Calvary Road Baptist Church
“GOODNESS”
I have an unusual study for you. We will examine that aspect of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life identified as “goodness.” However, before turning to God’s Word, I want to read the comments of one of the most prominent men in Los Angeles for the last thirty years, a conservative Jewish author, radio and television personality, Dennis Prager. Dennis Prager is one of the most recognizable figures in American culture. This is a man every American needs to be familiar with as a thought leader among thinkers.
From a book this prolific author released in 2019, here is what Dennis Prager had to say from an essay titled, “GOODNESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING ELSE.”
The chief criterion here for choosing Isaac’s spouse is goodness. This is the great lesson of this story. That should be the chief criterion for choosing a spouse, a friend, or a business partner. For most people, it is not. People place looks, personality, brains, wealth, or some other aspect of a person ahead of goodness - and often end up paying a terrible price for doing so. Goodness is not enough to ensure a happy marriage or friendship or partnership, but it is the single most important ingredient.
A rabbi I knew once told me he asked every couple who came to be married by him why they loved each other. One time, he told me, the woman said, “I love him because he’s such a good dancer.” He refused to conduct the wedding - he had little reason, he told me, to assume that marriage would last.
The odd thing about goodness is this: The thing almost everyone in the world most wants everyone else in the world to be is good. Yet, as a rule, what people most want for themselves is to be happy, smart, rich, famous, or powerful.
The Torah values goodness above all other human traits. In the Torah, God Himself identifies His essence as goodness (see Exodus 33:19 and the commentary there).
That is the primary reason I not only revere the Torah but love it.
For decades, I have asked parents to ask their child, whether the child is fifteen or fifty years old: “What is it you think I - your mother (or father) - most want(ed) you to be: happy, smart, successful, or good?”
Innumerable parents have communicated to me their surprise when their child chose an answer other than “good.” But it is not surprising. Few parents communicate to their child they care more about their child’s goodness than about their grades or happiness or success. Frequently, when those children hear their parents bragging about them it is usually about their intellectual, athletic, or artistic attainments, not their goodness. Far more parents have bragged to me about their child’s attendance at a prestigious university than about their child’s character. Why, then, would the children think their goodness is what matters most to their parents?
Another reason most people want to be something else more than they want to be good is they believe they are already good. Why aspire to become something you think you already are? Given how much meanness, dishonesty, and selfishness there is in the world, it is almost incredible how many people think they are good. And why do most people think they are good? Because they assess their motives, not their behavior or what results from it. And few people think they ever mean to do harm. Therefore, no matter how much bad people do, they continue to assess their motives – “I meant well” - rather than their actual behavior or the effects of their behavior. People assess others by their behavior or what that behavior produces; but they assess themselves by their motives.
How do you know if you are a good person?[1]
Not a bad essay by an unsaved religious Jewish man who is obviously concerned about morality, except for the fact that he fails to grasp what David wrote in Psalm 14.3:
“They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Clearly, Dennis Prager, nice man that he obviously is, has a blind spot in his understanding of goodness. But so do so many other people. Therefore, for the sake of clarity, we turn to God’s Word, specifically the New Testament, to discover the truth about goodness. It’s a puzzling word, this New Testament word “goodness,” agathoosuneh. It is used only four times in the Greek New Testament[2] and is a word that seems never to have been used by the Greeks in any of their writings outside the Bible, though the word is found in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament produced by Greek-speaking Jewish translators before the birth of Christ.[3]
Outside the Septuagint and the four times the Apostle Paul used the word in letters he authored, the word is only found in material produced by Greek-speaking Christians in the first and second centuries who were writing commentaries or sermons. That suggests the possibility of this specific word being a new word that was coined for use in the Greek Old Testament by the translators of the Septuagint from two Greek words that were already in wide use. One of the words is an adjective, ἄgathos, that refers to a high standard of quality or meeting a high standard of worth.[4] The other word is a preposition, sun, which means with.[5]
Some fellows who have spent considerable time studying this infrequently used word suggest that “goodness” is basically the same thing as “gentleness,” but less specific, referring more to a quality than a particular course of action. Since this word is difficult to define in specific terms, and since I am of the conviction that God specifically chose to use this word in the Bible, even if He doesn’t reveal its exact meaning to us, there must be some practical reason for the use of this word in the Scriptures. What I propose to do, therefore, is to examine each passage in which this word is found so we can learn some very practical lessons for every Christian who is here today.
To that end, my message has four main points. Each of the four main points has to do with the book of the New Testament in which the Greek word for “goodness” is found.
LET US FIRST LOOK AT THESSALONIAN GOODNESS
You will remember that First Thessalonians is Paul’s new converts course for brand new Christians. Written to folks who were only weeks old in the Christian faith, First Thessalonians sets forth practical Christian living in the simplest of terms.
You might also remember, from First Thessalonians 1.3, that Paul shows the Christian lifestyle to consist of the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope. The rest of First Thessalonians chapter 1 conclusively shows that the work of faith is evangelism. To put it in very simple terms for every new Christian to understand, every believer’s life should entail a ministry to lost folks (trying to bring them to Jesus Christ), a ministry to other believers (striving to edify them and build them up in the faith), and a sustaining relationship with our soon-coming Lord Jesus Christ.
The Thessalonians responded well to Paul’s first letter, but false teachers entered in and spread lies that they said came from Paul. This disruption began to interfere with their evangelistic zeal. To counter the effects of the false teachers, and to renew their determination to reach the lost, Paul wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians.
It’s in this second Thessalonian letter, in chapter 1 and verse 11, that we see the first occasion in which Paul used the word “goodness”:
“Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.”
This verse recounts Paul’s typical prayer for the fruit-bearing success of the Thessalonian Christians. Let’s examine this description of Paul’s prayer to God for them to return to the business of reaching the lost.
Notice, first, that Paul’s prayers attended to sanctification. When he writes, “that our God would count you worthy of His calling,” Paul reveals that he asked God to make the Thessalonians worthy of His, that is to say, God’s, calling. That is what the verb “count worthy” means, ἄxioo.[6] We know that God doesn’t make folks better to save them since Scripture teaches that God justifies the ungodly, not those He first makes godly.[7] But God does work in people’s lives to make His children better after He saves them. Amen? This process of making folks better, after they are saved, is called sanctification, and is exactly what Paul referred to in Philippians 1.6:
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Think about it! When praying for their success in bringing people to Christ, Paul asked God to sanctify, to make better, to mature spiritually, those engaged in that activity. If you’re not careful, this might convince you that spirituality and maturity are related to trying to reach the lost for Christ! Spiritual people are evangelistic people, witnessing people, inviting people to Church people.
Second, notice that Paul’s prayers attended to sovereignty:
“And fulfill all the good pleasure of His (God’s) goodness.”
Do you know what God’s good pleasure refers to? It refers to His sovereignty. It’s God’s absolute freedom to do exactly as He chooses without being accountable to anyone. This phrase reveals to us that God expresses His goodness in a sovereign way. Therefore, let no one fail to understand that the sanctification which is necessarily involved in developing a fruitful Christian is the sovereign and free activity of Almighty God to communicate His goodness to that person, to reproduce His goodness in that person’s personality.
Finally, notice that Paul’s prayers attended to success:
“And the work of faith with power.”
This is testifying and witnessing and soul-winning might. Do you realize what this all means? It means that there are several things that are tied together with this work of faith and God’s use of spiritual power.
#1 The realization by every Christian that God’s desire is for every believer to engage in the activity of seeking to bring others to Christ.
#2 The realization by every Christian that God’s maturation process for every Christian is linked to that believer’s efforts to bring others to Christ.
#3 That ultimately, successful fruit-bearing is the result of God sovereignly manifesting His goodness through a believer’s life and personality as He sees fit.
Does that not show how this thing called goodness is linked in some way to the activity of working to see others come to Christ, both individually and corporately?
NOW LET US LOOK AT GALATIAN GOODNESS
On his first missionary journey, Paul planted some Churches in a region known as Galatia. These Galatians started with a bang until some false teachers from Jerusalem brought in unscriptural teachings. In a nutshell, the false teachers, among other things, taught the Galatians that spirituality and spiritual maturity resulted from obedience to the Law of Moses.
Paul refuted their false teachings in a myriad of ways, including the declaration that what God had begun by His Spirit He would finish by His Spirit, and since they weren’t saved by works of the flesh, they certainly wouldn’t grow spiritually by doing works of the flesh, either. His argument develops through the course of his letter to the Galatians, and Paul begins to wind things down in chapters 5 & 6.
In Galatians 5.16-23, we come across the second time in Paul’s inspired writings in which he used the Greek word translated “goodness.” The word is used in the context of a discussion of the animosity of the flesh against God’s Spirit and visa versa.
In verse 16, this animosity is stated:
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
Paul here indicates to his readers the opposition of the Christian’s sinful flesh to the Holy Spirit of God and visa versa. That is, these two principles found in every Christian’s life are so opposed that there is absolutely no overlapping of either aim or purpose. It is a lifelong conflict.
In verses 17 & 18 this animosity is explained:
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
And in verses 19-23 this animosity is illustrated:
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Examine what the flesh produces in a lost person’s life. Now, examine the fruit of the Spirit in a person’s life who is a Christian. How opposite can the flesh and the Holy Spirit of God be? But notice something.
Part of the fruit of the Spirit of God in a believer’s life is “goodness.” Do you realize what that means? God, the sovereign of the universe, has decided that He will reproduce His goodness in the lives of His children. But what is God’s goodness associated with in Second Thessalonians? Again, the activity of seeking the salvation of the lost! It takes no genius to figure this one out.
If you’re going to be the faithful witness, God wants you to be the fruit of the Spirit of God had better be visible in your life. And the fruit of the Spirit of God is the byproduct of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. No wonder some Christians never display any interest or effort to witness Christ to the lost or expend any effort whatsoever to bring anyone to Christ. Without the fruit of the Spirit of God to draw lost folks, why should we expect the unsaved to want to be saved like us?
The fruit of the Spirit of God is vital to the Christian because it’s the fruit of the Spirit in your life, which is not only attractive to lost folks but which prompts the Christian to be a witness. It’s when lost folks see believers with the fruit of the Spirit of God in their lives that they want what causes it. And it’s when believers possess the fruit of the Spirit of God in their lives that they display the goodness that seeks the salvation of the lost.
Third, THERE IS ROMAN GOODNESS
Paul’s letter to the Romans is the most important of any of Paul’s inspired writings. In that long letter, Paul deals with mankind’s need for getting right with God, just how getting right with God is accomplished, and how you are supposed to act when you are right with God.
We have already dealt with the basics of how to act after you are right with God. You remember Paul’s instructions to the believers in Thessalonica, how they were taught about the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope. In Romans, Paul is addressing, not new Christians who are essentially baby believers, but somewhat more mature Christians. For such people, additional instruction was needed.
Already experienced in seeking the salvation of the lost and ministering to other Christians, the Roman believers had come to realize that sometimes occasions arise in which you are called on to minister to a Christian who doesn’t want to be ministered to. Sometimes you observe a believer who is a little crooked on some things and you feel compelled to try to straighten him out.
It’s in the middle of very practical advice on how Christians should live like Christians that Paul addresses folks who want to help a Christian brother or sister who’s doing wrong to once more begin doing right. Romans 15.14:
“And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”
For explanation, allow me to deal with some observations in the opposite order in which Paul mentions them in this verse:
First, what is produced? Paul’s last phrase of the verse reads, “able also to admonish one another.” The word “admonish” comes from the Greek word nouqetew, which means to “confront with a view toward correcting.”[8] This, my friends, is the Bible word that most specifically relates to one Christian dealing with sin in another Christian’s life. Though Matthew 18.15 and Galatians 6.1 do not use this word, when you approach another believer to deal with them about sin in their life, this is what you are doing. You are “admonishing” or confronting with a view toward correcting.
But what is the prerequisite? If you are a Christian who observes sin in the life of another, you are not qualified to deal with that brother or sister in Christ unless you are full of goodness and full of knowledge. Being full of goodness means that you have plenty of that aspect of the fruit of the Spirit of God called goodness. That is, there is no question in the mind of the person you admonish that your motives are correct. If that other person has any suspicions about your good intentions, you likely need to remain silent about his matter until your problem is addressed. Being full of knowledge means that you know what you are talking about. It means that you know the person you are admonishing is sinning, it’s not hearsay you are acting on. And it means that you know what the Bible says to do about it. You can’t just go around telling people what’s wrong without also telling them how to fix it. Being full of knowledge means that you know what the Word of God says about solving the sin problem you have observed. Are you not full of goodness and knowledge? Then get full. Submit to the Holy Spirit and study the Word of God. There is no excuse for not dealing with these things so you can help your brothers and sisters who need your help and guidance in dealing with their sins.
Finally, what about persuasion? Paul said he was persuaded that the Romans, being full of goodness and knowledge, were able to admonish one another. If Paul was persuaded, it is likely others were persuaded as well. That suggests to me that for you to effectively deal with folks in a way that will really help them, not only must you be full of goodness and knowledge, but others must also be persuaded that you are full goodness and knowledge. Failure to persuade folks about these things, failure to meet these prerequisites in your own life, may explain your failures in producing the right results when you try to help a brother or sister who is in sin. Where does goodness fit in? Unless goodness is in your life, not only will you not be motivated to help your sinning brother or sister in need, you will be quite unqualified to help. If you are unqualified, you need to remain silent so as not to make a bad situation worse.
Finally, EPHESIAN GOODNESS
It was from a Roman prison that Paul wrote his Ephesian letter. It was from the Mamertine prison that Paul expounded the truths related to the predestinating purpose of God, the salvation by grace that was made possible by the shedding of Christ’s precious blood, and the practical exhortations to godliness that he communicated from his incarceration.
It is in this great letter that Paul commands his readers to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. It is also in this great letter that Paul commands his readers to put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. In addition to all of these great things, Paul wrote something that is often overlooked.
In this letter, Paul uses the word translated “goodness” for the very last time. It just may be that his last use of the word was the most important of all, for in using the word “goodness” Paul describes the climate for growing the fruit of the Spirit in a Christian’s life.
In Ephesians 5.1-8, we read about behavior:
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.
Do you see the summary in the last phrase of verse 8? Paul gives us many reasons, both positive reasons and negative reasons, why we ought to “walk as children of light.” Are you a child of God? Then, no matter what excuses you might think you have to do otherwise, act like a child of God. Amen?
In Ephesians 5.9, we read about the benefit of so doing:
“(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)”
May I paraphrase what Paul is telling his readers? Paul is telling his readers that if they will live like Christians, if they will do right, then they will create an environment in their own lives in which the fruit of the Spirit of God will abundantly grow, particularly goodness, righteousness, and truth. “But pastor, I thought that the manifestation of God’s goodness is sovereign.” It is. God has sovereignly chosen to grow His fruit in the lives of Christians who decide they’re just going to act like Christians, in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
In Ephesians 5.10, we see the blessing that derives from this determination to do right:
“Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”
Don’t you like knowing what God thinks about this and that? Isn’t it great being aware of God’s opinion on this course of action and on that course of action? Sure it is. But this passage tells me that proving what is acceptable to the Lord is the result of living right and having the fruit of the Spirit of God in your life. Isn’t that a revelation that those who think they can know God’s will without doing God’s will are missing?
Not knowing exactly what “goodness” meant when Paul used the term, we have sure learned a great deal about those things it’s related to. For instance: God wants every person to try to reach the lost for Christ. If you are not engaged in that effort as an individual and also in concert with others here at the Church, you are sinning against God and against every lost person you ought to be talking to.
But our study also revealed that witnessing and seeking the salvation of the lost is linked to spirituality and maturity. That’s no great surprise. It’s also related to prayer. Again, no great surprise. And it’s related to the sovereignty of Almighty God. Once more, no great surprise.
This all works out to mean that if you are sometimes discouraged about bearing fruit for Christ’s sake, seeing members of your own family converted to Christ, remember this: As you mature, you will see more people come to Christ. As you pray and ask God for success in reaching the lost, you will bring more people to the Savior.
That said, your ultimate fruitfulness is in God’s hands. Therefore, do not sin comparing your personal fruitfulness with that of others in an attempt to gage either your spirituality or your power with God.
Next, almost every Christian would like to enjoy having a ministry in the life of another Christian ... helping them, counseling them, and so on. But you will never have that ministry unless you are full of goodness (which convinces others that your motives are right) and that you really do know what you’re talking about when you give advice. You must be a genuine student of God’s Word.
But you know what else? You’ll never be full of goodness without the fruit of the Spirit of God in your life. And will you ever have the fruit of the Spirit if you resist the Spirit’s urgings to befriend and then to witness to people who are lost? No way.
“What must I do for all of this to come together, Pastor?” There is very little to do, but there are some things to realize. First, realize that the Christian life is a complete unit. You cannot cut it up into segments. You can’t be spiritual in one area and disobedient in another area. Remember that incomplete obedience is disobedience. Second, realize that Christians are witnesses. The non witnessing Christian is a contradiction in terms. Some win more and some win less. But if you think it’s possible as a child of God to thwart the sovereign purpose of God to use you to win souls, you are mistaken. And any Christian who goes through a Christian life without planting seeds in the lives of others wasn’t really a Christian, according to my understanding.
Goodness, then, is a communicable attribute of God. God is good and He works in His children’s lives to be good. And when a child of God is good, he will not only tell lost folks how to be saved, but he will also face Christians who are in sin and minister to straighten them out.
If that isn’t happening in your life, then two possibilities occur to me. Either you are not a Christian or you are a Christian in sin. Whether your situation is the one or the other, won’t you let me show you the solution to your particular problem from God’s Word? Christian, having realized what’s necessary to realize, now it’s time to do what’s necessary to do. Present yourself a living sacrifice once again. Commit to God that you will seek the salvation of the lost, as an individual and in collaboration with other Church members.
__________
[1] Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, (Washington, DC: Regnery Faith, 2019), pages 274-275.
[2] Romans 15;14; Galatians 5.22; Ephesians 5.9; 2 Thessalonians 1.11
[3] Gerhard Kittel, Editor, Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament, Vol I, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964), page 18.
[4] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), pages 3-4.
[5] Ibid., pages 961-962.
[6] Ibid., page 94.
[7] Romans 4.5; 5.6
[8] Fritz Rienecker & Cleon Rogers, Linguistic Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1980), page 382.
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