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Fruit

             But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

Galatians

2 Peter

Love

Love

Joy

 

Peace

 

Patience

Perseverance

Kindness

 

Goodness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Faith, Perseverance

Gentleness

 

Self-control

Self-control

 

Knowledge

 

Godliness

 

Mutual Affection

 

The lists are not quite the same, but I suspect they’re closer than the table shows. After all, mutual affection could be peace, kindness, or gentleness. Knowledge could also produce peace or joy. Godliness encompasses all of them. The reasons I’m putting them together are because of the phrase, “if you possess these qualities in increasing measure,” and because they clearly provide the two sides of the same coin.

When we read that these things are fruit of the Spirit, we may think that as soon as a person becomes a Christian, the person puts forth all the fruit instantaneously. If any of those characteristics is lacking or is not fully mature and perfect in every way, there’s something wrong with the Christian or with Christianity. That’s not a kind way of perceiving things, but we are sometimes our own worst critics.

If we would not expect a two-year-old to perform as a fire-fighter or do differential calculus, why would we expect a Christian to be fully mature in only a few years? If a person is not the shining example of some characteristic, or every characteristic, should that person condemn someone else for failure to live up to the standard that person doesn’t meet? Note that I am referring to the unkind person who criticizes and condemns Christians or Christianity because Christians and Christianity aren’t kind enough because they criticize and condemn.

The strongest example of this for me was the day when I realized that something I had done demonstrated gentleness. My reaction was “Oh no! God. I don’t want to be gentle!” But He’s been working on it. The realization came decades after I became a Christian, and even decades after I “got involved” in Christianity. If we are, over the course of our lives, making progress, that’s the point.

The other issue is the agency. In Galatians, all this is the fruit of the Spirit. We would seem to be passive in the process – almost victims. In 2 Peter, we are to possess, and to possess in increasing measure. It’s personally active. We’re involved in the process. Responsibility on our part is not excluded. In fact, possessing these attributes could be thought of our personal parallel to Joshua and the Israelites taking possession of the Promised Land.


 

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