Who has an air fryer or an instant pot pressure cooker? Is it out of the box? What if you get one as a gift but never open it?  You still have an air fryer or a pressure cooker, you have the potential to make pork chops or heat up leftover french fries or make mounds of rice…but you can’t do that because you didn’t open the gift, you didn’t let the gift do what it has the potential to do and be.  You have everything you need, you just need to plug it in and turn it on….

 

Same with the gift of God called Fruit of the Spirit. Paul describes this fruit in his letter to the believers in Galatia- Paul couldn’t visit so he sent a lot of letters- kind of mini sermons- some were for encouragement, or for correction, or for reprimand, or for teaching.  This particular letter is believed to address the fact that Gentiles were now wanting to become followers of Jesus and Jewish folks were telling them that first they had to become Jewish- meaning they had to be circumcised.  In short, Paul writes trying to encourage unity and trying to teach that it is the grace of God that makes us believers not something we do, not an action of our own doing. Only the gifts from God can connect us to God.

 

Often we skip over the verses before the Fruit of the Spirit and jump right to the part we can sing a song to.  Do you know this song? “Ohhhh….the fruit of the spirit’s not a coconut, the fruit of the spirit’s not a coconut.  If you wanna be a coconut, you might as well hear it, you can’t be a fruit of the spirit, Cause the fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

 

This morning I want to talk about the Fruit and then back up into the scripture verses before that…there’s a reason the reading was so long!  We can appreciate the fruit verses more deeply when we look at what comes before and after that.  That is good bible study!

 

Singular- one gift! Look at it. It doesn’t say, “The fruits of the Spirit are.” It says, “The fruit of the Spirit is, the fruit of the Spirit is.” Made up of 9 characteristics. It’s like 1 fruit with 9 flavors.

 

Not like spiritual gifts where different people have different gifts. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that there are many gifts given by the same spirit- some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These are roles, jobs, positions. He is showing that it takes all kinds of God given talents and abilities to make the body of Christ whole!  The message is that everyone has a place! In Galatians, Paul is highlighting the sameness of us all- remember, trying to teach unity in the body of Christ.  This fruit of the spirit is given to everyone- we all have all of them.  So many people think these are nine distinct and individual fruits, and someone says, “Well, let’s see now. Love? Yeah, I’ve got that fruit. Joy? I’ve got that fruit. Peace? I don’t have fruit? Patience? I don’t have that one. Oh, gentleness? Yeah, I’m good at that. That’s one of my fruits. Goodness? Well, yeah. Faith? Well, I’ve got that. But there’s some of the fruit I have and some of the fruit I don’t have.” Don’t kid yourself, friends. God has given us all this gift, but like the air fryer, do we open it, do we plug it in? God has given us the potential to show all of these traits- yes, all of them.  We don’t pick and choose. We all have patience and self control, gentleness and faithfulness, love and joy! These are nine characteristics that are to be made visible in the life of every Spirit-filled believer. The fruit of the Spirit.”

 

If you plant a peach tree, what fruit do you expect to see?  If you plant an apple tree, what fruit do you expect to see?  Different seeds produce different fruits- If you plant carrots, you cannot expect to get cucumbers.  If you plant roses, you cannot expect to get daisies.

 

Paul is saying, God plants a Holy Spirit tree in each of us, if we allow the spirit to grow in us, we can expect the fruit of the spirit.

 

But it’s true, right, that we don’t always demonstrate these traits- we don’t always demonstrate patience or self control or gentleness do we?  Joy and peace are not manifested in your lives. Here is where we back up in our reading for today…

 

Because when do not allow the Holy Spirit tree to grow in us, that list of unflattering descriptions Paul calls the acts of the flesh is the fruit that is displayed…idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, 21 jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that.

 

When we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, we produce the fruit of the Spirit.  When we ignore the Holy Spirit the acts of the flesh is what comes from us.

 

Paul says we should walk by the Spirit or stay in step with the Spirit.  We need to see the spirit in our lives and keep it super close, we need to listen to the spirit, follow the spirit, be guided by the spirit.

 

Just like you cannot always tell what kind of seed you have planted- many look very similar- You cannot clearly determine the seed until you see the fruit. If you are displaying kindness, you are walking in the spirit.  If you are displaying greed, you are walking in the flesh.

 

This makes me think about what Jesus says in John 15. , “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me, abide with me, stay connected with and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If we are aligned with God, connected to Jesus, our lives will produce the fruit of the spirit!

 

If the fruit at the end of the branch is the fruit of the spirit- say goodness. If goodness is what is seen, then the branch must be attached to Jesus through the Holy Spirit.  If the fruit at the end of the branch is an act of the flesh- say greed, then the branch is not connected to Jesus.  It works both ways- the fruit points to the vine.  And the vine produces, or points to the fruit.  If we see a tomato, we can assume the plant is a tomato plant. If we see a tomato plant, we can plan to see tomatoes.  If we see kindness we can assume the person is attached to God and if we see God, we can expect to see kindness. You see, we cannot produce these fruits on our own will- we can only produce them because God, the gardener, planted them in us.

 

If this is true, then looking at the 9 fruit of the spirit should help us see God’s work in our lives, it should help us gauge how connected we are to God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  We can ask ourselves, how healthy is the fruit that has been planted in us? What have we done to cultivate the soil, to remove the weeds, to care for the plant, so that good fruit is what is grown in us?  What have we done to develop our relationship with God, to reduce the barriers to God’s grace, or to care for ourselves as beloved children of God?  Can others see our commitment to Jesus by the fruit we bear?

 

Today we’re just going to tackle the first fruit- Love

Not a surprise that this is the first one listed! Use over 550 times in the NIV translation of the Bible

 

Greatest Commandment- in all 4 gospels we hear Jesus telling us- Love the Lord and Love your neighbor.

 

Love- all kinds of love in Greek- In English, we say “love” but what we might mean is one of these…

 

Eros – “Romantic Love”

Philia – “Affectionate Love”

Storge – “Familiar Love”

Pragma – “Enduring Love”

Philautia – “Self-Love/Self-Compassion”

Ludas – “Playful Love”

Agape – “Unconditional Love”

Love your enemies, not just your friends- love all people, all relationships have the potential for love

 

How do you know you love someone?  Call out answers…

handsome/pretty, makes me laugh, just know…

How do you know someone loves you?

Because they bring me gifts, or do nice things for me, or make time for me, or hug or kiss me, because they tell me.

 

These are all actions that display the love that is already inside of us.  We can only know love because God has given us love. We can only love because God first loved us. We only have the potential for love because God planted that seed, gave us that gift.  We have to open the gift of love from God, we have to unwrap it, plug it in, turn it on.  In our reading from Ephesians, we hear Paul describe grace (the conglomeration of God’s love and mercy) as a gift- given by God- not because we did anything to earn it or deserve it- God does the giving of the gift! But, if it sits on the shelf unopened, it remains dormant, it gets dusty, it’s not living up to its potential.

 

Listen to Romans 5:5, “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

 

If you’re walking in the Spirit you will love. You will love everyone. You will love the people in your most intimate circle, you will love strangers, you will love enemies. You will love without giving it another thought.

 

You are a branch, connected to Jesus, the vine. You have all the potential that comes from that connection, including the capacity to love greatly and widely. So,  if you are walking in the Spirit, walking in obedience to Christ, you will radiate love everywhere. Is that what you’re known for? Is that what people would say when they talk about you: “Full of love.” “He loves greatly.” “She loves much.”. It should be. If it isn’t, you’re not walking by the Spirit. If you find yourself showing greed or anger instead of love, it’s time to check your vine- the health of your connection to God.  Have a conversation with God, open up your bible, talk to a Christian friend or a pastor.  God has planted the seed of love and God expects to see love- like planting a carrot seed, we expect a carrot, not a cucumber.

 

Have you ever had someone ask you, “How do I know you’re a Christian?” In light of this scripture about the fruit of the spirit, your answer would be, “Well, apart from the fact that I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that tells you that I believe in Him, but it doesn’t show you that I’m a Christian. So if you want to know that I’m a Christian stick around me for a while, and what you will see is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” When you see the fruit, you will know that my vine is Jesus Christ. This is how we can sing another song, with confidence and boldness- And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

 

Amen.