Witness in the Spirit: Goodness

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness… (Galatians 5:22 NIV)

He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. (Acts 11:24 NIV)

Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit. He was also a good man. This is not surprising since the fruit of the Spirit is goodness. The text says that a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Barnabas was in a witnessing, evangelizing situation. Goodness is a necessary characteristic of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. It is also a necessary characteristic of effective witnessing.

To witness with the content of the good news without being good is to contradict with our life that which we are saying with our mouth.

Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6 NIV)

If we are going to talk good news, we must walk good news. Witnessing in the Holy Spirit is an assurance that there will be no contradiction between our walk and our talk.

(An excerpt from On Being a Christian by Jim Wilson)

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