Seeing the Face of Goodness

Goodness.  It’s one of those words that in our day and age seems just a little mediocre.  It’s that sturdy ‘B’ on the exam you’ve been labouring towards.  It’s the School Ofsted report deeming your school’s on solid ground, with room to grow. 

It’s a word that’s content in a crowd with both satisfactory and excellent, sitting plumb in the middle.  So is this really what Paul has us striving for, as we seek to live by the Spirit and bear the fruit of goodness? 

As Paul exhorts the Galatian churches not to grow weary in doing good, here’s what strikes me about the nature of the goodness he’s encouraging them towards in the same paragraph:

It involves gently restoring someone who is caught in sin.  It involves carrying each other’s burdens, fulfilling the law of Christ.  It involves putting to death selfish ambition and instead humbly serving others in love.  And in it all, to pursue goodness is ultimately to reap a harvest with eternal, life-giving consequences. 

And here’s the thing: there’s nothing remotely mediocre about that description.  Because in each facet we see the face of Christ, the only one who was truly ‘good’.  We see him in his gentle persistence, restoring Peter after his dramatic denial.  We see him as his arms lay outstretched, carrying our burdensome sinful load.  We see him in each interaction as he walks in the way of love, humbly serving others at each turn, at the expense of his own comfort or convenience.  And we see him as he sets his face to the cross, knowing that in that ultimate good endeavour, he reaped a bountiful eternal harvest for us.

Are you tempted towards weariness dear sister as you think about doing good? Remember Jesus.  Remember his beauty.  Remember his goodness.  And remember that as you set your face towards goodness, sowing to please the Spirit, there is a bountiful eternal harvest to be reaped, to the praise of God’s glory.