Harry Lee Poe, in See No Evil: The Existence of Sin in an Age of Relativism (Kregel, 2004), regarding the third chapter of Genesis writes:
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food (the good), and pleasing to the eye (the beautiful), and was also desirable for gaining wisdom (the true), she took some and ate it.” The little phrase “the Good, the True, and the Beautiful” is an ancient, three-legged stool for the highest virtues from the perspective of the Greek philosopher Plato. His philosophical system revolved around his concern for the good, the true, and the beautiful.
We could construct a diagram of this triad like this:
Beautiful
Good True
The good life should lead to what is beautiful – happiness. Truth should lead to beauty – harmony. Put it all together and get a happy, harmonious life in a beautiful world.
But we all know that life contains what is unhappy, inharmonious, and ugly. This begins with the unhappy circumstance of being born, a trauma that universally produces crying from a helpless baby. Then the shadow of death hangs over the rest of life; it all ends in death which seems to mock any purpose or accomplishment in life.
A philosophy of life that doesn’t take death into account falls short. There must be something beyond life that makes life worth living, something beyond even a happy and harmonious life. That something is holiness.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4)
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16)
God is holy. We are called to be holy. The diagram should be like this instead:
Holy
Holy Holy
The good life should lead to holiness. Truth should be in the service of holiness. The greatest beauty is the beauty of holiness. The goal is holiness. And holiness may be ultimately reached beyond this life, so that no matter what we experience the goal can be realized.
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14)