After creating Adam, God said “good.” After creating Eve with Adam, God said “very good.” That is God’s permanent verdict on people — expressed at the peak of creation.
God is unchanging. He can’t call the world bad after calling it good without contradicting himself. That’s why Jesus said “love your enemy.” God continues treating fallen humanity as “very good” because he can’t do otherwise while remaining himself.
The “live as if” principle: People aren’t actually that good — because of the fall. But the solution isn’t to lower expectations or just “tolerate” people. It’s the addiction recovery concept: live as if. Treat bad people as if they were good.
This isn’t naive. It’s spiritually accurate. The fall covered their original nature; it didn’t destroy it. “Live as if” is treating the real person, not the fallen person.
The blocking condition: “If I dislike anyone, God cannot work through me.” (True Father’s self-discipline) The logic is exact: God’s posture toward everyone is love. If your posture toward someone isn’t love, you’re temporarily out of alignment with God’s channel. You become God’s instrument the moment you restore that posture.
Practical implication for community: Communities carry old stories about “bad” people for 10–20 years. Three pastors in a row all know the same stories. The stories calcify. The instruction is direct: let it go, treat them as if they were good. What you focus on grows.