While I was training for the ministry, I did a week’s practical under one of the original Dutch ministers of our denomination. He tended to mangle his English, producing some foot-in-mouth moments. He once compared all the voluntary work done in the church to those who were in paid ministry. He said, ‘I am paid to be good, and the congregation is good for nothing!’ ‘Goodness’ is the sixth fruit of the Spirit. The Hebrew word for good, ‘tov’, means that which ‘gratifies the senses, is delightful, delicious, sweet’. By extension it includes ‘that which is morally satisfying and right.’ The Greek word for 'good’, ‘agathos’, describes that which is ‘fit, capable, useful, what is right, that which is excellent.’

A rich young man asked Jesus, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ Jesus replied, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good.’ Jesus implied: without the grace of God we cannot do good. As Paul put it, ‘All have turned away, they have together become worthless, there is no one who does good, not even one’. We know what good is by knowing God. ‘The Lord is good, and his love endures forever...!’ The Lord is good. God defines what good is. He is absolute perfection in himself. There is nothing in God’s character that is wanting. Nothing can be added to make him better. Augustine said that God is ‘SUMMUM BONUM’ – ‘the highest good’. God himself is what we measure everything else by. He is the standard of goodness.

What is the goodness of God? God said to Moses, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you… the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.’ Compassion, grace, patience, love. These things together make up God’s goodness. A theologian said: ‘We speak of something as good, when it is ideal in all its parts… and God is in every way all that he as God should be.’ What typifies God’s goodness is generosity, which means to give with a big heart. That is what compassion, grace, patience, and love are about, being big hearted. Not limited by what others deserve. Augustine also said God is ‘ULTRO BONUS’ - ‘abundant in goodness’. The Belgic Confession says God is ‘...good and the overflowing source of all good.’ God’s generosity, his goodness, is demonstrated in creation. ‘God said let there be… and it was good.” We see God’s generosity in that he has made such an abundance of animals and plants in vast array, spectacular mountain ranges, astonishing galaxies and a universe that goes on and on. God is indeed ‘…good and the overflowing source of all good.’

God is the standard of goodness, and everything is good when it conforms to the will of God. So, we do ‘good’ when we, like the creation, are obedient to God. Our understanding is radically different to the culture in which we live. In our communities good is often what the individual feels it is. But we recognize that good is what God says it is. As Paul put it: ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test, able approve God’s will- his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Doing good according to God’s will is not a drudgery but a pleasure. ‘Your laws are good... How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.’ We do good when we do what God says. We need to ‘...cling to what is good.’ Clinging to the good is like hanging onto a life rope when you’re drowning. You just hang on for life and don't let go. You know what God’s Word says and you just do it. You cling to it. Perhaps you are bored with your spiritual life. Being committed to the church doesn’t seem to do anything for you. ‘Clinging to the good’ is holding on through disappointment, persevering when you are discouraged. You just do God’s will even if it doesn’t seem much fun. Why? Because it is right and good. ‘Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.’ Do you want to share the gospel with others? Be generous. Be bighearted. Be good. We have found the good life. And letting others discover it as well is a good thing to do.

Leo Douma