Leslie M. John
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:22-26 KJV)
Goodness is one of the fruits of the Spirit and the rest of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:2-26 are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, Meekness, temperance: The fruits of the Spirit seem to be very hard to acquire by a normal Christian; nevertheless they are not as hard to acquire as they seem to be for those who live in Christ.
Indeed, it not easy to be good to everyone all the time. It is a term which carries boundless meaning. Jesus was always good and kind to every one who submitted to learn or be obedient to God, but He showed his resentment towards pharisees, Sadducees who were righteous and wise in their own sight. He was also annoyed when the temple was misused for the purpose of selling merchendise. He was angry when he saw merchants selling their products in the worship place inasmuch as the worship place was not meant for selling the merchandise, but to worship God. This was certainly NOT an area where goodness was to be shown by any body, much less by the Son of God, Lord Jesus Christ. Goodness does not mean to be good toward bad activities or support bad. Supporting bad activities would be tantamount to be nothing but placing oneself in a situation of being called an evil person.
There is a clear demarcation between good and evil. One cannot be good to all, especially to evil. Jesus Christ was good not only in respect of healing the sick, providing food for the hungry, but he was good to the extent of offering His own life for our sake, so that we may not go to hell. The experience of being saved through the blood of Jesus Christ shows in us, the love for others, joy within ourselves, and joy to be in fellowship with friends, fellow-believers, colleagues, and also to our nearest relatives. The goodness that we possess also produces within us to have patience rather than hurriedly doing things, or quarrel with others. Kindness is another area, which Jesus always emphasized and here in this passage, Apostle Paul writes about it in his letter to Galatians. Jesus asked us to go an extra mile with some one, who is in need of our help, or clothe some one, who is in need of it.
A search for the word, 'good' in Bible shows that the word occurs 685 times. The word, 'good' appears seven times in Genesis Chapter 1 alone. Whatever was created by God, it was good. He created light, which was good. He created dry land, earth, which was good. Earth brought forth herbs and fruit yielding trees which was good. He created Sun, Moon, Stars and the galaxy, which was good. He created whales and living creatures, which was good. He created beast of the field that was good. After that God created man to possess all these good things. God calls us to be good in moral values and also good in dealing with others. God is good and he expects us to be good. Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8
'But God is able to make every gracious gift abound towards you, that, having in every way always all-sufficiency, ye may abound to every good work: (2 Corinthians 9:8)'
'for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13).'