The fruit of the Spirit is…goodness

     The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22, 23. NIV

        Many years ago, when I was a student at Lakehead University, a United Church minister visited and gave several talks intended to promote interest among the students.  I remember only one thing that he said and it saddened me even at the time. He referred to the passage in Mark 10:17, where a young man comes to Jesus and says, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good―except God alone.” The minister fluffed off the question, even intimating that Jesus never claimed to be God. I later understood that Jesus was coaxing the young man to realize that He really is God.

        Thus, no human being can ever claim to be “good” in an “absolute sense.” Just what do we understand by the word “good”? My Merriam-Webster dictionary definition seems inadequate― “of high quality”! So, let’s try to get a feel for what Scripture, particularly the New Testament, means by “good” and “goodness”. Strong’s Concordance indicates that there are two main uses of the word “good”; one (“kalos”, #2570) relates to usefulness, such as good ground (Mt.13:8), or good salt (Mk.9:50), or good wine (John 2:10), or even a good shepherd (a shepherd who really knows how to care for sheep) (John 10:11).

        The other is intrinsic goodness, where God Himself is the ultimate, and the word we’re familiar with in Greek is “agathos” (#18) (think of Agatha). This is the root word used in our title verse, and in Mark 10:17, and is the only one we’ll deal with here.

        What does God call “good”? Jesus is good. (Mt.20:15) Again, Mark 10:17 indicates that only God is absolutely good. But the sun rises on the evil and the good. (Mat.5:45) Everyone knows how to give good gifts to their children. (Mt.7:11) There are good trees. (Mat.7:18) There are good men (relatively speaking, of course) (Mat.12:35) who have good treasure in their hearts. (Mat.12:35) There are good servants. (Mt.25:21) Mary chose the good part (Luke 10:42). The commandment was good (Rom.7:12)

        Although Paul could say that there was no good thing in his flesh (Rom.7:18), we have all still been created unto good works. (Eph.2:10)

        This intrinsic good is all around us. Let’s rejoice in God’s good work in us (Ph.1:6), maintain a good conscience (1 Ti.1:5), be filled with good hope (2 Th.2:16), and look forward to all the good things to come. (Heb.9:11).