Fruit of the Spirit

READING: GALATIANS 5:22-23

"In Contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23)

REFLECTION:

For such a long time, I interpreted this text to mean that each attribute was independent from the other. I found it difficult to observe each slice of the fruit manifesting in my life. Sometimes, I would experience love. Other times, I would experience joy. Sometimes, I would have victory over self-control. Other times, I would struggle with gentleness. But the fruit always seemed elusive - as if God's Spirit would reveal himself upon me on some days and in some events while other times I struggled against errors and spiritual defects. Consistency of being "in the Spirit" was a constant struggle especially when it seemed that there was so much evil in the world.

Then I came to the understanding that these attributes were not separate or isolated. Rather, the fruit of the Spirit states of being that are sequential and compounding, planted within us by God's Spirit with the first state being love - that is - "desiring what is best for another and making it happen."

By acting in charity (love), joy naturally manifests itself. Has anyone ever truly loved someone and not felt the joy of that love?

Once joy resides in our soul, peace naturally manifests itself afterwards because our longing for peace is satisfied by inner joy.

Peace, then, leads to patience. For when I have peace, I am much more at liberty to be patient with the world around me which might consist of standing in line at a check-out counter, waiting for test results, or waiting for an individual or circumstance to change in my life.

From patience comes kindness and then generosity for when we are at the height of patience we act out in kindness and generosity to the world around us.

Faithfulness, sometimes referred to in this passage as "perseverance," is that ability to be consistent in all of these earlier fruit regardless of the circumstances we find in ourselves. It is not so much the ability to withstand adversity but rather to allow it to be a part of our life. It is not accepting evil (the absence of Good) but being the ministering body of Christ in the midst of that adversity and this leads us to gentleness.

Jesus did not accept the cross with ugliness or hatred, he embraced the cross with gentleness. Gentleness is that ability for our spirit to embrace our world but not be subject to it. The world doesn't move us as it once did, we are not compelled by fear or desire. That which once tempted us to vice or sin no longer has a grasp upon us. And, if vice or sin, fear or desire, no longer have a grasp upon our very being, then we naturally possess self-control.

No longer do we need to struggle with self-control over doing the right thing. We no longer "do" Christianity to try to manifest God's Spirit within us. Rather, we become Christ-like. It is a question of "being" part of the body of Christ, not "doing" Christianity. This state of "being" begins with love. Love is what unites us with God. His love for us and our reciprocation of that love back to him. We replace our practices of love - that is, our trying to do individual and sometimes isolating acts of love (e.g. I chose to love my wife but not the evil person in my life) - and become love itself which is indiscriminatory. Once we manifest this state of being, the fruit of the Spirit naturally manifest themselves.

In the end, it is not what we do; rather, there is only one thing we need to be and that is love. If we fail at obtaining the other fruit, we need not be discouraged. For all we need to "do" is continue to pray on, meditate on, and practice "love." God is in the process of transforming us into his likeness. God will lead us into being love by his grace.