The Fruit Of Goodness Series

A young boy had been sent to his room for bad behavior. After awhile he emerged and told his

mother he had thought it over and prayed about it. "That's wonderful", said the mother. "If you ask

God He will help you be good." The boy responded, "But I didn't ask God to help me be good, I

asked Him to help you put up with me." This little guy discovered the path of least resistance. He

realized life would be easier if others would just change in relation to him. Let's face it, life would

be easier for all of us if people would just tolerate our weaknesses, and put up with our

shortcomings. In other words, if everybody else had the fruit of the Spirit we would not have to

bother being good. Somebody would have to remain as a pain to give others an opportunity to

exercise their fruits.

But since this fantasy is never going to be a reality, the Christian needs to face the fact that

goodness is not an option, but an absolute necessity. It is impossible to be Christ like without

goodness, the sixth fruit of the Spirit. The subject of goodness is so vast in the Bible it would take

hours just to read all of the texts. I counted in my concordance 77 different words and word

combinations dealing with the theme of goodness. It is overwhelming to try and convey the

significance of this material in one message, but let's begin by seeing that goodness begins in the

very nature of God. His goodness is linked to His love, as are all of the fruits.

The only reason there is a relationship between God and man is because God is good. In Psalm

25:7-8 we read, "Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your

love remember me, for you are good, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord; therefore, He instructs

sinners in His ways." We see the goodness of God is what makes Him care about sinners and their

forgiveness, and their guidance into the truth. Why do we have a Savior? Because God is good.

Why do we have a Bible? Because God is good. Why do we have the church for fellowship and

encouragement? Because God is good. All the gifts and blessings we have, we have because God is

good. If He was only Holy He would have destroyed the world long ago and started over. But God

is good, and goodness is love reaching out to give a helping hand to those who cannot make it on

their own. The Good Samaritan was good because he helped a man survive who would not have

without his help.

Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Over and over the Bible says the Lord is

good, and He expects His people to reflect that goodness in the world. Hannah Whitall Smith,

famous for her book The Christian's Secret Of A Happy Life, tells of her discovery of the goodness

of God in her other book, The God Of All Comfort. She writes,

"I shall never forget the hour when I first discovered that

God was really good. I had, of course, always known that

the Bible said He was good, but I had thought it only

meant He was religiously good; and it had never dawned

on me that it meant He was actually and practically good,

with the same kind of goodness He has commanded us to have.

The expression, "The goodness of God," had seemed to me

nothing more than a sort of heavenly statement, which

I could not be expected to understand. And then one day

I came in my reading of the Bible across the words,

"O taste and see that the Lord is good, " and

suddenly they meant something. The Lord is good, I

repeated to myself. What does it mean to be good? What

but this, the living up to the best and highest that one

knows. To be good is exactly the opposite of being bad. To

be bad is to know the right and not to do it, but to be

good is to do the best we know. And I saw that, since

God is omniscient, He must know what is the best and

highest good of all, and that therefore His goodness must

necessarily be beyond question. I can never express what

this meant to me. I had such a view of the real actual

goodness of God that I saw nothing could possibly go

wrong under His care, and it seemed to me that no one

could ever be anxious again. And over and over, when

appearances have been against Him, and when I have been