Reflection: The Fruits of the Spirit

How is it “fruit” of the spirit? What does that mean? Is it my fruit because I have the Spirit? Is it the Spirit’s fruit because I have the Spirit?

Is the fruit automatic?

Is it something I must learn to do and integrate into my life?

Is fruit something that can be learned? Is the fruit of the Spirit natural fruit or artificial, then, if I can learn to produce it?

Is Paul’s list of Spiritual fruits general or specific?

First thought: Fruit is already there, producing (automatic). But sin has prevented it from fully producing. Our work is to uncover it. To allow the Spirit to work more and to prevent it less.

Question: I’ve already let God remove all the sin in my life by that same Spirit, so why is the Spirit not uncovered if it was what uncovered itself to begin with? Why is the fruit not more free to produce?

Perhaps then fruit can be learned? What role, then, does God play if it seems I can learn this fruit on my own? Do I then need God to produce this fruit “of the Spirit”? This seems less probable and more dangerous of a consideration than I want to dabble into.

So then, we are back to the struggle of uncovering fruit from the sin that so easily covers.

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” –Galatians 5:16, NIV

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” –Galatians 5:24, NIV

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” –Galatians 5:25, NIV

The fruit of the Spirit are for others. They are not for personal gain. They are simply personal characteristics used for the love of our neighbor. They should then be defined in reference to their efforts on others.

“…The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” –Galatians 5:6b

Keeping in step with the spirit… it is not something we do entirely on our own. For we must know the Spirit to walk with it. We must know the rhythm of its steps to step with them in perfect meter. This knowledge cannot be created on our own apart from the Spirit. We can’t “manufacture” it as artificial fruit. This fruit creation is both made by us but only under the influence of the presence of the Spirit.  Because without the presence of the Spirit, there is no model to create such fruit. The work of having spiritual fruit is to know Christ better and to walk with Him in time (as with a marching band).

“You, my brothers were called to be free. Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love. The entire Law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” –Galatians 5:13-14

“To truly be redeemed by Christ is, therefore, to impose on oneself the task of imitating him; As man Jesus is my model because as God he is my Redeemer; Christianity can be defined as a faith together with a corresponding way of life, imitation of Christ.” –Soren Kierkegaard

“Unlike the admirer who stands simply aloof, the follower of Christ strives to be what he admires. Without this essential condition all attempts to be a Christian are fruitless.” –Soren Kierkegaard

If I am to gain self-control, which is a fruit of the Spirit, then my task is not to sin less and to spend my time focusing on what I am not to do, but to spend more time understanding the life-rhythm of Jesus Christ, to consume myself, my mind, my heart, my desires, my passion, into understanding what made Jesus bounce, to understand his groove, his soundtrack. Then, I replace the personal soundtrack of my own life, the noise of the world, with the melodies that Jesus plays in my heart—the love I show for others in all respect of my Redeemer. And as my Redeemer, the Spirit will naturally free me from the sin that covers the fruit I should be showing. In turn, fruit will automatically produce, not by something I have done directly to produce it, but as a by-product of the nutrition I give myself as I feed on Christ and his love for my neighbor and I. Without doing so, my Christian walk is fruitless, empty, and mere religion, boring and dead.

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