Nine - Goodness

What kind of person are you becoming? Real transformation isn't about trying harder—it's about letting the Holy Spirit work in your life. Nine is a nine-week journey through the fruit of the Spirit discovering how God grows qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, and more in those who follow Jesus. 

There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one
– Romans 3:10-12 (HCSB)

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

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
– Romans 8:9b (HCSB)

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness…
– Isaiah 5:20a (HCSB)

The acknowledgment of God as good is the foundation of all biblical thinking about moral goodness. ‘Good’ in Scripture is not an abstract quality, nor is it a secular human ideal; ‘good’ means first and foremost what God is (‘he is good’) then what he does, creates, commands and gives, and finally what he approves in the lives of his creatures.
– J.I. Packer

“Goodness is uprightness of heart, expressed in doing good for others, even when it is undeserved or difficult, such as calling out sin. [Goodness is] the opposite of evil, malice, and wickedness.”

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side named Boaz. He was a prominent man of noble character from Elimelech’s family. Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, “Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone who allows me to?” Naomi answered her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the portion of land belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.
– Ruth 2:1-3 (HCSB)

Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.” “The Lord bless you,” they replied.
– Ruth 2:4 (HCSB)

Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?” The servant answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. She asked, ‘Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters?’ She came and has remained from early morning until now, except that she rested a little in the shelter.” Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go and gather grain in another field, and don’t leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants. See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven’t I ordered the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.” She bowed with her face to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind to notice me, although I am a foreigner?” Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know. May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.
– Ruth 2:5-12

May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.
– Ruth 2:12

Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and He will give a reward to the lender.
– Proverbs 19:17

At midnight, Boaz was startled, turned over, and there lying at his feet was a woman! So he asked, “Who are you?” “I am Ruth, your slave,” she replied. “Spread your cloak over me, for you are a family redeemer.
– Ruth 3:8-9

Arabic parallels to the levirate marriage show that the near kinsman established his claim to the widow by throwing his garment over her.
– W.R. Smith

In general the meaning seems quite clearly to be a request for protection, with the specific meaning of marry me, but most translators and commentators prefer to retain the literal idiom “spread your skirt over your maidservant.” In a sense, both components of meaning, union and protection, are present
– J. de Waard

Yes, it is true that I am a family redeemer, but there is a redeemer closer than I am. Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, that’s good. Let him redeem you. But if he doesn’t want to redeem you, as the Lord lives I will. Now lie down until morning.”  
– Ruth 3:12-13

He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the land of Moab, is selling a piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I thought I should inform you: Buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do so. But if you do not want to redeem it, tell me so that I will know, because there isn’t anyone other than you to redeem it, and I am next after you.” “I want to redeem it,” he answered.
– Ruth 4:1-4

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man’s name on his property.”  The redeemer replied, “I can’t redeem it myself, or I will ruin my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I can’t redeem it.”
– Ruth 4:5-6

The elders and all the people who were at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you be powerful in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem. May your house become like the house of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring the Lord will give you by this young woman.”
– Ruth 4:11-12

Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; One will come from you to be ruler over Israel for Me. His origin is from antiquity, from eternity.
– Micah 5:2

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Stories // Evidence // No Longer Slaves // Goodness of God

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