The Gift of Goodness

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 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 good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:7-11). 

Verse eleven would be better translated, "How much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good (goodness) to those who ask Him." ("Things" does not appear in the text).

Here "good" is not ease and affluence, the so-called good life, but a quality of life defined by "goodness." In the parallel saying in Luke (11:13) Jesus promises that our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask, using "Holy Spirit" by metonymy for "goodness," for God's Spirit is the essence and source of all goodness. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness..." 

John reports a similar promise in his Gospel: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit..." (John 15:7–8). "Ask and it will be given." The promise seems like a carte blanche, “Ask for anything and receive it.” But the  promise is qualified by the purpose: "that (in order that) you may bear much fruit" (the fruit of the Spirit).

So, if we want to be good children we must ask God to make us good. "Keep asking." Keep knocking." "Keep seeking." For as a doting father seeks the best good for his children, "how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts (the gift of goodness) to those who ask Him!" 

David Roper

1.8.19