The Spirit Led Life Part 8 (Goodness) Series

Joe Bedy

Central Christian Church

April 9 2002

Goodness

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there

is no law.

The Greek word for Goodness is "agathosune" and means "in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” It is described as being, along with righteousness and truth, “the fruit of the light” which Christians have been “made” in Christ. Here, as elsewhere, we are reminded that the Christian life in its truth is likeness to God, the source and perfection of all good. It is a picture of God Himself expressing His goodness in and through us as Christians. It is the idea of being morally honorable, pleasing to God and therefore beneficial for Christian witness and work. It is identified in the context of various scripture passages with these ideas, prove it, cleave to it, just do it, work it, follow after it, be zealous of it, imitate it, overcome evil with it, authorities minister and rule with it that it may be of benefit by doing so.

Key to goodness is this idea of: Morals, Morality

In the Christian it is not a mere passive quality, but the deliberate preference of right to wrong, the firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil, and the choosing and following of all moral good.

Something has happened to goodness and morality and not just in postmodern man. It began happening the minute God gave man absolute truth. Do you want to know what happened to God’s standard of goodness and morality? I heard it the other day from my own daughter when she got busted for disobedience. What did she say?

Anybody know?

She said well, what I did was not so bad compared to…

COMPARED TO WHAT? COMPARED TO WHAT THE OTHER KIDS ARE DOING.

The very worst thing we can do, is accept by our behaviors the lie that all things are relevant. That we can be better than the other guy and in so doing, be right and moral in the eyes of God.

That is what happened to morality and goodness; the truth of God has been perverted. Man has wanted to govern himself, replace God with himself a s ruler and man wants to be the one to make and modify the moral standards of his society. People say you cannot legislate morality, but in actuality we do, by accepting morals that deviate from God’s. The Amish may take it too far, but they certainly live closer to God’s ideal than most.

I saw a movie on TV the other night it was on the Hallmark channel about the Amish, I think it was called “Harvest Fire.” An FBI agent was sent their by the government to help, I know that sounds oxymoronic; “I am from the government I am here to help.” Anyway a 16-18 yr old girl was forbidden by her mother to see the boy she loved, so she went to tell him she could not see him anymore, because her mother forbid it.

Well, the female FBI agent said, “well if you love him won’t that hurt you,” she said,” yes it will, but not as much as it will if I disobey my mother.” Now, that is Godly morality!

But the world perverts what God has laid down as says well if you love him go against your parents or even puts pressure on the parents to question what kind of a mother separates her daughter from the boyfriend she loves.

I don’t know about you but the last time I checked God had made parents and He had made children, the way I read it parents are still in control and accountable to God, the decisions and actions we take better be God’s way! When should the child be the parent?

We want to escape His standards and make up our own which are based on the mores, norms and values we determine. We want to compare ourselves to what other people establish as right or wrong an then, you see, if we can live a life which is just a little better than theirs we can appear Holy, righteous and moral. If we can look a little better than the tax collector in the corner we can feel better about ourselves. Wrong, Wrong and more Wrong.

From Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Collegiate Dictionary-morality is defined Conformity or degree of conformity, to conventional rules without or apart from inspiration or guidance from religion or other spiritual influences, that have been established by man.

My goodness Funk and Wagnall have even changed the original definition of the word!

A. One man James Hunter in Leadership magazine writes: We Americans generally want to think of ourselves as good people. That in many respects, is where the trouble begins.