We've been thinking about Paul's words in Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23, but the fruit

of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control.

Against such things, there is no law.

Today, we're at the end of the second triad, patience, kindness, goodness.

Many of the questions philosophers have asked over the centuries have been about the true,

the good and the beautiful.

What we call epistemology, how do we know things?

Is thetics?

How do we assess things?

What ethics?

What is the good life?

And what, after all, do we mean when we say good?

If you studied moral philosophy at college, that question will probably conjure up some

of the different answers philosophers have given to the question, what is good, and what

is the good life?

And what principles therefore should guide our decisions and our actions?

Is goodness objective?

Or is it as people sometimes say about beauty, only in the eye of the beholder?

That certainly seems to be a common enough few today, isn't it?

Good is what I like, what I think is good for me, what I think will make me happy.

But that's not an option for a Christian, isn't.

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