“To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith” (1 Thessalonians 1:11).

One of the problems with a word only occurring four times only in the New Testament, and no where else in Greek literature is it’s tricky to get the proper meaning correct.

This is evident in the different translations of this verse:

• NRSV – “…asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith”
• NASB – “…asking that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power”
• NIV – “…asking that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire and goodness and your every deed prompted by faith”
• Message – “…pray that God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something”

Both the New Revised Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible talk about God’s good resolve and God’s goodness. The New International Version and the Message talk about the Christian’s goodness and good ideas. The reason for this is because the referent to “good” or “goodness” is ambiguous.

Having said all that, let’s take a look at what the Greek says. A wooden translation of this says, “and he may fulfill every good pleasure of goodness and work of faith with power.”

• The Greek word for “good pleasure” is eudokia. It means good pleasure or satisfaction, but the reference is always the good pleasure or satisfaction God feels toward human beings.
• The Greek word for “goodness” is our word of the week agathosune. As we saw yesterday this goodness refers to a goodness that can only come from God.

Are you still with me? I know this is technical but I trust you are able to stay with me.

Looking at all the evidence, I think both the NRSV and the NASB are the better translations.

So, what does all this mean?

The Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians that God will make us worthy of his call and God will fulfill by his power every good resolve and good work by his power. This is important because the call to be good on our own power and will leads either to despair or pride.

• It leads to despair because no matter how much we try with our own power to be good, we will never be perfectly good. We will always fail.
• It leads to pride because if we think we can be good and see others who fail we end up prideful at our abilities and we look down on those who can’t seem to manage to be good.

Thank God that God promises to declare us good because Jesus did for us what we could not do on our own. Jesus’ goodness covers our failures. And Jesus’ goodness causes us to live good lives.

Because of all that God has done for us in Jesus, we can strive to live out our calling trusting that God is at work in us to make us good through the Holy Spirit. God is at work in us to make us more like Jesus. This is the work of sanctification – becoming more like Jesus.

Even though we may fail from time to time, God is never done with us. God is always at work in us to make us worthy of his call. Our starting point, because of all that God has already done for us in Jesus, is from the point of having already been declared and deemed good.

That, my friends, is truly great news!

 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

We will be looking at the sixth characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit this week.

A quick recap:

• There are nine characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23
• There are not 9 fruits of the Spirit. Fruit in the Greek is in the singular. There are nine characteristics listed, but this list is not exhaustive
• The Greeks did not have an “etc” so the way the Greek expresses “etc” is by listing like qualities
• Other characteristics that build up the body of Christ and encourage growth and maturity in the believer is assumed to be included in the list of those characteristics that make up the fruit of the Spirit

I learned as a new Christian to memorize the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit by seeing that there are three sets of threes based on syllables:

• Love, joy, peace – one syllable
• Patience, kindness, goodness – two syllables
• Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – three syllables

The Greek word for goodness is agathosume.  The goodness referred to in this word is very specific. The word is only used 4 times in the entire New Testament. The word good appears hundreds of times, but this particular word only occurs 4 times. Agothosume refers to an intrinsic goodness that comes from God and shows itself in spiritual and moral excellence or virtue.

Not only does agothosume only occur 4 times in the New Testament, it occurs nowhere else in secular Greek. This is purely a Christian term for only Christians can demonstrate a goodness that comes from God.

We cannot generate goodness on our own. This goodness is not in us. We are powerless on our own to live out goodness. Jesus says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:18). We can only live out this goodness and virtue as God enables us through the Holy Spirit.

Agothosume is a goodness and virtue that only Christians can live out in our world. I look forward to learning about this goodness which only Christians can demonstrate to a world desperate for goodness and virtue!

“But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).

The word for kindness is only used ten times in the New Testament. Of the ten times, six of them refer to the kindness of God toward sinners.

God offers sinners salvation and eternal life purely based on God’s goodness and kindness. There is not one who is worthy of the grace and kindness God offers, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

These verses in Titus summarizes the good news. Salvation is all God’s doing. All that we can do is to receive God’s gift and offer of salvation.

So what’s the big deal?

Simply put, God anticipated our stupidity and foolishness when God chose to save us. When God called us to participate in his kingdom work, God already took into account our stupidity and foolishness!

Isn’t that good news?

I am not suggesting that we go out of our way to prove our stupidity and foolishness. I am suggesting that when we mess up, get right back up and try again to do it better next time. Because God will use even our stupidity and foolishness to accomplish God’s work.

The greatest tragedy is if we were to do nothing with the gift of salvation God has given us.

Even during this pandemic, do your part to share God’s good news in practical and timely ways to those around you. We do this not to earn God’s favor, but because we have already received God’s favor!

So, what can you do today to share God’s good news with the people around you? How can you join in showing God’s kindness in a practical and timely manner?