The Fruits of the Spirit

We must embrace the Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faith, goodness, self-control, and humility. Love rejoices in Truth. Joy is not the same as happiness. Peace requires Truth. Patience is hard. Gentleness is strength. Faith is our bulwark. Goodness follows faith. Self-control contradicts relativism and our feelings. Humility allows us to accept criticism, take it in, and make adjustments as necessary.

Love rejoices in Truth.

There is an objective Truth. Society says that we each have our own "truth" but if everyone has a different truth, we're all living in lies.

Denying Truth, which we can know through the Bible, is unloving. Yes, Truth can be difficult and it can hurt because it's just not what we want to hear sometimes. But in the long run, adhering to Truth is far better for us.

Joy is not the same as happiness.

Happiness is often a part of joy, to be sure, but the joy we're talking about here is more than a fleeting emotion. It's a spiritual state of being, one that is grounded in the knowledge that we are precious and beloved of God, saved by His blood, and assured of heaven.

Peace requires Truth.

Compromising on Truth doesn't bring peace. Neither does denying it outright. We may think that it does, because there is a temporary feeling of happiness and people seem to be getting along. But I remember a saying from somewhere that compromise just makes everyone unhappy because nobody is getting what they want.

Patience is hard.

Waiting on someone else for any reason is taxing. We just want to go and do whatever it is, or finish the conversation and get back to our stuff. And waiting on God is just as hard, because we want an answer now, not later, now!

But if we are able to reside in joy and peace, it is much easier to wait. The Fruits of the Spirit depend on one another.

Gentleness is strength.

It takes a lot of strength to hold back when strong emotions are boiling just below the surface. And sometimes releasing those emotions is appropriate. But most of the time? Most of the time, it is better to maintain calm and meet vitriol with gentleness.

Restraint requires strength.

Faith is our bulwark.

We hold onto our faith through everything life throws at us, and that is how we are able to remain strong. We have faith in God, faith in Jesus, faith in Holy Spirit. We have that certain hope of heaven, and that bolsters us through the difficult times and helps us maintain our peace, our joy, our patience, our gentless. It helps us meet the world in love.

Goodness follows faith.

When we are faithful to God, we are better humans. We are still fallen, we still sin, but it becomes easier to resist temptation when we are in right relationship with God. We need to live our faith to be good.

Self-control contradicts relativism and our feelings.

When we are governed by our feelings, anything goes. Whatever will make us feel good is absolutely an option, and since truth is relative, it's all fine. Taking a moment to really think about what we're considering is important, because it lets us really dig in to how our behaviour does or does not align with our faith.

The Music Machine (full album)

Love Tree (Lee and Sandy Paley)

As Christians, we should embrace all of these qualities. They are desirable traits and demonstrate Christian values. They are founded in Truth and in God, and they will grow in us as we grow in our faith.

Peace & Blessings.