Goodness

*Love*Joy*Peace*Longsuffering*Gentleness*Goodness*

*Faith*Meekness*Temperance*

Definition of Goodness: Moral excellence; virtue. Kindly feeling; kindness; generosity.

We've been told since we were little kids to "be good", but what exactly does that mean? We usually take it to mean "don't be bad." In other words, do the things we know we're supposed to do, and don't do the things we're not supposed to do. Back in 1897, a Bible dictionary was published, and this is how they described goodness in people: the deliberate preference of right to wrong, the firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil, and the choosing and following of all moral good. Read that again please. In other words, "doing the right thing". Another word for this is righteousness. Our definition summed it up as "moral excellence", but you won't find that wording in the Bible. God also has goodness, but He doesn't have to choose to do good; He has no sinful nature, so everything He does is righteous. Look what He told Moses, in Ex. 33:19: "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." Then look what happened in Ex. 34:6-7: "And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Now, look what the Apostle Paul said about God's goodness in Rom. 11:22, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." There is a pattern here; do you see it? God's goodness allows Him to have mercy on us and forgive our sins when we repent; but, if we don't repent, we get His severity. He said he would by no means clear the guilty, the consequences for sin will pass down to even their grandchildren and beyond, and they will be cut off from Him (which means they won't be able to be in Heaven with Him). Serious stuff! The goodness that we have as a Fruit of the Spirit, comes from God. Look what God thinks about the goodness people try to have all by themselves without Him: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Isa. 64:6. So, we need to understand God's goodness if we're going to have it too.

King David had a lot to say about the goodness of God. Here are a few. "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." Psalm 27:13. "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! " Psalm 31:19. "He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD." Psalm 33:5. "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD." Psalm 25:7. The Lord loves righteousness and hates sin. He loves to show mercy, but doesn't hold back when the point comes where mercy can no longer be shown. When we are saved, and all our sins are washed away; when we have a new nature and the Spirit of God dwelling in us, it becomes almost automatic to choose good over evil, right over wrong. The problem comes when we are not nailing the old nature back down on a daily basis, and we start having that little argument in our head. You know the one. It says "This isn't really wrong; it's just something those fuddy-duddies don't like to do." Or, "It won't hurt to have just a little bit; just don't do it all the time." Or the worst one, "God realizes that you are weak; He will understand if you mess up just this once." Then we give in to the temptation, make the wrong choice, and our Goodness fruit starts having little tiny brown spots. Then it happens again, and, Oh my, what's that? A worm hole on our fruit! It's just a gradual thing, but over time, our fruit will be all brown and mushy and gross, and have bugs in it. People will see it and say, "Look at that nasty mess! That can't be one of God's trees!" In other words, "Yeah, they call themselves a Christian, but they sure don't act any different than me!" We can't just claim to be good either; it has to be obvious. "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?" Prov 20:6.

Another word for goodness is virtue. This one is used fairly often in the Bible. Look what the Apostle Paul told us in Phil. 4:8. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Our thought life is important. If we think on evil or nasty stuff all day, it will take root in us, and ruin our fruit. Here's what the Apostle Peter told his people, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Pet. 1:2-4. See, God has called us to glory and virtue. And He wants us to be "partakers of the divine nature"! That means being like Him! Then, in verses 5 through 8, Peter gave us instructions on how to do this: "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." It's a daily, continuous process, and it's done by praying, studying the Bible, hearing the Word of God, fasting, and making a conscious effort to choose the right path.

In relationships between men and women, virtue, or goodness, is really a major thing. Look how important Solomon said it is, "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." Prov. 31:10. That's pretty valuable! For two reasons: First, virtuous women are not a-dime-a-dozen. It goes against human nature to put the needs of others above our own, so a lot of people don't want to do it. Second, a man that gets a good wife wouldn't trade her for all the gold and jewels in the world. But look at the opposite: "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones." Prov. 12:4. That's pretty bad. Ladies, let's be full of God's goodness, and be virtuous women, so our men don't feel rotten to the core! Read the rest of Proverbs 31 for more details!

If you look back to our definition, another aspect of goodness is generosity. Here are a few verses on that, which pretty much speak for themselves. "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." Prov. 11:25 "A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion." Psalm 112:5. "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again." Prov. 19:17. Part of goodness is being unselfish; helping others when we have the opportunity and the wherewithal to do it.

CHALLENGE: Let's check out our goodness this week. First, let's take a good hard look at ourselves and see if we have sin in our life. People call this soul-searching. If we find anything, we need to repent of it and ask the Lord's forgiveness. Then ask Him to forgive us of any other sins we may have that we don't know about. Let's also ask for His guidance and direction in making the choices we have to make. We want God's goodness hanging all over us like pretty, shiny apples. Not our pitiful filthy rags all over the place. As Dr. Laura Schlessinger says, "Now go do the right thing!