Goodness
Psalm 136.1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
The Fruit of the Spirit are Fruit FROM the Spirit. They come from God because God is Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, etc. The Fruit of the Spirit come from the Spirit of Jesus within us. That makes them a heart thing. What we are on the outside is the fruit we bear reflecting what is going on inside us. Jesus illustrates that for us in the gospel of Luke:
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit … A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. (Luke 6.43-45)
So then, if God is good, it is no mistake that those who live close to God reflect God’s character, goodness. Goodness comes from the life of Jesus within us. It is a heart thing that is shown outwardly through the goodness we show the world.
Goodness is one of the Fruit of the Spirit, but what is ‘goodness’? When we say someone is a ‘good’ teacher, a ‘good’ doctor or a ‘good’ football player, we are referring to that person’s competence. However, when we say that someone is a ‘good’ person we aren’t talking about their competence in a skill. We mean that person is morally ‘good.’ Yet, is that what Paul means by goodness?
Jesus told a story about a vineyard owner. The vineyard owner employed some men to work in his fields all day. He hired some others to work in the field half the day and still others only worked the last bit of the day. To all the workers the vineyard owner paid a full days wages. As you can imagine, the workers who worked the entire day weren’t pleased that those who had worked only a few hours got paid the same amount as they did. That is when the vineyard owner responded to them saying: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
The word Jesus used for ‘generous’ is the same word Paul used in his list of the Fruit of the Spirit for ‘goodness.’ Goodness is generosity. Goodness is giving to others more than they have earned. Goodness is treating others better than they deserve. Goodness is generosity of Spirit towards others. This means treating others with trust rather than suspicion. It means not assuming the worst of people, but generously giving them the benefit of doubt. It means befriending those who might not be able to be as good a friend to you.
God is Good. We know this because the way God treats with you and me is with prodigious generosity. He treats us way better than we deserve. And to honor our Good God, let us seek to treat one another with the same generosity.