Fruit of the Spirit - Kindness & Goodness
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Introduction
Today, in our fruit of the Spirit series, we are looking at two aspects of the fruit of the Spirit - two related, and kinda two sides of the same coin.
And not only two sides of the same coin, but two practical aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit.
At the very start, we looked at love - the skin which holds the inner segments together... but we looked at it from a theoretical stance…today we see the outworking of this love in the aspects of kindness and goodness - and you can see how these are two very similar aspects of the fruit of the Spirit.
And the reason why they are together isn’t just because I didn’t take into account that we took 1 week as an intro and so we ran out of weeks…although that was part of the reason...
However, the main reason why these are together is because they are linked to each other.
A commentator wrote that kindness is the quality of heart and emotions and goodness is the quality of conduct and action...
In other words, put simply...
Goodness is kindness in action.
Here’s an example....
Let’s say I’m walking down the road and I see an elderly lady struggling to get across the road with her shopping. And I stop and help her across the road with her shopping.
And then she turns to me and says, ‘Thank you. You’re so kind.’
Now, how does she know that I am kind? She knows that I am kind because of the ACT of kindness that I showed towards her…in other words, the good deed.
Kindness isn’t something somebody can tell about someone until they see it in action…and what they see in action is the goodness.
So I can be a kind person. I can be a really kind person…but if I don’t actually DO any acts of kindness then am I really a kind person?
So Kindness is a personality trait - a person can be a kind person…that’s their personality. But goodness is the act of being kind. And in the bible, it’s not just the act of doing good - although it is that - goodness encompasses more than that.
And when you put them together, it’s like the kindness is the manifestation of the Spirit in us that makes us alert to the needs of others - because that’s what kindness is.
So it’s like an alarm that goes off inside us when we see a situation or an issue where we can step in and do something good. That’s the kindness that comes from the Spirit - a supernatural radar, so to speak.
The goodness is when we follow through and do whatever it is we need to do in order to address the situation or the issue.
[Radar Pic]
If you’ve seen war films, you may have seen a situation where there’s a submarine and there are enemy ships on the surface. And there’s a man inside the submarine who’s looking at the radar, and these dots and bleeps are popping up…and when they are within range the big red button is pressed to fire the torpedo and destroy the enemy ship.
That’s kinda like the relationship between kindness and goodness, but in a good way. We’re talking restoration rather than destruction…but the Spirit alerts us to places where we can show our kindness…but once we know where we need to act, we need to follow through and press the big red button to do those good deeds for the kingdom of God.
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The best biblical example of this is in 2 Samuel 9, which we read earlier...
In this example, David is the newly crowned king because Saul is dead. And as you know from the story, Saul was David’s enemy for the latter part of Saul’s life. There was a death threat on David’s head by Saul, who devoted his latter years hunting David down.
And yet, when Saul Died, David mourned and wouldn’t have anyone be happy that Saul was dead. In fact, anyone who celebrated the fact that Saul had died would be killed themselves - such was the respect that David had for God’s anointed.
Anyway, Saul had a son, Jonathan, who was best friends with David. And Jonathan had also been killed. So Saul’s grandson, a boy called Mephibosheth, who also happened to be lame, was left fatherless.
And David says in 2 Samuel 9...
1 David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
And the reply comes back that there is Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, David had him brought to his palace. And when he met him he said this...
7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate at David’s table and stayed with him.
This was an act of kindness on behalf of David. This was an act of grace.
Mephiosheth didn’t deserve anything from David - he had done nothing to deserve it and in fact, being Saul’s grandson David wouldn’t have been expected to show any kindness to him. Mercy perhaps, but not grace like this - not bringing him into his palace and letting him eat at his table.
...But that’s what goodness is…this fruit of the Spirit is more than being good - this is a gracious goodness that goes beyond what is fair or deserved.
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You see, in the bible, God’s goodness is closely linked with righteousness or justice.
You would hear phrases like, The Lord is good and just.
For example...
8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
And the word upright means level or straight or fair.
And one commentator I looked at put it like this…God is just and good. He is good and upright… and the justice part means that he is fair - we get what we deserve to get…and that’s fair. You can’t argue with that.
But God is also good… which means that even though we get what we deserve to get, God also goes beyond what we deserve and he is good - he gives us MORE than we deserve.
Because the Greek word for Good is also linked with generosity, which leads us to our other example which we read earlier...
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In Matthew 20, Jesus tells the story about the workers in the vineyard. We’re not going go into the detail or culture background to this, which is kind of fascinating.
But to sum up the parable...
A landowner went to get some workers for his vineyard so he goes to find some workers. These would be people that hung around certain places looking for work - like the marketplace. People could hire these people for a day’s contract. And the days wage was 1 denarii, which after last week we know is, on average, about £80 in today’s money.
So the landowner goes out and finds some workers and they start working. Some time goes on and he goes out again and finds some more men and he has them work for him too, but with these men he didn’t tell them what he’d pay them. He just said he’d pay them whatever is fair...
4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’
Which is fair enough. If you work half a day you’d only expect to be paid half a day’s wages - around £40.
And he does this at noon, at 3 and at 5 in the evening - he goes and gets more people to work in his vineyard.
And at the end of the day, he’s dishing out the wages, starting with those hired last - the ones at 5 in the evening, and he gives the evening workers 1 denarii....£80 - a whole day’s wages for working a couple of hours.
These guys must have been elated. But he didn’t say how much he’d pay them, so they never knew what they’d get.
He gives those at 3 o’clock £80. And those at noon he gives £80. Again - these guys must also be happy for getting a full day’s work for working half a day or so.
And then the people who worked all day, he gives them £80 - 1 denarii…the payment for a day’s work…the amount he agreed to give them at the start. The amount that they ALSO agreed to work for. The amount that, at the start of the day, they would have been more than happy to accept at the end of the day.
But they weren’t happy, because they expected to get more... because the other guys got a day’s wage they thought they’d get more than a day’s wage.
Now, I’m not getting into the theological implications here - but my point today comes at the end of the parable...
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
There’s the justice of God and the goodness of God in action… The workers who worked for the full day got the wage that was agreed, but the other people got more than they expected.
And the word for generous is the same word for good that we’re looking at today.
God is generous with us - he is GOOD towards us, giving us not what we deserve, but more than that.
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Do you remember the definition of grace…unmerited favour from God. Getting something that we don’t deserve.
Mephiosheth didn’t deserve to be brought into the palace and allowed to eat at the king’s table. David was good to him - he was gracious to him. He gave Mephibosheth something he didn’t deserve. He went BEYOND justice and showed grace. That’s the goodness we’re talking about here.
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Now, put the kindness and goodness together with respect to God himself, and you see how it works together.
Because God, in his kindness, saw the need that we were in. In his justice, he didn’t need to do anything, because our sin would be paid for by an eternity in Hell…and the balance would be restored.
So in God’s justice, he didn’t need to do anything.
But in his kindness, he was alerted, so to speak, he alerted himself to our desperate situation. In his kindness he saw that we had no hope because his justice dictated that sin had to be paid for by death.
And so in his kindness, God saw that there was a situation that required a good deed - a gracious, generous deed…more than what we deserve.
And in his grace he sent his son, Jesus, who embodied kindness, who embodied goodness - and Jesus died to pay the price and satisfy God’s justice.
THAT, my friends, was something that we DID NOT deserve…but thanks to the kindness and goodness of God, he did it to give us hope and salvation and eternal life.
And all this fruit of the Spirit - again, not something we deserve - but God, in his kindness sees our dire situation that we have with the flesh and the works of the flesh...and in his grace…in his goodness, he gives us his Spirit to fight against the flesh.
And that is our example.
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So how does this work out practically?
Well, since this is a spiritual thing, we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to manifest himself in us - to give us the kindness and goodness that we need.
We need to pray that the Holy Spirit will alert us to issues and situations that need his kingdom to break in, and to show us what we can do to meet the needs of people around us.
And then we need to press the big red button and go and do something about it - to help, to support what’s being done, to pray, to give, to serve.
But it doesn’t take much - we can do baby steps here…Walk down Botanic Avenue and you’ll see quite a few Romanian women selling big issue, or you’ll see homeless people.
And we often thing - or at least I often think - people like that rip you off. They’re going to buy drugs or alcohol and I don’t want to support that. In a sense that might be true, but in another sense that’s the flesh talking. So often, I walk down the street and the SPIRIT is nudging me in kindness…
“There’s someone who needs help”
Should we at least buy them lunch and offer it in the name of Jesus?
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Or we can start in our homes…where is the Spirit nudging you, highlighting an issue where you can show the goodness and grace of God?
Or in the church, where is the Spirit nudging you, highlighting you of a situation or issue where YOU can show the goodness and grace of God. In a lot of instances people’s situations or issues don’t necessarily NEED the minister or the elder. Sometimes it’s easier to pass it on to them so we don’t have to.
It’s not rocket science.
But it’s a fruit of the Spirit, which means that it doesn’t come naturally to us. How many people go through life witnessing the need all around them but they are oblivious to it or they don’t want to help in any way…that’s the flesh at work.
The Spirit highlights these needs and enables us to do our small bit to help, for the glory of God.
There are opportunities all around us, where the kingdom of God needs to break in, and we can bring it.
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So what we’re going to do now, is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us situations or needs in our homes, our church, or country - to bring something to your mind - to highlight an area of need where your kindness can be triggered. Let’s ask him to show us.
And then we’ll ask him for the ability and the power and the strength and the inspiration to meet that need by showing the goodness and grace of God in those situations.
Let’s pray for this now.