In the 1950’s and 60’s, General Mills was king of the cereal makers. It had cornflakes and cheerios and boasted a pretty “G” in the upper corner of the box and that stood for General Mills. The ad slogan was “The big G stands for goodness.” Remember? Wouldn’t that be nice, if all we had to do was buy the right cereal and we would be filled with goodness.
He’s a good man. She’s a good woman. I just wanna have a good time. Goody two shoes. Good job. Good food. Good night! The good, the bad and the ugly. It’s been a good day. You’re a good friend. And the list goes on and on…and on. Good has more meanings and shades of meanings than you can shake a stick at. We all recognize an element within this word that we like, an element that we respect and desire. Good. It’s in food and cereal boxes and toothpaste and the workplace. It’s in books and literature, church and playgrounds. It’s the stuff of heroes but it’s also in the smallest corner of your home. Good. What does it mean? Is it so broad that it cannot be defined? Is it so deep that it cannot be confined, corralled, converted to some specific meaning? I don’t think so. I think that good is so easy to understand within our working knowledge that we instinctively know what it means. Good is hard to capture, elusive to define, but easy to spot.
In the very first chapter of the very first book of the Old Testament, God creates. God creates and creates. For a whole God week, he creates and every time he does, he stands back, looks it over and calls it what? He calls it good. He saw that it was good. God saw that the light was good (1:4). God separated Earth from the Seas and saw that it was good (1:9). The earth brings forth vegetation and fruit bearing trees and God saw that it was good (1:12). The story of creation goes on—the setting of the sun, the moon and the stars into the heavens—and God saw that it was good (1:18). On the fifth day come sea creatures and birds. God saw that it was good and blessed them. Day six brought the jewels in the crown of creation. First, God created land creatures and creeping things and God saw that it was good (1:25). Then man and woman were created in God’s image and God blessed them, commissioned them and gave them dominion over all the rest. The book of Genesis says that “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (1:31).
Are you starting to get the picture? It helps me to see what God calls good. It helps me to understand something about his standards. Granted, they are Godly standards, but also granted that the Book of Genesis tells us that we were made in God’s image! Surely if we are created in his image, he meant us for good.
What does goodness look like? Ask Joseph. He went from being Jacob’s favorite son to running the kingdom of Egypt
What does goodness feel like? Ask Barnabas. He was “let go” by Paul in a fit of temper because he would not betray young John Mark. He was the godly man left out of the equation by the Thirteenth Apostle. And yet, the eleventh chapter of Acts calls Barnabas a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. He was instrumental in reconnecting Paul with Mark, and then Paul with himself. Being good feels like Barnabas.
What does goodness taste like? It tastes alive! The fifth chapter of Amos tells us that you must “Seek the Lord that you may live.” Later in the chapter, the prophet tells God’s people that they should “seek good, and not evil, that you may live.” How do we live by seeking the Lord? We do it by seeking good. God is synonymous with good. To seek God is to seek goodness! It’s the taste that satisfies and leaves you hungry too. Only God can satisfy your appetite and leave you hungry at the same time. Good is as simple as doing something unselfishly for someone else, and it tastes better than a gourmet meal.
Good is connected to time; time to do good. Good is disconnected from time, because you don’t look at your watch or your calendar when something good is coming from you. You take whatever time it requires. Like God has done for you.
We have talked about what goodness looks like, feels like, tastes like. How do we do it? How do you do goodness? In the gospel of Luke, a rich young ruler comes to Jesus and calls him “good Teacher.” Some translations say Master, but I like “good Teacher” here. Jesus asks him: “Why do you call me good? No one is good, except God alone.” Third John 11 says it in a way that I get. There, John says that we are imitators. We either imitate evil or we imitate good. Now that’s a load. What it implies is that we are not evil, but that we imitate it; that we are not good, but we imitate it. John says: “Whoever does good is from God.” Another translation says that whoever does good is of God. We are not inherently good. Quite the contrary. It is the great inheritance of the Reformation and John Calvin that we understand ourselves to be totally depraved, incapable of goodness in and of ourselves. Yes, good is in us, but not of us. When we see good, feel good, do good, it is from God; it is of God.
How do we do goodness? John tells us how. We do that which is good because the Spirit of God is moving within us, whether or not we give him the credit! Sometimes we imitate God in spite of ourselves. The apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4 that we express goodness by telling the truth, by not stealing, by doing useful, helpful, beneficial things, by keeping sin out of our anger. As we imitate God and Christ, we begin to show that image in which we were made. We begin to live in Christ and we allow Christ to live in us.
What is goodness? Goodness is living for others, living to serve rather than be served. Way back in Genesis, we watched as Joseph took hit after hit for the team. He was the one God picked out to look out for the many. This concept of the one for the many is not just for Joseph.
Throughout history, people have stood up in war and peace for
principle, for family, for country, for their fellow man, for God. Remember that fellow from Galilee with all those fishermen friends? He was the one, the one who laid it all down for the many. He was goodness personified. But you know what? I just get the impression that even if there was only one to die for, he would have done the same thing. God is so good. He’s so good…to me!
The final words of the Twenty Third Psalm have been the promise to God’s people all the way back to the reign of David. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” We need to claim that promise. Let God be good to you!
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness…
No comments:
Post a Comment