The fruit of the Spirit is…

goodness – Psalm 107

Good people are in short supply. We live in cynical times, always looking for ulterior motives to any act of kindness, not wanting to run the risk of being seen as gullible. What a shame. It is a joy to know good people. I think of a quiet, gentle, unassuming man greatly used by God to heal divisions in a broken church and steer it to calmer waters where it could come once again into God’s blessing. A man who was humble, straight, guileless, honest, honourable. In short, a good man.

Goodness is a quality and a lifestyle. Mk 10:18 shows that goodness is a quality of God seen in Jesus; Acts 10:38 shows that doing good was Jesus’ lifestyle, growing out of his keeping in step with the Spirit.

1) The goodness of God

i) Creation. Psalm 104; Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31: the goodness of creation is an expression of God’s character. Creative people put into music, sculpture, painting what is inside them. You can see something of the tortured soul of the artist in a Van Gogh landscape or Francis Bacon portrait. Likewise you can see the goodness of God the artist in creation: flowers, leaves, sunsets, mountains, snowflakes etc.

ii) Covenant loyalty. Ps 107. God is good; look at how he treats his people: redemption (1-3); deliverance (4-9); liberation (10-16); healing (17-22); protection in daily life and work (23-32); blessing in response to our obedience (33-43).

2) Barnabas, a good man. Acts 11:24

Good people are often seen in our society as wet and vacuous, not interesting, people without colour or backbone. Not so Barnabas.

i) Attitude to possessions: Acts 4:36 in contrast to Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1ff). He was steward not owner of his possessions; they were available to God and his people (acts 2:44f; 4:32-35; 2 Cor 8:9-15; Phm 4-7). It takes strength to swim against the tide of materialism and be a good man like Barnabas.

ii) Attitude to people: Acts 9:27. He was open and welcoming, accepting people for who they are regardless of reputation and outward appearance, giving a chance for people to reveal what’s behind the mask; no hasty judgments. He sussed out what had happened to Paul and welcomed him. The other disciples jumped to a hasty conclusion and shunned the new convert (Acts 9:26; note also his willingness to give John Mark a second chance, Acts 15:36-41.)

iii) Attitude to position: Acts 11:22-26. He could have hogged the limelight, hung on to leadership in Antioch. But instead he went and got Paul, a younger Christian, untried, untested, because he was convinced he was God’s man for the job. There is a humility in goodness that seeks the welfare of others by discerning what role God has for us and for others and not elbowing our way to the top of the pile.

It is possible that Paul is contrasting goodness in Gal 5:22 with ‘envious’ in 5:21. The word rendered envious means ‘the grudging spirit that cannot bear to contemplate someone else’s prosperity (F.F. Bruce). ‘The envious are pained by their friend’s successes’ (Socrates).

In view of this, Barnabas was trusted and listened to: He was a teacher (11:23; 13:1; 15:35) and he was one of the Antioch leaders who went to the Jerusalem council to speak on behalf of the Gentile mission (Acts 15:2, 12, 2). Why was Barnabas a good man? Because he was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is goodness.

Possible areas for discussion

· What do we mean when we say someone is good?

· How do you think the media treads good people? Do you think it’s fair? If you were an editor, how would you write about good people?

· Do we see God’s goodness in creation? What effect does it have on us?

· Psalm 107 gives an idealized picture of God’s covenant loyalty: do we feel we’re on the receiving end of God’s goodness? Or do we feel that sometimes god withholds the blessings of being covenant with him?

(A bit of honesty is required here. Try to get people to share testimony about times when they have experienced God’s goodness and when they haven’t – possibly through not being healed or not being delivered from a situation of danger, stress, distress, pressure. Add to that Psalms such as 42/3, 69, 73, 88 where loyal believers question God’s goodness because of their current experiences.

· Would you like to live next door to Barnabas?

(Good people can be very unsettling, uncomfortable people to be with!)

· Some see good people as goody-goody or dismiss them as do-gooders and picture them as wet and colourless. Do you think being good requires more strength than not being good? Why/why not?

· Barnabas was a rich man who made his possessions available to God: How can we do something similar today? What do we think of stewardship of our goods means in practical terms?

· How quick are we to sum people up? Do we make hasty judgments about people or do we take time to find out about them, accepting them and welcoming them just as God in Christ accepted us?

· Does accepting people mean that we make no critical judgments of them? Are we meant to show our goodness by accepting people regardless of their beliefs and practices?

· How do we help people who have failed in the Christian life?

(Barnabas helped John Mark (Acts 15:36-41) in the teeth of opposition from Paul. Paul himself (perhaps having learned something from Barnabas?) tells us to gently restore the brother or sister who falls into sin (Gal 6:1-5). Often people’s failure is not moral – falling into sin. Rather it is a failure in some kind of ministry: do we give people the chance to learn from their mistakes and have another go?)

· What can we learn about hanging onto our position/status from the story of Jesus in Phil 2:5-11?

· Barnabas stepped aside to make way for Paul: how do we strike a balance between exercising our gifts to the full and being in the place where God wants us to be; reaching our full potential in Christ and humbly giving place to others?