Fruit of The Spirit: Gentleness, Goodness

But the fruit of the spirit according to Galatians 5:22 is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, gentleness. Isn't that an interesting word? Actually the word means kindness. It's talking about the kind of relationship that we have with one another where we touch each other with gentleness and with kindness. Now, this word is not used very often in the New Testament. And when you find it in the Old Testament in the Hebrew language, basically it's the word goodness. But in the New Testament, it's talking about the opposite of being severe, being sharp, being difficult. 

Now, the shallow sentimentality of the world would teach that kindness is the ultimate in all religious faith. Ella Wilcox has written a little poem that expresses this humanistic philosophy. Here's what she says: "So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths that wind and wind, while just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs." Now, it's a beautiful sentiment, but when you think that through, you've got to ask the question, fine, where is that kindness going to come from? And who is going to decide what is really kind? Someone sees a loved one who is suffering and he says, well, the kindest thing I can do for that loved one is to take his life or take her life, because all he or she does is lie there and suffer. Who is to determine what is kindness? What is gentleness? 

Actually religion is much more than kindness. I think that just as human beings, we ought to be kind to one another, gentle with one another. "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." But the problem with this humanistic, sentimental approach to kindness or gentleness is this: they want the fruits but they don't want the roots. They say, oh, the world ought to be kind, neighbors should be kind to one another. We should be gentle. We should not be shoving each other and criticizing each other and cutting each other down with sharp words. Fine, I agree with that. But where is that going to come from? 

You don't change a person's words until you change his heart. You don't change his conduct until you change his character, and you don't change his character until you change his heart. How are you going to change his heart? How do you take a mean-hearted person and make that person gentle and kind? Well, the word means the opposite of severe or the opposite of sharp. In Romans 11:22, Paul says, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God." Now God does have a severe side to Him. We like to think of God only as love, but God is light, and light can burn as well as illuminate. God is a God of justice, God is a God of judgment. There is a severe side to God. But in His grace, He reveals to us His gentleness. 

When Paul was trying to solve the problems in the Corinthian church, he wrote to them in 2 Corinthians 13:10, "Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness," now that's just the opposite of gentleness, "according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction." There is a place for sharpness. There are times when mother or father must speak sharply to a child. There is a time when we must deal critically with certain things. But the fruit of the spirit is gentleness, which is kindness. 

The person who has this fruit of the spirit, first of all, is easy to live with. Now this doesn't mean he compromises, doesn't mean he agrees with everybody. That's not what the word of God is talking about. Really it means we have strength within. We have conviction. We have our stand on the things of the word of God, but there is a gentleness about us. We are easy to live with. We build bridges and not walls. We come with healing, not with wounding. Gentleness is a moral goodness that helps us to relate positively to other people. We're easy to live with. Have you ever noticed that our Lord Jesus Christ was easy to live with? That's an interesting thought. 

In Luke 15, the publicans and the sinners gathered around him to listen to him. They didn't run to hear the Pharisees. Pharisees stood there criticizing and said look, he has friends who are publicans and sinners. What kind of a person is he? Our Lord Jesus had a gentleness about him. Even when he rebuked and reproved, there was a gentleness, a kindness about him. You see, gentleness is not weakness, it's power under control. When a person is gentle, that person is not weak. That person is disciplined and has an inner strength that keeps him together. 

There's a positive and a negative. The positive is that we reach out with love. It all starts with love. The fruit of the spirit is love, and joy, and peace, and longsuffering, and gentleness. Now, it's kind of hard to have gentleness if you don't have longsuffering. If you don't have peace in your own heart, I would certainly hate to have a nervous surgeon working on my eye. If you don't have joy in your own heart, you won't build bridges, you'll build walls. You'll protect yourself. So love leads to gentleness. There's the positive: we reach out. There's the negative: we shrink from hurting and giving pain to others. The gentle person is one who helps others to feel at ease. 

By the way, this is one of the secrets of witnessing. As I read my Bible, I notice in the four gospels that the Lord Jesus put people at ease. He didn't argue with them. He didn't immediately find something to disagree with. When he talked to the woman at the well, he talked to her about water. She'd come to the well to get water, and he led her to salvation. This does not mean we have to agree with what they do or think or say. It does mean that we love them in the Lord and that love manifests itself in gentleness. You see, it's one thing to say, oh, I love you, and quite something else to be gentle with you. It's quite something else to reach out in love with that gentle, tender touch that brings assurance and healing. 

Now, the yoke of the law is a galling yoke. It's an irritating yoke. This is why people who live under law are such irritating people. They are being irritated by the yoke of the law and so they irritate us. Whenever I speak about the law and our freedom from the law, I receive mail from people who say, Brother Wiersbe, you are not teaching the Bible in truth. You must tell people to obey certain laws, the Sabbath law or some other law. And so often these letters are mean and irritating. You know why? These people are being galled by the yoke of the law. 

You see, the yoke that our Lord gives to us is an easy yoke, a gentle yoke. Have you ever stopped to think of how gentle the Lord is with you? You see, God is gentle in all that he does. In salvation, you talk about the kindness of God in salvation. Ephesians 2:7-8 talks about that, "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness," now there's the word, "toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith." God in his kindness, in his gentleness, has come to us in Jesus Christ. 

Now don't misunderstand me. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew how to be stern. At the beginning of his ministry and at the end of his ministry, he went into the temple. He picked up a whip and he cleaned house. But he did so in the loving justice of God. In Matthew 23, he preached a sermon that simply rebuked and condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. But I'm sure he was weeping in his heart as he did it. He was not expressing anger, but anguish. That's love that is really hurt. And the Lord Jesus Christ is gentle toward us and we should be gentle toward others. 

Do you know why we throw our weight around and use our authority to build ourselves up and to tear other people down? Because we think we are more important than they are. When you're wearing the garment of gentleness, then you have that gentle touch with other people, and others are more important than you are. By the way, the test of your gentleness is this: how do you treat a brother when he falls? Somebody makes a mistake, somebody sins. How do you treat him? Galatians 6:1, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted." That word restore is the word for setting a broken bone. How do you want the doctor to set a broken bone in your body? With gentleness. Yes, the fruit of the spirit is gentleness, and this gentleness shows itself in kindness. 

Each day, I need to put on the garments of God's grace. Put on gentleness. I need to express this gentleness to others in forgiveness, in that loving touch that makes life easier for them. It's a matter of character. Gentleness is a beautiful fruit of the spirit that can only come when the Holy Spirit of God is in control. It costs to be gentle, but it pays to be gentle, and you'll pay a greater price if you are not gentle.

Galatians 5:22 tells us, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness." How do you define what is good? It's a rather dangerous thing to do without some guidance. How do you define what is good? A young man came running up to Jesus one day and said, "Good Master, what good thing should I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus instantly said, "Why do you call me good? Only one is good, and that is God." 

The way we use words is an indication of what we think in our hearts. What is good to you? Well, the practical man says, "If it works, it's good." We have a philosophy here in America that is called pragmatism. The pragmatist says, "If it works, it's good." Doesn't make any difference where we're going, but if it works, it's good. It's like the airplane pilot who said to the passengers, "We're lost, but we're making very good time." You see, pragmatic approach to life says, "If it works, it's good," whether it's right or wrong. 

And of course, the sensual person says, "If it gives pleasure, it's good." One of our leading American authors, now dead, I believe he committed suicide, said, "What's good is what you feel good after, and what's bad is what you feel bad after." Well, I've had surgery and I felt pretty bad after that surgery, but it was certainly good for me. Sin has a way of feeling good and then producing death. You see, a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. And Jesus says make the tree good and then the fruit will be good. Take care of the roots and the fruits will take care of themselves. 

That which is good is that which is godly. The word good and the word God are first cousins. In Exodus 34:5, we read these words: "And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him," Moses, "there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." Notice the connection there. Abundant in goodness and truth. If you separate goodness from truth, you don't have goodness. 

How do we know what is good? God's word tells us what is good. God's character tells us what is good. Our God is abundant in his goodness toward us. Our Lord makes an interesting statement in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:44. Let's begin at verse forty-four: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Now why? That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 

He's saying here, be like God. God is good even to the evil. Those who curse his name, those who never thank him for sunshine, those who never lift their hearts in praise for the food that they have or the breath that they breathe, God still sends the sunshine, he still sends the rain, and he says to you and me, "Now you follow my example. You exercise goodness in this world." God is causing all things to work together for good to them that love God. 

Now, we may look at these things and not think they are good. I confess I have been in circumstances and I have been feeling pains that I couldn't see any good in them. Psalm 23:6 says, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us, shall follow me, all the days of my life." That's interesting. He said when I get to the end of my life and look back at all the days of my life, I'm not going to see misery. I'm going to see goodness and mercy. When we get to glory and we look back at our lives, and God says to us, "Here's what I was doing," we're going to praise him, we're going to rejoice in him, we're going to thank him even for those times when we hurt, when we were heartbroken, and when we wondered if we could keep going for one more day. 

You may not believe it right now, but if you know Jesus as your savior and if you're following him, God's goodness is following you. You're going to look back and say, you know it was good. I didn't understand why the baby died, but now I can see what good God worked out. I cannot understand why I had to have that surgery, why that automobile accident took place. I didn't understand at the time why I lost my job, but I know now as I look back, it was God's goodness. 

Now that takes faith. Of course, it takes faith. Sometimes we're like little children. Oh God, why do you have to do this? Why the needle? And why the scalpel? And why the battle? And why the burden? And God is saying, "My child, I'm being good to you." You see, God is good to us. God's good to nature. In Psalm 104, we have a beautiful song about God's goodness to nature. How he lays the beams of the heavens and the earth, and how he sends the plants and the seeds, and how he puts the springs in the valleys, and how he gives water to all the animals. He takes care of the birds. You ought to read Psalm 104. "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches." 

Tragedy is we're exploiting all of this and wrecking God's earth. God is so good to nature. We'd starve if God were not good in nature. I live in Nebraska. Nebraska's great corn country. My agricultural friends tell me that one corn plant pumps five pints of water a day. Now if you've got to say, oh, twelve, fourteen thousand plants per acre, that means you need eight hundred and seventy-five gallons of water a day. You know what God does? One inch of rain falling on one hundred and sixty acres provides over four million gallons of water. That's the goodness of God. 

The goodness of God in salvation. This is the remarkable thing. I can see God being good to nature; all of nature cooperates with God, all of nature does what God wants them to do. But in salvation, God should be good to me? And yet God is good to us in salvation. God is rich in mercy and great in his kindness toward us and he saves us. Now, we in turn ought to have the fruit of the spirit which is goodness. 

God's people should be manifesting goodness. Good works. We are his workmanship, says Ephesians 2:10, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, what good works? Unto good works which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them. God already has designed the good works he wants us to do. "Let your light so shine before men," said the Lord Jesus, "that they may see your good works." But don't let them see your good works in such a way that they praise you. Let them see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. First they are watchers; they see our good works. Then they are worshippers; they glorify the Father who is in heaven. 

God's people aren't saved by good works, but they have a salvation that ought to lead to good works. We're told in 2 Timothy 3:3 that one of the signs of the end times is this: people will be despisers of those that are good. That's interesting. We're living in a world today where men despise that which is good. Here are parents who are trying to raise their children to be good, and yet folks will come along and say you can't do that. Here are young people in school, all they want to do is just pray and read the Bible and they aren't allowed to do it. Here are people who want to do good and they are despised. Why? Because the world doesn't have the same idea of goodness that we have. 

How should we treat those who are despisers of those that are good? Well, he tells us in Romans 12:21, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." There are only three levels on which we can live. We can return evil for good; that's where the devil lives. We can return good for good and evil for evil; that's where most people live. Or we can return good for evil; that's where Christians ought to live. That's what Jesus did. Yes, the fruit of the spirit is goodness. That means practical goodness, love in action, love in shoe leather, love with its hands open reaching out to share with others, in gentleness, in joyfulness, and in faith. The fruit of the spirit is goodness. Let's let our light shine today as we share goodness with others.