Bear good fruit

But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Luke 8:15

The key verse today is about Jesus's parable about the good soil that bears good fruit, which requires a noble and good heart.  Noble is called Kalos in Greek,  the word good is called Agathos in Greek, Kalos and Agathos are often translated as “good” in the English Bible, but they have different meanings of goodness. 

In its definition, Agathos means being upright and moral, since Agathos is an inner quality, whereas Kalos refers to good behavior and appearance which are outward manifestations. Therefore,  a person can have kalos without having agathos, meaning we can do good deeds but still suffer from inner conflict, while having agathos without kalos means we have a good heart but that does not translate into good deeds. 

It is God's desire that we have both forms of goodness, just as Matthew 7:17 says, "Even so, every good (agathos) tree bears good (kalos) fruit.", which means that we must abide in God to produce the fruit of goodness. Furthermore, doing good involves more than being nice to others; it involves extending God's kindness to those who may be unlovable or undeserved. 

In Jesus’ famous passage about loving your enemies, He says “And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that” Luke 6:33 Furthermore, Romans 12:21 tells us how to treat our enemy with kindness by saying, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” 

There is no doubt that God's goodness has a high standard, and it is difficult for us to operate His goodness with our own strength. Therefore, Jesus asked us to abide in Him and uproot the unhealthy roots like our flesh and unforgiveness, bitterness, so we can plant ourselves in the spirit of God to bear the fruit of goodness.

Blessing prayer: You are my lord, apart from you I have no good. May we abide in you and bear good fruit in order to extend your goodness to all. In Jesus’ name, Amen.