Goodness Is...

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.

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.

BIBLE TRUTH
“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).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
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. 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.

PRAYER
Lord, I don’t want to be selfish. I don’t want to try to impress others. Help me to be humble and think of others as better than myself. I don’t want to look out only for my own interests, but I want to take an interest in others too. (Phil. 2:3–4)


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


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