Devotional Six: Goodness

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”   -Luke 6:35  

“As my late husband, Ephraim Levi, used to say, money — pardon the expression — is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow!”  -Dolly Levi, Hello, Dolly!  

Goodness is a quality that is hard to define. Dolly defines goodness in terms of selflessness. After marrying Horace, Dolly fully intends to act as a benefactress to the town of Yonkers. She hopes to do good by spreading Horace’s fortune around to those who are less fortunate. Dolly is practicing goodness by investing in others without expectation of return.   

Luke 6 defines goodness as a person who loves their enemies. In other words, a good person is like God Himself. Without the hope found in Christ, we are God’s enemies in desperate need of saving from God’s wrath. While we were still enemies, God the Father provided Jesus as a Savior to bring us back into right standing with God by atoning for our sins through Jesus’ fully righteous life offered as a sacrifice on the cross. By exchanging our sins for His holiness, Jesus exemplifies ultimate goodness. While we were ungrateful and rebelled against His goodness, God chose to act kindly toward us. 

Luke 6 also defines goodness as lending to others, expecting nothing in return. This is a difficult proposition for anyone. We are almost always willing to give when we can see what goodness there is for us in the exchange. Surely God doesn’t expect us to give and not expect to reap the benefits? But this is precisely what God’s word asks of us as His followers. Goodness is costly to us. Consider the act of forgiveness. True forgiveness means giving away our right to hold someone in debt to us. When we forgive, we let go of our right to justice on our own terms and lean fully upon God to act justly for us. When we give our lives to Christ, He justifies us before God by applying His perfect record of righteousness to our account. This act of forgiveness and grace is the ultimate act of a good person, as demonstrated in the perfect Savior Jesus Christ. May the goodness of Jesus challenge us to love others selflessly and in full goodness.