Shopping For Fruit With Paul In Galatians

by Kevin Burton

   Being a Christian goes deeper than displaying a cross. A true Christian is going to be different and look different. 

   The Apostle Paul has a lot to say about what a Christian looks like. That’s why I’m going shopping today at a new grocery store. The sign out front reads, “Galatians.”

    I’m looking for some spiritual nutrition in the fruit section.

    This may take a while. Paul never did anything by half measures, before conversion as Saul, terrorizing and killing Christians, then after his Damascus Road conversion, as Paul, making a defense for Jesus.

  Here is my grocery list, provided by Paul:
   “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law”  Gal. 5:22-23 (NASB).

   Don’t know that this is an exhaustive list, but it’s a pretty good start, wouldn’t you say?

   “Galatians 5:22-23 is one of the most beloved passages in the Bible. The ‘fruit of the Spirit’ has also been misinterpreted as characteristics that believers should somehow manufacture in their lives,” reads a passage on www.gotquestions.org.

   “But the key to understanding these qualities is in the name. ‘Fruit’ is the natural result of growth. And ‘of the Spirit’ explains exactly Who causes that growth—it’s not our striving or straining, but the power of the Holy Spirit.”

   “No amount of human toil or gritty determination can produce spiritual fruit, but the Spirit’s influence in a yielded heart can work miracles,” the passage reads.

   Don’t miss that “yielded heart’ part. That is a key.

   With that, we launch our series on the fruit of the Spirit, starting where Paul starts, with love.

   “The fruit of ‘love’ may be the best example,” reads the passage. ”We cannot produce the type of love God desires without the leading and strength of the Holy Spirit.”  

   “The English word love has very broad meaning, but the Greek language was very precise. The love which the Holy Spirit manifests in believers is agape. This love is not a feeling, but a choice. It is the choice to be kind, to sacrifice, to consider another’s needs greater than one’s own (Phil. 2:3).

Agape is used in all of the ‘hard’ love verses in the New Testament.”

   Some examples:
   “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
   “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11).
   “Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back” (Luke 6:35).
   “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
   “It is because of love that God carried out His plan to save the world: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). It is only by love that we can keep the greatest commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ (Mark 12:30-31).

   “Love is the greatest gift God can give. First Corinthians 13 says that agape is patient. Agape is kind. Agape never fails. God desires to show His perfect, selfless love to a world that is routinely confused about what true love is.”

   “God’s children are the conduits of His love, as they are empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

   I am not a writer of scripture, only a reader. But if I were writing my own love chapter it might include “love slows down long enough to listen, truly listen.”

   “Love doesn’t just hit the ‘care’ button on Facebook, love takes action.”   

   How about, “love does not grow hardened to news of shootings”? 

   I’m sure you can think of some other love statement that pertain to your life.  Take them to God and pray over them.

   But for our discussion of the fruit of the Spirit, we close with the words of Jesus in John 13:35 NASB:

   “By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”