MONDAY, JULY 6
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)
GOODNESS
Some of you are old enough to remember the hit tv show Lassie. The show was centered around a Collie who was constantly performing good deeds. It would never fail that someone on the show would get into a dangerous predicament and Lassie was the only around who was available to go and get help. And somehow, her owner Timmy could translate the barks to know who was in trouble and where they were. I’m not sure what was more impressive, Lassie’s ability to go get help or Timmy’s ability to translate. Regardless the show was based on good old-fashioned goodness.
We are continuing our series on fruits of the Spirit. Yesterday we talked about the fruit of goodness. We defined goodness as desiring what’s right and doing what’s right, regardless of the cost. Galatians 5 reminds us that a result of abiding in Jesus is the fruit of goodness. As Christians something inside of us should be compelling us to do good things.
Paul prayed for this fruit of goodness to be manifest in the lives of the believers at Thessalonica (2Th 1:11) and was convinced it was being manifested in the lives of the saints at Rome (Ro 15:14). Paul had heard about their goodness, implying that the way they lived and interacted with others gave proof of their possession of the Spirit and His fruit.
As a Christian, good deeds are not what we do to earn God’s approval. The good deeds are evidence that we’ve already accepted God’s approval through Christ and evidence that He lives in us. Is there enough old-fashioned goodness in your life toward others to demonstrate the presence of the Spirit in your life? Name a few recent examples.
