THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
LIVING THE STANDARD - GOODNESS

Listen to the following quote,

“Then I learned that all moral judgments are "value judgments," that all value judgments are subjective, and that none can be proved to be either "right" or "wrong." I even read somewhere that the Chief justice of the United States had written that the American Constitution expressed nothing more than collective value judgments. Believe it or not, I figured out for myself what apparently the Chief Justice couldn't figure out for himself: that if the rationality of one value judgment was zero, multiplying it by millions would not make it one whit more rational. Nor is there any "reason" to obey the law for anyone, like myself, who has the boldness and daring — the strength of character — to throw off its shackles. I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had to become truly uninhibited.

“And I quickly discovered that the greatest obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consists in the insupportable "value judgment" that I was bound to respect the rights of others. I asked myself, who were these "others"? Other human beings, with human rights? Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer? Is your life more to you than a hog's life to a hog? Why should I be willing to sacrifice my pleasure more for the one than for the other? Surely, you would not, in this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked some pleasures as "moral" or "good" and others "immoral" or "bad"?

“In any case, let me assure you, my dear young lady, that there is absolutely no comparison between the pleasure I might take in eating ham and the pleasure I anticipate in raping and murdering you. That is the honest conclusion to which my education has led me after the most conscientious examination of my spontaneous and uninhibited self.”

Anyone know who said this?  Let me give you a clue.  He was a serial rapist and murderer; Ted Bundy.  I begin with this sick quote to demonstrate the logical conclusion to moral relativism. Perhaps a definition of moral relativism will help get us started.

Definition…
Moral relativism is the view that ethical standards, morality, and positions of right or wrong are culturally based and therefore subject to each person's individual choice. We can all decide what is right for ourselves. You decide what's right for you, and I'll decide what's right for me. Moral relativism says, "It's true for me, if I believe it."

This leaves me with my mouth open and scratching my head. How did anyone in America ever get to this kind of thinking?  How have many in our culture adopted such a position?  How in the world did we get to moral relativism?

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I am not a sociologist or a psychologist or an anthropologist or even a historian.  I can’t even spell most of those words.  But here is my best shot at reviewing what has happened in our country.  Let’s start at the beginning.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This is the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  It guarantees, as American citizens, we have certain freedoms.  The founders of our country, from the very beginning, knew that it was important for us to have freedom of choice in religion and in speech and many other freedoms.  They felt that it was important that America be a place where people are free to make choices.  And, I believe that we all would agree that is a good thing.  We value our freedom of choice almost as much as our Freedom in Christ. 

From those beginnings, America has evolved into a place of infinite choices.  Everything we do.  Everything we purchase.  Every place we go. There are lots of choices.
- Suppose you are sent to the grocery store to buy a few things.  You go up to get some milk.  You have your: whole milk, 2%, 1% and skim, all kinds of sizes and several brands; choices.  You decide you want to get some soda pop. There is an entire isle 50 feet of choices from diet cherry Dr Pepper with no caffeine; to double raspberry surge or my favorite, M80 Monsters.  The choices are boggling.
- Suppose it’s Friday night and you decide to sit down and watch some TV.  Your brain is tired so you want to vegetate.  Let’s also suppose you have NetFlix.  How many movies do you suppose there is?  90,000 DVDs.
- Someone says, “That's all worldly stuff.  I avoid all that.” OK, let's talk Bibles.  How many choices of Bibles are there?  I went to Amazon.com and typed in “Bibles.”  There are 17,789 printed Bibles, not to mention audio Bibles and Kindle Bibles.
- I think I could go on for hours illustrating this point.  But do I need to?  Do we all agree we live in a country that is full of choices? 

My point is our culture has come from the principle of freedom of choice to unlimited choices.  And all that is OK.  I have no problem with lots of choices.  It is what happens in a capitalistic society.  But it is the next step in our evolution that bothers me.  We have gone from freedom of choice, to lots of choices, to any choice is right.  Many in our culture have gone to the point where most any choice you make is OK.  Everyone must find what is right for them.  Any choice is a good choice if it is good for you… relativism. Even this concept is OK as long as you are talking about milk or Bibles or which football team you pull for.  But it is not OK when you begin to apply the “everything's all right, moral relativism, philosophy” to religious and moral decisions.  We, as a people, have evolved to the point where each person is left to decide, to make choices, based upon their individual standards of right and wrong.  "It's true for me, if I believe it."  Now I have a problem.

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The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, and goodness... This morning, as we study the sixth fruit of the Spirit, we have a problem.  Goodness, by the very implications of the word, implies… right and wrong.

If I say you, “It is not good for you to do… whatever” I imply a standard of right and wrong.  I cannot say, “You should…” or “You ought…” or “It would be good if you did…” without implying there is a standard. How can something be good, unless there is a bad; unless there is some standard by which you can compare the two. How can I say, “You ought to do that” unless there is something that you ought not do or there is some actions that can be judged as right or wrong?

So when we begin to look at the fruit of the Spirit and we find that we are to be good; we are to have goodness; the Spirit produces goodness in us, there must be some standard by which we are to be measured. Otherwise you cannot say that we are good.  How can we be good, if there is no bad?  How can we be good, if there is no evil? How can we become good, if good and bad are subjective and left up to each individual to determine?  There is no “goodness” in moral relativism. 

Galatians 5:22 lists one of the Fruit of the Spirit as “Goodness.”  Paul understands there is a standard. These thoughts about moral relativism lead me to a definition of Goodness.  Goodness is living the Standard.  Let that soak a bit while I read a few verses from Galatians which really hammer this point home and point us in the direction of a Standard. 

Galatians 1:6-9  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

(It doesn’t sound much like Paul is into moral relativism. Even if an angel came and told you to do whatever you feel, he would be wrong. Angels aren’t the Standard.)

Galatians 1:11-12 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

(The Standard Paul taught came straight from Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the Standard)

Galatians 2:14  When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

(Note what Paul did not say, “Even though Peter and I did not agree on what to do with the Gentiles, I let Peter do Peter’s thing and I did my thing.”  No, he told Peter he was wrong; no moral relativism.  Note also “the truth of the gospel.”)

Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

(The Standard is the faith in the Son of God.  Paul lived by the Standard of Christ/Faith!)

Galatians 3:1-3 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

(That lays it out clearly; human effort/understanding or Jesus Christ crucified.)

Galatians 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?

(There is no “the truth” in moral relativism.”  There has to be a Standard.)

That Standard is Jesus Christ.  The standard is the truth reveal to us by the Spirit.  It is not accomplished by human reasoning or choice.  The standard is the truth revealed to us from Jesus, through the Spirit and recorded in such books as Galatians and the rest of the Bible!  Goodness is living the standard of Jesus Christ as revealed in His Word.  It is not up to us.  It is not what we feel is right. It is not one truth for me and a different truth for you.  We bring ourselves in line with the Standard of Scripture. 

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I want to go back over the fruit, we have studied so far, and pick up on a train of thought I haven’t addressed yet.  Here is the train. The world is looking for the fruit of the Spirit, but is not looking for the fruit in the Spirit.
- We talked about love. The world wants love.  “All you need is love.” But the world looks for it in all the wrong places. But we can offer love by acting on behalf of God.
- We talked about joy. But the world looks for happiness, instead of joy.  We can show the world where to find true, joy.  It is living who we are to the Spirit.
- We talked about peace and the world wants peace, but is bent on vengeance.  We can offer the world peace by allowing good to overcome evil.
- The world wants everyone to be patient with them.  The world doesn't know patience. But we can let them see our patience when we suspend our criticism. 
- Last week we talked about kindness as aggressive selfless giving.  The word wants others to be kind, but can’t get over itself. In our selfless intentional giving we can model kindness.

I believe people basically want the world to be a good place to live.  Everyone wants a good place to live.  But they are confused about what is goodness. In an effort to be tolerant of others, which is a good thing, they have rejected the source of goodness.  This world can only be a good place to live when we allow the Spirit to produce the Standard in each of our lives. 

Without any guidelines, without any moral compass, it is difficult to make decisions.  It is like being in a small row boat in the middle of ocean, in a thick fog, in the dark of night, without a GPS, or anything to determine which way to row.  Isn't that a terrible metaphor?  You can row as feverishly as you want, but you don't know if you are going in the right direction or just going in circles.  Are you making any progress?  Which way?  Show me the way?  Am I good?  Who knows?  Moral relativism is lost in the fog.

I believe there are many people in the world trapped in the fog of no standards who would love to be shown how to live; people who are in the row boat who would love to have a GPS; who would love to know there is right and wrong; there is good and bad, there is a solid basis to make decisions; there is good in the world!  They would love to know about the Standard. 

We can be the ones who show them the GPS.  Let's not be intimated by those who say the GPS is internal and subjective.  Let's not be cowered by those who say right and wrong are relative.  But let's be bold and point to the Word of God as the standard by which we can understand good and be good and have the Spirit produce goodness in us!  We have the standard.  We know the standard.  Let's share the standard!

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So here is the bottom line.  The fruit of the Spirit is goodness; living the Standard. This goodness the Spirit produces in us is based upon the Standard.  It is allowing the Spirit to mold our lives ever closer to the model of Jesus from the Scriptures.  This goodness comes from the Spirit convicting us and guiding us and shaping us into God's son.  The Spirit is the GPS by which we are pointed to goodness.

I am afraid Ted Bundy was right.  If moral relativism is right; which is a contradiction, because it says there is nothing right; if relativism is correct then Ted Bundy is correct. Why not kill or rape or do whatever you want to do?  It is the logical conclusion to moral relativism.  Do you want to live in Ted Bundy’s world?  Then we must live the Standard and share the Standard!

Los Alamos Church of Christ
October 19, 2009