Generosity

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
I Corinthians 13:7

As Paul lists the “fruit of the Spirit,” the individual virtues can sometimes feel a little vague. This week’s virtue is literally “goodness,” as most English versions translate it. That seems too broad to be helpful. What does goodness actually mean? A handful of English versions translate the word as “generosity,” which is a lot more promising. 

When we think about generosity as a virtue, the first thing that springs to mind for me is financial--giving money or other valuable resources. That’s absolutely crucial and I wouldn’t want to spiritualize generosity to ease our consciences as followers of Jesus who are called to share with others. But the foundation for financial generosity is an openness of heart to others that has implications for all areas of our relationships. 

One practical version is the notion of assuming positive intent in our interactions with others. In other words, when someone says or does something, we assume they meant well. I have seen this stance criticized as toxic positivity: naively persisting in believing the best even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

But I think that’s a distortion of the idea of assuming positive intent. Instead, it means adopting a basic stance that recognizes that our information about people’s motives is always incomplete and imperfect. Especially in situations where someone’s words or actions rub us the wrong way, we can begin by assuming that they weren’t intending to slight us. In other words, we can remain open. 

No one is good all the time--not even you or me!--so maybe we’ll eventually discover that the other person’s intention wasn’t good and we’ll have to deal with the situation. But I’ve experienced countless situations where my immediate assumption of bad intent was later proven wrong, often after I made things worse by my angry or defensive response. So I see the virtue of initially assuming positive intent. The converse of generosity of spirit is openness and curiosity: What is going on for the other person? And empathy: How would I want someone to respond to me in that situation? I think this generosity of spirit is what Paul is getting at when he describes love as bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring all things. 

-David Neumann