Fruit of the Spirit Series: Goodness- Part 6 of 9

         For this post, when I speak of Goodness, I mean our desire to pursue God and grow close to him. I would say that Godliness is the fulfillment of this desire and pursuit, but Goodness is the continual drive to get there. It is very hard to draw near to God if you don't want to. If you've kept up with my blog, you would have read me mention Goodness briefly in the post called "A Pattern of Growth: 2 Peter 1:5-7". There, the passage outlines a pattern of growth, beginning with (v.5):

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness...

           The phrase "For this very reason" refers to the previous statement that we can become more godly through God's power in our lives. Thus, in a very real sense, God places in our hearts a desire to obey his laws that was not there when we were unbelievers. Refer to Hosea 14:4:

 4 “I will heal their waywardness
    and love them freely,
    for my anger has turned away from them.

           and Ezekiel 11:19-20:

 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

          However, just because God places this new desire in our hearts does not mean that the battle is yet over. For we find Paul telling us in Romans 7: 18-20:

 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

         Thus, there is a battle between your new Goodness and your old, sinful nature. There is a constant back and forth process between the two that will continue for the rest of your life. How do you fight the battle? Here is the interesting part: In order to grow my desire to pursue God (Godliness), I need to do things that I don't completely want to do. This is otherwise known as discipline, specifically spiritual discipline. While it is important to choose spiritual disciplines that you find at least somewhat rewarding, the immediate concern is not that you enjoy the discipline. As I just said, that desire grows over time as that little seed of desire for God is fed and nurtured. Support for these statements actually come from the passage leading into the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: 16-18:

16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

          The way that we oppose our sinful nature is to live in the Spirit, meaning to be actively involved in a daily relationship with God. If we do this, otherwise known as "living in the Spirit", we will feed and grow our desire to do good things. A similar passage comes from a continuation of the passage I quoted earlier about the battle between our two natures with Romans 8:5-8:

5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

         A sublime analogy for this idea of doing actions that don't come easily in order to grow our love comes from marriage. If you've listened to some ideas coming from marriage counseling, you may have heard someone respond to a case of lost love by telling the person to do loving acts and that the emotions of love will follow. Consider Paul's admonition to husbands in Ephesians 5:33:

 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

          Have you considered why Paul had to command husbands to love their wives? Some would say that if the love isn't there, the relationship shouldn't be continuing at all and that the lost lover should find a new soul mate to initiate the "falling in love" process with from scratch. In that case, Paul would be giving horrible advice here. If the "falling in love" theory was right, all discontent couples (otherwise known as ALL couples) would need to break up at the first sign of lost love. However, if we accept Paul's advice for what it is, we see that love is a choice that can build into an emotion over time, just as Paul's admonition for wives to respect their husbands. They might not feel respect, but that does not lessen the need for the woman to meet the man's need for respect from his lover. Similarly, a relationship with God is tough. Just because you have made the commitment of faith to God doesn't mean that you want to spend time with him every time that he asks you. So, in a sense, yes, Goodness is present from the moment you accept Christ and the Holy Spirit invades your heart. However, this seed is like the mustard seed in Matthew 13:31-32:

31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.

         I think this parable has been neglected by Christians who think that the mustard seed placed in their hearts at salvation will simply grow, even if they don't water it and nurture it. I would like to remark that there is a tension in scripture between our need to grow ourselves and that God will independently bring about his own growth in our lives, even when we aren't working with him. For instance, Philippians 1:6 says:

6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

          and Mark 4: 26-29 says:

 26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

         So, yes, there is reason to hope that growth will happen in our lives, even against our wills (by grace), but there is an equally opposing narrative in the Bible that contains passages like 2 Peter 1:8-9, which follows the process of maturing in one's faith:

8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

          If we don't nurture our relationship with God, we will be ineffective and unproductive in our faith. Also, look to John 15:5:

 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

         In conclusion, take my admonition to grow your Goodness seriously. You will have a much more difficult and fruitless life if you don't take this seriously. However, also know that God loves you and knows how hard it is to pursue Him. Taking off the sinful nature can be just as difficult as sawing off an arm; it's a part of who you are and always will be. However, don't consider God to be a mean schoolmaster who paddles you every time you don't love him. Instead, picture God as a lover who is trying to woo you. In the back and forth between boys and girls, there is the part where they guy initiates and sends nonverbal messages of his interest. However, as most guys could attest to, the relationship develops a lot slower and is much less exciting when the girl doesn't respond to his call. When she looks at his antics with passivity, she cools a flame that was meant to burn bright and consume her heart. It was designed for such emotions and the desire is there. However, it is but a small flame that must be nurtured and fanned into its proper glory. This is where the mustard seed analogy comes into play. It is so, so small to begin with, but if you spend time with it and help it along, it will grow into the biggest tree in your life.
In Christ,
Simeon Snow