The Fruit of the Spirit is Goodness

Galatians 5:16-26

How many of you here this morning would like to live a good life?

This is a question that is difficult to say no to, isn’t it? It’s a question that would be answered affirmatively in church or at a meeting of citizens at a town meeting or in a local bar. Everyone wants to live the “good life.” The question is how to define what is good.

For some, good is the experience of pleasure and the eradication of pain. For these people, pleasure is to be pursued and pain to be at all costs avoided. This sounds like a good decision. Only a masochist seeks out pain. But the limitations of this view of “good” are obvious. If I meet a woman and fall in love and marry her, that’s wonderful. That is good. But as soon as she gets on my nerves and irritates me and in other ways causes me pain, under this view of “good,” I get a divorce. If I am facing a painful situation it must be avoided. So I get drunk or get high to avoid the pain and seek pleasure. This view of good has been a very destructive view throughout the history of mankind.

There are others who say that good is the acquisition of knowledge. The more we learn about this world and about people in the world, the better off we are. The more we know, the better we are. But knowledge alone does not create a good world. People use technical expertise to destroy others. They use knowledge to buy and sell companies with complete disregard for the people who work in those companies. Knowledge is used to inflate egos and build kingdoms. The rate at which knowledge is growing is exponential. We have learned more in science in the last fifty years than the previous two thousand years, but can anyone really argue that we, as the human race, are any better off than we were fifty years ago?

Good is defined in materialistic terms. A car bumper sticker in the US says, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” The more possessions I have, the happier I am, says this view of good. The good life, in this view, consists of having a car or two, a TV or two or three, VCR, nice furniture, stereo, swimming pool, boat, summer home, and on and on and on. This view of good is insatiable. No matter how much I have, I always need more to feed the beast that consumes me.

So what is good? You may recognize this question from the Gospel reading this morning.  In Matthew 19, there is an account of a rich young ruler who was attracted to Jesus.

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

Have you ever had the opportunity to meet someone famous and ask a question? I once met Bob Cousy who was a great basketball star in the 1950s and 1960s for the Boston Celtics. He was signing autographs and as I walked forward to meet him, a number of questions ran through my mind. I wanted to ask him a good question that he would remember. And so when it was my turn to talk with him I asked him an embarrassingly dumb question about his skills versus the skills of Larry Bird, another Boston Celtic basketball star who played in the 1980s. I wanted my question to be distinctive and it ended up just being dumb.

The rich young ruler came up to Jesus to ask a question but it was not a dumb question. It was a great question. “Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?” This is actually an amazing question when you stop to think about it. Young people don’t often think about life after 30 let alone life after death. Rich people don’t often think about life after death. There are too many things to buy and places to go. Poor people think more often of life after this world than rich people because for poor people, this world does not appear to be a very welcome place. Rich people have an attraction to this world and are generally reluctant to leave it.

The man who comes to ask Jesus this question is young. He is rich and he is a ruler and accustomed to power. People with power are easily seduced by their power and live in the present, not in the future, especially the future after this world.

So this man, young, rich and powerful, asks an unusual question for someone who is young, rich and powerful. “Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?”

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied.

The emphasis in the Greek is on the word me. “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus has not met this young man before and Jesus wants to know who the young man thinks he is. Jesus knows the answer to the question but giving the answer is not what is needed. Jesus seeks to know the young man’s heart. “Why do you ask me about what is good?” is just another way of asking “Who do you say I am?”

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied.
“There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

Here Jesus defines good. Good is not the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Good is not the acquisition of knowledge or material possessions. Good is God. Goodness is the character of God and so he challenges the man to follow God, to obey his commandments.

18 “Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, ”‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,  19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Jesus responds to the question of what commandments to keep by listing numbers 5 through 9 of the ten commandments and Leviticus 19 which Jews believed summarized the last six commandments.

20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

This is an amazing young man. You know the end of the story. You know that he walks away from Jesus, but don’t be too hard on him. A man who seeks obedience. A rich man. A young man. A ruler who is seeking for what really matters. He is obviously pious. He obviously is a man who seeks after God. And what is especially amazing is that he does all these things and still feels he is lacking something. He works hard to obey the law but there is something in him that knows he is missing what he really needs. “What do I still lack?”

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

This is a great text from which to preach with an emphasis on where our riches are, but that is not this sermon.

The point I want to make is this: the young man comes to Jesus to seek eternal life. He asks Jesus “What good thing must I do,” and Jesus responds by telling him only God is good.

When the young man tells Jesus he obeys all the commandments but is still lacking what he needs, Jesus offers him the answer to his need. He says to the young ruler, “Come follow me.” Jesus says I am the answer to your need, but unfortunately, the rich young man is not willing to part with his possessions and walks away.

Jesus’ view of good is evident in this story. Good is God. It is in following God that we discover what is good.

The last verse of Psalm 100, which we read as a call to worship, defines God as good

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

God is good and it is for this reason that Jesus pointed the rich young ruler to God.

God’s actions, his deeds are good. In Genesis 1, as the poet writes a poem of creation, God repeatedly describes what he has created as good.

God created the light and the refrain in the poem says, “And God saw that it was good.” God created the land  “And God saw that it was good.” God created “And God saw that it was good.” And finally when God looked at all he had created, “it was very good.”

What God does is good.

God’s words are good. Psalm 119 is the longest of the psalms and speaks about God’s words. I can’t read it all but verse 39 says:
Take away the disgrace I dread,
for your laws are good.
And in verse 103:
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!

God’s actions are good. God’s words are good and God’s will is good.

Paul says in Romans 12
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

God is good. All that God does is good. His words to us are good. His will is good.

So what is goodness, the sixth of the fruit of the Spirit?

I have to say that this has been the most difficult of the fruit to research and present in a sermon. The other fruit are more specific. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. You can wrap your mind around those fruit and see how a person who grows in Christ evidences those fruit in daily living. But goodness is more vague. It is not as specific.

Commentators don’t agree on what goodness is. Some try to make it tangible and specific. But in our Sunday School class a couple weeks ago, when we discussed this, it became clear to us that goodness is the ability to distinguish between good and evil and then choose what is good. Goodness is the ability to distinguish between good and evil and then choose what is good.

As with all the other fruit of the Spirit, goodness is not something we can work on with our own efforts. God’s goodness becomes part of our lives as we grow in our knowledge of him, our love for him and our obedience to him. This is clear with all the fruit listed in Galatians, but it is especially true of goodness. There is no way to put goodness in practice. If you put on a “to do” list, be good today, that tells you nothing. Goodness is the character of God and the only way it becomes our character is to become more like God.

Paul has some advice for us about good and evil in his letter to the church in Rome.
Romans 12:9
Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

As I grow as a Christian and take on more of the qualities of God in my life, I will become more aware of what is good and what is evil. When I am aware of what is good and what is evil, Paul says to hate what I know to be evil and cling to what I know to be good.

As I have grown as a Christian, this has enabled me to not read and watch things I used to read and watch. This has enabled me to avoid telling jokes I used to tell.

On the positive side, this has enabled me to persevere in my marriage when we had difficult times. This has enabled me to begin again, for the hundredth time, a discipline of a daily devotional life.

Hating what is evil and clinging to what is good is the second part of goodness. Once I am aware of good and evil, I need to choose to follow the good.

It should be clear that our awareness of what is good and what is evil is progressive. Since we grow in goodness and since goodness is an awareness of good and evil, logic tells us that we are not very competent at distinguishing between good and evil in the beginning and we get better at it as we go along.

I was in college when I became a Christian and was mentored by Julian Teitle, a Jewish Christian who modeled himself after the Puritan Spurgeon. I am not making this up, it’s true. But one night I went out with my roommate and we got drunk. We came back to the dorm and I was in the state that if I looked in a mirror, I could not keep a straight face and would giggle. Julian met me in the hallway and said, “Jackson! (This is what my father calls me and some people who meet me with my father have called me that. Ann still calls me that when she needs to get my attention.) Jackson! What have you been doing?” I giggled and Julian told me to go to bed and he’d talk to me in the morning. The next morning he showed me the Scriptures about not getting drunk and I have not been drunk since.

The first summer I was a Christian, I worked in New Jersey and bought a lottery ticket each week. I even prayed that I would win the lottery.

These are obvious examples about a growing awareness of good and evil but there are less obvious examples as well. There are books and movies and magazines that may be entertaining but as a Christian grows, it becomes clear they promote values that are not Biblical. There are jokes that are funny but as a Christian grows, don’t seem quite as funny as they once did. As a Christian grows, it becomes clear that what was once viewed as acceptable is no longer viewed as profitable. As a Christian grows, becomes more like God, grows in the fruit of the Spirit, what is good and what is evil becomes more and more clear.

Some Christians take a hard line and say that Christians should not watch certain kinds of movies or read certain books or listen to certain kinds of music. The problem with this approach is that it puts the emphasis in the wrong place. When I tell someone what they can and cannot do, I am imposing a legalistic standard on them. Legalism is no substitute for goodness. If I see someone watching or reading what I don’t think is healthy for them to watch or read, it is far better to encourage that person to pursue his or her relationship with God than to say they should not read or watch that thing.

I need to interject and say that I am not talking about a parent-child relationship. A parent has the right and responsibility to protect their children and imposing certain standards is not inappropriate. But even in parent-child relationships, eventually the child becomes an adult and needs to be treated this way, encouraging them to grow in Christ and allow their growing sense of goodness to lead them to what is good and away from what is evil.

As Christians grow, their theological awareness grows. A new Christian may say that he doesn’t believe in the virgin birth. Or perhaps he may say that a woman’s right to an abortion needs to be protected. Or perhaps he may say that all religions lead to God.

Rather than beat on that person for his views, it is far better to encourage that person to grow in his relationship with God. As he grows in Christ, he will be better able to distinguish between good and evil.

Parts of the church have spent far too much energy telling people what they should and should not do with the consequence that the children who grow up in that church struggle with the negative effects of legalism they encountered.

It is far better to encourage, constantly encourage our children and each other to fix our eyes upon Jesus, to grow in faith and allow our growing Christlikeness to influence us.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he has a second piece of advice about good and evil.

Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is not a concept that makes it into the movies. Can you imagine Rambo or Clint Eastwood or any of the Hollywood stars fighting the evil person in their movie with good?

And yet this is clearly the message of Scripture. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” “When someone hits you on the cheek, let him hit you on the other cheek.”

Let me finish with a story of a man who was able to see what was good and what was evil and able to defeat evil with goodness.

In the fourth century there lived an Asiatic monk who had spent most of his life in a remote community of prayer, raising vegetables for the cloister kitchen. When he was not tending his garden spot, he was fulfilling his vocation of study and prayer.

Then one day this monk named Telemachus felt that the Lord wanted him to go to Rome, the capital of the world – the busiest, wealthiest, biggest city in the world. Telemachus had no idea why he should go there, and he was terrified at the thought. But as he prayed, God’s directive became clear.

How bewildered the little monk must have been as he set out on the long journey, on foot, over dusty roads westward, everything he owned on his back. Why was he going? He didn’t know. What would he find there? He had no idea. But obediently he went.

Telemachus arrived in Rome during the holiday festival. You may know that the Roman rulers kept the ghettos quiet in those days by providing free bread and special entertainment called circuses. At the time Telemachus arrived the city was also bustling with excitement over the recent Roman victory over the Goths. In the midst of this jubilant commotion, the monk looked for clues as to why God had brought him there, for he had no other guidance, not even a superior in a religious order to contact.

“Perhaps,” he thought, “it is not sheer coincidence that I have arrived at this festival time. Perhaps God has some role for me to play.”

So Telemachus let the crowds guide him, and the stream of humanity soon led him into the Coliseum where the gladiator contests were to be staged. He could hear the cries of the animals in their cages beneath the floor of the great arena and the clamor of the contestants preparing to do battle.

The gladiators marched into the arena, saluted the emperor, and shouted, “We who are about to die salute thee.” Telemachus shuddered. He had never heard of gladiator games before, but had a premonition of awful violence.

The crowd had come to cheer men who, for no other reason than amusement, would murder each other. Human lives were offered for entertainment. As the monk realized what was going to happen, he realized he could not sit still and watch such savagery. Neither could he leave and forget. He jumped to the top of the perimeter wall and cried, “In the name of Christ, forbear!”

The fighting began of course. No one paid the slightest heed to the puny voice. So Telemachus pattered down the stone steps and leapt onto the sandy floor of the arena. He made a comic figure – a scrawny man in a monk’s habit dashing back and forth between muscular, armed athletes. One gladiator sent him sprawling with a blow from his shield, directing him back to his seat. It was a rough gesture, though almost a kind one. The crowd roared.

But Telemachus refused to stop. He rushed into the way of those trying to fight, shouting again, “In the name of Christ, forbear!” The crowd began to laugh and cheer him on, perhaps thinking him part of the entertainment.

Then his movement blocked the vision of one of the contestants; the gladiator saw a blow coming just in time. Furious now, the crowd began to cry for the interloper’s blood.

“Run him through!” they screamed.

The gladiator he had blocked raised his sword and with a flash of steel struck Telemachus, slashing down across his chest and into his stomach. The little monk gasped once more, “In the name of Christ, forbear.”

Then a strange thing occurred. As the two gladiators and the crowd focused on the still form on the suddenly crimson sand, the arena grew deathly quiet. In the silence, someone in the top tier got up and walked out. Another followed. All over the arena, spectators began to leave, until the huge stadium was emptied.

There were other forces at work, of course, but that innocent figure lying in the pool of blood crystalized the opposition, and that was the last gladiatorial contest in the Roman Coliseum. Never again did men kill each other for the crowd’s entertainment in the Roman arena.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The fruit of the Spirit is goodness. As we grow in Christ, become more Christ-like, take on the character of God, we become God’s agents for change in this world. Evil is overcome with good.

What a privilege it is to be able to take on the character of God and be used by him for his purposes in this world.

May we have that privilege here in Rabat.