This episode provides the reason why most unbelievers consider themselves good people capable of doing good works. As a consequence of the great exchange, where all people exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve themselves, "good" and "bad" is primarily measured by service/disservice to the object being worshipped. Mankind becomes the measure, and this idolatrous thermometer leads to assessments in which men commend themselves by themselves. (2 Cor: 10:12) This faulty assessment of course misses the true standard of God in which God is the object of worship. The episode closes with an exhortation to do good works by embracing the standard of God in the person of Christ.
