How would you describe the taste of a kiwi? Once called Chinese plum, it took on a new life after a name change that was more exotic. The small, fuzzy green fruit has tiny black seeds in green flesh. Peeled, it is great in a fruit salad, tasting like several berries with a hint of citrus. It is unique. It is one fruit, but has several flavors.
In my humble opinion, the fruit of the Spirit is like that: one fruit with several flavors. Galatians 5:22 reads “The fruit of the Spirit is love, ….” I stop there, because, as a former English teacher, I think a single subject and a single verb come before a single predicate noun. I do not want to change the Scriptures, so I think though the text is inspired, perhaps the punctuation is not! I would put a dash after the word “love,” and then the eight words following would be predicate adjectives, describing the noun. That would make love the fruit, and the other qualities are the flavors.
I John 3:16 says we know what love is because Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and in 4:8 we read that “God is love.” Then Paul further defines love in I Corinthians 13 as patient, kind, not envious, not prideful, believes, hopes, endures, and never fails. Love is a person, but One who shows action. Sometimes it is easier to say “I love you” than to show it with actions.
The flavors of love are “joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control.” If we live in the sphere of the love of God, we can enjoy all the flavors!
Joy is being optimistic in spite of difficulties. Peace is the harmony of opposing forces, learning to disagree agreeably. God gives us these, but we have to learn the others.
Patience is opposite of having a short temper, seeing faults but loving anyway. Kindness is service that helps others. Goodness is doing the right thing. These flavors or graces cannot be legislated, so they have to be learned. In dealing with others, these must be used with love. If trained correctly, one would say, “No, I can’t do that. It would break my Father’s heart.”
Faithfulness is being loyal, trustworthy, dependable. Meekness is having power, authority, and resources, but not flaunting it. Self-control is no excess, having mastery over self. It is easy to be true to people, do lowly jobs, and control ourselves if we love them.
We cannot have love and these graces unless we give our lives over to the Holy Spirit. We can counterfeit some, but we cannot produce love because when God produces fruit, He gets the glory. He knows our hearts and will convict us if we truly ask for better production.
That is love. If we have it, we can have the flavors or graces also. If we do not have love, we have nothing.
We need to want this fruit because, as servants of Jesus, we cannot save ourselves or do anything worthwhile except what is done on His behalf. We are also friends of Jesus, so we obey Him, submit to Him, talk to Him and listen to His answers.
Jesus said his plans are to seek and save the lost and then come back for us. He lets us know that we have a capacity to serve, along with a responsibility and the power to do so. He said God would give us what we need to bear the fruit that will last. He is our Help Line!
Fruit is for food. God wants that from us. When Adam was hiding in the garden, I believe God asked “Where are you?” not in anger but crying, because He was a Father who had lost his child. If you have ever lost a child, you know the grief. God is looking for us, asking “Where are you?” We should want this fruit of love because we are His friends and He wants our love.
We cannot manufacture the fruit of love. Fruit grows in good soil, in a good climate, and is cultivated. The seeds come from Philippians 4:8, things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy. We plant those seeds and let them fill our thoughts.
There was a time when I received notes and letters from people who were not happy with me. I kept those in a filing cabinet in a folder labeled “Hate Mail.” Every time I opened that drawer, I saw that folder, and all the hurt churned inside me. One day my husband saw it and said, “Why don’t we pray for these people?” We did, and we prayed for me, also. I knew that keeping all that was not what God wanted me to do, so I shredded each note and put them in the trash can. I felt better, and though it took time to forgive, it worked. Often Satan tries to fill my mind with bad memories, but I just slap my head and say “Get out! Get out!” and try to think on pure, lovely things instead.
When we realize that we have been forgiven, then we can forgive others, and that provides a blessed climate for the fruit of love to grow in.
As for cultivation, God has to do that. Remember how your mother taught you how to tie your shoes? Eventually it came unconsciously, without thinking. That took discipline. God loves us and He disciplines us until we learn to do the right thing without thinking. He pulls out weeds of sin so His Word can take root and bear fruit. It only grows in good soil.
If we have it, we show the fruit of love in our daily walk. That means not running ahead or lagging behind. We must not look over our shoulder and tell Jesus to keep up or tell God how to do things. We should walk so others can see the beautiful graces of the Spirit in our lives. We do that by trying to win others to Jesus, be holy, do good works, and give praise to God.
We must remember that the fruit is to be eaten, not just admired or put on display. People are starving for love, so if we show it, they might want it. We need to let the fruit of love propagate and multiply.
We can use the fruit of love in our teaching about righteousness and judgment as we share the good news of the gospel about repentance and justification with love and patience. We have been taught to separate from the world, but we have to be in touch with them. We do not put them down or patronize them but speak to them as friends. When I complained about our neighbors, my husband reminded me that “They need Jesus too.”
Jesus explained in Luke 15 why he was a friend of sinners. He was trying to love them into holiness. He said the sheep was lost, drifting until a crisis arose, then it was helpless. The coin was idle, out of circulation, so useless. The willful younger son thought only of the present, so he was without respect. His haughty older brother was intolerant of other’s sins, so he was joyless. They were all lost. But God never gives up, and neither should we. The Holy Spirit convicts and restores, and God waits and welcomes. We should be searching, looking, praying, going after the lost, all while showing the fruit of love!
Another way to show our love is by forgiving family members and fellow believers and by asking their forgiveness. We cannot promote a religion of love while carrying resentment in our hearts. We must be patient with the failings of the weak and uphold them lovingly.
I would hate to miss out on God’s forgiveness just because I cannot forgive someone who hurt me. When I think of my hate mail, I remember that no one threw stones at me or drove nails through my hands, yet Stephen and Jesus said “Forgive them.” I just want to please the heart of God and be more like Jesus!
We need to get serious about being a Christian. If we wear the name of Christ, then we have to show the world that we belong to Him, we stay close to Him, that we talk to Him daily, and that we have His character traits, these graces. We want people to say, “You act just like your Father!”
The great commission says to make, mark, and mature disciples of Jesus by telling, baptizing, and teaching. It is a co-mission because Jesus promised to go with us. If we have the fruit of the Spirit while we do our part, we may lead a lost child back to the Father.
As friends of Jesus, we know what He wants us to do and we are to ask God for help to do it. Maybe the reason there are so many dead vines in the vineyard is because it takes fellowship with Jesus to thrive. Fellowship is two-way: each one gives and each one takes. We must talk with and then listen to Jesus every day and that will inspire us to produce fruit, more fruit, and much fruit, to glorify Him.
Even when we are afraid or worried or in doubt, or even when we do not understand what is going on, we must trust and obey. To make it work, we have to have fire and conviction burning inside, and share it with a passion because it is the intensity of our spirit that will move others to bear fruit.
God wants our love, labor, and loyalty. I pray that all of us will learn to forgive and have compassion and work on bearing much more love and all the graces. May God bless us all.
-Joyce Broyles lives in Jennings, LA