Goodness – The Fruit of the Spirit (part 7)

The fifth fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 is goodness.

Goodness is a state of moral being, a sense of moral excellence, if you will. God alone is good in a sense of supreme moral excellence (Mark 10:18). James described this goodness, saying, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

God is good and everything he gives to us, his children through Jesus, is good.

To be good is to display qualities of moral excellence that flow from God. To use the horizontal elements of the Ten Commandments as examples (those six commands that describe how we are to relate to our fellow humans), to be good would involve things such as: Honoring others, promoting life over death, seeking faithfulness and purity, respecting property, being honest, and living with contentment.

Sin corrupts us and keeps us from being good. We rebel against God and his definitions. We seek to redefine good as something less than the moral excellence of God. And the only way this changes in our lives is through an act of God.

When we trust in Jesus, we get his goodness applied to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then the Spirit develops these qualities in us with greater depth.

So, let us pray that the Spirit continues to grow in our lives the moral excellence of God’s goodness.

Next time we’ll consider the fruit of faithfulness.

Scripture references taken from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB).