If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

                                                                                                                       Matthew 7:11

We have already looked at the first of three characteristics that accompany an agape style love. In order to claim that we truly love someone, we must have a disposition of affection. Secondly, love is defined as possessing goodwill. This is what I like to refer to as one’s desire toward another. By definition, goodwill is a desiring of good things for someone, not calamity. In order to claim that we have love for another person, we must desire good for them. When we focus on the judgment that we believe someone else deserves, we forget about our need for redemption and thus we forfeit any opportunity to express love to that individual.

Today’s passage demonstrates God’s desire to bless anyone who will come to Him and ask. In this passage, Jesus teaches us that no earthly parent that is to be labeled “good” would meet his/her child’s request for something beneficial with something harmful. Consider the following two examples given by Jesus:

Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 

                                                                                                            Matthew 7:9 

Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?                                   

                                                                                    Matthew 7:10

I love the way that Jesus teaches us truth by using such common sense examples. No one should miss the implication. Do good parents give their children stones to eat when they are hungry? Of course not! Do good parents give their children snakes to play with when they have requested a fish? Again, the very thought is outrageous. No good, loving parent would ever harm his/her child in the name of love. That is impossible because love carries with it a desire for good things to come to the one who is the object of our affections.

And this is the point that Jesus is making. If an earthly parent, being a fallen, flawed human being, knows how to respond in love to a request from his/her child, how much more do we think that God in heaven will respond in that same spirit of goodwill? The comparison is obvious. God is love therefore He is a God of affections and a God of goodwill. Jesus tells us that God will give what is good to whoever asks! The word “good” can be defined as anything that promotes health or some beneficial purpose. These “good” things are useful, salutary, good, pleasant, agreeable, joyful, and happy. This is the response of a good, loving, and benevolent God and Jesus explains this with amazing clarity.

When we fail to see the charity in God’s love, we can put ourselves in a position of distorting the good news and even fail at possessing goodwill ourselves. We are called to live a life of love by sharing the love of God with everyone. Love demands that our disposition is one of affection and that our desire for others is that of goodwill. Anything short of that and we fail at love!