Goodness-Week 1

STORY - a time where you did the right thing, while there was chaos going on around, and in simply doing the right thing the chaos got better - beyond just the impact of what you specifically did.

Last month, we talked about kindness, and how seeing the world in the light of eternity prompts us to kindness. And how we don’t need to be affected by problems because of our focus on eternity.

But what is God’s solution for the problems of the world right now?

The Thessalonian church. it was undergoing persecution and trial.

But through it, their love, their faith was increasing all the time. And paul says - this is evidence that God knows what he was doing.

But there’s still this sticky point of the troubles themselves. And the people perpetrating them.

2 Thessalonians 1:6–7 NIV

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

This is a later. What do we do now?

The next part Paul says is essential for us here and now.

2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 NIV

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The thessalonian church was being persecuted. and there’s two things we can see about the situation.

one, Paul points out to them that God will right every wrong, pay back every trouble, and give relief to every troubled person

two - we should pray that God continues to make us worthy of his calling, by ‘bringing to fruition every desire for goodness and every deed prompted by faith’.

So how were the thessalonians responding to their persecution? With desires for goodness. And we can learn a lot from that.

Goodness needs to have its root in God’s justice

STORY - i’ve always tried to practice goodness in my life. But you understand that some circumstances require a lot more sacrificial goodness (someone in crisis or need).

In the bible, goodness flows out of this idea that God is just.

When we start with this foundation - it gives us a much, much more powerful reason to be good. Because through goodness, God is trying to solve a big problem.

This makes goodness seem a lot more powerful. We have a bad idea that goodness just means, meekness, weakness, not fighting back, refusing to engage. But:

Goodness is not passiveness - it’s usefulness

If you think about it, the world teaches, it’s not the meekest or the weakest that are the most powerful - its the strong person that can submit the world around them, and the people around them, to their own will.

One of the main words in the NT for goodness is the greek word chrestos - and it means, among other things, useful.

So when we focus on this idea of goodness, what we’re really saying is,

‘God - I want to be useful to you now’

Have you ever thought about it like that? That God is trying to bring about justice, he’s trying to right problems. And that God wants to do that by prompting and fulfilling goodness in you?

Remember what God’s plan is to overcome evil:

Romans 12:21 NIV

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Goodness is what God uses in us to combat evil.

But goodness also has another purpose:

Goodness is a sign to the world that God’s justice is being realized

STORY - I’ve had to in my life either come up with or become familiar with emergency plans. And when an emergency goes down - some people panic, some people get mean (looters in a natural disaster), but some people mobilize. And you only ever solve it by spreading that order, that preparedness.

Philippians 1:27–28 NIV

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.

So Paul uses this phrase , ‘a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ’. It’s similar above to ‘make you worthy of his calling’.

And paul says - this activity of acting worthy of the gospel and the calling, it is a sign to those who are perishing that a greater and more perfect justice is coming.

So when wrong happens - out of that chaos and order, the church is supposed to be there in the middle, spreading goodness to combat what is going on. We’re the firefighters - but we fight with goodness rather than water.

But it goes beyond that.

Our goodness shows the world that it’s evilness has been condemned - by one who is more powerful

than any circumstance.

Sometimes, those emergency circumstances are intentional. People TRYING to cause chaos.

But when they can’t succeed in us - we demonstrate that there’s a power greater than theirs in the room. They may think they have power - but they have no idea what power really is.

Colossians 2:15 NIV

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

That’s why we can’t respond to evil with evil - because that’s evil winning. By responding to evil with Good - we show the powers of the world that they have been utterly disarmed. We show that there’s a power that can keep evil from taking root in our hearts. And we can spread that power.

God can create goodness in your life right now

Psalm 16:1–2 NIV

Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

Goodness also in the NT has a sense of ‘usefulness’

an increase in OUR goodness in the face of persecution and difficulty is a sign of god’s blessing - not the presence of persecution and difficulty being a sign of god’s judgment

Philippians 1:27–28 “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.”

the idea that the philippians continued to act worthy in the face of opposition was a sign to the opposition that they (the opposition) would be destroyed, but the philippians would be saved

The faithfulness and goodness of god’s people in the face of persecution was to be a sign that God’s justice would be victorious

2 Thessalonians 1:11 “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

Paul says this in response to the situation surrounding the thessalonians - they were suffering, and Paul promised that God would pay back all that trouble. That there was a day coming of justice and punshment for those who have rejected God.

Then paul says - knowing that, I pray that God would bring power to ‘bring to fruition your every desire for goodness’

Ephesians 5:9 “(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)”

Romans 5:7 “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.”

Psalm 23:5–6 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

James 1:19–20 “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”