Welcome to in Bolden, where through Bible scripture and commentary we seek a bold fate, and in doing so we share the amazing love and message of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hello, I'm Chris Shatter. I'm an ordinary Christian seeking a deeper relationship with our extraordinary God. Won't you join me?
Hi friends, are you looking for a life full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and that ever-elusive self-control? Please join me over the next few weeks as we take a look at the Bible's verse in Galatians 5, 22-23, so we can experience the Christian life in full bloom. When my eldest daughter was really little, she loved and admired her grandfather greatly. She loved him to such an extent that if she were caught doing even the smallest thing that she shouldn't, he could look at her and she'd just break into tears.
She wanted so much to please him that she would do anything to be in his good graces. And my question for you today is, who do you love and admire so much that you would do just about anything in order to please them? You take their advice, you model your behavior, and even thoughts after them. You may not even realize you have a relationship like this, but you probably do.
The danger is that as infallible humans, that idol will invariably get something wrong. Is how our idols fall into disfavor? Relationships can get fractured when the one we've placed on the pedestal fails us. There has only been one person that walked this planet who truly deserves that level of devotion, and yes, you got it, Jesus.
So my other question is, have you placed God at the top of the list of ones you most love and desire to reflect? Three John 11 says, Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
But what exactly is this good that is a reflection or imitation of God? The word good is written 725 times in our Bible. From Genesis 1, 4, all the way to Three John, we read of goodness and good. I'll take a leap here and say that of all the fruits of the Spirit, love, peace, and goodness, may be the most misunderstood by Christians and especially non-Christians.
When we say something is good, its use can be as widespread as loving something, like, I love good sourdough bread, is not the same as loving our neighbors reflects the goodness of God. The first is a fleshly desire of something made well. The second describes a selfless act, imitating the character of God. C.S.
Lewis once said, God is not merely good, but goodness. Goodness is not merely divine, but God. Each one of the fruit of the Spirit, listed by Paul in Galatians, deals with either the state of our soul or the action thereof. All of the fruit are a result of the Holy Spirit's work in us, creating us more like Jesus.
Therefore, the goodness in this list requires us to first investigate what is the goodness of God. Psalm 31 19 says, O, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, and worked for those who take refuge in you in the sight of the children of mankind. When you look up the word goodness in strong's concordance, it has you refer to the index, and in the index it equates what goodness refers to in various parts of Scripture. All the references are attached to God's character.
They are abundant in Exodus 34.6, great in Psalm 31.19, enduring in Psalm 52.1, and satisfying in Psalm 65.4. I would add to this list that God's loving character also brings these other good things to our world, light, faithfulness, joy, mercy, and grace. The words, it was good, are used over and over coming from God's mouth to describe his glorious creation, his great love, and action. When I said the word goodness or good is listed among some of the most misunderstood, I meant this, that apart from God, no one's soul imitates his goodness.
Yes, even that person that seems really, really good. I bet if you were to ask a humanist or an atheist to define their morals or values, they'll probably end up listing things that actually are God-given commands. The differences commands such as Do Not Steel become wishy-washy depending upon the non-believers' circumstances. You see, we all choose someone or something to imitate and hold up as the pinnacle of moral authority.
But non-Christians and unfortunately some Christians hold up humans as that authority. And we are and do what we love made worse when it is ourselves. I read this on the Christian podcast Got Questions. Goodness is virtue and holiness in action.
It results in a life characterized by deeds motivated by righteousness and a desire to be a blessing. It's a moral characteristic of a spirit-filled person. The Greek word that translates into goodness is actually defined as uprightness of heart and life. Righteousness or uprightness can only come from one source, the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He not only cleansed us of the guilt and sin we carry, but made it so we could be called to goodness, to reflect the goodness of God. God wants to be united with us in full. He loves you. He brings us joy and peace.
He's asking us to be so in love with Him, so admiring of Him, that we too want to fill our souls in the world with light, and abundance and mercy and grace, to set aside all other idols and place Him front and center. For when we do, our goodness will naturally lead us to action. And those actions are called love, patience and kindness. Have an awesome day.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Enfolden Podcast. Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode. And check out my blog at Enfolden.net.