FAITH THAT ADDS UP
III. “Add to Your Faith Goodness”

8-10-08
Ken Peterson

2 Peter 1:1-11
TEXT:        ...make every effort to add to your faith goodness...                            (2 Pet. 1:5a)

INTRODUCTION
In 1908, Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton headed an Antarctic expedition attempting to reach the South Pole. They came closer than any before but, just 97 miles short of the pole they had to turn back because of sickness and they were running out of food.

In his diary, Shakleton told of the time when their food supplies were exhausted save for one last ration of hardtack, a dried sort of biscuit. Shakleton distributed it to each man. Some of the men took snow, melted it and made tea, consuming their biscuit. Others stowed the hardtack in their food sacks, saving it for a last moment of hungry desperation. A fire was built, and weary, exhausted, hungry men climbed into their sleeping bags. Shakelton said he was almost asleep when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed one of his most trusted men sit up in his bag and look around to see if anyone was watching.

Shakelton’s heart sank as this man reached to the food sack of the man next to him. Shakelton watched as the man opened the food sack, and then instead of stealing the other man’s hardtack, he took his own hardtack and put it in the other man’s sack.

Goodness. Now and then we catch a glimpse in this life of pure, unadulterated, “from-the-bottom-of-the-heart” goodness. However, we don’t see nearly enough of that. O yes, we see good deeds. But, pure goodness integrated into a persons character, so they are thoroughly good through and through is something else. And that is where our text takes us this morning.
...make every effort to add to your faith goodness...  (2 Pet. 1:5a).

OUR CONFUSION ABOUT GOODNESS
I think there is a great deal of confusion over this word, “goodness,” in our times. During President Bill Clinton’s White House sex scandal with the intern Monica Lewinsky, a countrywide poll was taken in which Americans were asked their thoughts on the president. In that poll, most saw him as “a good leader but not a good man.” I think that reflects our confusion about goodness. What I expect most were trying to say is, Clinton was a competent president, an effective leader, but lacking in integrity. As president, he was good. But in his personal life he was deceitful and immoral.

Is it possible to be a good leader and not be a good person? Increasingly today in our culture, we hear that personal, private lives and morality has nothing to do with the person’s public life. So, a CEO can be a liar, cheat, and immoral in his/her private life and still be a great CEO because he/she manages people well and is a visionary leader for the corporation. But the Bible gives a very different picture. Character is relevant to leadership. In the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles, as various kings are listed, they are evaluated on how well they served God. Some of those with the “bad” summation may well have been shrewd statesmen, brilliant military strategists, great speech makers but they are denounced because they were idolaters, oppressed the poor, or lacked moral goodness.

And here’s something else. Many very bad people truly see themselves as good persons. Recently former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, was finally arrested after being sought for 13 years to be tried for genocide. Under his direction, over 150,000 Serbs were killed simply because they were Muslim and buried in mass graves. His lawyer, speaking to the press, said, “He is convinced that with the help of God, he will win.” That comment leads me to believe that Karadzic sees himself as a good person.

Commenting on our text, Mark Buchanan makes the following observation.
“We want to look good.
We want to feel good.
We even want to do good.
God requires us to be good.”
And, this being good, having goodness as a quality of the soul, is indeed challenging. Let’s explore this further with Peter’s guidance.

BEING GOOD
The word translated “goodness” in our text is the Greek word, arete. Sometimes it is also translated “virtue.” But what it means is an “essential, intrinsic goodness.” It is part of our character– and character has been defined as what a person is in the dark when no one is around to see. If Peter had wanted to tell us to do good, he had another Greek word ordinarily used for that, chrestotes, which means “kindness expressed in action.” But the word Peter uses here, arete, he uses to describe the character of God two verses earlier, 2 Peter 1:3.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
So, Peter has moved now from “goodness” as the character of God to now incorporating this same “goodness” into our lives of faith.

Remember, as I stressed last week, this is not something we do. It is making room for this quality of God to be imparted and cultivated into our lives by the Holy Spirit. We’ll talk more about how we do this in a moment.

First, I want us to develop this concept of goodness as part of God’s character. Notice how Peter puts glory and goodness together in vs. 3– who called us by his own glory and goodness. The fusing of “glory and goodness” is reminiscent of the scene in Exodus 33-34. Moses asked God,
"Now show me your glory." And the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Ex 33:18-19)
Note that in response to Moses’ request,  “show me your glory,” God responds that He will show Moses all of His goodness. Glory and goodness are wed together. Then, after hiding Moses in a cleft in the rock so he cannot see God’s face, we read:
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Ex 34:5-7).
Most of that list the proclaims the Lord’s name could all fit under the concept of “goodness.”

One day, a sincere young, rich ruler (probably a member of the Sanhedrin) addressed Jesus as “Good teacher.” Jesus response was,
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good — except God alone.” (Luke 18:19)
Jesus is clarifying that calling Him good is synonymous with affirming that He is God. This is of course true and in Jesus we see the perfect expression of goodness modeled for us.

Paul in Romans affirms that apart from God, no one does good (Rom. 3:12). Likewise, nothing good lives in us apart from God (7:18). So, whatever good does dwell in us is the life of God imparted to us through Jesus Christ in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the call to goodness is a call to deepen our abiding in Christ.

Through the years as a pastor, as I’ve met people and they find out I’m a pastor, I’ve rather regularly heard a comment something like, “Well, pastor, I don’t go to church, but I am a good person.” I’m amazed that people know that about themselves– that they are “a good person.” That is certainly not something I could say about myself. And, all who truly know Christ and have the Holy Spirit within daily revealing to them the hidden things in our hearts, sinful attitudes and other things corrupting us, would not be claiming to be “a good person.” Certainly we do good things and have good qualities. But any true, to-the-core goodness is dependent upon Christ dwelling within us.

Of course, people in affirming themselves as a “good person” are counting on being saved by works. And, as long as they feel they are good enough in themselves, they will not be much interested in our Savior. They have no need to trust Him for salvation.

Now let’s look at how we can make every effort to add to [our] faith goodness.

ADDING GOODNESS– 3 suggestions
First, we begin with an awareness of our need. We must move past the “I’m a good person” denial. Even after we become a Christian, there can be a lot of meanness, poisonous attitudes, judgment, and other bad stuff within. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin if our hearts are open. He uses God’s Word as a searchlight, revealing our hearts and motivations. Then as we confess our sins, failures, and lack to God, we then receive His grace in forgiveness. This awareness of need and humility before God is fertile soil to begin growing the spiritual fruit of true goodness.

Second, we then focus upon God, draw close to Him through worship, praise, and meditation upon His Word. As we do this, we get in step with the Holy Spirit who changes us. I like what 2 Cor. 3:18 says happens when we worship God. It says that we
are being transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Remember the correspondence between glory and goodness we established already. So that every-increasing glory includes goodness as expressed in the life of Jesus.

Specifically focusing on the quality of goodness we see in God and in Jesus is helpful. Exposing ourselves to that helps us let go of all that doesn’t match that, letting His goodness flow into those areas.

It can help us to think of God’s goodness to us in spite of our unfaithful, often complaining hearts. God continues to shower us with good things we misuse, take for granted, and even use for evil. Pure goodness doesn’t depend upon getting back, it just delights in giving.

Third, practice goodness. While true inner goodness is more than doing good things, doing can lead to being, if we are doing it in submission to God, directed by the Spirit. Think of those who are models of goodness and learn from them.

President Abraham Lincoln once received an elderly woman into his office who had been waiting to see him. He asked, “What can I do for you, Madam?”

She responded, “Mr. President, I have come here today not to ask any favor for myself or for anyone. I heard that you were very fond of cookies, and I came here to bring you this basket of cookies.”

Lincoln was so moved that at first he could not speak. Then, with tears in his eyes he said, “My good woman, your thoughtful and unselfish deed greatly moves me. Thousands have come into this office since I became president, but you are the first one to come asking no favor for yourself or somebody else!”

Gal 6:10 encourages us,
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
While we may begin the family of believers, we are also called to do good to all people in ever widening circles of grace. What would our church look like if we were all obsessed with a conspiracy to express goodness in practical ways to one another? How could we impact our community as we sought ways to bless others with good actions? Pray creatively in how you can be a part of what God wants to do in healing, encouraging, lifting up, and bearing the burdens of others. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it:
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
Certainly his life modeled that in his struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

John Wesley, the 18th century church reformer that led to the birth of the Methodist church said:
“Do all the good you can,
            by all the means you can,
            in all the ways you can,
            in all the places you can,
            at all the times you can,
            to all the people you can,
            as long as ever you can.”