Devotional of the week: Life by the Spirit (7 in Fruit of the Spirit series)

Photo: Tyler Neyens, Fruit of the Spirit Fire Tree, Creative Commons

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 5:22–26)

In contrast to the false teachers who wanted to place the Galatians under rules and regulations, Paul wants them to live in step with the Spirit. As they depend on the indwelling Spirit, he produces lasting fruit.

Continuing in the list of the fruit of the Spirit (from last week), God is faithful, and helps us by setting this virtue within us. When we keep on loving those whom we find difficult; when we pray earnestly for the persecuted church; when we give abundantly from our stores of time, talent and money, we are faithful. When I think of faithfulness, a few women in their seventies and eighties come to mind. They no longer can engage in travel and ministry as they once did, but they pray daily not only for their locality but for international situations. I imagine that God, when they get to heaven, will lovingly reveal what their prayers have wrought.

Paul in this list probably means gentleness to be more the self-emptying love between people than the sense of a teachable spirit. When the Lord was in the first stages of removing my heart of stone (along the lines of Ezekiel 36:26), I felt a jolt of joy when someone described me as gentle – not a word I used for myself!

Self-control is another virtue that seems out of fashion these days, but Paul was probably emphasizing it by placing it last on the list. Although these fruit come from the Spirit’s work in us, we too have a role to exercise. As we depend on the Lord, looking to him when we seek to curb our appetites, he will give us the strength to desist from speaking that painful word or overindulging in a self-soothing behavior such as sex, shopping or eating.

May Jesus living within us bring forth these fruit.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, may we abide in you to produce that lasts. Fruit that the world would see and know we are your children. Amen.