Faithfulness Brings Fruitfulness

by Rev. L. John Gable

Faithfulness Brings Fruitfulness by Rev. L. John Gable
July 10, 2016

I want to talk with you this morning about something with which I have had a moderate amount of experience and only limited success: lawn and gardening.  In our many years of homeownership I have successfully killed two lawns, one even requiring the aid of a friend who was the head groundskeeper at the local country club to help us reseed it, and that coupled with complete and utter failure when it comes to vegetable gardening.  Our first attempt was with some friends who suggested that it would be “fun” to share a garden together.  We enjoyed a day of plowing and planting, but our kids were young at the time and I don’t recall us ever going back to tend the garden that entire season.  If I recall the only bounty we took that year was a scrawny little radish which later turned out to be a remnant red potato left over from the harvest of the folks who had the garden the year before we did.  We have had much better success in the lawn and garden arena since moving to Indianapolis; however our largely wooded lot has necessitated that we move to shade gardens rather than vegetable.

Now I know that you didn’t come to listen to my horticultural mis-adventures, but let me tell you about my latest endeavor in lawn and gardening because it ties in beautifully to what Paul is going to teach us in Galatians 5.

We have some ivy growing up one of the large oak trees right beside our home that is an invasive species called “winter creeper” and it does, it creeps everywhere, so I decided to eradicate it.  I learned the meaning of that word one summer in high school when my best friend and I were earning a little extra money by painting a neighbor’s fence.  There was a bush growing through the fence from their other neighbor’s side, so we went to ask him what he wanted us to do with it.  He was a rather austere, elderly gentleman and he said, “Eradicate it.  Simply, eradicate it.”  We nodded and thanked him, then looked up what the word “eradicate” meant before we tore the bush out by the roots, which is exactly what I did with the winter creeper, which leads us to Paul’s first spiritual principle.

He says, “If you live by the Spirit, that is, if you walk in step with the Spirit and desire the things of God in your life, then there are some works of the flesh which simply must be eradicated.  And he lists them: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these.   This list is not intended to be exclusive, so we shouldn’t read it with a suspicious eye looking for loop holes, “Oh good, my particular variety of sin is not listed, so I guess I’m OK.”  Paul wisely says such sinful behavior is “obvious”.  It may be hard to define, but you’ll know it when you see it, and we do, don’t we?  We know when we have crossed over, or are about to cross over, the line into behavior, either mental or physical, that we know does not bring honor to God, or demonstrate either our confession of faith or His Lordship over our lives.  We don’t need a list to tell us “no”, but we do need the conviction and the commitment, with the aid of God’s willing Spirit, to simply eradicate them when the voice of reason or conscience or the conviction of the Holy Spirit says, “Don’t go there.” If we walk by the Spirit we must be willing and committed to pulling the insidious weeds out of our lives.

Admittedly, Paul uses strong language here when he says “I am warning you as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  Is he making a universal statement about the forfeiture of our salvation if we practice these mis-deeds?  I don’t believe so.  What he is saying, however, simply and strongly, is that there is a fundamental inconsistency between those behaviors which seek to satisfy the desires of the flesh and those which seek after life in the Spirit. We, each of us, individually, then collectively as the Church of Jesus Christ, must make the decision as to what end we seek – the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit, the kingdoms of this world or that of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is a decision we must make not only once, but daily, perhaps hourly.  Today I am deciding to be Christ’s man or Christ’s woman and will act in accordance with His Kingdom values.

So, once we begin eradicating the fleshly desires we are left with an open field, fertile soil where something new must be planted or we know new weeds will take root.  Back to the winter creeper: after pulling out the insidious ivy, which admittedly was very difficult, as is eradicating undesired behaviors from our lives, physically and spiritually, I prepared to plant grass.  I turned the soil, applied the seed according to the directions on the package, spread fertilizer and began a regular regiment of watering.  At first nothing happened, and I was uncertain because I had been through this disappointing routine numerous times before, but then after several days I began to see small green shoots coming up out of the soil.  And now, with continued care and attention and helpful rainfall, I have a healthy new patch of grass in place of massive vines.  Horticultural success!

Back to Paul’s instruction to the Galatians: while it is absolutely necessary to avoid and eradicate ungodly behavior, the desires of the flesh, that alone is not sufficient; we must also embrace and encourage behaviors which will produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.  “If we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit.”  Let us produce fruit which demonstrates the values of the Kingdom of God, and again he lists them: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Again, this list is intended to be indicative, not exclusive.  As we said before, we’ll know such God-honoring behavior when we see it.

Now Paul refers to these as being the “fruit” of the Spirit in the singular, as we might speak of a garden, in the singular, even though it is made up of many individual and a variety of different plants, each which must be tended and cared for in a particular way.  What he is not saying is that you have been given the fruit of love, and you the fruit of kindness, and you the fruit of goodness, and so on.  No, these are not like the spiritual gifts he cites elsewhere which can often be used as an excuse not to do what we don’t want to do.  “I’ve not been given the gift of evangelism, so I really don’t need to tell anyone about Jesus.”  No one can say, “I’ve not been given the gift of kindness, or gentleness, or self-control, so it really isn’t fair for you to ask those things of me.”  No, each of these are virtues which must be prayed for, sought after and nurtured in every individual who names the name of Jesus, who walks in step with His Spirit.  Admittedly some of these virtues come more easily to us than others, but all of them are necessary evidences of the presence of Christ’s Spirit in us.  If we say we walk with Christ, then these are the virtues which must be present and growing within us.

Without becoming judgmental of others, which Jesus clearly and consistently warns us not to do; Paul does seem to suggest that we show evidence of the desires of our hearts by the way we live our lives.  We chase after what we want.  We commit ourselves to that which we value.  So, rather than looking at others and their behaviors to determine their motives; let us instead look at ourselves.  Let us use this list of virtues as an opportunity for self-evaluation as to our own faithfulness and the fruit it bears in our lives.

Open your bulletin if you would to the section titled Sermon Notes.  Listed there are these nine fruits of the Spirit, better to look at these than the works of the flesh, right?  I am not going to explain each of these, in that regard this teaching really is quite “obvious”, but I am going to ask you to consider and make note, either mentally or with a pen or pencil (for your eyes only) where you are with each of these and consider in very particular ways what you need to do to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your life in each of these areas.  I will give you only a moment of reflection on each one, so note for yourself what first comes to mind.

LOVE: what relationship or circumstance comes to mind which calls you to be more loving?  What is something specific you can do to demonstrate love?  Recall the little motto: “When in doubt do the loving thing in the loving way.” Is there someone who actually needs to hear you say, ‘I love you’?

JOY: We are not talking about happiness here, not the fleeting feeling of excitement, but what will bring you joy, deep and lasting contentment?  Some of you will recall we talked about joy a couple of weeks ago as being: Jesus, Others, Yourself.  What can you do to get those priorities back in their proper sequence?

PEACE: What do you need to let go of, or what promise of God do you need to hold on to, in order to experience peace in your heart, “the peace of God that passes all human understanding”? What relationship or circumstance in your life needs a measure of peace?  Don’t over think this exercise, jot down the first thing that comes to mind.

PATIENCE: Name the person or the circumstance that tries your patience, where you are too quick to anger or become defensive.  We laugh at the prayer, “Lord, give me patience and give it to me right now.”  Perhaps praying for patience is exactly what we need to do, right now.

KINDNESS: Sometimes kindness is perceived as being an after-thought, an unnecessary, particularly when it regards someone you don’t even know – a waiter, a clerk, a worker, or someone you know so well – a spouse, a child, a co-worker.  A little kindness goes a long way in every relationship.

GENEROSITY/GOODNESS: This list of nine virtues is very consistent in nearly every translation, except for this one.  Growing up I learned this virtue as “goodness”, newer translations list it as “generosity”.  Either way, goodness/ generosity are both virtues we need to develop.  Did you notice that the desires of the flesh focus inwardly on my needs, the fruit of the Spirit focus outwardly on meeting the needs of others?  In what ways can you grow in goodness and generosity?

FAITHFULNESS: Greater faithfulness in all of our relationships where promises have been made: with God, a spouse, a child, a friendship.  Our faithfulness reflects the faithfulness of God.

GENTLENESS: Some translations may read humility or meekness.  In what areas of my life do I need to learn or practice gentleness?  In what areas of my life do I act the part of the bully, the tyrant, the one who always has to win or get my own way?

SELF-CONTROL: Self-control is at the heart of discipleship, submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  In what areas of my life am I out of control?  In what ways are my behaviors unbecoming and inconsistent with being a follower of Jesus Christ?

I will encourage you to continue this exercise of self-reflection at home, and perhaps make it a regular practice, like an annual check-up.  In sum asking, “In what ways am I growing in faithfulness and fruitfulness?”

Before we leave this passage let me make one more horticultural observation.  One can pray all day for grass to grow, and while it is ultimately a work of God, there is also a part in that process that we need to play.

The story is told of a man who purchased a new home and noticed a back corner of his lot that was overgrown and weedy.  He thought, “That would be a nice place for a garden.”  So he spent hours and hours pulling and digging and tilling and planting, fertilizing and watering, until finally he produced a beautiful garden.  A friend stopped by to visit and seeing the garden she said, “Isn’t it wonderful what God can do with a piece of land?”  “Yes”, the man replied, “But you should have seen it when God had it all to Himself.”

Without question, the fruit of the Spirit, every one of them and all of them combined, like faith itself, is a gift which is given to us by God.  They come from Him and are to be used for His glory and purposes.  There is a part of our spiritual growth that only God can do and He has done it for us, by the sacrifice of His Son and the gift of His Spirit.  But there is also a part that only we can do, that God can’t do for us.  This is one of those instances in which God invites, rather insists, that we partner with Him in the work He desires to do in us and through us.

If you were to drive by our home today you would see the oak tree by our house and the new grass that is growing around it, but if you look closely you will also notice strands of winter creeper still growing up the trunk.  Try as I have, I haven’t yet eradicated all of that insidious vine and I know there is still more under that soil that I just can’t see which will continue to grow.  That is a good reminder to me that the work of spiritual growth is not a “once and for all” transaction with God.  Christ did His work of salvation “once and for all”, but we have to continue to work out our salvation every day.  God has done His work for us and our salvation, now we must do ours, the hard work of eradicating sinful desire and ungodly behaviors as we tend to the fruit of the Spirit.  This is a work that requires daily attention if we are going to grow spiritually and bear fruit worthy of the Kingdom of God.  Amen.