The short answer to this question depends on whether you are viewing a person’s outward behavior or their inward motivation.
On a personal level, before I became a Christian, to the outside world, I was viewed as a very good person. To the outsider I had everything going for me. I had a great job and was making good money, but inwardly I had no real meaning. So, what did I do, I got involved in a social cause working in a community center for emotionally disturbed individuals. I did this “good” work every week for about six months to try to fill this void in my life – I was searching for meaning.
Little did I realize back then that this good work was motivated more out of my need to find meaning, or self-interest, in my life than really helping out those who benefitted from my service. Did I find the meaning I was looking for? No! What I did find was more despair since first, my motivation was basically selfish – I did it to benefit me more than those I helped, and second, this good work really didn’t give me the real meaning I was looking for.
While it is true there are outwardly good non-Christians, in fact there are many of them, it is critical that we do not confuse outward goodness with inward goodness. For true goodness or moral goodness is first and foremost a matter of the heart. And in this area the Scriptures are clear that all non-Christians completely fail the test on inward goodness. Just consider the following Scriptures to see why there is something desperately wrong with mankind and it’s called original sin.
In (Ephesians 2:1-3) we see what the nature of a non-Christian is like: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”
We also read in (Romans 3:10-12): “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’” And as far as the unregenerate heart goes (Jeremiah 17:9) says: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
Even Jesus, when the rich young ruler called Him “good teacher,” replied: “…Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Luke 18:19).
For you see apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, no one does anything good. Just examine your old heart, before you had spiritual surgery from God, and given a new heart in Christ. While you may not be an adulterer outwardly, none of us, I dare say, haven’t lusted inwardly. And in the economy of God both the outward act and the inward thought are both sin. And while I am not saying Christians don’t sin, they do have a new heart, that is capable of not living a lifestyle of sin like the non-believer.
Only when a person gives their heart to Jesus does self-interest and a desperately wicked heart get replaced by a new heart that is capable of manifesting the righteousness of Christ. Sadly, many non-believers are deceived thinking that by doing good works they, like me, can fill the void in their lives and find meaning and purpose. This, however, is never the case since all mankind is born with a spiritual vacuum that only Jesus Christ can fill. And until Christ comes into a person’s heart self-interest will only create the outward appearance of a good person.
Today, for me, now as a Christian everything has radically changed. I still do good works but the motivation has changed so much. I now do good things not because I am looking for meaning, since Jesus gives me all the meaning I am looking for, but I do them as an overflow of the blessings I have received in knowing Christ. Before I became a Christian the motivation for my good works was always me, first. Now as a Christian I do my good works as a byproduct of the joy in my heart.
In closing I ask you, even as a Christian, to always examine your heart before you do something. Test your motives since in the last analysis: “…motives are weighed by the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:2).