Every few years a movie or cultural moment pushes us to wrestle with big ideas, questions of justice, identity, purpose, and of course, what it really means to be good. With the release of the movie, “Wicked: For Good,” conversations about goodness, darkness, and the blurry line between them are circulating again. Anytime a new buzz word and phrases start to pop up, it’s a perfect moment for Christians, especially women seeking to live faithfully in their generation, to pause and ask: Do we understand goodness the way God defines it?
Because the truth is, most of us absorb our ideas of “good” without ever examining them. Culture catechizes us subtly through storylines, lyrics, and characters, often convincing us that goodness is something found within or achieved by our own efforts. Without intentionally looking to Scripture and remembering what we are actually working toward, we can easily end up pursuing the wrong thing. So what is biblical goodness? And why does it matter for the way we live, love, and serve today in our homes, workplaces, and communities?
Goodness Begins in the Garden
Before sin fractured the world, goodness was the natural state of everything God made. Over and over again in Genesis 1, God looks upon His creation and declares:
“It is good.”
Not just aesthetically pleasing. Not simply functional. Not good in comparison to something worse. Good because it aligned with God’s character. Good because it reflected His order, His beauty, and His intention. Goodness, in Scripture, is never self-defined. It is always God-defined because he is the ultimate source of it.
When Eve reached for the forbidden fruit, Scripture says she saw that it was “good for food… and desirable.” But she defined good on her own terms rather than trusting God’s. And that shift, from God’s goodness to self-defined goodness, has echoed ever since. We live in a culture that tries to make truth relative to the individual with a heightened emphasis on experience and feelings, but goodness cannot be separated from God without distorting it.
Goodness in a Broken World
Even in a fallen world, God calls His people to embody His goodness. Throughout Scripture, “goodness” is not vague kindness or soft niceness, it is moral beauty expressed in sacrificial, justice centered, and others focused action. This is much deeper than opening the door for someone or paying it forward in the drive-thru lane. It is imaging God in the most sacrificial way.
One of the clearest examples in the New Testament is a woman named Dorcas, tucked into a brief but powerful story in Acts 9. Luke describes her like this: “She was full of good works and acts of charity” (Acts 9:36). She was full of good works, overflowing, marked, and characterized by goodness. Her life was a ministry of quiet, consistent, faithful service. She is often overlooked in Acts 9 because her story falls between the conversion of Saul and Peter’s vision about what is clean and unclean, which opens the gospel to the Gentiles. Yet the placement is purposeful. Right as the gospel is about to spread to the nations, an unseen, unknown, seemingly insignificant woman becomes a striking example of goodness offered to both Jew and Greek.
She sacrificially clothed widows one stitch at a time. She saw the vulnerable and overlooked, noticed needs and met them with her hands, and she embodied the goodness of God in the everyday. And when she died, her community wept not because she was famous but because she was faithful.
A Better Goodness For Today
Biblical goodness is not glamorous. It’s not performative. It’s not self-advancing. It is a life poured out in love for God and neighbor, as an echo of the very love He first shows us. Our cultural narratives, whether from movies, novels, or the general atmosphere of the age often portray goodness as following your inner truth, doing what feels right to you, rejecting constraints, proving your worth, but Scripture offers a far better, more beautiful picture. Goodness is a communicable attribute meaning that we as his Image bearers can and should reflect his goodness to the world around us. Goodness is rooted in God’s character, revealed in God’s Word, and expressed through God’s people. If Dorcas lived today, she probably wouldn’t have a social media platform or someone many would know, but instead, she would be busy doing good.
Quietly. Faithfully. Obediently. Unapologetically.
In a world that questions what it means to be good, where will you choose to show real goodness, meeting needs, serving faithfully, and reflecting the goodness God intended for His creation?
Posted on December 5, 2025
Jacki C. King is a respected and beloved Bible teacher, author, and dedicated ministry leader. Her passion involves guiding women toward a deep love for Jesus and His Word, encouraging them to embrace their mission in their homes, workplaces, and communities. She is the author of “The Calling of Eve: How Women of the Bible Inspire the Women of the Church” (Tyndale 2022). A proud native Texan, Jacki serves alongside her husband Josh, who serves as Lead Pastor of their local church, and their three boys. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and Ministry to Women from Criswell College, and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Connect with Jacki on Twitter and Instagram at @JackiCKing
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