Episode 19--The Fruit(s) of the Spirit

Episode intro:

Hello, Civilla Morgan here! Welcome to episode 19 of the Not Just Another Religion and Politics Podcast! Thank you for tuning in! So here’s the deal: 

I want this podcast to speak to people, not yell at people. Whether you are a Believer or not, a Christian or not, I want this podcast to be so plain in its language, that even if you have never stepped into a church, you will get this. You will get who Jesus is, and you will get what relationship with Him could be like, despite what people--Christians and non-Christians, try to do to get you to turn your back. Come along with me. I promise it will be a really cool experience! 

 

Body of episode:

 

“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).

 

• Are the fruits of the spirit pieces of one fruit, like the pieces of an orange, or are they different fruits, like a bowl of various fruit? 
• What are the fruit of the spirit exactly? (Galatians 5:22-23).
• Why are the fruit of the spirit so important, why an entire episode on them? 
• Are there rotten fruit? (Galatians 5:19-21).

 I always thought they were different fruits, any fruit. You know, a bowl of fruit. But in a recent YouVersion devotional, I read that the fruit are not nine different fruits, it’s more like an orange with nine pieces. Could this belief be backed up by this quote from crosswalk.com, 

‘The Greek word is singular, showing that “fruit” is a unified whole, not independent characteristics. As we grow, all the characteristics of Christ will be manifested in our lives.’   

So are the fruit of the spirit pieces of one fruit? Does it matter? 

I even found an article someone wrote about the different fruit they believed represented the fruit of the spirit based on the color of the fruit or the utility of the fruit. What fruit do you think represents love? What fruit do you think the coconut represents? Interesting right? Link in the show notes. 

So I asked my dad, you know, my trusted theologian, if the fruit of the spirit were a fruit bowl full of different fruit, or if it were one fruit, like an orange. His answer: what does the Bible say? The answer is in the Bible. That’s his usual response. 

Not to belabor the point, but the verse says ...‘the fruit of the Spirit is…’  ‘is’ is singular isn’t it? Matthew Henry’s Commentary says ‘the fruits of the spirit’. Am I reading too much into it?

 

Well, however you look at it, the fruit of the spirit is, are:

Love:  ‘Love chooses to set aside one’s own preferences, desires, and sometimes even needs to put the other person first.’ (Philippians 2:1-3).-Crosswalk.com. It’s easy to do when you love the person. But what about when you don’t love the person. What about when you don’t even know the person? These fruit are not easy to eat sometimes, but they are definitely nourishing...to the spirit and to the soul. 

Joy:  ‘Joy sweeps out the temporary feelings of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, etc., and replaces those temporary good and bad feelings with a more permanent, beautifully settled, acceptance.’ --Civilla Morgan. (talk about my pecha kucha speech.)  This is a quote from a five minute speech I did at a podcasting convention. The type of speech was a pecha kucha. They give you five minutes broken up into 20 seconds per slide. The slides advanced whether the speaker was finished or not. Needless to say, I put a lot of practice into my speech so that the slides did not leave me behind. 

At any rate, as I wrote my speech about joy versus happiness, I felt the true meaning of joy. I have felt the meaning ever since. Do I always feel joyful? No, but I know what it is. And I did not know what it was until I started writing the speech. As we go through these fruits, I hope you will come to know each fruit the way I came to know joy, how it literally settled into a place in my heart like a piece I did not know was missing until it settled there. 

Peace: There’s nothing like it in the world. I’m not talking about world peace, although that would be great. But we’ve been striving for world peace since the beginning of time right? No, I’m talking about the kind of peace we can feel even if surrounded by rampant chaos.  Living in Florida, I have witnessed my fair share of hurricanes. One of the things I know about hurricanes, and you have probably heard it mentioned as the meteorologist walked us through the hurricane process, are the bands. 

 

A hurricane could be roaring above us but in between the bands of hurricane chaos is calm, sometimes even sunshine. It’s a kind of cool, weird feeling. You know another band of hurricane chaos is coming, the meteorologist can even tell you when the next band is coming, but in the meantime, calm. Well, imagine feeling that kind of peace in your life no matter what is going on around you? Jesus said ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’--John 14: 27. 

I suggest you make peace a priority in your life no matter what is going on. Even if you wake up 10 or 15 minutes before your day begins just to breathe. 

I am a die-hard introvert. I am always in search of peace, quiet, and alone time. But I also know it is quite important to spend the first part of my day doing my daily devotions. That’s what we called it growing up, devotions.  I feel like that time at the beginning of my day is what I need to get me through the rest of the day. Peace, no matter what the day holds.  

And if you want peace you have to exhibit peace, you have to have a spirit of peace. I truly believe that peace is worth its weight in gold. So not only should you seek peace, you should also be peace. 

Forbearance: Also known as patience, not one of my strengths. It’s something I have to work on continually. And honestly, I am much better at it now than in my younger days. But it is something I definitely have to be intentional about. And come to think of it, isn't intentional, not to be confused with intention, the key to all of these fruit? I think so. 

Just like any other aspect of our lives where we want to see growth and positivity. Don’t we have to be intentional about contributing to our retirement plans, to our exercise regimen, to keeping up with the oil change schedule in our vehicles? You get the point. 

Depending on our strengths and weaknesses, we may need to be more or less intentional in one fruit over the other. But the key is to know which fruit requires intentionality and then work on that fruit daily, not ignoring the other fruit, but definitely knowing our fruit's strengths and weaknesses. 

Patience. If patience is one of your fruit weaknesses, where does your lack of patience show up? Mine shows up in traffic. I have had a toll road transponder in almost every vehicle I have owned. I can’t stand traffic and will pay extra just to get on the toll road and away from the traffic lights. 

But what about patience with ourselves? That is very important. We can tend to lack self patience, can’t we? We say the craziest things to ourselves when we mess up. Things no one else would be allowed to say to us. When working on your patience fruit, remember to be patient with yourself. God loves you and He wants you to succeed at dealing with the fruit and with every other aspect of your life. Learn to say positive things to yourself, and learn to be patient with yourself.  

Kindness: What do you think about when you hear the word kindness? 

Do you think of the pushover? The person that can easily be talked into something or the person that can be hoodwinked? Wow, when is the last time you heard that word right? OK, hoodwinked means to cheat or dupe someone. Not very nice. 

I read a book written by a woman judge many years ago. I wish I could remember the title of the book. I got a lot of great suggestions and wisdom nuggets out of that book. But one thing I remember her saying was that we needed to work with people using an iron fist inside a velvet glove. 

At first, I thought that was a harsh way of dealing with people, but I thought about that suggestion, allowing it to roll around in my mind for a very long time. I mean, it is still something I think about. I think of it as similar to the scripture verse ‘Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.’--Matthew 10:16 NKJV.   

Serpents aren’t exactly the kindest creatures are they?  The bottom line here is that kindness is key, but being kind also includes and involves wisdom. If you are the kindest person in the world but wisdom is not your forte, admit it, and then ask God to give you wisdom because, without the wisdom component, kindness alone can keep you from God’s best for you. 

But kindness is a fruit for a reason: it is an important aspect of Christian life, which I believe is the point of these fruit.  Working on these fruit daily matures us not only as Christians, as Believers, but as human beings interacting with other human beings. So kindness is not weakness, it just requires wisdom. God can give you tons of wisdom, just ask Him for it. I ask for it daily!   

Goodness:  ‘Goodness is action; it's not something we do only for the sake of being virtuous. When we strive to be “good” only for our own benefit, it is not truly goodness that we possess. In Greek, the word goodness, “agathosune,” means “an uprightness of heart and life”-- (Thayer & Strong, 1995). Some believe that goodness and kindness are similar enough to put them together in discussion of fruits of the spirit. I don’t agree. As I mentioned during the kindness discussion, kindness goes together with wisdom. I believe goodness is the act of kindness. It is the act of doing something good. 

‘The key difference between kindness and goodness is that kindness mainly involves being generous and considerate, and helping others whereas goodness involves righteousness in action or doing what is right. Kindness and goodness are two virtues you should cultivate in your life.’--Jan 15, 2019 

Faithfulness: When I think about faithfulness I think about the person who can be relied on, that dependable person. I’m sure you know at least one person like that. They are almost always available to help, to pitch in. Imagine that level of faithfulness relationship between the Believer and Jesus. 

Flakiness, let’s say the opposite of faithfulness I believe is that habitual cancel, or whining without suggestions for a fix, or even unfaithfulness. Maybe unfaithfulness is going a bit far. I almost feel like calling someone unfaithful is judging their Christianity, their relationship with Jesus, with God. So I don’t want to use that word, but you know what I mean right? Flakiness is the opposite of faithfulness. 

At any rate, if you find your personality does not tend to lend toward faithfulness, then work on it. Like I have to work on patience, or someone else would have to work on gentleness, the next fruit we will discuss. Admitting your fruit weakness is the first step to becoming strong in the fruit of the spirit. 

Gentleness: So, gentleness. Most people equate gentleness with weakness. I think that whenever we want to think of someone as weak, when they are being gentle, the best thing to do is plug Jesus into the place where that person is. 

For example, you have a friend or co-worker who tends not to allow themselves to be set off by someone who is obviously trying to press their buttons. But your friend is not taking the bait. And not only are they not taking the bait, they also feel sorry for the antagonizer. 

It doesn’t mean they are weak for feeling for the antagonizer, they are probably putting themselves in the shoes of the antagonizer. There’s a lot of plugging in going on right? 

I believe gentleness is a mental and spiritual strengthener.

Self-control: Ah yes, self-control. Whew! The first thing that came to my mind was chocolate. But we also know that self-control does not just mean considering the foods we eat, which is important of course. But self-control in all of the other aspects of our lives. This can become quite personal, but you can’t lie to yourself. At least you shouldn’t. 

If self-control is a fruit you need to work on, and I am of the belief we all need to work on this one for one reason or another, make a list of the places in your life where you lack self-control, and then pray, talk to God about this list every day. Trust me, no matter how small or how big the issue, He hears you and He can help you.    

So, are the fruits of the spirit orange slices or multiple fruit in a fruit bowl? I don’t know, I feel like they could be both at different times. But more importantly, understanding and working on each fruit in our daily lives is a process. A process that will take an entire lifetime to master in most of our cases.  

But the key is to be vigilant on a daily basis, to exercise each fruit. Especially the ones that are more difficult for you.  Remember, everyone will struggle with different fruit. Don’t judge, help. 

Mastering the fruit strengthens your spiritual life of course, but it will also strengthen you in dealing with other personalities. All types of personalities.    

Before we end today, I want to take a moment to discuss something else. No doubt you would agree with Newton’s Third Law of Physics--

‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.’

The statement means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the forces on the first object equals the size of the force on the second object.’ 

OK, maybe this does not quite fit, but the point I am trying to make is this: Galatians 5:19-22.

‘The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.’

 

These are what I like to call the rotten fruit.  Imagine a bowl full of rotten, inedible fruit. Or if you are the person who thinks the fruit of the spirit is one orange, imagine a really rotten orange. I mean, almost to the level of you can’t make out what type of fruit it is, it is so rotten. Now I am not condemning you if you struggle with rotten fruit. Romans 8:1 says ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…’   

So once you become a Believer, that is where the work of renewing your mind begins. Renewing your mind from the rotten fruit in verses 19-22 to the beautiful and perfecting fruit in verse 22. It will take time. There will be missteps. There will be two steps forward and maybe a step or two backward. But the key as I said earlier, is to work on the fruit of the spirit daily. Each day you work on perfecting your mind, body, and spirit in the fruit of the spirit is each day you move further away from the rotten fruit. 

I couldn’t in good conscience mention the good fruit without mentioning the rotten ones. I mean they do exist. 

So here is the bottom line:

• Exercise the good fruit daily. 
• Listen for God’s voice. He will speak to your heart when you are not maintaining your fruits properly. 
• Relationship with God keeps your fruit from becoming rotten. 
• If you happen upon a rotten fruit in your basket, Repeat Romans 8:1 and then ask God to help you remove the rotten fruit. You know what they say, one bad apple...     

 

Research:

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/fruits-spirit-actual-fruits

 

https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/what-are-the-fruit-of-the-spirit.html

 

https://biblehub.com/matthew/10-16.htm

 

Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Scriptures mentioned:

• Galatians 5:19-21

• Galatians 5:20-23

• Matthew 10:16

• Romans 8:1

• Philippians 2:1-3

Episode Takeaways:

‘Admitting your fruit weakness is the first step to becoming strong in the fruit of the spirit. ‘--Civilla

Closing commentary:

Don’t forget, I would love to hear from you on the question: 

‘Who is God?’ 

Episode quote:

‘If the light that is on you is brighter than the light that is in you, the light that is on you will destroy you.’--Christine Caine. 

 

Episode outro:

Well, thank you for tuning in. Let me know via social media or by email if you have feedback. I would love to hear from you! You may email me at [email protected]. Please give me 24 to 48 hours to respond. And don’t forget to check the show notes for the sources used for this episode. Until next time!