Show me your faith #2

“TEMPTED”

 

I was tempted to begin this sermon with a humorous illustration regarding temptation. It would have been easy to talk about my cholesterol issue and the fact that I finished off a big wedge of birthday cake followed by two more hunks of awesome chocolate cake at a get-together later that night.

            But as I reflected on my own understanding of temptation, chocolate seemed frivolous.

            In a culture of indulgence we can joke about being tempted by chocolate and cheating on our diets and miss the truth about our temptations. The reason we joke about temptation is that we really don’t feel tempted. We have erased the lines forbidding ourselves of the decadent, the alluring and even the naughty, so that very few things are off limits anymore. Commercials shout “treat yourself” and the age of legalistic prohibition has given way to the age of permissive extravagance.

            So temptation is really just a sales technique. And if we do happen to fall to a serious temptation it is due to circumstance and external pressure. It is not our fault. Others will affirm us that we couldn’t help ourselves.

            James has something to say about temptation that flies in the face of our state of denial. He writes in a few short verses that when it comes to temptation that it is real, it finds its source in the heart and mind, and it has a terrible consequence. It is not a joke. It is not a sales technique. And it threatens your life.

            Brothers and sisters, James says, we need to take temptation seriously. Christians need to respond to temptation by confessing to God that the source of temptation lies within us. Temptation is a sin-trap; big or small, temptation can be deadly.

            C.S. Lewis said it well in his book The Screwtape Letters, where we read the story of an older demon counseling a younger demon. At one point in the book the older demon says:

"You will say that these are very small sins, and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy [God]. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to keep the man away from the Light.… Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

                Let’s see what James has to say about this in his letter.

 

1. God may test us but He doesn’t tempt us

 

a) The Blessing of being tested – James has written previously about the trials of life and how we ought to face trials with joy because God uses them to mature us.

            Verse 12 stands on the edge of two themes. It could conclude 1-11, or begin the section on temptation 13-15. It is important to review v. 12 because of the promise that it gives in relation to enduring trials. James says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

            The formula is important to remember. In verses 2-4 James gives this formula: testing – endurance – perseverance – maturity. Verse 12 is like it: testing – endurance – perseverance – life. The key here is life.

            Eternal life is the reward for those who love God and show it by faithfully enduring the trials of life. Enduring trials faithfully proves our love for God. The Apostle Peter says this very thing in 1 Peter 1:6-7 (read).

            I read recently that when ocean liners like the Queen Mary or the Queen Elizabeth were built they didn’t leave them in dry dock and get big hoses on them to see if they would leak. They got those ships out into the open ocean to put them through sea trials. These trials were not intended to sink the ship. These trials were to prove that the ship was seaworthy.

            Does God send the trials and test us to see if we are worthy? Yes and no.

b) Why God won’t tempt you – When I studied the Greek words for “trial” and “temptation” I found that the words have a similar root. The fork in the road is very subtle but gets clearer when you make a decision to follow one way or the other. What can change a trial into a temptation is the attitude with which we meet it. We fail the trial when we turn to blaming God for the results.

            If we understand that God sends trials to test us and correlate that with the Newtown Connecticut School shooting, we’re on the wrong track. God does not send shooters to kill children. But in that situation is a trial: how do we respond faithfully to tragedy?

            In verses 2-4 and 13-15 we have one set of circumstances and two responses. In 2-4 we understand the trial in terms of testing, which leads to maturity. In 13-15, we experience the same trial as temptation, which leads to death.

            What we need to grasp in our pain is that God does not allow this stuff to happen so that we will fall and sin. James says, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone…” (1:13). God is never the source of evil. God never tempts anyone. James is not saying that God does not allow temptation into our lives, or that God never tests his people. James does deny that God tests people with an evil intent – to make them sin.

            Philip Yancey, in his book "Reaching for the Invisible God" describes the way God get’s blamed for things in this way. When Princess Diana died in an automobile accident, a minister was interviewed and was asked the question “How can God allow such a terrible tragedy?” And I loved his response. He said, “Could it have had something to do with a drunk driver going ninety miles an hour in a narrow tunnel? Just How, exactly, was God involved.”

            What role does God play in a boxer beating his opponent to death, a teenage couple giving into temptation in the back seat of a car, or a mother drowning her children?

Is God responsible for these acts? To the contrary, they are examples of incredible human free will being exercised on a fallen planet. And yet it’s in our nature as mortal, frail, fallen people to lash out at one who is not, that being God."

            While God allows trials into our lives to prove us faithful, God will not tempt us because that is not his nature.

 

2. Acknowledging the True Source of our Temptation

 

a) You are the source of your temptation – Though Lewis identifies demons as the tempters in his character’s life, James does not mention the devil as the source of temptation. The battle begins within us, in our hearts and minds. Many sinful actions begin as casual thoughts, but dwelling on them can turn minor temptations into major transgressions.

            James writes, “…but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed,” (1:14). “Enticed” carries a word picture, “to allure by bait,” like a fish eyeing a tasty worm on a hook. And while “desire” can have good connotations, here it is seen negatively as one “sets their heart” upon something that is off limits.

            In a recent survey of Discipleship Journal, readers ranked areas of spiritual challenge. They included materialism, pride, self-centeredness, laziness, anger, sexual lust, envy, gluttony and lying as the top challenges.

            Survey respondents noted temptations were more potent when…
they had neglected their time with God (81 percent)
and when they were physically tired (57 percent).
            Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent), avoiding compromising
situations (76 percent), Bible study (66 percent), and being accountable to someone (52 percent).[i]

            Being tired and rundown and therefore susceptible to giving in to desire is a feeling that resonates with me. It is at this moment in our lives when our defenses are low.

            And note, we are tempted by our own desires. What one person finds as intense temptation another person may never experience as even a faint enticement. We must never belittle a brother or sister for struggling with something we think insignificant. Each of us has our own battles and we need to give and receive grace as we are tested. Our job is to flee temptation regardless of how little it may seem to us.[ii]

b) The reason to put the brakes on temptation – Now James comes to his critical point. Remember the formula (testing-endurance-perseverance-maturity/life)? Here is a dark replica in v. 15: desire – sin – death.

            This is based on what James writes, “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death,” (1:15). You can see the sin-process in these words and its end result.

            Someone said that there are three stages of temptation: the first is suggestion, the second is experiment, and the third is consent. Once we reach the consent stage, we have carried away by sin, we have willing left the path of discipleship, and we have separated ourselves from God.

            In the beginning, temptation always promises excitement and pleasure. It never comes with the advertisement, “Would you like to destroy yourself and your family? Would you like to disgrace the name of your God?” Instead, it cries out, “This will be fun! This will meet your needs! This will get you what you have been looking for. What does it hurt to try it?”

            If we bite, take the bait, James tells us we are on the road to hell and death. There are many reasons to avoid the temptations of life, but only one that really motivates us to watch our conduct: desire + sin = death.

Show me your faith

 

The Apostle Paul said, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it,” (1 Cor 10:13).

            This is a very great promise in our Bibles. It says that there is nothing new under the sun: your temptation has been felt by many others. It says that God is faithful: there is nothing and no one who can make you sin. It says that God has provided a way out: there is always an escape hatch in tempting situations.

            At the same time there are things that we can do to keep ourselves from being overcome by temptation:

1) Know yourself – know where you are vulnerable and figure out how to avoid your weaknesses. If you are with people who can handle situations that you can’t, don’t go with them. Don’t trust yourself but entrust yourself to the Lord.

2) Avoid tempting situations – If you are vulnerable to lust don’t rent R movies; if you don’t trust yourself on the computer, put it in a high-traffic area in your home.

3) Have a predetermined commitment to follow Christ and to flee temptation – Decide now before you get into tempting situations, because when it hits your emotions and passions will overpower you. Love the Lord Jesus more than your own desires.

4) Remember the end result of those who persevere – life with Jesus. This beats out the pleasures of this temporal world.

            Do you struggle with temptation? We all do and you are not alone. Jesus knew temptation and did not sin, but he died for those who do so that we could be forgiven.

                                                                                    AMEN

---

[i] Discipleship Journal, 11-12/92

[ii] Blomberg and Kamell, Exegetical Commentary on the NT: James, p. 71.

Show Me Your Faith #1

HOW CHRISTIANS RESPOND TO THE TRIALS OF LIFE

 

This past summer I asked the ministerial to read the book of James and come ready with reflections to our first meeting of the season. Many good thoughts were shared and you will hear them embedded in these messages on the book of James.

            One of the first ones to stick out in my mind was the comparison of the practicality of James to an operator’s manual. The person who shared this was probably thinking “tractors” but I thought of “cars.” Some people, when they buy a new car, will take the owner’s manual out of the glove compartment and ask, “How do you drive this thing?” Not me, heavens no, but some people.

            Life often seems like some kind of foreign machinery that is left in our possession and we are expected to operate it. When the thing hits the ditch we can either leave it there or figure a way out of the predicament and move on. If we choose to leave it there we can moan to our friends about our bad luck, or look for someone to blame. If we read the manual and seek advice, chances are, the next time we get stuck we will know what to do.

            James gives us a few pages out of the operator’s manual specifically aimed at dealing with the challenges of life. In the first few verses he introduces his three major themes for the rest of the book: trials, wisdom and the tension between the rich and the poor.

            It is inevitable that we will all face these challenges in life. The question for us today in this message is: How should we as Christians respond to the trials of life? What James wants to teach us about this is easy to say and not so easy to live by. He says Christians should respond to trials with joy knowing that God uses those trials to mature us in our faith.

            All well and good, you say. Nice philosophy, you say. But is this true? Is this practical? How do I live it? To answer this we must go deeper into James 1:1-12 and pull it apart. James gives us two commands per section and so we will follow these commands as an outline.

 

1. Responding to trials with joy

 

a) An unnatural reaction – James does not waste time telling us that he is the half-brother of Jesus, or by giving us credentials as to why we should listen to him. He says simply he is James, “a slave of Jesus Christ who is God and Lord,” a rendering the Greek would support.

            Skipping a proper opening to ancient letters, he jumps right in and gives this command: “Consider it pure joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance,” (1:3). He is talking specifically to believers because he addresses his readers as “brothers and sisters.”

            Now what is this joy he is talking about? When you face a challenge to your well-being, your health or your life, how do you react? Not with joy typically. To face difficulties with joy is an unnatural reaction. Exactly! This is what James is calling for as Christians face trials. Joy is an unnatural reaction of deep, steady and unadulterated thankful trust in God.

            This is clearly illogical unless we understand what is inherent in the trials of life. “Trials,” as James terms them, are “afflictions sent by God.” In his day it is likely that the trials the Jewish Christians faced were economic exploitation by rich non-Christian landlords. These people were poor because of their faith in Jesus, which explains the presence of this theme in his letter.

            My impression is that our prayers are focused mainly on safety for the day or the absence of trouble. But here we see that God is testing us. We often scoff at the person who says God is testing him or her saying God wouldn’t do that. But maybe he is testing us. The question then is: how do you react? James says, with joy, and here’s why…

b) Towards Christian maturity – According to James, the testing of our faith produces perseverance. So here’s the second command, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything,” (1:4).

            We have trouble with accepting this command. The reason we find this unacceptable is that in North American Christianity there is no place for pain. We have a distorted perception of pain, and we do not look for God’s hand in our troubles but only for his comfort and deliverance. Embracing pain’s role in our maturing process is the last thing on our minds. As someone said, “Most people count it all joy when they escape trials. James said to count it all joy in the midst of trials.”

            Here is something disturbing to those with this mindset: God’s will is not our happiness, but his glory. He is not waiting on our prayers to fulfill all our dreams and wishes. God wants us to grow in maturity and thereby glorify him.

            The testing of our faith could also be said to be the approval of our faith. This world is the proving ground of our faith. Can we believe in God when life gets rough?

            The prophet Habakkuk exemplifies this faith and joy in his declaration: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength…” (Hab 3:17-19).

            One thing these verses do not claim, however, is that everything that happens to us is somehow good and therefore a reason for rejoicing. Perseverance molds in us a militant patience, not passivity, but an engaged waiting upon the Lord who is our joy. So we do not rejoice in the trials but in what God is going to do in and through those trials. We will be mature, not lacking anything.

 

2. Responding to trials with wisdom

 

a) What trials reveal about you – When I face a new challenge as a homeowner, let’s say in the plumbing realm, one thing becomes very clear to me – I don’t know what I’m doing.

            The trials of life are very good at revealing what you lack. The way James uses that phrase “lacking” it means falling short. In this context it suggests a falling short in moral or spiritual realities.

            To be blunt, trials reveal where we fall short in trusting God. We have trouble seeing much sense in our suffering. Some troubles are often unfair and we wonder why God would allow such hurt into our lives.

            Here’s where James issues his command: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you,” (1:5).

            Why would you ask God for wisdom if you thought you didn’t really need wisdom? It’s the same as asking God for forgiveness when you really aren’t concerned about receiving forgiveness, or asking for mercy when there is no place for mercy in your life. Trials are there to remind us of what we lack. And what we lack more than anything in times of difficulty is wisdom.

            Why do we need wisdom in trials? So that we will not waste our sufferings and miss the spiritual growth that could result.

            When we think of asking God for wisdom we are prone to think of God giving us clarity on every decision or problem we face. What James means by wisdom, however, is the ability to discern how God would have us live. Wisdom is the endowment of heart and mind which is needed for the right conduct of life. It is the practical living out of what we believe.

            This is what God generously gives, regardless of our blunders or slowness in asking.

b) When we ask for wisdom – James puts a prerequisite on our asking God for wisdom. He says in his second command in this section, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind,” (1:6).

            Here’s a difficult stand – trusting God that he has our growth in mind when life hurts. But this is the test. Can we trust God and believe in him and act accordingly in our struggles when a job is lost or your child has cancer?

            In times like this we are to ask for wisdom and not doubt. When we doubt God in times of trial, James says that we are like the bobbing sea. He is not picturing a storm but the ordinary instability of the sea where there is a constant moving up and down of waves without consistency or pattern. Doug Moo writes, “The picture here is not of a wave mounting in height and crashing to shore, but of the swell of the sea, never having the same texture and shape from moment to moment, but always changing with the variations in wind direction and strength.” A person like this swings from faith to skepticism, unable to trust Christ fully or stay the course in faithfulness to him.

            James goes on to say, “That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do,” (1:7-8). Os Guiness describes this kind of doubt when he says, “When you believe, you are in one mind and accept something as true. Unbelief is to be of one mind and reject that something is true. To doubt is to waver between the two, to believe and disbelieve at the same time, and so be in ‘two minds,’” Or as the Chinese say, “Doubt is standing in two boats, with one foot in each.”

            Do you believe that God loves you and has your best interests at heart? Do you believe that God would allow hurt into your life just to watch you squirm? Or do you believe that God allows these trials into your life to shape you and develop your character for his glory? If you doubt God’s intentions or love or purposes, don’t ask God for wisdom, because even you don’t know what you want in that case. But in your pain or suffering or trial, believe God and ask him for wisdom to act like a person of faith.

 

3. Responding to trials with a new perspective

 

a) The advantage of being poor – The theme seems to switch now from trials to poor believers and rich oppressors. In fact, we are still talking about how Christians face life’s trials.

            Two more commands emerge. The first is this: “Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position,” (1:9).

            Now remember that the Jewish-Christians were likely facing tough economic times because they professed faith in Jesus. Not only did the rich take advantage of the poor, if the rich were not believers it is possible they hated these Christians. The test for the poor believers was to remain faithful while scratching out an existence.

            Now what advantage does James think the poor believers have in this circumstance?

            It is quite simple. Jesus taught that you cannot serve two masters; you cannot serve both God and money (Mt 6:24). The advantage that the poor believer exults in and gives glory to God is that he does not have two masters. In the poor person’s trial he or she realizes how much more he or she needs God. They have nothing to fall back on except the wealth of spiritual blessing that God is eager to give.

            This high position is not poverty itself. If it were we should all give away our stuff and claim bankruptcy. No, this high position is this so-called advantage that the material possessions of prosperity do not hold them back from the promise of heaven.

b) The disadvantage of being rich – The contrast must be obvious with the disadvantage of the rich. We have here the paradox of the “rich poor” and the “poor rich.” G. K. Chesterton defined such a paradox as “truth standing on its head shouting for attention.”

            We have a great reversal here where the rich, who tend to gloat in their material gain, are told to boast or take pride in their humiliation (1:10).

            This disadvantage of being rich is that having wealth makes a person turn to his or her own resources before calling on God for help. In their time of trials they have much to fall back on but usually call on God last.

            James writes that they will pass away like a wild flower. “For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed,” (1:11). In other words, the rich for all their social connections, business plans and financial gains, are going to die like everyone else. James rewrites the modern slogan that “the one who dies with the most toys still dies.”

            Who are the rich? I have been haunted all summer long by something I read in a book by David Platt called Radical. In it he says that if you make 50 thousand dollars a year, you are in the top two percent of the world’s wealthiest people. Hard to believe isn’t it? But then we just heard last Sunday that the average laborer in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador brings down only three thousand dollars in a year.

            When we face trials, where do we run? When we have a sewer back-up we call our insurance broker. When we are ill we have medical insurance to go to the doctor. When we are in a car accident we call autopac. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure glad we have those monetary safety nets. But when do we turn to God and say thank you for reminding me that this world is temporal and when all things pass away I still have you?

 

Show me your faith

 

When I first preached on this passage here in Kleefeld 12 years ago, I humbly confessed that I had not faced any real trials and did not know what I was talking about. Then the hammer fell on my innocence. I faced several physical and mental trials. I quickly found out what I was lacking. It has been a painful journey at times but I sincerely praise God for what he has shown me in my life. Facing the darkness of depression presented me with a fork in the road: Can I trust God when nothing makes sense and everything hurts?

            In this series on James we are focusing on the theme “Show me your faith.” When there are “no sheep in the pen” can we rejoice in God our Savior? Do people see our faith in good times and in trials?

            There’s a little story where a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and she was tired of fighting life’s battles.

            Her father didn’t say anything but simply took out three pots of water and placed them on the stove. In each boiling pot he placed a different item. In the first he placed potatoes, the second eggs, and the third ground coffee beans.

            After a time he took them off the stove and showed them to his daughter. Potatoes, eggs and coffee. Of course, the potatoes were soft, the eggs hard-boiled, and the coffee was rich and aromatic.

            “What does this mean?” she asked. The father replied that the potatoes, eggs and coffee all faced the same adversity – boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but became soft and weak in the boiling water. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its soft interior until it met the water. Then the inside became hard. However, the ground coffee beans, after they were exposed to the boiling water, changed the water and became something new.

            Then he asked his daughter, “Which are you?”When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

            In your trials, God is proving your faith for his glory. ¹² Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

 

                                                                        AMEN

Summer sermon - Church in the Park

LESS THAN PERFECT

 

I am less than perfect.

            I know that comes as quite a shock to all of you, but it’s true. Just ask my wife.

            Sometimes I operate on the pretense of perfection believing that I am perfect. And then reality strikes through a personal realization of my flaws or, more likely, through criticism or confrontation.

            Reality sucks. I don’t like feeling imperfect. I have a hard time dealing with the truth of my flaws. It makes it that much more difficult when others expect me to be perfect. On rare occasions I have heard, “I expected more from you.” Some have even said, “And you’re a pastor.”

            This reality of imperfection is compounded by certain portions of scripture. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Mt 5:48). Now there’s a tall order.

            So then we come to the fruit of the Spirit.

            In a recent Triad (a discipleship group of three persons) my partners and I identified those fruits that were strong in us and those that were growth areas (a nice term for weaknesses). As we looked at love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, we realized that some came naturally while others were more difficult to express.

            All the while the three of us knew that the term is not “fruits” but “fruit,” singular, and that you can’t just have one and not the others. To have five out of nine would be imperfect fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – there can be no slices, no parts, no division. When you bite this fruit you get all.

            So who has this perfect fruit in their life? Who here exhibits all of these qualities perfectly? You see my dilemma. Not only am I less than perfect, so are you.

            I want to look with you this morning at the fruit of the Spirit and see if perfection is really necessary, to see if I can encourage you in your imperfect expression of Spirit fruit.

 

Would you eat imperfect fruit?

 

Let me ask you this: would you eat imperfect fruit?

            I do the grocery shopping for my family. It has been my responsibility since we were married nearly 17 years ago. For the life of me I can’t remember why. But I actually enjoy it for the most part.

            When I come to the produce section I get really picky. If bananas are too yellow and have black spots showing I don’t even bother. I will pick up bananas and turn them over to see if there are black streaks on the bottom. Bananas have to be mostly green if they are going to last the week.

            Apples need to have a firm feel to them. I pick up each one and look for soft spots or “bruises.” Lately we have enjoyed “Pink Ladies” but they have to be a certain size and shape to meet my standard.

            I know lettuce isn’t fruit, but a lady on staff there told me to pick up the heads and see how heavy they are – heavy means good. But if there are brown streaks I leave them.

            Pretty picky huh? When you consider that most of the world goes to bed hungry it is asinine to be so picky.

            The day after our Triad discussion on fruit of the Spirit, Sharon brought home a basket of strawberries. There were big ones, small ones, funny shaped ones and some with concaves. If we entered them in a horticultural contest based on perfection they would not pass the test. But as far as fruit is concerned: fruit is fruit.

            What do you do with imperfect fruit? You eat it. And if their aesthetic qualities don’t measure up you throw them in the blender and makes smoothies, or you make jams or wine or preserves.

            What does God do with imperfect saints who produce less than perfect fruit? He makes jam out of you. In other words, he uses you, regardless of your imperfection.

 

What makes fruit inedible?

 

When would you not eat fruit? An apple with a firm skin but a soft brown flesh grosses you out, doesn’t it? That which has the appearance of fruit but is rotten to the core is useless.

            How about oranges? When I travelled to Paraguay 24 years ago I learned a lesson about oranges. Ken Zacharias pointed out a beautiful tree loaded with fruit that had gleaming, perfectly orange rinds. He took one down and showed us that though the skin was perfect the flesh was bitter. Across the road was another tree with oranges that had unattractive rinds. He took one down and cut it open – it had the sweetest flesh.

            What makes fruit inedible? It is the sap of the tree, or, the spirit of the person. If we are controlled by our sinful nature and the desires of the flesh we will produce rottenness.

            Paul said the acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. “And the like…” leaves open the reality that this list is not exhaustive.

            Anything that does not match Christ cannot be the fruit of the Spirit, for the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Selfishness sums it up pretty well.

            On the other hand, love leads the list of fruit expressions in Galatians. Dr. Weymouth wrote that the Spirit brings a harvest of love, love being the fountainhead of all other virtues.  Joy is love exulting; Peace is love resting;

Long-Suffering is love enduring; Kindness is love w/bowed head; Goodness is love in action; Faithfulness is love confiding; Gentleness is love in refinement; Self-Control is love obeying. True love is not selfish.

            Great! But we are still left with the conundrum of how we are to bear perfect fruit.

 

Who or what produces fruit in us?

 

If we ask the question, “How are we to produce perfect fruit of the Spirit in our lives?” we ask wrongly. The right question is “Who produces fruit in our lives?”

            First of all, Jesus says, “Remain in me, and I will 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,” (John 15:4).

            Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. To remain in him is to cultivate our relationship with him through hearing h is word (reading Bible), obeying his word, and living out the tenets of the gospel. When we do that HE will produce fruit in us.

            Secondly, Paul builds on the teaching of John 15 by saying, “Those who belong (read: remain in) to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” (24). And I know what you are thinking (or should be thinking): “I have not done that perfectly.”

            Before you beat yourself up about that consider this: Crucifixion is slow and agonizing. You can’t say, “I have crucified my flesh so that’s that,” in regards to sin. Our flesh isn’t dead yet and it calls out to us and wants to be revived. We cannot allow ourselves to do that. Having crucified the flesh we must nail it to the cross over and over and over again.

            Picture your flesh – that egocentric part of your self that wants to dominate and control everything – as a dragon in your soul. When you come to Christ and receive his gospel, Jesus beckons you to kill the dragon. He gives you the power to do so because you cannot do it on your own.

            And when in the name of Christ you slay the dragon you wonder “Is it dead?” No, Christ answers, but it is mortally wounded and it will die eventually. It will try to rise up and cause you a great deal of trouble before it ultimately dies. So you need to treat it as though it were dead and seal it up in a tomb. Satan, the chief dragon, will try to loosen the stones with trials and temptations, but you just pile on the stones again and keep your dragon buried.

            Our old self has been dealt a mortal wound on the cross of Jesus and is stripped of power. The Christian life, the fruit of the Spirit, is a constant reckoning of the flesh as dead (piling stones on its tomb) and a constant relying on the present Spirit of Christ to produce love, joy, and peace within.

            Thirdly, Paul says, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit,” (25). The imagery is military, like a company of soldiers on parade. As the soldiers file by you note that their movements are synchronized, left feet and right feet, left arms and right arms moving together as one. To walk with the Spirit is to do as the Spirit does. It is asking, “Do my actions reflect love, joy, peace, patience (longsuffering), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control?” If they do then that is Spiritual fruit in keeping with the Spirit himself.

 

            We are less than perfect, there is no doubt. Even our fruit is a little knobby, marked and misshapen. God still uses that imperfect fruit.

            One more lesson from the fruit tree should encourage us. When you plant a fruit tree it takes several years before it produces fruit, does it not? And then some years it may produce less than stellar fruit. But there’s always next year. You don’t cut a fruit tree down after one bad season.

            So maybe your love is not perfect. Maybe you don’t express it as openly as others. Some can love with words while others do so in quiet and subtle actions.

            Maybe your joy is not as full as others. Maybe your peace is disturbed by circumstances and things out of your control. Perhaps your prayer for patience was answered with trials to teach you patience (you should have asked that God would just give it to you). That’s okay because it’s a process. We are in the process of bearing fruit. Your fruit may be less than perfect but it is still fruit.

            The important thing is not to block the work of the Holy Spirit in your life who produces fruit in you. Keep burying the dragon and allow God to do the producing.

            “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me,” (Phil 3:12).

 

                                                                        AMEN