I love fruit, all kinds of fruit. I especially like fruit when it’s baked into pies and cobblers. I figure a blackberry cobbler topped with ice cream is one way to make sure I get my recommended allowance of fruit and dairy. And speaking of ice cream, oh goodness, my dad’s homemade ice cream with fresh peaches is still the best I’ve ever had.
Dad grew a lot of the fruit we ate. He planted grapevines and strawberry plants and pear trees. Unfortunately, my son and his cousins discovered one day that young, hard, unripe pears will fly off of an aluminum baseball bat. I mean just fly. So that day my dad lost almost all of his pears, and the neighbor’s yard, on the other side of the “home run fence,” was filled with young, hard, unripe pears. The boys had to pick up all of those pears, but I don’t think they minded that much; they’d never hit so many home runs in their lives.
The thing about a fruit tree or plant or vine, though, is that if it doesn’t produce fruit it’s useless. After all, a strawberry plant is only good if it produces strawberries. No one plants a pear tree for its shade, you plant it so you can eat pears.
I’ve been reading in Galatians for a while now, and in this letter Paul tells us that we are to love other people the way that Jesus loves them. Since that’s impossible for us to do on our own, Paul says that the only way we can truly love the same way that Jesus loves is by surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives.
Then Paul writes that in the life of every believer there is a battle going on between our human nature, our natural tendencies, and the Holy Spirit. Paul shows us what happens when our human nature, the “flesh,” has the upper hand:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
That sounds a lot like our world today. Sadly, jealousy, anger, rivalries, division, and envy describe the way a lot of Christians are writing in my social media feed. Maybe what you see is different from what I see, but I see people being hateful to others just because they disagree on the issues of the day, whether it’s about race relations or politics or whether we should wear masks in a pandemic or disagreements about theology. Instead of having mature discussions about the issues, too many people are just being hateful. We’re “biting and devouring each other” (Galatians 5:15).
This is what happens when our human nature, our “flesh,” is winning; our lives reflect what’s happening within us. When the Holy Spirit is dominant, our lives show that as well. When we are surrendered to and are being led by the Holy Spirit, instead of producing “works of the flesh,” we’ll produce the “fruit of the Spirit.” You want to know whether you’re walking in the Holy Spirit? Here’s the inspection sheet:
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)
The thing about a Christian is that, just like a fruit tree, if he doesn’t produce fruit he’s useless. So is this what your life looks like? My grandmother used to say, “We are not to judge whether a person knows Jesus, but we can sure be fruit inspectors.” Are you willing to spend some time inspecting yourself? Is your life characterized by this fruit?
Please keep in mind that producing this fruit is not something we do. The fruit is simply the result of what the Holy Spirit does in us if we allow him to. This is not a to-do list. We don’t need to start each day with the goal of doing these nine things. We’re never going to produce this fruit if our attitude is, “By golly, today I’m going to be patient.” We can try, but more often than not we’ll fail. If I ever start thinking that I can use my willpower to make myself more patient with others, all I have to do is get in my car and drive and I’ll prove to myself within a matter of minutes that I can’t manufacture patience. How some people get a driver’s license I’ll never know.
We can’t manufacture this fruit, not on our own. Our goal each day instead should be to walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). When we walk by the Spirit, he will produce this fruit in us. When we walk by the Spirit, people will look at us and see this fruit.
Read these verses again:
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)
Does this look like you?
Is this what people see when they interact with you?
Is this what unbelievers usually see when they interact with Christians?
My prayer is that Christians throughout this country, especially in this stressful time, will begin allowing the Holy Spirit to produce so much fruit that people will take notice. I want them to stop in their tracks because they see Christians overflowing with this fruit. Then we can point them to the One who is producing the fruit in us, the One who deserves all the glory we can give him.