Goodness. What exactly is it? It seems nebulous in this current culture where everything has been turned on it’s head. When the redefinition of language is almost a weekly issue now. What I actually enjoy is going back to the Truth (scriptures) and the baseline of how, and why things were created for a specific purpose. It seems the ‘forces’ of today is to destroy history, and destroy the meaning of words or at least change the definition. Is it good or bad? Those definitions of good and bad now have no meaning, because they have been appropriated to mean whatever the user wants them to be.
The use of the term ‘goodness’ as a fruit of the Holy Spirit is an interesting one. It seems this word we translate as ‘goodness’ isn’t found anywhere else in ancient near east literature. It specifically was mentioned only in scripture. The Greek word is agathasone (Strongs #19) and only used four times in scripture. Ephesians 5:9, Romans 15:14, 2 Thessalonians 1:11 and of course Galatians 5:22. So what do the scholars believe it means? The agreed definition would be … The state of being good, kind, virtuous, benevolent, generous, in God-like in life and conduct. Uprightness of heart and life.
Goodness coming from God. So again we see the implication of an ‘impartation from God’ with this fruit. Why would we expect anything else when thinking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit? His fruit aren’t ‘3 steps to spiritual success’ but actual impartations BY the Holy Spirit into our lives. This means we can’t strive in our own efforts to manifest these fruits. We have to yield to Him and His teaching and incorporate His instructions into our daily lives.
After studying this fruit for years – I still think this fruit of ‘goodness’ is manifest in actions. He asks you to DO something ‘good’ in His instructions to you. By obeying Him you’re building His goodness into your life. If we want His fruit to be produced in our lives …we’re actually going to have to listen to Him. And do the things He is prompting us to do. So obviously a strict academic will have some difficulty with that last statement as most don’t understand that type of spiritual relationship. In most sermons the instruction would be “DO good”. But what about to whom? When? Exactly where with what? Without the unction of the Holy Spirit we’re doing whatever WE think is right. If you’ve read the scriptures you know that didn’t work out so well who tried that … method of spiritual understanding.
Jesus didn’t come to just leave us a …book, but an intimate relationship with His Holy Spirit who indwells us, speaks to us, teaches us, guides us, inspires us, and empowers us to do all the things He is presenting to us. This life isn’t about trying to do spiritual checklists and then try to measure ourselves to others by the accomplishments we done on our lists. We all know God isn’t going to judge us that way. It’s going to be about what we actually DID in obedience to HIS instructions. So many think we can get heavenly brownie points by doing all sorts of things He never instructed us personally to do, BECAUSE what they “do” is what someone ELSE told them would garner God’s favor, or rewards. Real Holy Spirit goodness is inspired by Him, and directed by Him. Have you ever asked Him what He wants you to do in the way of goodness to a specific person? Jesus also taught a method of secrecy when giving, so as not to draw attention to ourselves and reap the reward for ourselves basically negating the reward the Father had already put into motion for us. So many just ‘do’ because that’s what we were taught in ‘Church’. So many just give money because of habit or tradition. Do we really think those actions will be rewarded? Without His instructions what will be counted for us on our eternal ledger?
So again — be brave and ask Him what good ‘act’ …does He want you to do for someone else today. Then follow through.