Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Fruit of the Spirit: A Garden of Grace -- Galatians 5: 13-24

Today we are beginning a new series on the fruit of the Spirit. The “fruit of the Spirit” are a list of nine characteristics that Paul mentions in Galatians 5:22-23--love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, meekness, and self-control.  These are contrasted with the “works of the flesh” mentioned in 5:19-21 sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.  This is not a comprehensive list. The works of the flesh are what we characteristically produce when we live for own worldly reasons, following our natural impulses and desires.  They are what we do when we act out what we feel like doing. 
The fruit of the Spirit are also character traits found in the life of Jesus.  Because He was without sin, He manifested them perfectly.  He was loving, joyful, peaceful and patient at all times, and so on through the list. 
Since the Holy Spirit is in us, these same nine qualities ought to be present in us, too.  The Holy Spirit will produce these same traits inside us through the act of spiritual renewal within. Like a virus inside us produces symptoms that help us diagnose a disease, the fruit of the Spirit inside us produce a set of good symptoms that help us know He is there.
We often see this dramatically when a person suddenly encounters Christ. They suddenly become more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle, humble, and so forth. But mostly, these effects come slowly t our lives as the Holy Spirit manifests Christ’s character in us. 
So much I learned in Bible School.  But there’s more to the fruit of the Spirit than that. 
I think I’ve misunderstood what “fruit” is. We think of fruit as something that naturally grows on a tree. But the Greek word for fruit does not refer to where something grows, but whether it is edible.  Their word for “fruit” was karpos, derived from the word “to pick.”  If you didn’t pick and eat it, it’s not fruit. 
I used to imagine the fruit of the Spirit was this.  We are trees in God’s garden.  When the Spirit is in our lives, we naturally produce the fruit of the Spirit.  Love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, and all the others naturally and magically appeared, as we look to Jesus.  We don’t have to work at it.
But there’s a problem with this.  A lot of people in God’s garden aren’t producing much fruit of the Spirit. Religion seems to have made no difference in their attitudes.  They like coming to church, but they behave nothing like Jesus.  How can the people of (for example) Westboro Baptist Church protest at the funerals of soldiers and insult gays on the street, and claim to believe the Bible? How can Christians support slavery, violence and immorality?  Where’s the fruit of the Spirit? How  we claim to  “love the Lord” when we don’t love anyone else? Why do so many Christians live in with fear, impatience, uncontrollable anger, arrogance, and contentious attitudes, yet claim to have the Holy Spirit?  They may be saved, but the fruit of the Spirit are not in them. 
Think of the fruit of the Spirit like this.  God invites us into His garden—a garden abounding with all kinds of good and wholesome things.  Among the many great gifts offered to us in this garden are the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience and all the rest. It’s all there for the taking. But to have them, we must pick them.  New ways of thinking and feeling are offered to us, but we must take and eat. 
The fruit of the Spirit are gifts from God’s, but we must take and eat.  Fruit doesn’t fall from the tree into our mouths.  We must choose to take them.  They are a gift, but they are not a requirement. If we do not seek the fruit, they will not be evident in our lives.   
Let’s imagine a high school student who wants to join the varsity football team.  He is chosen to be on the starting lineup.  He is proud, and struts around school in his letter jacket.  Then they coach tells him to show up for the first practice.  “Practice?” he whines.  “No one told me I had to practice!”  What did he think he was chosen to do? Sit on the bench?
Yet many Christian seem to think they were chosen to be Christians but not act like Christians.  We are saved from more than just the fires of hell.  We are also saved from the works of the flesh to be changed through partaking of the fruit of the Spirit. 
In Galatians, Paul is writing against legalism. Legalism says that in order to have anything from God, we must earn it.  There was no love in this view.  It was all about having to prove oneself by keeping all the laws of the Old Testament. But the Bible says that it isn’t what we do that makes us good, but what God has done for us. Christ’s life given on the Cross gives us new life.  We don’t have to do anything to be loved by Jesus.  He just loves us.
But towards the end of Galatians Paul has to deal the opposite problem. Many people use God’s grace as an excuse for doing whatever they want.  They’re sure they are going to heaven, so that they think they can live like hell on earth.  Because they have accepted by God’s grace, there’s no need to practice Spiritual virtues. 
This sound like a very selfish, ungrateful way to live, but I do not want to give that impression.  Most people who live with the works of the flesh do not live that way because they want to, but because they do not think they have any choice.  Paul says they aren’t so much in rebellion but in bondage to the flesh.  He writes in Galatians 6 1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Remaining in bondage to our old habits and attitudes is slavery to Paul.
We are all recovering slaves--Some to despair, others to appetites, others to addictions, and still others anger or fear.  We say “I can’t help it,” but Paul doesn’t buy it.  We were made to overcome our flesh, not live under its control.
Don’t excuse sin by appealing to human nature.  Being in Christ means overcoming our human nature.  Don’t excuse temper by saying you have anger management issues, or adultery by claiming to have a high libido, or nastiness to others by claiming to have a personality disorder.  The point of the Spirit’s work in our lives is to transform our personalities into the personality of Christ. Jesus forgives sinners and sets them free from sin, but He never accepts our excuses.
 The life of the Spirit is a garden of possibilities.  Over the gate is written.  “Enter here, and become what you were always meant to be.” In the garden, are fruit trees with signs marked “Love,” “Joy”, “Peace”, “Patience,” “Kindness, ““Gentleness”, “Meekness”, and “Self-control.”  “All these qualities are yours” God says to us.  “But you must take and eat.  Incorporate them into your lives.  You have a choice—either sit in the garden and starve, or take and eat from the fruit God provides.
To take the fruit, we may have to stretch ourselves. We may even have to climb a few trees--but this is nothing. We no longer have to eat the rotten fruit of sin.  Now we can eat the fruit of grace.  But if we’re too lazy to reach for it, then the fruit of the Spirit will never be ours. 
The fruit of the Spirit does not change our lives all at once. You can’t take one bite of an apple or a banana and expect to be immediate health.  It is the habit of eating the right fruit and choosing them daily over junk food that produces a change in our lives.  The development of new habits which will change our personality forever. The fruit of the Spirit is both the instrument and the result of this second and far more difficult salvation.  This kind of salvation we must work out with fear and trembling.  The fruit of the Spirit are not usually grown in us overnight, but are the result of spiritual habits grown over a lifetime.
They are not just gifts--they are virtues.  They manifest themselves in our lives as the result of habits formed around God’s grace.  Over time, they cause us to look more and more like Jesus. 
We don’t just love; we must learn to love.  Love is the habitual turning from our own self-interest to pursue the interests of God and others.
We don’t just have joy, we take joy.  Joy is the habitual celebration of God’s grace in life and creation.  We daily choose joy over criticism and disappointment. 
We don’t just have peace, we make peace.  We choose to make a habit of keeping the world in perspective, so that we understand nothing we fight for on earth is all that important. 
We don’t just patience, we learn patience.  Patience is the habit of being still without strife, and being mindful of where we are now, instead of wishing we were somewhere else.
We don’t just have Kindness; we learn to act kindly to others.  Kindness is the habit of wishing and seeking the best for all who come across our path, even our enemies.
We aren’t just good, we practice goodness.  Goodness is the practice of seeking for uplifting things, not things that tear ourselves and others down. 
Were aren’t just faithful, we practice faithfulness.  Faithfulness is the habit of keeping our word and standing by what we say. 
We are just gentle, we practice gentleness.  Gentleness is the habit of treating other people with maximum grace and minimum judgment.
We don’t just have self-control, we practice self-control.  Self-control is listening to God more than we listen to our own inner voices. 
The fruit of the Spirit are not just gifts.  They are lifetime habits.  They do not come overnight, but through years of saying “no” to the flesh, and “yes” to the Spirit. 

God invites you into your own personal Garden of Grace, and invites you to eat of the fruit within.  But in order to eat that fruit, you must be willing to pick it.  Lay aside the rotten fruit of the flesh, and eat deeply of the fruit of the Spirit.  

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