The Fruit of the Spirit

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23

How often do we hear about the importance of these virtues? We are taught to be kind and gentle, to make peace with each other and to love one another. And yet, these fruit of the Spirit are really not supposed to be our end goal.

Imagine that a man has just proposed to his girlfriend. He gives her the ring, and she puts it on and freaks out. Now imagine her turning and walking away from him. She shows her new ring to everyone she meets, but she doesn’t embrace him, acknowledge him, thank him, or even look at him. Sounds crazy right?

Guess what? This is kind of what we do to God sometimes. The Holy Spirit wants to give us great gifts, and he wants to bear fruit in our lives, but these things are only byproductsof having a relationship with God. Our goal is not to gain as many gifts or collect as many fruits of the Spirit as possible; what we want is to be as close with God as we can. We seek a relationship with the Giver of Gifts, and not with the gifts themselves. We should use and be thankful for the blessings, but primarily we need to get to know and love the One From Whom All Blessings Flow.

In his book “Giver of Life”, Fr. John W. Oliver writes, “The goal of Christian life is not to force our behavior to fit categories of “love”, “joy”, “peace”, and the rest- if that were true, Christian experience would merely be an external gloss, like adding a fresh coat of paint to a house that really needs a new foundation. We would be working on the wrong problem.” The goal of Christian life is to unite ourselves with God. The fruit of the Spirit helps us, but what we really need is to have a relationship with Him.

Let’s look at what comes right after that Galatians verse from the beginning. Galatians 5:25 says we are to “live in the Spirit” and to “follow the Spirit”, not “live in the fruit” or “follow the fruit”.

If we ask God for the Holy Spirit daily, and we make seeking God in prayer a priority, God will give us the fruit. The wedding ring in the story earlier serves as a wonderful sign of love, but it is the relationship between the two that makes all the difference. Love God, seek him, and the blessings will follow. Seek His face, not His hands. Live in His presence, not for His presents. 

Originally posted on Ablaze Ministries’ blog on 10/24/2013