goodnessfruit

©David Kralik Ministries, Inc. 2003
Email matthewfivesix@hotmail.com

The Fruit of Goodness

Continuing in our series on the fruit of the Holy Spirit we are now looking at the fruit of goodness. And what will we find as we examine this aspect labeled goodness.

It’s important to remember, in talking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that we are talking about a singular fruit. We are not talking about a basket of differing kinds of fruit. We are talking about the one multi-faceted Holy Spirit of God who manifests himself in multi-faceted fashion in our lives.

It’s also important for us to remember and understand that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is what the Lord Jesus is primarily looking for in our lives. Jesus talked about the fruit of the Spirit in John 15. He made it plain that without him we could do nothing of any spiritual or eternal benefit. Fruit is what he wants to see in our lives. In his parable of the sower, he spoke of seed bringing forth thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. Jesus wants us to bear much fruit.

The King James version of the Holy Scriptures renders the original language to say goodness in this verse. It also translates the same Greek word to read kindness, good, and gentleness in other places in the New Testament. The New Revised Standard renders the original Greek to say generosity. The New International Version renders it goodness along with the King James. While it seems the translators are having a difficult time agreeing on what the original language says, it is to our benefit to see a fuller picture of this fruit known by many as goodness.

It is also to our benefit to realize that God desires to manifest his own personal attributes in us. Now that seems a bit outlandish but it is true none-the-less. God desires to manifest his own personality in us. The fruit of the Spirit in our lives is no less than the manifestation of the personality of God in us. Imagine that! A holy and righteous God desiring to manifest his own personality in and through a sinful humanity.

We live in an age where a tremendous amount of emphasis is being placed on learning the precepts and principles of God and on experiencing and exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is good. We need to know the word of God to keep from being destroyed by our own lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6) We need to have the power of God working in our lives to enable us to do the works of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:8) But, in all our knowing of the word of God and in all our exercising of the power of God, we desperately need to have the personality of God manifested in us or we’ll find ourselves out of balance and out of step with the will of God in our lives.

With this thought in mind, let’s move deeper into our study of goodness as an attribute of the Holy Spirit that God desires to manifest in and through us.

We need to take a look at what the Lord God said about himself. In Exodus 34 we find Moses making new tablets of stone with the commandments of God on them. Remember that just prior to this the Israelites had made themselves a golden calf and were worshiping it while Moses was on the mountain alone with God. There is much for us to learn from this episode in the life of God’s chosen ones. Yes. They did receive some punitive action as a result of their idolatry. But in 34:6 we read how the Lord passed by before him (Moses), and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. (KJV)

The NRSV renders this “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."

God’s goodness, his steadfast love, is manifested toward us through mercy and grace. God is just and righteous and he is not quick to display outbursts of anger toward us even though we may well deserve feeling the righteous anger of the Lord. Our sin is what it is. We may not be bowing down to a golden idol as though it were some kind of god but we are guilty of innumerable sins that deserve the righteous justice of God. Thank God that he doesn’t give us what we honestly deserve

Nehemiah chapter nine tells of the national confession of Israel and begins by telling us that all of the Israelites were assembled together with fasting and dressed in sackcloth. This was a very somber and humble occasion for Israel as they recognized their past sins and looked to God for his blessings.

The confession is also a recollection of how God had historically blessed his people even though there were some difficult seasons of cleansing because of sin. Nehemiah 9:25 recounts how Israel occupied the land of Canaan saying, “And they captured cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses filled with all sorts of goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, and were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness."

Why are we serving the Lord anyway? What is it that motivates us to follow the Lord? All too often our motivation for serving and following the Lord comes from being indoctrinated with concepts of a mean old man with a big stick waiting to thrash us hard if we messed up. Serving the Punitive God will only serve to increase our fear of him. There is much more to God than punitive justice. We need to know our heavenly Father as the God of Goodness.

The Shepherd’s Psalm is one of the most used portions of Scripture at funerals. There’s no fault to find with that. It’s a great source of comfort for God’s children when they are grieving the loss of a loved one. It’s a shame though that this wonderful Psalm has been relegated to the funeral parlor and heard only as part of a dirge. Look and see how this Psalm conveys the knowledge of God’s goodness to us.

Psalms 23

The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

The goodness of God is revealed through the concept of a shepherd carefully tending to the needs of a dependent flock. Everything about this Good Shepherd conveys goodness, even in those situations where an erring one must be pulled up short of it’s own self-destruction. And what of the many times our Good Shepherd has stood between us and the unseen plans and wiles of our crafty and deceptive Serpentine Enemy? How many times has he delivered us unawares?

Charles Spurgeon wrote concerning verse six saying, “This is a fact as indisputable as it is encouraging, and therefore a heavenly verily, or surely, is set as a seal upon it. This sentence may be read, only goodness and mercy (love). These twin guardian angels will always be with me at my back and my beck. Just as when great princes go abroad they must not go unattended, so it is with the believer.”

We are never left alone as believers. The goodness and love of God follow close to us every day and everywhere. This is the promise of the Lord to us. (Matthew 28:20)

It’s too easy for us to take the goodness of God for granted. It’s easy to become familiar with holy things. We walk through most any given day taking for granted the unlimited blessings of God that are flowing into our lives. Even in the bleakest of circumstances there remain innumerable blessings to be experienced and shared. Yet we trudge through most days without taking account of God’s blessings upon our lives. Romans 2:4 speaks plainly to this saying, “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness (KJV – goodness) is meant to lead you to repentance?”

We live in a world where many have never entered into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In this same world many who have entered into a relationship with God through Jesus have for any number of reasons and excuses allowed this important relationship to grow formal or cold. Others have abandoned this relationship altogether. And, sadly, most of us who profess to be in a relationship with God through his Son make a multitude of excuses for why we fail to give the Lord more of a place and priority in our lives.

Here, in talking about the fruit of goodness, we find ourselves at a pivotal place. We see so clearly the beneficence and generosity of God toward us. The measure of his goodness is so great that it can’t be missed or mistaken. We know from the Scriptures that it is God’s desire to manifest his own personality in us so that our old humanly carnal and selfish nature is overtaken by his own divine and selfless nature.

What then is the result of the fruit of goodness being made manifest in our lives? Goodness (kindness, beneficence, generosity) will always show itself in a position of readiness to do good. God is doing good toward us. Therefore, the Spirit of God working in us will prompt and prod us to do good toward one another.

There is a distinct relationship between faith and works. The Book of James spends a length of time discussing the importance of doing good because of the faith that we have. The Apostle Paul talks about the relationship between obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of sharing with others. (2 Corinthians 9) Paul says that doing good (rendering ministry) not only supplies the needs of the saints but it also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23