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Morality
A few years ago
young
women blushed if they were embarrassed. Today
they are embarrassed if they
blush.
Morality
In a schoolboy experiment
some young lads put a frog in a container of water and began to heat the water
very slowly. The water finally reached the boiling point and yet the frog never
even attempted to jump out. Why? Because the changes in the environment were so
slight and slow to occur that the frog didn’t notice them until it was too
late.
As
Christians
we can end up like the frog. There are changes in our moral
environment that we don’t even notice have occurred. We can be dying without
even noticing it!
Morality
But one has to have an
ethical base for a society. Where the prime force is impulse
there is the death
of ethics.
Purpose of Morality
Morality seems to be
concerned with three things. First
with fair play and harmony between
individuals. Second
with what might be called tidying up or harmonizing the
things inside each individual. Third
with the general purpose of human life as
a whole; what man was made for; what course the whole fleet ought to be on;
what tune the conductor of the band wants it to play.—C.S. Lewis
Morality
A few years ago
young women blushed
if they were embarrassed. Today
they are embarrassed if they blush. ── Michael
P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Morality
In a schoolboy experiment
some young
lads put a frog in a container of water and began to heat the water very
slowly. The water finally reached the boiling point and yet the frog never even
attempted to jump out. Why? Because the changes in the environment were so
slight and slow to occur that the frog didn’t notice them until it was too
late.
As Christians
we can end up like the
frog. There are changes in our moral environment that we don’t even notice have
occurred. We can be dying without even noticing it! ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Morality
But one has to have an ethical base
for a society. Where the prime force is impulse
there is the death of ethics.
Purpose of Morality
Morality seems to be concerned with
three things. First
with fair play and harmony between individuals. Second
with
what might be called tidying up or harmonizing the things inside each
individual. Third
with the general purpose of human life as a whole; what man
was made for; what course the whole fleet ought to be on; what tune the
conductor of the band wants it to play.— C.S. Lewis
Two brothers were getting
ready to boil some eggs to color for Easter. "I'll give you a dollar if
you let me break three of these on your head
" said the older one.
"Promise?" asked the younger. "Promise!" Gleefully
the older
boy broke two eggs over his brother's head. Standing stiff for fear the gooey
mess would get all over him
the little boy asked
"When is the third egg
coming?" "It's not
" replied the brother. "That would cost
me a dollar."
Source Unknown.
Some years ago
when the
news broke that Joseph Stalin's daughter had defected from Communism and
Russia
many people were startled. Her statement
given to reporters who met
her plane in New York
told why she defected:
"I found it
impossible to exist without God in one's heart. I came to that conclusion
myself
without anybody's help or preaching. That was a great change because
since that moment the main dogmas of Communism lost their significance for me.
I have come here to seek the self-expression that has been denied me for so
long in Russia."
That woman's struggle was
a terrible one. To leave Russia
she had to leave two children in Moscow and
realize that it would be
as she said
"impossible to go back."
Pascal said there is
within every person a "God-shaped vacuum." He's right. Historians
Will and Ariel Durant observed in their summary volume
The Lessons of
History
that "there never has been a significant example of morality
apart from belief in God."
Morning Glory
February 5
1994.
What does the cheating
scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy say about military honor? Last week
Navy
investigators reported that 81 midshipmen had obtained a copy of a 1992
engineering exam before exam day and that many of them then lied during an
internal investigation
some to protect classmates. Former Assistant Secretary
of Defense Richard Armitage
who chaired a review of the academy's honor code
blames the widespread cheating on the Navy's emphasis on skills like technical
proficiency over character development. A 1967 Annapolis graduate
Armitage
notes that one point of honor is still pounded into all midshipmen from Day 1:
"Never bilge (endanger) a shipmate." That credo cuts two ways
says
James Q. Wilson
author of The Moral Sense. It explains why some
midshipmen betrayed their personal honor by lying to protect their classmates;
but
says Wilson
those same people will never let their buddies down during
times of war. He adds
"I wouldn't worry that this indicates a decaying
moral fabric of the next generation of military officers."
U.S. News & World
Report
February 7
1994
p. 12.
Consider the results of a
survey conducted in 1988 by the Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center. Some 1
700
students between the sixth and ninth grade attended adolescent assault awareness
classes conducted in schools across the state. Each boy and girl was asked if a
man should have a right to force a woman to have sexual intercourse if he had
spent money on her.
The results were shocking.
Nearly 25 percent of the boys and 16 percent of the girls said "yes"!
Then 65 percent of the boys and 47 percent of the girls in the seventh through
ninth grades said it is okay for a man to force a woman to have sex with him if
they have dated for six months or longer. And 51 percent of the boys and 41
percent of the girls said a man has a right to force a woman to kiss him if he
spent "a lot of money on her" -- which was defined by 12-year-olds as
$10 to $15.
I must admit to being
shocked by these findings
and yet
not really. These young students merely
learned the lessons they were taught by the value-free educational system.
Their teachers taught them in sex education classes that there is nothing right
or wrong
no standard for moral judgment. "It all depends on how you see
the matter
Johnny." It turns out Johnny sees it rather brutally.
Johnny's older brothers
learned their lessons well
too. In a classic study at UCLA
Malamuth and
Feshback found that 51 percent of male sophomores said they would rape a woman
if they knew they would never get caught. This is the legacy of moral
relativism
just one generation removed.
J. Dobson & Gary
Bauer
Children at Risk
Word
1990
pp. 258-259.
There was a time when most
Americans respected the Bible
and you could quote it with authority. In 1963
according to Gallup
65% believed the Bible literally; today the number is only
32%. There was a time when most Americans were familiar with biblical doctrine.
You could say
"Believe in Jesus
" and at least they knew what you
meant. But today most would be mystified. Newsweek tells of a child who
saw a crucifix and asked
"Mommy
what's that man doing?" There was a
time when most Americans accepted absolute standards. They might disagree on
what those absolutes were
but they knew that some things are really right or
wrong. Today 70% reject moral absolutes.
Chuck Colson
Christianity
Today
November 9
1992
p. 112.
A recent Barna Research
Group survey on what Americans believe confirms what this brief scenario
illustrates: we are in danger of becoming a nation of relativists. The Barna
survey asked
"Is there absolute truth?" Amazingly
66 percent of
American adults responded that they believe that "there is no such thing
as absolute truth; different people can define truth in conflicting ways and
still be correct." The figure rises to 72 percent when it comes to those
between the ages of 18 and 25.
Christianity Today
October 26
1992
p. 30.
In his 1983 acceptance
speech for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion
[Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn] recalled the words he heard as a child
when his elders sought to
explain the ruinous upheavals in Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's
why all this has happened." He added
"If I were called upon to
identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century
here too
I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once
again: 'men have forgotten God.'"
John Wilson
reviewing Solzhenitsyn
and the Modern World
in Christianity Today
Feb 7
1994
p. 57.
Modern thinkers have rejected
the very idea of objective morality: Darwin
who reduced morals to an extension
of animal instincts; Freud
who regarded repression of impulses as the source
of neurosis; Marx
who disdained morality as an expression of
self-interest.
Charles Colson
Christianity
Today
March 7
1994
p. 80.
It is no wonder that in 15
years of asking high school students throughout America whether
in an
emergency situation
they would save their dog or a stranger first
most
students have answered that they would not save the stranger. "I love my
dog
I don't love the stranger
" they always say. The feeling of love has
supplanted God or religious principle as the moral guide for young people. What
is right has been redefined in terms of what an individual feels.
Dennis Prager in Good
News
July/Aug
1993
quoted in Christianity Today
Oct 25
1993
p.
73.
Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg
a
Harvard psychologist
has pinpointed six plateaus of moral development. Let's
venture a guess as to where we're located.
Stage one: obedience and
punishment. Right is what authorities command. The underlying motive is fear of
punishment
not respect for authority or values.
Stage two:
back-scratching. When people begin to seek a return for their favors. It's the
"I'll-do-for-you-but-only-if- you-reciprocate" mentality. Kohlberg
terms it "the morality of the marketplace."
Stage three: conformity.
Good behavior is that which pleases or helps others
and is approved by them.
The evaluations and expectations of peers are particularly strong.
Stage four: law-and-order.
What is right is doing one's duty
showing respect for authority and
maintaining the given social order. What the law commands transcends all other
considerations.
Stage five: social
contract. Right is defined in terms of the general rights of individuals
as
agreed upon by the whole society (e.g.
U.S. Constitution).
Stage six: universal
principles. Morality is based on decisions of conscience made in accordance
with self-chosen principles of "right" -- principles which are universal
and consistent.
Jon Johnston
Courage -
You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear
1990
SP Publications
p. 89.
If there are no absolutes
by which to judge society
then society is absolute.
Francis Schaeffer.
In South Africa
naturist
club owner Beau Brummell was irked by accusations from morals watchdogs that a
shriveling Transvaal drought was brought on the the "sin" of nude
togetherness at his 1000-acre farm. So he asked his 370 visitors to get
dressed. And
for the first time in two months
it poured rain. "It's
enough to make me become a monk!" Brummell said.
Ingrid Norton in Rand
Daily Mail
Johannesburg.
"I think it's fairly
obvious why I was married. As strange as it may sound
I am a very moral woman.
I was taught by my parents that if you fall in love
if you want to have a love
affair
you get married. I guess I'm very old-fashioned."
Elizabeth Taylor after
seven marriages
five divorces
in the San Francisco Chronicle.
All across this country
the undermining and destruction of the values that children were taught at home
is going on in public schools. One of the first things a family tries to teach
its children is the difference between right and wrong. One of the first things
our schools try to destroy is that distinction. The up-to-date way to carry on
the destruction of traditional values is to claim to be solving some social
problem like drugs
AIDS or teen-age pregnancy. Only those few people who have
the time to research what is actually being done in "drug education
"
"sex education" or "death education" courses know what an
utter fraud these labels are.
For those are courses
about how right and wrong are outmoded notions
about how your parents' ideas
are no guide for you
and about how each person must start from scratch to
develop his or her own way of behaving.
Thomas Sowell
Creators
Syndicate
quoted in Reader's Digest
March
1993
p. 178.
One of the most famous
trials in history was that of Benjamin Francois Courvoisier in London in 1840
who is now immortalized in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Courvoisier was a Swiss
valet accused of slicing the throat of his elderly employer
Lord William
Russell. What made this trial notorious was the argument for the defense. The
police had bungled the investigation. The evidence against Courvoisier was
entirely circumstantial or had been planted. One of the officers had perjured
himself
and the maid's testimony brought suspicion on herself. The defense
attorney
Charles Phillips
was convinced of the innocence of Courvoisier and
cross-examined witnesses aggressively.
At the beginning of the
second day of the trial
however
Courvoisier confessed privately to his lawyer
that he had committed the murder. When asked if he were going to plead guilty
he replied to Charles Phillips
"No
sir
I expect you to defend me to the
utmost."
Phillips was faced with a
dilemma. Should he declare to the court that the man was guilty
or should he
defend Courvoisier as best he could? Should he break the confidentiality of the
client-lawyer relationship
or should he help a guilty man to possibly go free?
Which is more important -- truth or professional duty?
Phillips decided to defend
the guilty man. But despite Phillips's efforts
Courvoisier was convicted. When
the dilemma was later made public
Phillips's decision to defend a murderer
horrified British society and brought him a great deal of criticism.
Klyne Snodgrass
Between
Two Truths - Living with Biblical Tensions
1990
Zondervan Publishing
House
pp. 11-12.
Allan Bloom writes:
"Openness - and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in
the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human
beings -- is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real
danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad
in the past; men always thought they were right
and that led to wars
persecutions
slavery
xenophobia
racism and chauvinism. The point is not to
correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are
right at all."
Charles Colson
Against
the Night
pp. 84.
As Dorothy Sayers
observed
"In the world it is called Tolerance
but in hell it is called
Despair.. the sin that believes in nothing
cares for nothing
seeks to know
nothing
interferes with nothing
enjoys nothing
hates nothing
finds purpose
in nothing
lives for nothing
and remains alive because there is nothing for
which it will die."
Charles Colson
Against
the Night
p. 93.
I have come to the
conclusion that it is impossible to have a moral community or nation without
faith in God
because without it everything rapidly comes down to
"me
" and "me" alone is meaningless. Today Americans have
stopped acting in terms of their own moral
ethical and religious beliefs and
principles. They've stopped acting on what they knew was right -- and the
"me" has become the measure of everything.
However
moral societies
are the only ones that work. If anyone thinks there is not a direct and
invaluable relationship between personal integrity in a society and that
society's prosperity
that person has simply not studied history. And this
should not surprise us. Great moral societies
built upon faith in God
honor
trust
and the law blossoms because they are harmonious; because people love or
at least respect their fellowman; because
finally
they have a common belief
in something beyond themselves. It simplifies life immensely; you do not waste
and spend your days fighting for turf
for privilege
for money and power over
your fellowman.
Alexis de Tocqueville said
it best when he realized even at the very beginning of our national life
"America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good
she will cease to be great."
Georgia Anne Geyer
Bits
& Pieces
September 17
1992
pp. 23-24.
It's out
and it's hot: a
discussion guide on sexuality for Lutherans. Released last month
it is sure to
spark debate both in and out of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) between now and the next ELCA assembly in 1993. "Human Sexuality
and the Christian Faith
" a 55 page document produced by the
denomination's Division for Church and Society
was designed to prompt dialogue
and set the stage for a future ELCA social statement on sex issues. The material
urges readers to examine with an open mind different views about marriage
promiscuity
and homosexuality.
At it's core the document
questions biblical passages concerning homosexuality and suggests that
scriptural references to same-sex relationships need to be re-interpreted in
light of modern theories about sexual orientation. "We must distinguish
between moral judgments regarding same-sex activity in biblical times and in
our own time
" the report states. It differentiates "exploitative"
homosexual activity from same-sex relationships" in which there is mutual
love and commitment." The document challenges ELCA members to evaluate
prejudices against homosexuals
insisting that "what we personally find
offensive is not necessarily sinful."
Members of a 24 person
United Methodist Church (UMC) panel could not agree on whether homosexuality is
a sin
so the committee's 14
000-word report on the subject was referred to the
denomination's national policy-making body
which will convene in Louisville
Kentucky
in May. The report contains a majority statement
signed by 17
committee members
recommending the removal of an assertion in the church's
book of rules that homosexual practice and Christianity are incompatible. A
minority report
signed by four members
argues for retaining the current
language. The panel agreed that biblical references to sexual practices should
not be viewed as binding "just because they are in the Bible." Fierce
debate is expected at this year's General Conference because at least 35 of the
UMC's 72 regional bodies have approved resolutions calling for preserving the
traditional stance.
Copyright 1992 by Media
Management
P.O. Box 21433
Roanoke
VA.
While an estimated 74
percent of Americans strongly agree that "there is only one true God
who
is holy and perfect
and who created the world and rules it today
" an
estimated 65 percent either strongly agree or somewhat agree with the assertion
that "there is no such thing as absolute truth."
Christianity Today
September 16
1991
p. 48
from George Barna
The Barna Report: What Americans Believe
1991.
During a recent meeting of
college educators at Harvard University
Cornell president Frank Rhodes rose to
address the issue of reforms
suggesting that it was time for universities to
pay "real and sustained attention to student's intellectual and moral
well-being." Immediately there were gasps
even catcalls.
One indignant student
stood to demand of Rhodes
"Who is going to do the instructing? Whose
morality are we going to follow?" The audience applauded thunderously
believing that the young man had settled the issue by posing an unanswerable
question. Rhodes sat down
unable or unwilling to respond...Basic human nature
dictates that when an individual is left to make moral decisions without
reference to some standard above self
he or she invariably makes those choices
on the basis of self-interest.
Relativism results in
radical individualism. As sociologist Robert Bellah concluded after an
exhaustive survey
Americans have two overriding goals in life: personal
success and vivid personal feelings.
Charles Colson
Jubilee
April
1988.
I recently saw the story
of a high school values clarification class conducted by a teacher in Teaneck
New Jersey. A girl in the class had found a purse containing $1000 and returned
it to its owner. The teacher asked for the class's reaction. Every single one
of her fellow students concluded the girl had been "foolish." Most of
the students contended that if someone is careless
they should be punished.
When the teacher was asked what he said to the students
he responded
"Well
of course
I didn't say anything. If I come from the position of
what is right and what is wrong
then I'm not their counselor. I can't impose
my views."
It's no wonder that J.
Allen Smith
considered a father of many modern education reforms
concluded in
the end
"The trouble with us reformers is that we've made reform a
crusade against all standards. Well
we've smashed them all
and now neither we
nor anybody else have anything left."
Senator Dan Coats
Imprimis
Vol. 20
No. 9
September 1991.
Few executives can afford
the luxury of a conscience. A business that defined right and wrong in terms
that would satisfy a well-developed contemporary conscience could not survive.
When the directors and managers enter the board room to debate policy
they
park their private consciences outside. If they didn't they would fail in their
responsibility to the company that pays them.
The crucial question in
board rooms today is not
"Are we morally obligated to do it?" but
rather "What will happen if we don't do it?" or "How will this
affect the rate of return on our investment?" No company employs a vice
president in charge of ethical standards
and sooner or later the conscientious
executive is likely to come up against a stone wall of corporate indifference
to private moral values. In the real world of today's business
he is almost
surely a troubled man.
Dan Miller
Chicago
Daily News
July 29
1970.
What is moral is what you
feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
Ernest Hemingway.
U.S. Senator Daniel
Patrick Moynihan recently published a disturbing essay entitled "Defining
Deviancy Down." In the Nov 22 issue of The New Republic
Commentator Charles Krauthammer writes that "Moynihan's powerful point is
that with the moral deregulation of the 1960s
we have had an explosion of
deviancy in family life
criminal behavior and public displays of psychosis.
And we have dealt with it in the only way possible: by redefining deviancy down
so as to explain away and make 'normal' what a more civilized
ordered and
healthy society long ago would have labeled--and long ago did
label--deviant."
Christian Research
Institute letter
December 6
1993.
Today
the exalted status
of economics in our public debate is being challenged in some rather intriguing
places. For example
Wall Street Journal editor Robert Bartley recently
observed
"If America is to decline
it will not be because of military
overstretch. Nor the trade balance
Japanese management secrets or even the
federal deficit. If a decline is underway
it's a moral one."
Former Education Secretary
William Bennett sees evidence of such decline in research identifying the most
serious problems in public school classrooms. In 1940
running in the halls
chewing gum
and talking in class headed the list of teacher's disciplinary
concerns; today
robbery
rape
alcohol
drugs
teen pregnancy
and suicide are
most often mentioned. Bennett argues
"If we turn the economy around
have
full employment
live in cities of alabaster and gold
and this is what our
children are doing to each other
then we still will have failed them."
Bennett believes one way
to improve our national debate is to counterbalance
the Commerce Department's
index of leading economic indicators with a collection of some 19 "leading
cultural indicators" including the divorce rate
the illegitimacy rate
the violent crime rate
the teen suicide rate
and even hours devoted to
television viewing. While these cultural variables are only crude indicators of
our nation's social health
they do provide a more complete
and more accurate
empirical assessment of the condition of American society than is available
from economic variables alone. Using economic variables -- even under-utilized
variables like business productivity and hourly compensation rates -- it is
difficult to explain public opinion polls showing that a majority of Americans
believe the quality of life in America has declined over the last three
decades. To understand such perceptions
one has to consider that since 1960
violent crime has risen 560 percent
illegitimate births have increased 400
percent
teen suicides have risen 200 percent
divorce rates have quadrupled
average SAT scores have dropped 80 points
and the proportion of children
living in fatherless families has increased three-fold.
In essence
then
Bennett's leading cultural indicators are to our national debate what
statistics like saves
fielding percentage
and earned run average are to
baseball: reminders that economic production (or run production) isn't
everything. Indeed
a society which manages to make great gains economically
but fails to progress in the cultural areas outlined by Bennett is likely to be
no more successful in the long run than the 1931 New York Yankees. That ball
club
which featured sluggers like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
scored more runs
(1
067) than any other team in major league history. But New York still finished
13 and one-half games behind the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1931 American
League pennant race
in large part because the Yankees' lousy pitching more
than offset run-scoring prowess.
Family Policy
June
1993
pp. 5-6.
Social critic Russell Kirk
has defined decadence as the loss of an aim or object in life. "Men and
women become decadent when they forget or deny the objects of life
and so
fritter away ther years in trifles or debauchery."
Charles Colson
Against
the Night
p. 56.
Meanwhile
decadence and
despair haunt many of America's youth. Perhaps fourteen-year-old Rod Matthews
represents the most horrible extreme. Uninterested in baseball or books
Rod
found one thing that did stimulate him: death. His curiosity was intensely
aroused by a rental video
Faces of Death
a collage of film clips of
people dying violently. He wanted to see death happen in real life.
So one winter day Rod
lured a young friend into the woods and hammered him to death with a baseball
bat. At Matthews's trial a child psychiatrist testified that the boy was not
conventionally insane. He just "doesn't know right from wrong...He is
morally handicapped."
Charles Colson
Against
the Night
pp. 21-22.
Edward Gibbon
author of The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
has attributed the fall of the Empire
to:
1. The rapid increase of
divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home
which is the
basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes
and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for
pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
4. The building of
gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within
the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion
-- faith fading into mere form
losing touch with life and becoming impotent to
warn and guide the people.
Edward Gibbon
The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
The Fruit Of The Spirit - Goodness
INTRODUCTION
1. At this point in our study on "the fruit of the Spirit"
we are examining those graces which relate especially to our dealings with our fellowman... a. Longsuffering
defined as "that quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptlypunish." (VINE)
b. Kindness
defined as "the sympathetic kindliness or sweetness of temper which puts others at their ease
and shrinks from givingpain" (PLUMMER)
c. And now we come to goodness... 2. The Greek word is agathosune {ag-ath-o-soo'-nay}... a. This word is perhaps the most difficult to define
for it is so general in nature b. The difficulty is seen in that the word "goodness" takes it meaning from its context 1) E.g.
we might say "that is a good animal"
or "he is a good man" 2) But good in what way? The context defines the sense... c. The problem with its use in Ga 5:22 is that there is little in the context to guide us 3. But there may be at least two ways we might be able to come to a proper understanding of this word... a. Comparing it to the words "just" and "evil" b. Considering two examples in the New Testament of "good" people [Let's begin by...] I. COMPARING "GOODNESS" TO THE WORDS "JUST" AND "EVIL"
A. THE GREEKS OFTEN COMPARED "GOODNESS" WITH "JUSTICE"... 1. BARCLAY writes of how the Greeks compared these words: a. "Justice
they say
is the quality which gives a man whatis due him;"
b. "...goodness is the quality which is out to do far more than that
and which desires to give a man all that is tohis benefit and help."
2. Again
BARCLAY writes: "The man who is just sticks to theletter of his bond; the man who is good goes far beyond it."
-- This suggests that the primary idea of goodness is "generosity" B. IN THE NT
THE WORD FROM WHICH "GOODNESS" COMES IS OFTENCONTRASTED WITH "EVIL"...
1. In a few places
the words "evil" and "good" have particular meanings 2. In the parable of The Laborers (Mt 20:15)
"evil" means "envious"
while "good" is used for "generous" 3. In Mt 6:19-23... a. The context speaks of an "evil" (or "bad") eye which is begrudging and ungenerous - cf. Pr 28:22 b. In contrast to the eye that is "good" which lays up treasure in heaven (by being generous to others
cf. 1 Ti 6:17-19)
C. NOW WE CAN BEGIN TO DEFINE "GOODNESS"... 1. The person who displays goodness is not like the person who is simply just... a. The person who is simply just gives only to another what he has earned b. Whereas the person who is good is generous to give what was not deserved 2. The person who displays goodness is not like the person who is evil... a. The person who is evil begrudges everything he has to give b. The person who is good is open-hearted and open-handed
i.e.
generous [It has been said that goodness "is easier to recognize than to define". With that in mind
consider...] II. TWO EXAMPLES OF "GOOD" PEOPLE
A. BARNABAS WAS A "GOOD" MAN - Ac 11:24 1. He was generous with his possessions a. Cf. Ac 4:32-37 b. This is consistent with our definition above
that one who is good is generous to give to others what is not deserved 2. He was happy to see the progress of others; i.e.
he was not envious a. Cf. Ac 11:23 b. Again this is consistent with our definition; he was not begrudging another's success 3. Barnabas was an encourager of others a. Cf. Ac 11:23 b. He was liberal with his good words
which is how he got his name - cf. Ac 4:36 B. DORCAS WAS A "GOOD" WOMAN - Ac 9:36 1. She was "full of good works and charitable deeds" 2. Even in her death
her goodness was being felt a. Cf. Ac 9:39
where the widows were showing tunics and garments she had made b. I doubt they were praising her ability to sew
but rather her charity in making such clothes for others (such as the widows) CONCLUSION
1. All those who are truly led by the Spirit of God will produce the quality of "goodness" - cf. Ep 5:8-9 2. That is
doing kind things beyond what is expected or required a. Such was the case of Barnabas and Dorcas b. Paul was confident such was true of the brethren in Rome 15:14
-- Would he have written the same of us? 3. That we should be "full of goodness" is only natural... a. For God who is our Father demonstrated His own "goodness" b. This He did by giving His Son to a sinful world undeserving of such grace - Ti 3:3-7 Have you submitted to His saving mercy
that "washing of regeneration andrenewing of the Holy Spirit"? - cf. Jn 3:5; Mk 16:16; Ac 2:38 If not
then why not do so today
and then heed Paul's call to "goodness"...
"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 tomen." (Ti 3:8)
－－《Executable
Outlines》