This reflection originally appeared in Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Vol. 2:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. (Gal 5:22-23)
When we read this list, we may feel as if we are being told who we should be or what we ought to do: As a Christian, you should be generous. As a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, you ought to be patient and kind. You must become more gentle and joy-filled! But this list is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is proclamation, not exhortation.
Paul does not say, “Become more patient.” Paul says, “The fruit of the Spirit is … patience.” To turn the fruit of the Spirit into aspirations is to stumble back into the law, just like the Galatians. As Paul said earlier in the epistle, if our righteousness were to come through the law, then Jesus Christ died for absolutely no reason (2:21).
As law, this list just reinforces the message you hear 3,000 times a day: You’re not good enough. There’s always more money you could’ve left in the plate; there’s always someone for whom you have neither patience nor kindness; there’s always days — if you’re like me, whole weeks even — when you have no joy. But your lack of joy or gentleness or self-control does not make you an incomplete or inauthentic Christian.
Because notice: After Paul describes the works of the flesh, his voice changes completely. He shifts from the active voice to a passive image: fruit. He says “fruit of the Spirit,” not “works of faith.” The opposite of vice isn’t our virtue. The opposite of vice is the Vine of which we are but branches.
What you do not hear in any vineyard is the sound of anyone’s effort. Except the Gardener’s. Fruit does not force itself to grow; fruit is the byproduct of a plant made healthy. To think that you’re responsible for cultivating joy and kindness in your life is to miss Paul’s entire point — his point that, apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ, you are a dead plant, but in Him, you have been made alive. Now, in and through you, the Holy Spirit can grow joy, gentleness, peace, and patience. These are not the attributes by which you work your way to heaven. This is the work heaven is doing in you on earth.
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So then what is the point in which you realize you aren’t actually part of the vineyard because you don’t constantly cultivate said fruit, even after years of supposedly being worked on by the Lord?
I like this interpretation, but there is still room to feel as though one is not truly saved. What’s your response with that in mind?