Writing is something I love to do, and yet I do not do enough of it. I have been trying to figure out how to motivate myself to just sit down more often and take the time necessary to get something down on paper, and my current experiment is to combine one thing I love with another, which is to read and learn about the word of the Lord, the Bible. I am going digital in this experiment in order to have access to my process at multiple points in my life, namely work, home, and mobile phone, but also, to allow access for review by others, and (fingers crossed) even some constructive feedback.
In that pursuit, this will be a impromptu and all together amateur bible study/composition. While I have been reading the bible my whole life, I am by no means a Preacher, Sunday School Teacher, or Worship Leader, so this will basically be a record of my journey...my process of taking the text I am reading and trying to relate the message I get from it to others - that is if anybody else reads this. If you are not familiar with the bible, or even if you are not a Christian, that's O.K. I encourage you to continue reading so that you may have the opportunity to find out what the Bible tells us about why we are here. You also will have the opportunity to see if my experiment is a success, and I invite you to leave feedback as well. I should let you know that I do my reading in the King James Version.
I am starting this online portion of my study in the book of Galatians, even though I am currently deep in a timeline study of the old testament (which I will include later) as well. I want to start off with something that is both fundamental and important, yet easy to absorb. I can get into the hard stuff later. There are deep subjects aplenty in the book of Galatians, but the fundamentals I am referring to are found in a part of the Scriptures that most Christians are taught from the time they are very young and have a life long familiarity with, even if they don't remember where to find the verses.
I first remember learning about the fruit of the Spirit when I was in the seventh grade, from my teacher Mrs. Haws at the christian school I was attending. She gave us a memory trick to help us hold on to the reference. She said "just think of five gallons of fruit, and you'll remember that you can find the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5." I always thought that was clever, mostly because I never forgot where to look, but also because it played a kind of trick on those of us students who didn't like to read our bibles. You see, when you go to find out what the fruit of the Spirit is, you discover that you must read nearly the entire chapter. (Good one Mrs Haws!)
Let's start off by talking about the Spirit. What spirit do we mean? "The Spirit" here and in most other parts of the Bible is referring to the Holy Spirit of the living God. If we (each individually) have been saved from our sin, His Spirit, as a process of our salvation in Jesus Christ, lives in us and yields fruit -
Galatians 5:5 "For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith."
This means that righteousness is a process of development that takes place in us throughout our whole lives. This process is a work of the Holy Spirit which He brings about in us by faith. That may sound heavy handed, so think of it like this...
As children, most of us are cared for by our parents. And while in their care, they give us what we need to grow and be healthy (or develop). Now as children most of us don't need faith in our parents, since faith is believing without seeing. Never-the-less we believe that our parents will take care of us. The evidence that they are giving us what we need to grow is that as adults we are grown or as children and young adults we are still growing - it is a process after all. You can see the same evidence in an apple tree. You know that it is healthy by the fruit that it bears.
The Holy Spirit is not seen, but lives inside of us and believing that He takes care of us requires faith. He takes care of us in many ways, and one of the ways He cares for us is by developing righteousness or freedom from sin in our lives. We can see that development taking place as evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit.
So what is this fruit? I certainly suggest reading the entire chapter, and for that matter the entire book of Galatians for your own benefit. However for this early posting I will cut straight to the verses that contain the fruit that we are talking about.
Galatians 5:22, 23, & 25
"But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."
For the time being, let's skip over love and joy and come back to them later. What on earth is long-suffering? It may sound terrible, but is really an emphatic way of saying patient. (It also has more syllables and proves just how impatient we usually are because it has gone so far out of use that my spell checker won't recognize it as one word, so I had to hyphenate it.) I prefer the term long-suffering however, because it is a more accurate description of what the Holy Spirit develops in us. A spirit of righteousness is not merely patient, it is in fact tolerant of suffering many injustices by those around us. This can mean our enemies, but it can also and usually does mean our friends and family; those who we love & trust most can often be the very ones who bring about the greatest aggitation in our lives.
I like to use the Scriptures to define the Scriptures, when something needs better explanation. So I am going to step out of Galatians for a moment and use the words of Jesus to gain a clear perspective on what the Holy Spirit expects to develop in us in the terms of long-suffering.
Mathew 5:39 - 42
"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue you at law, and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. And whososever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two. Give to him that asks you, and from him who would borrow from you turn not away."
Now just for clarity, the part about compelling you to go a mile is a reference to the fact that at the time Jesus spoke these words, the Roman empire was in existance and there was a law that stated that a Roman soldier could compel any civilian to carry his load one mile to ease his burden since they had to march everywhere they went. Jews looked on this as an onerous task, but Jesus was teaching that a godly attitude is one of service to others without complaint. While we in America dont have soldiers compelling us in this way currently, there likely have been many times when our parents, our teachers...or our bosses have asked us to do things that required extra effort on our part without any appearant extra reward.
When I consider this in my own life, I am sure I remember hearing this lesson when I was very young, and then hearing a distinct voice in my head specifically say "Not me buddy. Carry your own pack." I know there have been plenty of opportunities to have let the Holy Spirit correct my attitude, opportunities which I have missed because of my attitude of complaint instead of willing service. There is a need in all of us to let the Holy Spirit care for us by developing our own attitude of christian service to the point that it can qualify as long-suffering. That being the case I think that I will end this first post on that point in order to go meditate on it further for myself. I know I need a lot of work in that area. I hope that you will check back when I post again to consider the other items that make up the fruit of the Spirit.
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