The Bible says that one of the the fruits of the Spirit is goodness. It says that we should support our faith with goodness, and our goodness with knowledge, and our knowledge with self-control, and our self-control with endurance, and our endurance with godliness, and our godliness with mutual affection, and our affection with love. What does the Bible mean when it talks about goodness? It means living our lives with excellence. It means living with high character.
Why does the Bible make a point of living with goodness. It is because of the delayed Parousia. That means that at first, believers expected Jesus to return very soon, and when he did not, they started to think that he wasn’t going to return at all, and when they started to think that, they started to think that it didn’t matter how you lived. Thus the Bible says that it is important to live with goodness.
How can we be good? The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. More fundamentally, even if we do not read the Bible, we know that we are incapable of being good. We have let down others and ourselves. How can we be good? The key is a phrase from II Peter 1. We are “partakers of the divine nature.” We are not good, but God is good, and God allows us to share in his nature. The power of God enables us to lead lives of excellence. The power of God enables us to live with high character. The gift of the Spirit is goodness.