Fruit of the Spirit

 Galatians 5:1, 13-25

We go to the easiest answers first. At least this is what strikes me as I look at this list of what the works of the flesh are. Why have I never noticed lumped in there in several different ways this: enmity, factions, quarrels, anger, and dissension? Its like there is a always a point of making big the ones which seem to have more weight. Like Jesus would have us keep a record of which is bad to worse. This is not how Paul lists them though, they are right dropped in the middle over and over. 

The fruit we are aiming for is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is a tall order. I can only think of this in the way Paul is arguing here. Paul is arguing for the freedom which Christ brings. For living in this life and not going to be a good Jew first. There is something new other than the law and doing right. There is freedom. Freedom from the state, freedom from the Jewish sect of the Church coming and saying you have to follow Jewish law to be a Christian, freedom of choice in how you will be. And let us not miss Paul is not quarreling with the Jerusalem Church, he is quarreling for his followers to believe what was first opened to them. Maybe it should be put encouraging them. 

I want to focus in on this fruit of the Spirit today. Because this fruit asks us to dig deeper. How many times do we lose any one of these because we think a goal is more important? How do we go to the easy part first, because this is what Paul states about the list, they are obvious. These are much harder goals in our freedom to live faithfully. 

When was the last time you were generous? I don't mean just throwing money at something, I mean generous with your time. Or generous when someone cuts you off in traffic. Or gracious when someone is in a hurry and you offer them a spot in line first. Or paid for someone else's order in the line at a fast food place just because. Or listened to someone deeply enough they knew they had your full attention and they weren't in a hurry for you to finish. This kind of generosity is hard to do. It requires us to set an intention toward it in order to accomplish it.

We run so fast these days in our world, think things are more important than they are, and miss opportunities to lavish these gifts on one another. Think of a world where we lavished these fruits around instead of arguing with one another. Posting on social media to provoke a response which will be controversial. I'm not saying there isn't anything worth fighting for, but if we are practicing these gifts it is much harder to be polarized and divided because we see each other and not the topic of debate. We start to live out in freedom the way God wants us to live with one another and we stop worrying about the list of what is wrong and do what is most right.

When we think that law is only a list of right or wrongs, when all we see is making things illegal we think are wrong, when we only see law keeps us in the right we lose out on the depth of wonder living in freedom brings. Because this kind of fruit is hard to come by. This kind of fruit demands we listen more and stop saying what we think is wrong. This fruit asks us to remember we are all created by God and are a part of this web of mystery in connection with one another. Until we dig more fully into living out these gifts we haven't even scratched the surface of loving our neighbor as ourself. It is a tall order and one we should strive for more fully. Will you join us in creating that kingdom?