Goodness

Introduction

Revise fruits of the Holy Spirit

Last week, we talked about the fruit of kindness. This week we are talking about goodness, which is quite similar to kindness but different in other ways. So let’s dive straight into it today!

1. Goodness is Holiness in Action

If you remember what we said about kindness, we said that kindness was ‘love in action’.

If kindness is ‘love in action’, then goodness is ‘holiness in action’.

What is holiness? Holiness first and foremost refers to God - God is holy because He is completely and wholly other. What do I mean by that? By being wholly ‘other’, God is completely transcendent, completely above us, he is completely perfect.

But we are not transcendent, we are not above but we are below, and we are not perfect like God but we are imperfect.

So holiness, being completely ‘other’, is God being set apart from us because He is complete perfection in everyway, while we are not.

And one of the other ways God is completely set apart from us is because of his moral perfection. In God, he is morally completely pure and perfect - in Him there is no sin or darkness at all. On the other hand, we are sinful, there is darkness in us, so that’s why in a moral sense, God is also morally set apart from us.

So this is what holiness means - God is completely ‘other’, and completely set apart, because he is completely perfect, while we are not.

But when God calls us as His people, he says something really interesting to us. Read Leviticus 19:2 “2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Also, Read 1 Peter 1:16 “16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””

God tells us to be holy. And the reason we are to be holy is because God is holy.

Now we can’t be holy like God in his being - God is divine, transcendent, and completely above us, so we cannot be holy in that way.

But when God tells us to be holy, what he is saying is that just as God is set apart from us in every way because He is so perfect, he is telling us also to be set apart from the world around us.

And this is not being set apart in physical distance - we are not going to create an isolated Christian camp in the forest. This is being set apart from the sin and impurity in the world - as God transforms our heart and our character, we are called to be set apart from the sin, evil, and temptations of this world.

So this means that (1) we avoid sin - we stop participating in the sinful and evil patterns and behaviours of this world, and (2) we do the right thing - we obey God and his laws, which includes things like kindness and love.

What is a good example of goodness in the Bible that isn’t kindness? When Jesus clears the temple. When Jesus comes into Jerusalem, and finds that the temple has become a marketplace, he becomes angry with righteous anger, and he flips all the tables, screams and shouts, and kicks everyone out of the temple. The temple is God’s house - it’s meant to be set apart and holy. But it’s been contaminated by the sinful ways of the world by being turned into a marketplace! So Jesus is removing all the sin and filth from the temple - he is making it holy, setting apart and consecrating the temple for it’s original use -> to worship God. He is removing sin, and doing the right thing.

So this is goodness. Putting holiness into action. God is holy, and God calls us to be holy as his people. And this means that live morally upright lives by avoiding sin, and doing the right thing by obeying his laws.

2. Goodness is by Design

Now God doesn’t only tell us to be good by putting holiness into action - he has actually designed us to be good!

What is one of the most commonly repeated phrases in Genesis 1? ‘he saw that it was good’. As God creates the world over the 6 days, he saw that what he had created was good.

Genesis 1:4 “4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.”

Genesis 1:10 “10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 1:12 “12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 1:18 “18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 1:21 “21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 1:25 “25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

And after he creates humans, he looks at all of creation including man who he had made, and this is what God says - Read Genesis 1:31 “31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Not only was it good, but it was very good.

God made us to be good by design. God calls us good. And that is a wonderful thing, because our lives and our morals have been ruined by sin. It is so hard for us to be good. We look at the evil in the world - all the crime, wars, scams, murder, violence, theft - and it’s easy to wonder, is man actually good? I had an atheist friend to said he believes that all humans are essentially selfish. This is what many people believe about the human race after being disillusioned by all the atrocities we have committed. And their criticism may be true, because we have been affected by sin. We are sinful. But what is our original design? God said ‘it was good’, and not just ‘good’, but ‘very good’.

And that is good news to us, because although before Christ saves us we are helpless in our sins, after Christ saves us he gives us the gifts we need in the Holy Spirit, so that we can go back to the original design of goodness. Read James 1:17 “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” This gift comes from above, from God. We can’t do it ourselves, we need His help.

3. Goodness points to God

Now finally, it is easy to be good and make it about ourselves. Have you heard about the term ‘virtue signalling’? Being good or doing good things just to point out how great we are is what ‘virtue signalling’ means. For example, you might make lots of social media posts about ‘Let’s save the earth’ and ‘Let’s reduce plastic’, but at the same time you buy lots of plastic items and you might just toss them in the ground or the ocean. You don’t actually care about saving the planet - you just want people to see how ‘good’ you are.

That is not what true Christian goodness is. True Christian goodness doesn’t point to ourselves - it points to God. Read Matthew 5:16 “16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

The purpose of our goodness is not self-righteousness, it is not glory and praise for ourselves.

Our goodness has the purpose of being salt and light in the world. It is missional. Our goodness bears witness to the goodness of God - all goodness comes from God, and we display this goodness to show the world how good God is. Our goodness should not point to ourselves, but it should point upwards to our Father in heaven.

Conclusion

So to summarise:

(1) Goodness is holiness in action. We are called to be holy because God is holy. And we are holy by separating ourselves from the sin of this world, by avoiding sinful behaviour, and doing the right thing.

(2) It is hard to be good and holy. But we are meant to be good by design. And God brings us back to that good original design when we depend upon the gifts that He gives us through the Spirit.

(3) Goodness should point to God, not ourselves.

So this week, let’s think about the goodness of God, who shares that goodness with us, so that we can show it to the world. In all that we do, we are not doing things to bring praise and glory to ourselves, but to our Father in heaven.