What’s Good?

Overused Terminology?

Many of us would testify that Tom Brady is a good football player and Lebron James is a good basketball player. Love them or hate them, you must admit to that truth. Many of us would also agree that donuts and pizza are good. We use the term good often to describe many different things: good night, that’s a good person, good job, good play, etc. etc. There’s something we like about stuff and people being good, opposed to bad, distasteful or awful.

But we wouldn’t say Tom and Lebron are good in the same way, nor would we say pizza and donuts are equally good. And we obviously wouldn’t place them on the same goodness scale of God — I would hope. That is why it is important for us to define exactly what we mean when we talk about Gods goodness and the spiritual fruit of goodness we have in Christ. When trying to define goodness, however, some of us may have a little bit of difficultly.

Defining Goodness

Thankfully we’re not completely in the dark. God has given us His knowledge of what good exactly is in the Bible. We can first look here instead of a dictionary or Google to define goodness for us. You won’t have to search far either. Goodness has always been. Goodness has always been the default. In the first few chapters of Genesis we are walked through a bunch of good stuff like light (Genesis 1:6), land (1:10), food (1:12), animals (1:21, 25), and even people and sex (1:31). Understanding that everything in the earth has come from God and was created to be good allows us to enjoy everything in the context for which He designed it.

Some things may not always seem good to us or for us from our limited perspective, though. Think about Joseph. This guy was envied, beaten and sold into slavery by his older brothers. He was later thrown into prison unlawfully too. Through it all, God had a plan that Joseph nor his brothers could not see (50:20).

Misconceptions

Think about what Peter considered to be good or, in this particular case, not good. Jesus openly told his disciples plenty of times that he was going to be rejected, suffer, be killed, and be raised after three days before it actually happened. Not understanding how this brave and wise man in his prime of ministry could talk about being killed so assuredly, Peter thought he needed to rebuke Jesus. I can imagine how the conversation went using today’s vernacular: “Yo, Jesus, you can’t be talking like that bro. You have much more to do and a kingdom to set up. You can’t be talking like that in front of the boys. You’re starting to freak us all out man.” How did Jesus respond? “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Whoa! Satan? Really Jesus? Yes, really. Attempting to stop Jesus from doing the good work of what he was called to do (dying and resurrecting), Peter was siding with Satan himself! How? He was setting his mind on the things of man. How interesting. The thoughts and things of man must not be that good when we venture out into our own way of thinking.

Good.

When we set our mind and thoughts on the things of God, who is the epitome of goodness, it changes the way we see everything around us. We can receive hardships, unfairness, let-downs, persecution, and disappointments with more joy simply because our eyes are on Jesus and not on the things of this world.

As a result we can express God’s goodness to the world by not only setting and renewing our minds in the things of God (His Word), but also by intentionally putting away falsehood and corrupt talk from our lips, doing honest work, and extending kindness and forgiveness to one another. All this is done with a complete assurance of faith in Christ and not just in our efforts alone.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is… goodness…” — Galatians 5:22

“Seek good, and not evil, that you may live…” — Amos 5:9

“…no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” — Psalm 84:11