Spiritual Goodness

Good versus evil. Millions of dollars are made in illustrating the struggle between the two. The good has always been intrigued by the evil.

One of the first attributes of God ever displayed for us is His goodness. “In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth….” After each phase of creation, He gave His stamp of approval by declaring “It is good.”

God also declared us “good.” James 1:17-18, “Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us His true word. And we, out of all creation, became His prized possession.”

Although we were good, God found a flaw in what He’d made. It was “not good for man to be alone.” He needed companionship. What is so good about companionship? Solomon concludes in Ecclesiastics 4:9-12, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.…”

Whether that success we hunger for could be interpreted as pride might be debatable, but we do know that it was ultimately pride that ruined the good relationship that mankind had with God in the garden. The intrigue of evil won out. And once Pandora’s Box was opened, simply having knowledge of evil was enough to make good deeds less common.

From the beginning, God has also given us guidelines and instructions (commands) that lead us away from evil and lead us closer to being more like God in desiring good. James 4:7-8, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”

What Adam and Eve failed to do was to surrender their will to God's. Had they done that, they most likely would not have taken the fruit. But what’s different today? Hasn’t God still left His word to guide us away from evil and towards good?

3 John 11, “Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.”

The Spirit is God’s gift to us to be that voice inside. The cognizant reminder of what is the good thing versus the evil thing. We have to make the choice to listen. Cain learned the hard way in Genesis 4:6-7 that listening to God will thwart Satan’s plans for evil. God told him, “But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” Cain ignored God.

This is the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. Hebrews 5:14 says that those who are mature (eating spiritual solid food) have their senses trained to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Jesus reminded us in Luke 6:40, “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”

Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

As goodness may sound vague, it is in essence the understanding of the choice before us. We can follow what God has established as good, or we can listen to alternative instructions outside of God that will ultimately result in becoming, or doing evil.

As we reflect on the goodness of God, we should accept that God has done something that changes how we view the options before us by giving us His Spirit. Paul says in Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.”

Good deeds--done with good motives--please God.