Christian Living

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Six part series on focusing on the fruit of the spirit!
By Sandra Cowan

‘Walking, talking, living fruit! – Gentleness and Goodness ’
Impacting our environment through supernatural character!

In the series titled ‘Walking, Talking, Living Fruit’ Sandra Cowan observes and writes wholeheartedly about the 9 components of the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, by which Christ demonstrated that we shall be marked and recognised as the people of God, and Jesus Christ himself will be represented and be a living witness through his people to the whole world.

Gentleness and Goodness

We are living in an age where to be belligerent is common place. We are living in a time where to be cantankerous and feisty is often seen as admirable. Petulance is often worn as a badge of honour and is seen as cool. Too be hard is to be seen as some sort of invincible superman.

Hardness in a Contempary Context

Ask any family who hail from the tough streets of any major city during the 1980’s renaissance period and for sure every body had a brother or uncle or somebody, (or quite a few as the case may be) who was in some or many ways a really hard geezer. These guys were hard! They would form gangs or crews and operate smoothly in a hardcore culture. Many of the gangs were loosely based around the romanticism of Italian Mafioso and its Hollywood depiction and would call themselves names such as ‘The Gambinos of East London’ or some other remotely Italian sounding mobster name. They modelled themselves to be hard and gritty. On the one hand they aspired to having the finer things in life including nice cars, clothes and of course money. But on the other there was no appreciation of the process of productivity that it takes to achieve these things , i.e. finish school, go to college, even university and work saturday student jobs in Pizza Hut or McDonalds, or perhaps learn a trade or become a car designer or an architect or even the sales manager for the export company that imported those favoured crocodile shoes, or just get up and simply go to work! For the hardcore there was to be no input, only outtake. That is what it meant to be hard. It was not necessarily completely their own fault as sociologist will tell you, people become a product of their own environment, and where there is a perceived lack of opportunity and prejudice many become hard not out of choice but necessity. Choice it seems was not the operative word!

If you found yourself caught up as a girlfriend, sister, or mother of the hardmen, the sad reality was you put up and shut up. A slap or worse would put you on your place if you stepped out of line. Life in the homes of the hardcore was comparable to a exercise in ‘the survival of the fittest’. The so called ‘Chav’ culture that is spoken about today really is a by product of the 1980’s hardcore lifestyle. Just ask anybody who lived a hard life in this period and their stories will invariably be the same; Music would probably blast whilst the children attempted to study for their exams, People would shout rather than talk to one another, or worse they wouldn’t talk at all, alas the saying, silence can be deadly! Homes would often be overrun with people smoking pipes and burning rocks over the family stove were mama cooked a loving family meal the night before, drink would be readily available usually before the punch up with one of the crew against the othe. There would be personal infringements that went unnoticed, there would be so much testosterone in the homes of the hard that the women would eat drink and sleep male brawn. Their perception of men would be distorted and unfair, to the point where some would admit defeat and join the hard core fraternity themselves. Indeed, many hard core men would take their partners on a cheque book shopping trip courtesy of somebody else’s cheque book! Stolen goods were as normal as the daily post and even the kids would be encouraged to go to school and ‘take orders’ from their friends.

Nobody dared trouble the hard families. They were legendary in their community. Although occasionally an angry brother of some unfortunate girlfriend would look to assert his authority and try and threaten one of the hardeners, though the motives were often questionable!

Violence and bullying would be incessant; the younger ones would live out of utter fear of what was going to happen next. Brothers would also feud and draw weapons on each another. For some of hard ones the womanising would be relentless, not to mention the girlfriend sharing, particularly if one of the crew was ‘inside’ doing time and getting even harder. Betrayals would be common, nobody could ever really trust the other, the cussing would make even the foulest soapbox cringe, and so the list of hardness would go on. Mama’s would often cry secretly, wishing her offspring would settle down, get married and have 2.4 kids for one or at the most 2 wives! That’s how hard the hardeners were, they were not gentle, even to the women who carried their children.

The sadness however deepened and widened if you dared to move out side of the box of a hard life and determine to live a different life, based on different principles and morals yet remain loyal to your family. If you found yourself in that position almost certainly you would come up against opposition from the Hardeners whose goodness was tantamount to a kind of Robin Hood Benevolence, which when we scratch under the surface is undeniably a rather selfish act and totally paradoxical in nature. How can being nice to some, by being nasty to another ever equate to an act of kindness? Yet we know that there are many, many desperate stories that have seen people do things they did not want to do in order for them and their families to survive. Hardness besets the mind of men for all manner of reason and as humans God knew his creation was going to fail which is why he sent His only begotten Son Jesus that men may learn a new way, His way.

As Kingdom Believers it is the duty of Christians to go beyond the chains of thought that may have dominated and yoked people to their upbringing or environment once they take up the mantle of becoming servants to the most High God, Jehovah. Many born again believers need deliverance in this area. Our Kingdom aim is to reflect the nature of Christ whilst in the earth and that requires a great deal of help from God alone. There is no man that can do it in his own strength. He will fail and miserably too. We cannot be good or gentle in biblical proportions unless we recognise firstly that we do not and cannot justify ourselves. We can not take a Robin Hood approach to Christianity and become good by our own efforts, because what we see as just in our own eyes is never a clear picture. Infact we are told that we are all unclean and our righteousness is a filthy rags.(Isaiah 64:6 )The Bible further says in Romans 4 :5 that “..to him that works not (tries to do it in his own strength) but Believes on HIM that justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness.”

God is the divine teacher and instructor. He is the Good Shepherd who is patient, kind merciful. If we want our fruit to speak for us, that our neighbours may understand what Heavenly goodness and gentleness is then we must ask of God to pour His spirit upon us so that we may learn of him, and automatically, by default, by the anointing, walk in the fruit of Goodness and gentleness and be a vessel to help change a broken world.

Gentleness

To be a gentle person clearly is not to be a hard person. But a gentle person can also have a hardened persona. The contradiction alone allow’s us to make the statement that, there must be a higher way and higher authority on what it means to be gentle other than mans flawed humanitarian viewpoint. The word gentleness comes from the Greek word ‘Chrestotes’ which means to be kind, philanthropic and forbearing. To obtain Gentleness as God desires us to, is to allow His grace to compose us and smooth out our rough places. If we are people who routinely become upset at the slightest annoyance then we know that there is much to pray about and then receive from God in that area. For men and women who have been deeply hurt in life, gentleness may not come easy because they have been let down and in sometimes crushed beyond comprehension that gentleness to them is not an opton. Their defence goes up out of fear of more hardness coming their way. But God says it doesn’t have to be this way. For we know that if we ask of any good thing according to his will God will not withhold it from us. (1 John 5:14) and we know the will of God is for us to be set free from whatever situation or mindset that may have crippled our lives.

Without the gentleness of God we would be cruel and harsh and severe, even in the name of Christianity, for we need only to look at the Atlantic Slave trade to the Americas, which was justified under the banner of Christianity to know that good people will justify their unjust cause in the name of religion. And it’s terribly difficult to comprehend how such an heinous act, which went on for century’s was either Gentle or kind! This is why our gentleness must be borne of God, otherwise we will get it wrong. History shows us so. Gentleness is part of God’s nature which is intrinsically benign. As Ambassadors from the Embassy of Christ we must press and press into that place where the grace of God rests upon us and His character becomes our benchmark.

Part of being gentle also means that it is not just in Good times or easy times that we must rest in God’s gentleness but also in times of persecution and trial and tribulation. And make no mistake every true believer of Christ will go through periods of suffering. The book of 1 Peter 2:19 states;

“For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endures grief, suffering wrongfully”

It is the testing of our faith. Gentleness will even thank God in times of wrongful suffering. Gentleness that is borne of God always gives the benefit of the doubt. Will always see the good before it sees the evil and will always be merciful towards fellow man. Gentleness will forgive and forget, not as an act for others to see but as a deep inside act towards a merciful God. Gentleness will smile endlessly and effortlessly. Gentleness is powerful. If we find ourselves in a situation where we are being bullied beyond comprehension and bullying can happen to both adults and children, one of the greatest weapons you can use against a bully in gentleness. That doesn’t mean you stay in a threatening situation or fail to listen to the instruction of the Holy spirit if you are up against things that are too big for you but rather as Holy Ghost filled people of God we can sing a psalm quietly and gently, we can memorise and repeat every scripture on gentleness and remind God of what his Word says,(not that he needs reminding but this is how are faith is actioned, see 2 Tim 2:24, Tit 3: 2, James 3:17). When we do this God says we awake ourselves out of the snare of the devil. We can see exactly what is going on. So gentleness is a weapon of our spiritual warfare.

Whatever circumstances we find our self in, let us remember that our gentleness of spirit can cause our neighbours and those we interact with to look twice and notice that our walk is uncommon. Spirit led gentleness can rescue one who is on the brink of madness, Spirit led gentleness can turn the hardest of hearts towards God. Spirit lead gentleness, will speak more about who you are than the times you lost your temper. Because every human can lose it at times, that is common to mankind, everyone has a breaking point. But how many can walk in gentleness, even in the midst of the madness, harassment, harrying and hounding? Yet God’s grace is such that when we truly desire to be like him he bestows upon us His gentleness. But it will not come automatically. We must ask, and it shall be given. In truth the saying after the storm there is calm is parallel in both physical and spiritual truth. Our peers will want to know what has made a change in his or her life. It doesn’t seem natural some may say. And they would be right. Though we are human just like them, there is a difference; it is the supernatural difference in our walk that may ignite the curiosity in them to find out just who is this God that we represent.

Goodness

The biblical understanding of the word Goodness is a denotation of Gods Character. We often hear Christian’s say God is a Good God. And indeed he is. On the other hand there are many who would say if God was so God why does he allow bad things to happen? Sadly this is a misrepresentation of God, for we live in a fallen world and God does not make anything bad happen. What God does is he acts out of his goodness on behalf of those who He calls His own, that is, those who are saved not by religion or good works (purely of there own doing) but by the those who know that without God they would not be anything, regardless of worldly status, who know that it is only by his mercy at all that we have been given a chance to be born again, and in many cases given a chance over and over again, those that know that we never chose Him but He chose us. This is why as Christians we are humble because we know all to well how easy it could have been a different story. We are so grateful for his Goodness. His goodness is intrinsically merciful and is purposed for our own good.

The Word Goodness derives from the Greek word ‘Agathosone’ which literally means the expressed character of God. Goodness in this sense means that because God desires our ultimate good he may have to chastise, correct or discipline us like any good parent would. The Goodness of God that we need to walk in means that we also must have discipline and not be afraid to chastise those we love if we are to be effective Christians. Our purpose is to help the other to get closer to the image and likeness of Jesus and is always from the standpoint of Love. This is what it means to have goodness; goodness seeks the best in every situation. It is an active part of Gods character that we too must walk in by the spirit of the most high God. Sometimes Gods goodness does not look gentle, who at the end of the day enjoys being scolded, but at the end of the day we know that it’s for our ultimate good. But God knows all things he has seen the beginning to the end. He knew what was going to happen 1,000 years ago, 2000 years ago, and if he tarries he know what is going to happen in the next 1000 years. He is everlasting to everlasting. (Psalm 106:48)

Goodness is to be part of our walking talking living manifestation of the fruit of God. Without goodness, we would have no benchmark of how the reflection of God compares in our life. As we read God’s word, those words are spirit and they are life, they literally come alive to us, they stir our spirit and our fruit starts to be developed. It takes maturity to be able to honestly say to ones self am I walking in goodness, and am I good to others, even if I’m not popular and am I good to myself even if it is painful. In her book how to be a mature Christian Marilyn Hickey say’s that in order to prove that which is good we should;

“… renew our minds with Gods Word…unless you read the Word you cannot reach your full potential in Christ.”, page 78

In some ways goodness can be looked at like deferred gratification. We discipline ourselves in the short term in order to reap the benefits in the long term.


Goodness Fight’s the good Fight of Faith

- Onward Christian soldier marching unto war, with the cross of Jesus going on
Before - Sabine Baring Gould 1864

There is one extremely important reason that is probably the underpinning of the Christian faith as to why we must be good and believe in goodness. The bible tells us that we overcome evil with good. In fact Satan’s Defeat is imminent because God overcome him with Good. When we pray as believers our prayers go up and in the heavenlies, the angelic host war against the demonic realm, which is the reason why we do NOT fight in the flesh because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty, through the pulling down of strongholds. So by the time we have prayed, and prayed in goodness in the spirit and praised and fasted our way through whatever situation we are facing, the angel of the Lord overcomes the evil one in the heavenly realm or sphere and we in return get our victory in the earthly realm. The Bible calls the WORD of God the sword of the spirit (Eph 6:17), when we speak and declare the Word of God , its truth is sent up to heaven and god is so faithful to his word that he acts upon our statements of faith. (Hebrews 4:12) So Goodness is intrinsically linked to our fighting a good fight of faith. That’s why we believe in goodness because goodness cannot be overcome by wickedness so long as we know that all we have to do is desire to walk in goodness and fight what the Bible calls a Good fight. Goodness is a mighty ‘weapon’ of our spiritual warfare. Our warfare is spiritual because we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. Nevertheless no matter how high they may be they cannot overcome true, real authentic goodness born of the spirit if God. And those that know this, know that no matter how distorted the picture may seem, goodness shall reign supreme. When we walk in the spirit we do not fight any battles. God fights our battles and spoils principalities and powers and makes an open show of them, triumphing over them in Christ Jesus. So Goodness is an essential part of the Christian soldier’s strategic battle plan. And it is not of our own, it is what we have asked of from God who richly bestows upon us his goodness.

It is by these two principles of gentleness and goodness that all the fruit of the spirit can be derived from; to have love is to be gentle to your fellow man, to have joy is to walk in goodness, to be at peace is both and issue of being gentle and good. And longsuffering meekness temperance and faith must all be underpinned by Gentleness and goodness to be effective in the believer’s life.

Psalm 23 sums up the believer who desires to be rich in these two virtues when it exclaims, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever more. If we are serious about walking, talking and living right to be a witness in the earth, we must put aside our perception of goodness, however noble it may seem and take up Gods in every biblical sense. Then God will surely make every rough place smooth and every crooked path straight before our very eyes. He is the majestic way maker. Is there anything to hard for God to do?

Recommended reading

Hickey, Marilyn How to be a Mature Christian: The wisdom of the book of James
ISBN 156441 0110 1984 Marilyn Hickey, 1986, USA

Written by Sandra Cowan, BA. Not to be reproduced without the authors consent. Copyright 2006.

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