The Fruit and Your Relationships: Goodness

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness... (Galatians 5:22 KJV) What greater litmus test of the evidence of that fruit, than what can be seen in our relationships? Shining a spotlight on our relationships, a connection none of us is without, can be a reliable indicator of how the Spirit is working in our lives; especially the fruit of goodness. If we are bearing that fruit, it will definitely be evident in our relationships!

However, I would be willing to wager that goodness is not what you think it is. Not if you are thinking of it as something you can be. We have been ingrained with notions of being good from infancy. It is so easy to equate the good things that we do as goodness. But the goodness that is referred to as a fruit of the Spirit has nothing to do with charity, benevolence, abstaining from badness or even descriptions of warm, gooey chocolaty things.

See, while the fruit of the Spirit is something we bear, it is not something that can actually be generated by our works; it is a by-product that is evidence of our submission to the Spirit. Matthew Henry's Commentary describes the fruit of the Spirit as fruits of the renewed nature; things which we are to nourish and cultivate.

Goodness, as defined by the Strong's concordance, is simply uprightness of heart and life. If we apply that concept to our relationships we can create a picture of someone who is adhering to the scriptures and living in such a way that is pleasing to the Lord. While goodness in our relationships is not something we can do directly, it is something that will be evidenced in our relationships when we are bearing fruit of the Spirit's cultivation in us personally.

Jesus' words to the rich ruler in Luke 18:19 made it very clear to us that we are not capable of goodness on our own when He said, "...none is good, save one, that is God" (KJV).

As young parents we had fallen into establishing a baseline of good and bad ourselves, without even realizing it. When our older two children were little, a lot of emphasis was placed on actions. Unknowingly we had created a scale of levels of acceptable behavior. It was not something we did on purpose, and we most certainly were unaware of it. I probably would still be unaware of it if not for the comment my three year old made one day.

We were on the run, as usual, and wee Taylor had made some sort of mess that we, frustratingly enough, had to stop and clean up. She contemplated it for a minute while we worked feverishly to get things clean up, then she asked, "Mom? Is this "good", "bad" or "accidents happen"?" I remember vividly that it fell distinctly in the 'accident's happen' category, but I can see clearly from here that even at that young age she had a classification system for her actions. 

I realize that we do need to have some sort of measuring system for our actions; some way to line things up and stay within boundaries that are socially acceptable. It is reasonable to be aware of things that we classify as 'bad' or 'good', or even 'accidents happen'. However, the trouble comes when we attempt to define being good as goodness.

The Bible is clear that our righteousness is as filthy rags and that our salvation comes by His mercy and not by works of righteousness that we have done. (Isaiah 64:6, Titus 3:5 KJV) That does not mean that we should stop trying. On the contrary, we should continue to do what is right and good and acceptable in the sight of the Lord. The caveat is that we should recognize that without his Spirit activating our efforts, they do not qualify as goodness.

While we are wise to make every attempt to do what is right and good and acceptable in the sight of the Lord, we must keep in mind that it is not those things alone that exemplify goodness. In our relationships, every kind word, every unselfish gesture, every element of giving; all is good, but with the Spirit becomes goodness.