Goodness: the 6th of the lineup of Fruits of the Spirit. I like good. Good food, good friends, good times, and a good cold drink of lemonade on a hot summer day. Western culture, perhaps, tends to look at good just as it is defined: something that is to be desired. It pleases us and it makes us smile both inside and out. It’s a good thing, this good word. It makes me feel, well, good!
I love chocolate. It tastes good. I don’t like coffee, sorry, you mocha lovers. I don’t think it tastes good. If I make a cookie that everyone will eat, I know what ones my kids like and which ones they say are really good. It’s not just my cookie-making that’s good; the culture seems to agree. Popular songs tell me about good. “I feel good”- James Brown, “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys, “I’m into something good” by the Hermits, focus on feelings.
“I feel good” indicates a sensation affecting our emotions. Good vibrations give us the vibe, sorry, I just had to say that. It’s all about goodness, as an action, that can control how we respond. When it’s good vibes, we are good. Bad vibes, it’s bad. “I’m into something good” is a pleasing activity, and we are happy. That’s a good thing, or is it?
That terminology of goodness, or good, that I described is a pendulum swing from what Paul was getting at when he referred to goodness as a fruit of the Spirit. So, let’s look at the definition of goodness from a Biblical worldview. Dictionaries tell me that “goodness” is the condition of “Being morally good or virtuous.”
The fruits of the Spirit come out in our actions when the Holy Spirit is living within and given free range in our hearts. We hear about free-range chickens, which means they wander wherever they want. It’s healthy for the chickens and suitable for the land. Translate that into letting the Holy Spirit wander wherever he wants in our lives; it will be good for us. That word good is the beginning of goodness. Yet what does it mean, and how do we be it?
Galatians reminds us that these fruits of the Spirit are the benefits of the Holy Spirit living within us. I have to allow the Holy Spirit to come, clean house, and set up a living space within me for me to have a chance at living and reflecting these attributes of God. It’s that free-range Holy Spirit within me.
Going back to the dictionary, the definitions indicate that goodness is a virtue showing high moral standards, and holiness is an action. There I fail. It’s not that I am not trying, but my human nature comes out before I can stop it. I want to be good. I can be kind, gentle, and maybe even tender, but good? It just doesn’t seem to happen as easily as I would like. The reason? I can’t be good; I have to flow good from God.
Good is generated not by my feelings, but by reflecting God’s righteousness. Goodness is almost always to benefit others. The Holy Spirit does that when we let him have free range. It’s not about us, it’s about others. Yet, I find myself longing for goodness. I want that selflessness, kindness, and graciousness that melts the heart. If the Holy Spirit has free range within me, then goodness is entrenched within; it cannot be separated from who I am. Yet it’s not me, but the Holy Spirit within. In all my attempts to have goodness ooze out of me, I can’t because I can’t “be good”. My carnal nature takes over and messes everything up. But God. God is good, because he is perfect. God is the source of all goodness.
The Holy Spirit is like a spigot that connects us to God. God is good. That goodness flows to us when we are connected to. It’s not about trying harder; it’s about opening the spigot and letting it flow through us from God. John 15 helps us focus on how to connect our spigot to get that goodness.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
If we remain in him, stay connected, and let the spigot of the Holy Spirit funnel his goodness to us, we have the ability to be good and exhibit goodness in our lives, dependent on our relationship to the only one who is good.
Very good. Thank you for sharing.
This was a joy to read. How I (we) long to be good at all times. Letting the Holy Spirit have free-range is just the thing. Had never thought of it just that way, but like it and will remember it. Thank you and God bless. Katy
Thank you so much, Marette, I love the illustration of the free range chickens! Am I letting the Holy Spirit produce His fruit wherever He sees fit?