Fruit of the Spirit—Gentleness and Goodness
Fruit of the Spirit Teaching Series
Chuck Sligh
July 7 & 14, 2014
TEXT: Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – Years ago we had invited one of my former pastors, Bob Cook in Springfield, TN, over to our church in Wiesbaden to preach a family life conference for us. When it was time to take him back to the Frankfurt Airport to return to the States, we arrived late at the airport.
To make matters worse, due to a foul-up in his ticket at the check-in counter of his airline he had to stand in three separate lines and see three separate clerks. I kept watching my clock and counting down the minutes before they would announce his flight and he would have missed it. So at that stage I was more nervous that a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
During the entire ordeal, not one time did Brother Bob ever get impatient or flustered and not once was he anything but the most courteous and kind person you ever met in your life. In fact, he went out of his way to bring a little sunshine into each of these ladies’ lives. He complimented each one on their efficiency and professionalism—even though doing so used up a little more time he didn’t have. He told one how much he appreciated her help and asked if there were a comment card he could have so he could put in a good word for her because of the great job she did.
When I studied out gentleness and goodness for this study, Brother Bob instantly came to my mind. They really are a pair that go together, so that is how I will treat them this morning.
Let’s look at this pair of qualities from God’s fruit basket:
I. FIRST LET’S EXAMINE GENTLENESS.
Let’s define gentleness, and then see how it is used in the Bible and then we’ll discover how we can apply it to our lives.
Gentleness—what does it mean?
Q. Give me all the synonyms that come to mind when we use our English word “gentleness?
A. After getting answer, go through the following:
The word “gentleness” here is the Greek word χρηστότης (chrēstótēs #5544).
Here is a simple definition of chrēstótēs: “To have a sweetness of temper that puts others at ease.”
W.E. Vines, in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, defines it as “pleasant, good, gracious, kindness of heart, kindness.”
Note the following quotation from Barnes Notes on chrēstótēs:
The word means goodness, kindness, benignity [the quality of being benign]; and is opposed to a harsh, crabbed, crooked temper. It is a disposition of temper, calmness of spirit, an unruffled disposition, and a disposition to treat all with urbanity and politeness. This is one of the regular effects of the Spirit’s operations on the heart. Religion makes no one crabbed, or morose, and sour. It sweetens the temper; corrects an irritable disposition; makes the heart kind; disposes us to make all around us as happy as possible. This is true politeness; a kind of politeness which can far better be learned in the school of Christ than in that of Chesterfield [or as we would say today, from “Miss Manners”]….
In today’s English, the closest single word that most accurately conveys all that chrēstotēs means would be “kindness.”
Let’s now look at how this word is used in the New Testament.
Chrēstótēs is only found 10 times in the New Testament.
> 4 of those times it is translated in our King James Bible as “kindness” and four times as “goodness,” which is a little confusing, because the word goodness—the next quality of the fruit of the Spirit we will look at here in Galatians 5:22—is actually a completely different Greek word from chrēstótēs.
> Chrēstótēs is also translated “good” one time, and here in Galatians 5:22 is the only time it is translated gentleness.
So though the King James translators were not consistent in how they translated the word, they did an excellent job of conveying all the shades of meaning of chrēstotēs: kindness, goodness, good, gentleness.
In order to best understand this quality, let’s look at three of the places chrēstotēs, or some form of its root word, χρηστός (chrēstós, #5543), is used in the New Testament and see what they teaches us about gentleness, or literally, “kindness”.
Turn first of all to Ephesians 4:32 – “And be ye kind [this is the word chrēstós] one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Just as a lot can be told about a person by looking at who he or she runs around with, a lot can be told about a word by looking at what other words are used around it. The words used “in the neighborhood,” so to speak, of chrēstós (translated “kind”) of Ephesians 4:32 are all pretty good words.
Let’s look at them:
> “Tenderhearted” is the first we encounter.
Q. What do you think tenderhearted means?
A. It has to do with having pity and compassion on others.
> “Forgiving” – That’s a real good word in the Christian’s vocabulary, isn’t it?
These three words really all fit together, don’t they?
> A person who is KIND will also be tenderhearted and forgiving.
> A person who is TENDERHEARTED will be kind and forgiving.
> A person who is FORGIVING will be kind and tenderhearted.
So one thing we see about gentleness is this blessed triad of kindness, tenderheartedness and a forgiving spirit.
Next, go with me to Colossians 3:12 – “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness [this is chrēstotēs, translated “gentleness” remember in Galatians 5:22, the list of the fruit of the Spirit], humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.”
Again, look at the words that kindness (chrēstotēs) is associated with here:
> “Bowels of mercies”
In ancient culture, the deepest feelings were thought to emanate from the bowels. Today, we associate it with the heart. This phrase is the ancient language equivalent to “mercy from the bottom of your heart”—or, “heartfelt mercy.”
Having “bowels of mercy” may seem strange to us today, but if you think about it, associating with our hearts is just as odd since our deepest emotions really come from our MIND, which we now know is housed in our brains. But who wants to hear their lover whisper romantically in their ear, “Baby, I love you with all my brain!”?
Well, anyway, what Paul meant by “bowels of mercies” was “heartfelt mercies.”
> The next word Paul uses in Colossians 3:12 is “humbleness of mind.”
Q. Can you think of a synonym for “humbleness of mind”?
A. “Humility.”
> Next, Paul tells the Colossians to put on “meekness” and “longsuffering,” two qualities also in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 2:22-23. – We’ve already studied longsuffering and we’ll examine meekness in a couple of weeks, so let’s hold off on that for now.
Again, these are all “associative words”—words that are often linked together.
As we look at how they’re related, do you get a feeling that you might need an “attitude adjustment”? God is saying that very thing—that we do indeed need to adjust our attitude. We need to walk in the Spirit so that we manifest the fruit of the Spirit and the attitudes associated with the fruit of the Spirit. Every believer ought to be characterized by kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiveness, mercy, humility, meekness, and longsuffering.
My, how we fall short of God’s ideal for us because we do not walk in the Spirit!
• Finally, let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13:4 – “Charity [love] suffereth long, and is kind [another variation of chrēstós]; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.”
The connection here is that kindness is AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. If we really love someone, we will be kind to them.
Unfortunately we all too often feel that if we love someone, he or she should accept us for what we are, so we don’t feel we ought to have to watch our behavior towards them as carefully as we would with a person outside our family.
This is very dangerous thinking.
This is why people take their spouses for granted.
This is why some people treat their loved ones worse than their friends and even acquaintances.
Those we love the most are the ones we ought to be the most kind to.
II. NEXT PAUL REFERS TO GOODNESS
What is goodness? The Greek word is agaqwsu/nh (agathōsúnē, #19). It is found only 4 times in the New Testament, and all 4 times the King James Bible consistently translates in as “goodness.”
Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says it “describes that which, being good in its character or constitution, is beneficial in its effect.”
Notice again that it includes not only the quality of BEING good, but also of having “beneficial EFFECTS.” BEING good comes from the new life God plants within us when we are born again into God’s family; DOING good is the natural outworking of that inward change of heart.Jesus said in Matthew 7:17 – “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”
Q. What does Jesus tell us here about what is inside our hearts?
Thus, goodness is “practical Christianity.” It’s “love in action.” Goodness is the practical demonstration of love and kindness that we just talked about.
So kindness (chrēstotēs) has to do with one’s ATTITUDE toward others; Goodness (agathōsúnē) is when that attitude is EXPRESSED in practical acts of kindness to another person. So you might say that goodness is kindness expressed and kindness is goodness’s source.
Q. SHARING TIME – I WONDER IF YOU CAN SHARE WAYS GOODNESS WAS SHOWN TO YOU OR HOW YOU WERE ABLE TO SHOW GOODNESS TO SOMEONE ELSE.
