The fruit of goodness

BRBC 24/6/07

“The good life”? Remember the couple: Tom and Barbara: living simply and happily? But Margo and Jerry next door also lived “the good life” in their eyes, and couldn’t cope with Tom and Barbara’s lifestyle.  What they share in common is the sense that the good life is something that you work for and have around you. But goodness in the Bible is not the circumstances of life as you receive it, but goodness that you give out: character generated.

God IS good.

As we have repeatedly seen, the fruit of the Spirit produces the character of God in us. We have been singing that God is good. It’s part of his character. He isn’t and can’t do any bad. You may recall that on one occasion

a man ran up to [Jesus] and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No-one is good—except God alone. (Mark 10:17)

The point of Jesus question was not to deny his deity but to question whether the man fully appreciated that to be good means to be like God. “In calling me good, are you acknowledging that I am God” or “I am good because I am God.” We take it as assumed or granted that God is good, but it is worth pondering. God can only be good. He can’t be more good to you tomorrow than he is today! So when it appears to be called into question, the fact remains: God is good. He’s good when we celebrate harvest and his provision. He’s good when we celebrate Christmas and Easter, and his provision of salvation. He’s good when the news tells us there has been an earthquake that kills thousands or a loved one dies of cancer. No events can alter the truth that God is good, even though we may wonder why he allows things that don’t appear to be good.

So the first element of the fruit of goodness in us, is the spiritual conviction that God is good. One of the biggest objections towards God is “How can a good God allow bad things to happen?” There is no simple answer to that question. I applaud efforts to try, but sometimes we can try too hard to answer some questions. Ultimately, as Christians we have the Sprit at work in us assuring us that God is good all the time, despite how things may look or feel. We choose to accept the word of the Spirit or our own convictions. Only the former helps us to believe with assurance that God is good and therefore, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. It will be impossible for the fruit of goodness to grow and mature in our lives if we cannot believe that God is good!

Christian goodness…

So following on from the first, the second element of the fruit of goodness means for us to be good. W.H. Auden said, “Goodness is easier to recognize than to define.” In Romans 15:14 we read Paul writing to the Christians there,

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

He can see the character of God in them. What a tribute! Paul says they are full of goodness. Humanly speaking, we can all be good if we want to. We can stretch it out for a while, like a child who goes to school and is the model pupil. Parents go to teachers consultations and are told what a perfect child s/he is. The parents are amazed, because at home the child is a nightmare! The goodness runs out in the safety of the home. Paul sees more than “good behaviour” in the Romans. He says they are complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Through their goodness they are leading each other on in faith and godliness. This is not only pleasing per se, but all the more so because they were working their faith and character development out in a godless and pagan environment. In the opening chapter Paul writes of the depravity of the world that has looked away from God. By chapter 12 he writes to them, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (v21)

In chapter 15 he speaks of their goodness, and in chapter 16 closes with a list of widespread and affectionate greetings. The Roman Christians are good people. That’s the work of the Spirit. Not that they have found “The good life” through circumstances but that goodness is exuded from them.

In fact there are only four references in the NT to the word “goodness”, all written by Paul. It is a compound word taken from the simple “good”, which occurs more copiously. Besides Gal 5 and Romans 15:

In Eph 5:9 Paul writes,

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth).

And in 2 Thess. 1:11…

we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfil every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.

So we see goodness as both being and doing. Being “in the light” and doing “every good purpose” prompted by faith. (A bit like Tom and Barbara in “The good life”. It’s a bit of a play on things – they are called Tom and Barbara Good. That is who they are. But they are claiming to live (do things) in a way whereby they live “the good life”.)

Being: You can’t be good, be filled with goodness until you are a follower of Jesus. Goodness, as the fruit of the Spirit, joins many other texts in the Bible making clear to us that goodness is a result of salvation rather than the source of it. Another popular statement is “I’ll do as much good as I can and hopefully God will accept me”. Paul did not write “The fruit of goodness is the Spirit”. Being good doesn’t make God give us his Spirit. Giving his Spirit causes the fruit of goodness.

Doing:  There are many verses in the Bible about doing good.

2 Corinthians 9:8
God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Next verse, Galatians 6:10
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

John Wesley famously said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” The Spirit of God in us causes us to do good things, to act with goodness. In all this we are becoming ever more like Jesus.

Goodness is a characteristic of the heart where the Spirit of God is alive and active and moulding us into Jesus’ likeness. Goodness is when the Holy Spirit is taking the “old” and making it “new”. The actions follow, as a reflection of the heart.

In summary, can I ask you,

1.      Do you have the conviction of the Spirit that God is good all the time?

2.      Are you a good person, a God person? Until you are spiritual goodness will never be fruitful in you.

3.      Do you live by spiritual acts of goodness? Are you abounding in every good work?

4.      Are you becoming more like Jesus? Is the character of God being formed in you as the fruit of the Spirit is maturing?

There’s an old account of a sculptor carving a horse from a big block of stone. He was asked how he did it so perfectly. He answered “I simply chop off anything that isn’t part of a horse”. The character of God is within us. The fruit of the Spirit is that character. Goodness, along with all the other aspects, is within us. It’s simply a case of removing what isn’t part of the fruit of the Spirit and “letting the horse get out”!