Fruit of the Spirit: Goodness

Published on 04/28/2024 by Dr-Shirley-Cheng.

When you wake up each morning to the sweet melodies of birds, how do you feel? When you admire the spectacular spectrum of sunsets, are you awed? When sunlight warms your skin and gentle summer breezes softly kiss you, are you not delighted? Do you not enjoy the fragrance of wildflowers, the sound of ocean waves splashing, the chirps of crickets at night, and the claps of thunders during a heavy storm?

How do all the elements of life reflect the Creator of life? Think about it carefully: "there is no good tree that brings forth rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that brings forth good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don't gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil" (Luke 6: 43, 44, 45, WEB)

Everything in life is made to be enjoyed by all of our senses, do you not agree? Not only are creations enjoyable, but they provide for our physical nourishment as well. The Earth produces all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and grains to keep us well-fed and satisfied. So what does this tell us about the Creator of life? Can we not rightfully conclude that our Creator is purely good?

Being made in the image of our Creator, we have the capacity to reflect the goodness of our Heavenly Father to some extent, just as we have the ability to be happy and sad, disappointed and content, angry and pleased, as He.

How do you personally reflect the goodness of Yahweh God Almighty? Do you lend a helping hand whenever you can? Do you treat everyone with equality? Are you happy when you hear of people doing good, and upset when you hear of injustice?

The key to reflecting the goodness of God lies in the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit is the quality God wishes to develop in each person, and it consists of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). However, we cannot fully develop the fruit on our own. Thus, if we desire to reflect the goodness of God to its fullest extent, we must allow Yahweh to develop this fruit in us by having faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. (Faith equals love as expressed by our obedience, so that means loving Jesus by obeying his teachings which are of God.) Jesus said: "Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5, WEB)

If you trim off a branch from a fruit tree, that branch will no longer be fruitful. But if you graft the branch back onto a fruit tree, that branch will again be productive. Likewise, as mere branches, we do not have the power to perfectly reflect the goodness of God. We need a potent life force to help us do so, and that is Jesus.

Do you want to be like your Heavenly Father and reflect His pure goodness? Then you must be grafted onto Jesus! Embrace him as your Lord and Savior and obey his teaching and mirror his conduct, and you'll be able to reflect the goodness of God!