Favorite fruit? Do you have a favorite fruit? Apples, cherries, peaches, grapes, melon, bananas? Growing up, my mom was always recommending that I eat more fruit. There is something about fruit. Fresh. Natural. Wholesome. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 Paul, writing to the Galatians, talks about a different kind of fruit: the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These too are in their own way fresh, natural, and wholesome. They occur naturally when we cultivate life by the Spirit. In fact, they are both the outcome and the evidence of the life of Christ growing in us. By contrast, Paul also speaks of a list of the “works of the flesh.” Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Galatians 5:19-20 Nothing fresh, natural or wholesome about these. Ironically, we don’t have to “work” too hard for them. The long and the short of it is that the fruit of the Spirit gives life and promotes the God’s kingdom among us, whereas the works of the flesh are in direct opposition to our growing in Christ. Paul (like my mom) urges his readers to choose fruit. So…do you have a favorite fruit? Blessings, Matthew+
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. |
