Weapons for the Believer 4.5 – The Fruit of the Spirit - Goodness

Weapons for the Believer 4.5 – The Fruit of the Spirit - Goodness

According to Paul, there are weapons of warfare.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (ESV)

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We are considering ten weapons that the Believer has at their disposal. We looked earlier at The Fruit of the Spirit in the post “Weapons for the Believer 4.” If you haven’t read it I encourage you to do so.  Paul gives us the list in Galatians.

Galatians 5:22 (ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The original post on The Fruit of the Spirit (Weapons for the Believer 4) I mentioned a popular way of looking at this topic. Some teach that the Fruit of the Spirit is singular, Love, with each of the other fruit coming from the one. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to go back and read it.

Now I’m considering each Fruit of the Spirit in this manner. This time we are looking at Goodness. Using Goodnese as the focus let’s see how it is reflected in our experience with the Lord.

           The Fruit of the Spirit is Goodness.

     Love is the essence of Goodness.

     Joy is the expression of Goodness.

     Peace is the inspiration of Goodness.

     Patience is the timeliness of Goodness.

     Kindness is the fabric of Goodness.

     Faithfulness is the persistence of Goodness.

     Gentleness is the strength of Goodness.

     Self-control is the reflex of Goodness.

Because of sin that entered mankind through Adam, Goodness is not the base nature of man. It is in a person’s heart to do bad things. The general feeling among those outside of the Church is that man is basically good. It is the minority that are evil. That is why Goodness can only come from the Holy Spirit. It is a Fruit of the Spirit’s work in the life of the Believer.

Luke 18:18-19 (ESV)

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Goodness becomes our moral compass. We seek out good things. We look for the good in people (even the non-believers). We speak good things. We do good things for ourselves and others. Goodness is the default choice. Peter, quoting Psalm 34, says it like this:

1 Peter 3:8-12 (ESV)

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Remember, this is not just an act of our will. You cannot “act” good enough to fulfill God’s requirement for righteousness. It can only come from the Holy Spirit’s work in you. That is the fallacy of religious effort. Religion is man’s attempt to reach God. Until you are willing to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, Goodness will not define your life. Let us pray today that God would show us the good that we can do so that we can show the world the Love of God through Goodness.