WYSIWYWG

You might want to read the title again, because that doesn’t mean the common acronym for “What You See is What You Get”, rather it means, “What You See is What You Won’t Get” for a reason.

There are good traits or virtues that the Bible encourages. Although these are not directly named, they are cloaked in other terminologies, or implied, or expressed as synonyms.
The “Fruit of the Spirit” (let’s call it FOTS for succinctness) names nine of these, viz., love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. (Galatians 5:22) By the way, that’s singular – FRUIT. One fruit having nine slices, like an orange.

One would wonder why the other common virtues of honor, honesty, integrity, holiness, fear of God, aren’t named as among the FOTS. My guess is that’s because we only need the nine-fold fruit to outwardly express all the other virtues. Also, the FOTS is visible or discernible to other people even from a first face-to-face meeting. The fruit is the sign to them that one is a fruit-bearing, vine-attached, pruned-by-the-husbandman (Jn 15:1) follower of Christ. The outward expressions (traits) may be seen by others only under certain circumstances, from having familiarized the person for some length of time, but not from a casual encounter between total strangers.

So, what makes a person a “good person” in the eyes of other people?
The site, “Thought Catalog” explains:

“First things first: how to understand the behavior and personality of someone. It’s important to note that a person’s character is based on 3 main things: core values, external behavior, and an internal compass. Core values are the basic idea that if you value kindness and loyalty, that’s great, but do you practice it? External behavior, also known as “personality traits”, is what you do about the things you value. For example, do you value courage and are also learning how to be a braver person? If you practice what you preach and act out in what you value, that is your internal compass, or rather, who you are.”

Let’s take a sampling of good personality traits that aren’t readily observable, and identify their source from the FOTS.

Honesty springs from the FOTS’ love, temperance, goodness, and faith.
Integrity springs from temperance, love, longsuffering, and faith.
Loyalty springs from love, longsuffering, goodness, and faith.
Forgiveness springs from love, peace, gentleness, goodness, and meekness.
Wiseness springs from love, goodness, meekness, and faith.
Kindness springs from love, joy, peace, meekness, gentleness, and goodness.

Proverbs 20:6 might be loosely paraphrased as, “It is quite easy for one to feign kindness, mercy, charitableness and other virtues, and even gladly display it. But would such virtues be there when no one is looking?”

How can honesty be demonstrated? Only by refusing to lie. Who can tell if one is lying or not? Only God.
How can integrity be demonstrated? Only by refusing to be tempted to committing evil. Who can tell if we’ve been tempted or not? Only God.
How can loyalty be demonstrated? Only when tempted to choose the wrong side. Who can tell what choice you’ve made? Only God.
How can forgiveness be demonstrated? Only by keeping no record of wrongs done to you. Who can tell if we’ve done that? Only God.
How can wiseness be demonstrated? Only by consistently making judicious and Godly decisions. Who can know that? Only God.
How can kindness be demonstrated? Not by being philanthropic, but by how we treat the poor, the persecuted, the defenseless. Who can see that? Only God.

One might argue saying, “Those traits can be publicly demonstrated via social media!” Granted, but what would be their worth, according to Pro. 20:6? The good they have done to others will serve its purpose in God’s economy. They may have met a need or alleviated someone’s pain, but what such persons are showing publicly are not actually what they’re getting rewarded for by God (Matthew 6:2).

Joseph Benson in his “Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments”, expounds on it this way:

Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness — “Most men are ready enough to claim to themselves a large share of piety and virtue;” but a faithful man who can find? — “Where is that man of true and undissembled virtue to be found, who studies rather to be, than to seem, good?”

One might ask the question, “How is it that there are unbelievers who obviously possess the FOTS and manifest it in a greater degree? Are such people inwardly saved?” Salvation is exclusively by grace through faith in Christ. The goodness such people display are placed there by God for two reasons, viz., 1) Deliver the good needed by others and make them realize that the source of this goodness is The One Who alone is good, that they might turn to Him and be saved, and; 2) Put believers to shame so they may desire to have such traits also in themselves.

The Fruit of the Spirit is intended by God to be public so that God will judge others for its absence from their lives. But those other virtues that spring from the FOTS, is private because God will judge us, believers, by their absence from ours.