“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness….”

Goodness is virtuous, kind, pure, generous, excellent, benevolent. It is moral excellence.

What’s the opposite of goodness? Badness.

God is abounding and overflowing in goodness.

Exodus 34:6-7a And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

Psalm 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 31:19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men.

Psalm 52:1b The goodness of God endures continually.

Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Romans 11:22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

The Christian is full of goodness.

Romans 15:14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Our goodness is in God.Psalm 16:2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my goodness is nothing apart from You.”Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Goodness accompanies the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:8-9 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. Good works are the result of the goodness that God has planted within us.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Titus 1:8 For a bishop must be…. A lover of what is good.

1 Timothy 2:9-10 I desire…that the women adorn themselves….with good works.

Proverbs 31:11 She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

1 Timothy 5:9-10 Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number…unless she has been …well reported for good works.

1 Peter 3:6 As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.

Isaiah 1:16b-17a Cease to do evil, learn to do good.

Titus 3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

What things could possibly hinder us in goodness and good works, particularly in our marriages?

1. Straying from the truth. This happens when we drift away from close obedience by compromising, excusing, and tolerating sinfulness in ourselves. For example, though we know the Bible calls wives to be submissive, but we don’t do it, we are straying. Goodness is accompanied by the truth. We are to learn to do good.

2. Lack of faith. When we give way to fear and fail to trust God, we fall short of the mark. If we trust God, we are able to be submissive and follow our husbands because we have faith in Him.Goodness is accompanied by faith.

3. Lack of reverence for Christ will flow downstream, and we will not respect our husbands either. We are to be God-fearing women, adorned with reverence (1 Pet. 3:2). Goodness is accompanied by the fear of God.

4. Being self absorbed. When we look to ourselves instead of to Christ, we grow weary quickly and give up. When we are taken up with ourselves, we are not able to bring good to others. Goodness knows the source of all that is good is found in God and not in self.

5. Disobedience always hinders us in every way. We cannot bring our husbands good all the days of their lives if we are living in disobedience. Goodness is concerned with obedience.We are to walk as children of light. God’s goodness leads us to repentance, so when we are convicted of our sin, this is God being good to us.

6. Carelessness. When we are careless or lazy Christians, we will be careless wives, spending money thoughtlessly, speaking unwisely, wasting time. We are to be careful (not careless) to maintain good works.

7. Lack of joy. This robs us of our desire to do good because we are more concerned with others doing good to us. If we spend much time thinking about what nice things our husbands could do for us rather than meditating on how we can bring them good, we are in this joyless trap of self-centeredness. Goodness rejoices.

If we meditate on and admire God’s goodness, we will become lovers of the good and equipped to do good works. We will be on the look out for opportunities to show goodness to one another.