Counterfeit Goodness

(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Are you on the naughty or the nice list?
Don't settle for just being nice when you can be overflowing with goodness!

In Galatians 5:22–23 (NLT) God assures us, “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” if we “follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (Gal. 5:25 NLT). The fruit of the Spirit encompasses the distinctiveness of God. No human plantation can create a vineyard such as His. God is the divine husbandman. He plants the vine and prunes it precisely to produce the fruit He wants. This fruit completes His portrait so the watching world can see a glimpse of Christ through our lives.

In this current series of blog posts we are assessing the fruit God wishes to produce through His Spirit. But in our desire for independence we attempt to counterfeit God’s fruit with our own design. Desiring all He has for us but not willing to give all we are to Him, we endeavor to circumvent His plan by producing our fruit of the flesh. Our miserable efforts culminate in disastrous results: emptiness, futility, turmoil, and frustration to name a few. Obtaining an education as a fruit inspector will prepare us to distinguish between the authentic fruit of the Spirit and the counterfeit fruit of the flesh.

Goodness > Exploitation > Inadequacy
Goodness is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that enables us to exemplify God’s moral nature. When the Holy Spirit is resident in our lives, His qualities transform us into God’s image, enabling us to treat others with holiness. That is goodness. It can only reflect what is godly. It bears no ill will and concerns itself only with the mind and mission of God to humanity.

Identifying Jesus as a good man, the rich young ruler was met with the following retort: “‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus asked him. ‘Only God is truly good’” (Luke 18:19 NLT). Because only God is good, only His Spirit can produce goodness in our lives. Goodness is a trademark of a life exhibiting the character of Christ. Apart from a relationship with Him, goodness cannot be concocted.

The fruit of the flesh equates goodness with being nice. Unaided by God’s Spirit we calculate how to behave in the most socially acceptable way to subtly access and use life resources to meet perceived needs. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, exploitation conceals itself in the disguise of being nice. Exploitation thinks in terms of how the world benefits self. People, positions, and possessions are evaluated based on their utility for personal gain. Goodness operates without sinful intent, not violating others’ God-given rights, with no hidden agendas, and springs from a relationship of purity. Exploitation concerns itself with the mind and mission of self to accomplish the four goals of the flesh.

• Promote the best interest of self
• Procure the greatest pleasure for self
• Promise the most comfort for self
• Produce the maximum control over self

The ultimate conclusion of attempting to accomplish these goals is the culmination of inadequacy. A sense of insufficiency seizes control when failure to achieve satisfaction highlights our weakness. The reality of this inadequacy mocks us with the folly of our way. We are inadequate in the role of God. We have no power to produce change within ourselves apart from the enabling of the Holy Spirit. Only through God can we exemplify goodness; otherwise we settle for merely being socially appropriate. If you find yourself experiencing the symptom of inadequacy, consider what means of exploitation you are employing to counterfeit God’s fruit of goodness.

We will evidence the fruit of goodness when we forgo exploitation with its resulting inadequacy in order to exemplify Christ in all that we do. “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too” (Phil. 2:3–4 NLT).

Insight Journal:
Describe a situation in which you used exploitation instead of relying on the Spirit’s fruit of goodness. How would this situation be described differently if you were relying on the Spirit’s fruit of kindness?