Galatians 5:22 & 23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
As we proceed through our list of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit, I hope you have been challenged to examine your life to make sure you are cultivating, through the Spirit, each of these attributes.
Today, we will look at goodness. Each of these is a cousin to the others, but they all have a quality of their own.
The word goodness here implies that a person exhibiting this trait is doing good for others’ benefit. It is very close to what we would call benevolence.
In Romans 15:14 Paul gives a compliment to those Gentile converts in Rome. He tells them he believes they are “full of goodness.” The original language here would mean they were showing acts of kindness and benevolence. They were also obeying commands by the government that did not violate their Christian beliefs. They were not the kind of people looking for a fight. Not constantly seeking their own way. This is so opposite of society today. Everyone is seeking to be heard, and to find a cause to riot or protest.
We, as Christians, must always defend what is right, but we must do so in a way that promotes the name of Christ, not in a way that would bring shame or reproach.
Romans 15:14 “And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”
If we are Christians, the Holy Spirit, through the gospel, produces goodness, but it is up to us to show this in our relationships with others. It is evidence that you are a Christian.
For those of you who cook, you know that having all the ingredients for a chocolate pie is of no value until you actually put it all together. Goodness is that way. If you don’t exhibit it by being good to someone else, no one knows it is there.
Seek this week to show goodness to someone. Seek to show goodness to someone who can do nothing in return for you!
