Stories of Goodness in the Bible

Perhaps one of the most popular stories of goodness in the Bible is the story of the good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25-37. In the story of the good Samaritan, a Jewish man is attacked and robbed and left to die on the side of the road. Both a priest and a Levite (an assistant to priests) passed by the Jewish man and pretended they did not see him. Eventually a Samaritan came a long and, although Jews and Samaritans were enemies, he bandaged the Jewish man's wounds, put him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn where he could be treated. The Samaritan even paid the inn for their services on behalf of the Jewish man.

The story of Ruth and Naomi is found in the Old Testament in Ruth 1:1-22. Naomi, her husband and her two sons live in a land where famine has struck so they pack up and move to Moab. While they are in Moab, Naomi's husband dies and both of her sons marry--one of them marries Ruth and the other Orpah. About 10 years later, both of Naomi's sons also die and Naomi is left with just her two daughters-in-law. She is told that the Lord has provided food to her homeland and she decides to return. Naomi tells both of her daughters-in-law to go back home to Moab where they are from so they could find new husbands. Orpah kisses her mother-in-law goodbye and returns to Moab, but Ruth refuses to leave her saying "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." Although Ruth could have followed her sister back to Moab to start a new life and find a new husband, she chose to be loyal to her mother-in-law and put her own life on hold in order for Naomi to have companionship.

In Luke 7:36-50 the story of the washing of Jesus's feet is told. Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee for dinner. While he is there a woman who was considered to be sinful came to the house and began to wash his feet with her tears. After washing his feet, she dried them off with her hair and then poured expensive perfume on them. The Pharisee could not believe that Jesus would let such a sinful woman cleanse his feet. Jesus explained that, although this woman did not have much, she used whatever she could and even gave up her bottle of expensive perfume for him. She loved so unselfishly that Jesus forgave her of her sins.