Fruit Happens!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." - Galatians 5:22-23

It's not uncommon for the fruit of the Spirit to be regarded as aspirational behavioural traits to be developed in our lives. Perhaps from time to time, we might think to ourselves, "You know, I really ought to work on my patience level." Or, "I wish I had greater self-control - especially when the chocolate biscuits come out." It's understandable that we might read these verses, identify a deficit in our own behaviour, and conclude that we have work to do.

But what if that's not quite what Paul wanted us to do with his words? What if it was never Paul's intention that we would see the fruit of the Spirit as individual behavioural traits to be worked on?

The branches of a pear tree don't have to figure out how to produce pears. They don't have to study the anatomy and function of a pear and devise a plan to develop more pears. All the branches have to do is remain connected to the tree. The tree knows how to produce pears and so long as the branches remain connected, pears will happen!

And that word 'remain' is critically important. Jesus told His disciples, "If you remain in Me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit." (John 15:8) In order to bear fruit, the requirement was simply this - remain! In fact, so vital was this concept of remaining, that Jesus repeated the verb 11 times in 11 verses.

So, no doubt you could stand to be more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient etc. We all could! But focusing on each and trying to develop more is not what Paul (or Jesus) intended. Rather, we're called to remain in Christ; to make our home in His love, to lean into relationship with Him, and to get into His Word - and more importantly, get His Word into us.

And then? Fruit happens!

- Ps. Nigel