The Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-26 (NRSV) 22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Who doesn’t like fruit? Well, Marie Romano from the popular “Everybody Loves Raymond” sitcom from the ‘80’s. Ray decided a nice gift would be a year’s worth of fruit of the month.
After Marie received the first delivery she tried to be gracious but became increasingly agitated as she realized she would get a different fruit each month. “What are you doing to me? No one can eat this much fruit! It’s too much pressure!”
I may not have the dialogue exactly right, but you get the idea. As Christians we should be eager to allow this fruit to grow and develop in our daily lives. Yet, I fear many Christians are not even aware of these attributes of discipleship. Or if they are, their response is, “It’s too much pressure!”
As we grow in our faith, we should necessarily grow in our likeness of Christ. I think the more we choose love over hate, joy over sadness, kindness over bitterness, the more we will be molded into the likeness of our Savior. It is not an overnight process. Fruit trees take years to bear fruit, and as Christ followers we, too, can take years to reflect the image of Jesus. But as the Scripture says, “If we live by the Spirit let us also be guided by the Spirit.”
May we each take inventory of ourselves and if we are lacking these fruits of the Spirit, ask God to grow them in us so that we will be more like Him.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Seeking Holiness 