“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22-23
When I first made Jesus' acquaintance, at the tender and impressionable age of sixteen, I quickly got into the habit of living out my weeks in preparation for Sunday mornings - and that was in large part due to this verse (or rather, the misinterpretation thereof).
My first church was a quaint little white building off Leeman Highway with a rugged cross nailed to the front wall, a few chips in the paint job, a creaky wooden porch out front that looked out onto a virtually unused railroad, the shipyard, and my small town's tiny stretch of highway. It was in this building that I first heard the full story of Christ, of His birth and life and death and resurrection. It was here that I learned of His love. It was in that third-floor Sunday school room that I first encountered this passage, and it was here that I first blatantly missed the meaning of Scripture.
Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control. 0 - 10.
After we read this passage in Galatians one Sunday morning, these words were copied on the board. (To this day, if I try to recall what the fruits of the Spirit are, I always forget one. I still count them on my fingers -- yes, counting on my fingers at twenty-two -- knowing there should be nine, but only ever getting to eight.) The pastor then launched into a mini-sermon on these "fruits", and this was the day that our community church met the "fruit meter". My class of 12- to 17-year-old Christians learned that day to measure ourselves by our works, by how good we were at expressing these nine "fruits" in our lives. We could never be a 10, we were told, until we were with Christ; as long as we are still inhabiting these fragile human forms, we are not entirely perfect -- but every Sunday morning for the next several weeks, 9am Sunday school began with a confession of where we had landed for the week, on a scale ranging from 0 - 9.9. Rarely did any of us confess to falling below a 6 or 7. We would live out every moment of the week in preparation for that moment in Sunday school when it would come time for us to speak a number indicating how "good" we had been that week.
This was when I first missed the big picture of Scripture. Now, if this "fruit meter" concept had been pitched to a group of adults or college students who knew how to read Scripture critically, who really knew what this verse meant, the message could probably have been a lot more effective. To myself and my adolescent comrades, however, the larger message was far too easy to miss.
The fruit of the Spirit. I don't remember deconstructing this verse in the context of other verses. There is certainly Scriptural support for the viewpoint that I had at the time. "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matt. 3:8) "By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." (Matt. 7:16-20) The Gospels command us to bear these good fruits. But these same Gospels also remind us that it is not by our own efforts that we can produce these good fruits; that it is only when we are in Christ, in tune with His heart, that these things are going to be truly evident in our lives. "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5) We are nothing more than branches, the extension of the living Vine. If we do not remain in Him, we have nothing in which to take root that will give us the life needed to produce good, pure fruit.
Okay, so this conclusion isn't that hard to draw, right? But as a sixteen-year-old who hadn't even read the New Testament in full yet, who was just getting to know this Jesus character, I needed these things spelled out for me. This scale that I now had to step on every Sunday morning only affirmed my previous mindset that it was all about how "good" I was, what I was doing, what I could do better. Six and a half years later, I'm still reminding myself that it's not about that -- that when I measure myself by the things I am doing in my own strength, they come to naught. I'm still reminding myself daily that these "fruits" should be the natural outcome of being rooted in Christ, that His grace is not an excuse for my imperfections, but a covering over them and a new life allowing this good fruit to come naturally from me. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control. (Yes, I still needed to reference the verse that time. If I can't even remember on my own what the fruits are, how could I ever produce them on my own?)
