved by grace, but still, is this something we should be worried about?

[jimwalton]

It's impossible not to operate in a fallen world (1 Cor. 5.10). We don't run after the same things the pagan world does (Lk. 12.30), but it's impossible to avoid all such contaminations as you are mentioning. We can be as responsible as possible and try to make both wise and just decisions (Lk. 16.11), but total avoidance is simply impossible.

It has always been so (Eccl. 1.9). The gold the Israelites used to build the tabernacle was Egyptian gold. Solomon bought cedar timbers from Hiram of Lebanon, who was not a godly man. Jesus and His disciples lived in a corner of the Roman Empire, and they wore clothes, sandals, carried a money pouch, ate food, and used materials that were part of the trade picture. It's inevitable that some of them came from fields and workshops of pagans.

We inevitably function in the world, and we do things in a responsible way so as not to participate in evil and to protect ourselves from evil (John 17.15).