Key #6: Goodness

“Why do you call me good?”

“Only God is truly good.”

Last week when we looked at kindness, I asked the question, “What is the difference between kindness and goodness?” Often in English we use those words interchangeably, yet the Apostle Paul intentionally mentions them separately.

So last week we looked at kindness, and kindness really comes down to what you do and how you act. Specifically, as the scriptures pointed out, kindness has a lot to do with how you act towards those who tend to make your life difficult.

so how is goodness different?

According to the Easton Bible Dictionary, goodness is not a mere passive quality, but a deliberate preference of right to wrong, the firm and persistent resistence of all moral evil, and the choosing and following of all moral good.

Goodness is closely connected to character. If kindness is what you do, then goodness is who you are.

To take it a step further, if kindness is what you do for the difficult people in your life, goodness is who you are in the difficult situations in your life.

Psalm 15 NLT

A psalm of David. Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts. Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.

Goodness is who you are, even when it hurts

Keep their promises even when it hurts, lends without interest, and cannot be bribed or manipulated. This is the kind of goodness that is supposed to mark the follower of Jesus Christ.

The real question that you need to ask yourself is this:

Do you become a different person under pressure?

The answer to this question is paramount to your relationships. In order for someone to truly trust you, they need to know that you are going to be the same person in the good times and the bad. If the pressure is on, and you are someone who is willing to drop your convictions in order to make the pressure go away, what else are you willing to compromise on? As believer, if you are not willing to hold onto your God given values in pressure situations, what other values are you willing to let go of? How much pressure would it take to turn on your friend? What is happening in your life when no one is looking?

These are major questions of character and integrity. Are you the same person in good times and bad? Or, do you change when times get tough? How much pressure does it take before you abandon everything?

To really see goodness on full display, we are going to look at a story from scripture. If you have your bible, we will be in Genesis 39. This is a story of Joseph. For a little context, Joseph is his dad’s favorite son, and his 11 other brothers are not happy about this. So they sell him into slavery, and in Genesis 39, we find Joseph has been bought by an Egyptian.

Genesis 39:1–6 NLT

When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat! Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man,

Everything is going Joseph’s way

let’s be honest, Joseph has got to be feeling pretty good about himself. Ya he’s in slavery, but he works for the captain of the guard of Pharaoh, a pretty prestigious person. Joseph remains loyal to God, and because of his loyatly, God blesses everything he does. Potiphar, being a smart guy, realizes the more he puts under Joseph’s leadership, the more blessed he becomes. So he puts Joseph in charge of everything. Joseph goes from dad’s favorite to slave to second in charge in his master’s home because God continues to bless him. Everything is turning up Joseph right now.

On top of everything, Joseph is a good looking and well built. Joseph is the total package.

If we are honest, it would be pretty easy to have strong character if you’re Joseph. Ya there was a bit of a speed bump, but things are looking up.

Job was in the same situation, and the devil suggests to God that maybe the pressure needs to be turned up. Let’s see how good Job is when he loses everything.

The same happens. Joseph is about to face a challenge, and how is he going to handle it?

Genesis 39:7–10 NLT

and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded. But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.” She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible.

Turn up the pressure

Because Joseph is a good looking guy, and Potiphar is a busy man because he is the captain of the king’s guard. So Potiphar’s wife takes notice.

Now I’ve heard people point to Joseph in this story and talk about how Joseph should have put up better boundaries, and don’t make Joseph’s mistakes and but yourself in bad situations.

Joseph can’t help it. He is a slave. He has no rights. He has a job to do and he needs to get it done no matter who is making it difficult. He can’t tell Potiphar’s wife, “You can only be in the same room as me when there is another slave as well. Otherwise I expect you to respect my space.” NO. He is a slave. It says he kept out of her way as much as possible, but there is only so much he can do. So far, he is handling the pressure quite well. But it’s about to get cranked up.

Genesis 39:11–15 NLT

One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.”

Lose-Lose

Joseph finds himself in a lose-lose situation. His master’s wife has him by the cloak. He has a choice. On one hand, he can give in to her demands. Maybe she would leave him alone. She was probably attractive, so it would have brought him some pleasure. The only problem is he would have to turn is back on his God and goodness that is associated with Him. It would be a betrayal of what he knew to be right.

On the other hand, he could keep his conscience clear, honor God, stay pure in God’s sight, and face whatever consequences may come.

He chose his God over the moment. He strips his cloak and runs, and how the wife, no doubt embarassed but seeing an opportunity to punish this slave who keeps rejecting her advances, takes it. She screams, falsely accuses him of being the one who makes the advances, and this is what happens.

Genesis 39:16–20 NLT

She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!” Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained.

He lost everything… kind of

now there is two ways to look at this. From a worldly perspective, Joseph has lost everything. The nice house, all the responsibility, the perceived blessing, the limited freedom. Joseph is a prisoner for a crime he never committed. He has even been robbed of justice.

On the other hand, he has remained pure in the sight of God. Genesis 39:21

Genesis 39:21 NLT

But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden.

Joseph kept the one thing in this life that matters most. Because he honored God despite the pain it caused, he continued to experience the love of God. If you don’t know the story, Joseph’s faithfulness would eventually see him elevated to second in command over all of Egypt, and God would use him to save his family from a famine.

Romans 5:3–4 NLT

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

Confident hope of salvation

character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. Last week we saw that salvation is granted to us as a kindness from God. It is not because of what you do that you are saved, but because of who God is

however, Paul notes that it is our character that gives us hope of salvation. Why? Because it is character that gives us a clear conscience, it is strength of character that allows us to anticipate those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” It is strength of character that helps us build a life that endures testing, instead of trying to get into heaven by the skin of our teeth.

So how do we develop character?

There is one proven and tried method, and it involves finding your bible and reading it.

Let me read you some recent stats about those who read their bible regularly. For those studied, there is no measurable difference between those who don’t read their bible and those who read it 1-3 days a week.

However, of those that read their bible 4-7 days a week, here are the stats:

feelings of loneliness drop 30%

anger issues drop 32%

bitterness in relationships drops 40%

alcoholism drops 57%

sex outside of marriage drops 68%

feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%

viewing pornography drops 61%

Sharing your faith jumps 200%

discipling others jumps 230%

you could point to any one of those things and see immediately how they will improve the relationships in your life.

However, here is another stat. Only 8% of church attenders will read their bible once a week.

Statistically, only 4 people in church this morning read their bible once this week. If you wonder why your moral compass is off or your character doesn’t stand up under pressure, here it is. You are not tapping into the one resource God has given you to grow your character. If you even wonder why people in church tend to have different standards when it comes to drinking and what’s appropriate in relationships, its because the vast majority of us are not being sustained by the inspired word of God.

So here is my question for you. Which stat are you going to be? Are you going to be the group that sees radical character transformation by getting into God’s word more days then not, or are you going to be the 92% who don’t read their bible and can’t figure out why nothing ever changes in their life?

Communion

this morning we are taking part in communion. The apostle Paul tells the church in Corinth that they need to stop taking part in communion in an unworthy manner. For them, that meant that the wealthy needed to stop eating everything and leaving nothing for the poor.

This morning, I want you pause and reflect on what was said this morning. Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit, and goodness speaks to strength of character. As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to have strong character, to be a person of integrity.

I would encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and point out any weak points in your character. What is most likely to give when things get tough? Where has your character buckled in the past?

The bread and the juice represent the new covenant. You are made new because of what God has done. Part of that newness includes a new, stronger, better character because of the heightened ability to stay away from that which is wrong.

You can always grow in goodness, the question is where? Let God show you where and how to grow in that area.

Discussion Questions

1. What stood out from this morning’s message?

2. Are you facing a challenging time? How is it forming your character?

3. How can you keep each other accountable about reading your bible this week?