New Devotional Series: Living a Fruitful Life – The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

19 Feb 2018

Photo: RVWithTito.com, flickr

I’ve had a bit of a break from posting devotional thoughts, but am delighted to share this one on the fruits of the Spirit. As it’s Lent, the season of preparing for Easter (why should you observe Lent?), it seems appropriate to focus on how God can bring forth fruit in our lives. Thank you for joining me!

When I lived in Virginia, the church I attended held their yearly retreat in the Shenandoah mountains each September. The weekend was always a special time of fun and growth in the Lord – we’d have a speaker who would teach and stretch us, but we’d also enjoy long walks, side-splitting entertainment, and deep conversations. But an abiding memory from those weekends was seeing and enjoying fruit of various kinds. As it was apple season, we’d feast on crunchy Virginia apples and enjoy apple cider. The spiritual fruits we’d glimpse would also enrich us – the love between friends and family, the serving of others, the joy and goodness in evidence.

During this several-month series, we’ll be looking at the fruit of the Spirit according to the letters of the apostle Paul. I hope as you read Paul’s letters, you’ll sense his love and concern for each of the churches he’s addressing. Try to imagine those to whom he’s writing, each facing different situations and challenges. I’ve roughly ordered the readings according to when he wrote the letters (though probably we should have started with Galatians, but 1 Corinthians 13, the ‘love’ chapter, is a wonderful place to start).

The fruit of the Spirit as appearing in Galatians 5 is what we usually think of when we hear the term. But Paul wasn’t making it an authoritative list of what is birthed in and through us as we live as the new creations in Christ. The naming of vices and virtues, as we will see, was then a common practice. So we should bear that in mind, not making the Galatians passage the cast-iron nine-fold list of the fruit of the Spirit.

Anyway, it’s clear from Paul’s writing that love is the main and most prized fruit, which binds the others together. Love is what motivates Paul when he writes to the new Christians, whether from chains in jail or from his travels among the churches. Love is the reason God created us, and sent his Son to redeem us. Love is what fills and overflows from us as the Spirit lives in us, enabling us to be God’s light in a darkened land.

May we love as we are loved.

By Rob Hille (own work) [CC0]

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs… It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13

This chapter in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is probably one of the most famous in the Bible, alongside Psalm 23. It’s read at weddings (yes, I read it once) and arranged decoratively and hung on a wall. But Paul addressed it to the Corinthian church, not to lovestruck couples. If we look at the two chapters on either side of chapter 13, we see his concern about how they are conducting themselves in worship, and specifically in regard to spiritual gifts. The most important thing is love – not being the star prophet or interpreter of a word of knowledge.

As Paul says, the greatest of faith, hope, and love is love. And that’s what will remain. It’s also the best and most powerful fruit we can grow. I find that the longer I travel the Christian walk, the more love I receive and the more love I am able to give out. A few years ago, this came home to me during the final session of a retreat I was leading in Spain. As I looked across the room at the diverse group of women, I was struck by the charism of love I had for each one of them. I was no longer a scared, unemotional, closed person, but one who loved and was loved. Each day as I don my new clothes of the new creation, God does his work of regeneration, changing me from the inside out.

How do you receive and share love? Who are the difficult ones in your life to whom you find it hard to extend love? (The relative, the friend who betrayed you, your neighbor?) As you read through this familiar chapter again, ask God to show you one person to whom you can show the love that always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.