Arriving at the Fruit of The Spirit

Welcome to the finale of “Sins of the World”! Over the last fifteen blogs, I have been diving into the words of Galatians 5:19 to talk about the works of the flesh that Paul encouraged the Galatians, and us, to avoid. These lead to the Fruits of the Spirit that dwell within our hearts and grow into living a godly life.

Let’s go over what these works of the flesh are:

• Sexual immorality – sexual activities outside of a covenantal marriage relationships.
• Impurity – any state (thought, desire, word, or action) that makes a person morally unclean before God.
• Lust – a focused passion that properly builds on what a person truly wants.
• Idolatry – the respect, trust, or service given to any one thing or person instead of God.
• Sorcery – the practice of manipulating human life or circumstances through potions, drugs, or magical arts from the living God.
• Hostility – a personal hostility or deep seated opposition between humans or God.
• Quarreling – contentious rivalry that fractures fellowship.
• Jealousy – corrosive envy
• Anger – intense, heated emotion that issues in action
• Selfishness – striving for prominence that disregards the good of others and the will of God.
• Dissension – destructive reality of dissension or standing apart in opposition.
• Division – a distinct choice that organizes around a distinctive viewpoint.
• Envy – the resentful longing that another person should not possess a good which ones desires for oneself.
• Drunkenness – a state of intoxication brought on by alcoholic excess.
• Wild Parties – a riotous, self-indulgent celebration that places bodily appetites above worship for God.

What I’ve seen in studying these works is that it’s about an inner state of desires. It’s listening to please the inner desires that we have that is dictated by the world’s standards. Our desires shouldn’t be based on the standard of the world, but on the will of God.

In comes the Fruit of the Spirit, which represents the qualities that we’re called to reflect as a follower of God. They are considered fruits because it represents growth and development. The attributes of the Spirit grow in a Christian’s life as they remain connected to Jesus. The growth is not due to our works, but it’s a natural result of having a relationship with Christ. What I want to do is broadly go over each fruit and talk about how we can show those fruits in our lives today. These fruits are found in Galatians 5:22-23.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Which Fruit of the Spirit impacts you the most? Why?

Fruit of the Spirit

Love

Love is the Greek noun agapé (ah-GAH-pay). This type of love describes a holy, self-giving disposition that starts with God, shown perfectly through Jesus, and is planted within us via the Holy Spirit. This type of love is eternal and powerful, for nothing can separate us from God’s love. Love is a call for us to reflect God’s character to all people we need, calling us to love others as God loves us. Our growth is measured by our love. How are we sharing God’s love? What are we doing to share that love? In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us we can do that through feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, and caring for the marginalized (the sick and imprisoned). Jesus teaches when we do that for others, we do that for Him. His love guides us to love His creation for all people, and grounds us in who we are. We are people created by love, guided to love all people. We are not led by the fears of this world, but by the grounding love that comes from Christ. We are working towards reconciliation and restoration. It’s working towards breaking down the barriers of the world and helping to create a loving and compassionate world locally, nationally, and globally.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one act of love you can do today?

Joy

Joy is the Greek noun chara (khar-ah’). Joy is the settled, Spirit-given delight that arises from the redemptive acts and abiding presence of God. We can find joy through Scripture, our prayer to God, and our worship. The Spirit within us applies to the truth that rest in our heart. Being a Christian is not about following rules, but about living a life of joy and love. We can find joy in community. God didn’t create us to do life alone, but to live life in community. We can find our community that cheers us on, encourages us, loves on us, hears us, and guides us through all parts of life. With the hardships we face, we can even find joy. It’s not about ignoring the stress and pain that we face in our life, but recognizing that we have victory and joy at the end of all stressors. God doesn’t create our stress, but will use our stress for His good.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one joyous act that you can do today?

Peace

Peace is the Greek noun eiréné (ay-RAY-nay). Peace shows wholeness, harmony, and well-being given by God and experienced among believers. For us, we can find peace as an immediate blessing in our relationship with God. It can provide us a solution to isolation, allowing us to find comfort in crowds. Social anxiety is a very present problem in our world, but we can use the peace from God to find relationships. We can build up what this peace looks like for us through studying Scripture and following the commands of God. This peace also calms our anxieties, allowing us to see victory and success at the end of all stressors that we face in our life. God’s peace leads us to seek repentance from God and seek forgiveness in all situation. The peace allows us a path for reconciliation and restoration when possible. When not, there’s a peace that allows us to move forward.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one act of peace that you can do today?

Patience

Patience is the Greek noun makrothumia (mak-roth-oo-mee’-ah). Patience is a God-centered restraint that endures provocation without surrendering to resent or retaliation. Patience is a purposeful waiting that focuses on righteousness and looks for the good of others. True patience comes from our relationship with Christ. When we start to learn about our relationship with Christ, we’ll find true patience. God is very patient with us. God sees us struggle with sin regularly, and instead of sending us consequences or punishment, God offers us repentance, forgiveness, and transformation. When someone offends us, don’t respond out of anger. Take a minute to pause, breathe, pray, and decide the next course forward. Conflict resolution should not lead to revenge towards reconciliation if at all possible. When it comes to the call to invite people into a relationship with Christ, we need to be patient. Not everyone will become a Christian immediately, or at all. Our role is to share our testimony with others, plant the seed, and allow God to create a transformation within them. Even in our suffering, we need to find patience. We know that there is victory on the other side of our stressors. God will see us through to the other side on His time, and we must be patient as we wait for victory to occur.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one patient act that you can do today?

Kindness

The Greek word that Paul uses for kindness is chréstotés (khray-stot’-ace). Kindness is a moral grace that shows itself in benevolent action. Some Christian leaders teach that God’s kindness is the reason that we have the ability for repentance. God could have sent the same consequences of sin to us that He did for the ancient Christians, but He didn’t. Christ became the ultimate atoning sacrifice that allows us to be forgiven of our sins. We still must repent (that is, turn away) from our sins and turn towards His ways, but we know that God does this out of kindness, not punishment. We, as believers, are called to identify and reject harshness. Harshness does not lead to godly living. We must keep our focus on meeting the needs of others, interceding in the burdens of others through prayer and helpful action, and through hospitality. We need to show tangle acts of mercy. Be Christ hands and feet in the world that creates helpful action for God’s creation. This could be through voicing the concerns of the marginalizing groups, providing resources for those struggling in poverty, welcoming in refugees and strangers where and when possible, and more. We need to show that we are followers of Christ through our actions, and then if needed – through sharing the Gospel.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one act of kindness you can do today?

Goodness

The Greek word that Paul uses for goodness is agathosune (ag-ath-o-soo’-nay). This version of goodness highlights virtue actively shown in generosity and righteous initiative toward orders. Churches can showcase different acts of goodness as expressions of the Kingdom, including, but not limited to, pursuing adoption and foster care, disaster relief, and community development. I was witness to programs such as Operation Christmas Child, Build-a-Backpack for different foster care centers, and disaster relief for UMCOR and more. We need to show that goodness is not based out of our own efforts, but it’s based on how well the Spirit-produced fruit grows within us. This helps other people to recognize how we depend on God and His grace over doing what is right “just because.” I want to state that those who do what is right and does not identify themselves as Christian or a believer in God is still doing right in the world. The goal is to showcase God’s love through our actions, and even those that don’t claim to have done it in God’s name, still show that they are extending grace to His creation. God is committed to seeing all goodness happening in this world, so we must stay patient and diligent as we continue for fight for goodness in a world of evil.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one act of goodness you can do today?

Faithfulness

The Greek word that Paul uses for faithfulness is pistis (pis’-tis). Faith is the God-wrought conviction that rests on His self-revelation and responds with personal trust and obedience. The biggest thing our faith drives is our testimony. We need to allow the emotions, perceptions, perspective, and strength to be seen in how we share the impact Christ made in our lives. The more we lean our faith, the more growth we find in our relationship with Christ. There are things that the Bible teaches us that will feel weird and different compared to how the world teaches us, but that where faith comes in: to still guide us in what is right with God when it feels wrong to the world. When we face personal struggles, our faith can keep our eyes focused on victory. To see the other side of the struggle, keeping our eyes focused on what’s ahead when what’s behind us pulls us down. Our faith in God, much like our love, needs to guide our words, actions, and desires.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one act of faithfulness you can do today?

Gentleness

The Greek word that Paul uses for gentleness is prautés (prah-oo’-tace), Gentleness describes an interior strength that is under Holy Spirit control. It’s a poised disposition that submits to God’s will and channel’s strength for the benefit of others. When gentleness is used correctly (not passive-aggressively), it keeps us from being bitter against each other. We do not know the struggles that others are walking through, we must default to gentleness so that we can ensure people receive God’s love and kindness at all times. This gentleness can lead to restoration. Often bitterness destroys relationships, but gentleness can open the door to important conversations, exchange of emotions, intentional listening, and potential reconciliation. Even when relationships are not rekindled, the gentleness can lead to better respect and mutuality between people. Gentleness opens the door as well for confession in healing. It allows us to push towards expressing the hurts, habits, and hangups that have created inner judgment, shame, and guilt. These are not the things of God. God wants us to release them to Him and receive His gentle love and mercy.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one gentle act you can do today?

Self-Control

The Greek word that Paul uses for self-control is egkrateia (eng-krat’-i-ah). Self-control is a Spirit-enabled mastery of desires, impulses, and habits so that they serve rather than rule a believer. Self-control focuses on personal restraint. This has been a massive conversational point throughout this entire series, and something that a lot of Christians tend to ignore. It can be very easy to get an all-or-nothing mindset when it comes to following the commands of Christ. However, some of the things that leaders say Christians should never do, can be done safely when done with proper restraint. We looked at that heavily through our conversation on drunkenness. We can live our lives to the fullest, as long as we exercise our own restraint through God’s strength and not allow the things of the world to dictate our lives.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one act of self-control that you can do today?