Goodness- Positive Influence Trait #6

Goodness– The quality of being morally good or virtuous. (Oxford Languages)

As I looked at this definition I made a connection from our study over the last few days. And something finally made sense or maybe was made even more clear than ever before..

Going back to Love we see that in First Corinthians 13 that the opening verses 1-3 (specifically 3) is talking about goodness and good things and Paul is saying we can be “good” in all sense of the term but if you don’t have LOVE than all of your goodness is in vain- worthless. And then I look at the steps of the Fruit of the Spirit and I see that :

Love. comes first. Then Joy, Then Peace, Then Patience and then Kindnss and right there is the middle is goodness. And my brain swirls with the realization as children right up through adulthood we are told that goodness comes first.

Luke 6:45

And as promised from yesterday we will Focus on the beginning part of Luke 6:45.

It states:

“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart”.

“From a treasury of a good heart”. A Treasury is something that is stored up. Usually a financial term- A king has a treasury that is usually filled with gold, money, jewels and TREASURES. So let’s take a tiny step back…

As a believer if you have taken the time to grow in LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, and KINDNESS and you have stored them in your heart (That’s your treasury) then you will do good things, and you will be a good (RIGHTEOUS) person.

BUT if you take the opposite of those things HATRED, GRUMPINESS, ANXIETY, IMPATIENCE, RUDENESS they aren’t good or righteous things they are evil . (Be patient with me on the anxiety thing it’s not what you think)

AND NO MATTER which one you choose you also choose what kind of power you influence has….A positive OR A negative influence.

Actions and words are an outpouring of what’s in your heart (Remember the end of the verse?). Goodness is the very character of God. We CANNOT be a Christ emulator- an image bearer of Jesus and have evil in our hearts- You just can’t.

Some passages to Study

James 4:17-¹⁷Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
2 Corinthians 5:17-¹⁷This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
Romans 6:1-8:39 (6:1-4)–Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?²Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? ³Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? ⁴For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives

1 John 3:4-11-⁴Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. ⁵And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

And I could keep going.

I plan on dealing with a lot of this when we deal with the opposite of goodness in the Negative influence traits starting next week But from Galatians 5 I want to take a few just to demonstrate what Goodness is and isn’t.

What Goodness is and isn’t

Galatians 5:20-21

Goodness puts others above ourselves- we call it dying to self. This is setting aside our desires and wants (aka selfish ambition). Goodness isn’t self focused. We choose to set aside our preference. Once upon a time we called them sacred cows- things that we thought were Biblical but upon study of God’s word we realize they are just preferences. We need to lay those sacred cows on the altar and offer up to Jesus our will over his so that there isn’t some bovine distraction keeping others from Jesus.

Goodness is self-controlled- it doesn’t have outbursts of anger.

Goodness is filled with Peace It isn’t defined by quarreling. Have you even been around children or adults who are constantly bickering, It’s downright destruction to an atmosphere of peacefulness. BTW. quarreling is usually two individuals/groups fighting to get their own way! (AHEM SELFISH AMBITION).

Goodness is rooted in love not hostility. Have you ever met a hostile person. They are full of bitterness. And it oozes from every word and action. They can bee very conniving too. Always seeking their own way- their own agenda. AND they will do whatever it takes to get it.

Goodness is unifying-it does NOT create dissension and division. It doesn’t seek to drive a wedge between groups of people and create problems. We have actually heard people say it was their job in church to “stir the pot”. To create problems. To create disunity. That’s not GOOD!

Heart Influence

Goodness (or evil) is an outpouring of what is really in our hearts.

When we have thoughts that go against the goodness of God it is sin. And that is really what becomes our greatest influence. We all struggle with these thoughts and feelings- It’s what we do with them that is so very important and the first step to getting these things right with God is repentance. That is the act of asking God for forgiveness and then TURNING AWAY from that sin. It’s a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction.

It’s Your turn- Hard questions

Is there something you are haboring in your heart? Does it spill out into your actions and words? Do you think it is your job to “stir the proverbial pot?” Do you think of yourself better than someone else or that your opinions, desires or boundaries are more important than someone else?

Then let me challenge you to take these things to Jesus! Ask him to change your heart and THEN turn away from it and make choices that take you in the opposite direction. Run away from it. As fast as you can.And when you do that your influence will shift and the very act of making that change is a HUGE positive influence.