Skip to main content

The Subject Of Our Inquiry

               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)

                Yesterday, I mentioned these verses in my post. Today, it is the passage of the day on my Bible platform and I can’t think of another verse to discuss instead. It doesn’t help that I’ve discussed this passage at length in the past. So, when all else fails, go with the obvious. The singular fruit of the Spirit is all these virtues. No one consistently demonstrates all of them to their fullest degree except God, but there might be moments when we display one or another to a degree. Perhaps to a remarkable degree. Sometimes, we hear or get the impression that if someone does not epitomize all of the best of Christianity, that we are hypocrites or otherwise not really Christians. But that’s not the way it works any more than declaring oneself more than to be a physician means you’re ready to perform surgery.

                The problem for those in whom this fruit is supposed to be growing is the same problem I have whenever I get a puppy. I see her every day, many times per day, and most of the time, I don’t notice the changes until something suddenly catches my attention or someone who doesn’t see her every day points it out. The same is true with kids, I hear. It’s the time of year when my seedlings all seem to be tiny, and even once I get them planted outside, it’ll still seem as if they’re small. Suddenly, sometime during the summer, I’ll realize suddenly that something needs to be tied to a trellis, or has fruit on it.  

                We may not notice that we’re becoming more loving, joyous, peaceful, etc. We shouldn’t notice. Sometimes, we face a challenge that brings it to our attention. If we were conscious of it all, it would generate anxiety and arrogance in us. This doesn’t mean that when we have a choice between being loving and hateful, or between faithful and unfaithful, that we shouldn’t make a conscious decision. It means that if we feel a lack, we should talk to God about it, but also recognize that we may not have an objective view of ourselves.

                John Ortberg sometimes talks about people ruminating, generally about something that has happened to us. It’s not quite the same as the exam table I talk about, but there is a ruminating character to the exam table. We look at ourselves for evidence of whatever, so we’re ruminating about ourselves and what we’ve done. Instead, we could meditate on the fruit. Everything changes when the subject of inquiry stops being us and starts being the fruit. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more