[261 words]
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
My brother has worked over 35 years in a produce department. He knows fresh fruit when he sees it and he easily recognizes fraudulent freshness, too. Daily, he’ll pick through each piece determining if it’s genuine or not and if worthy to be displayed and marketed. Likewise, a healthy, vibrant, and delicious fruit bowl requires constant observation of its content by us. The physical fruit we eat will not stay fresh, we understand that, but our spiritual fruit can stay pertinent and effective as long as we maintain a tested and proven formula to keep ourselves close to God’s word, His family, and stay in communication with our Lord.
The spiritual fruit Paul mentions to the Galatian church is what we should observe in ourselves and other brethren. Since we’ve been freed from our sinful (fraudulent) life, there’s no need to desire to be phony again. Paul also encourages the church to not be lured back by those trying to disturb us. Sometimes those trouble makers (Galatians 1:7) may be people from the past who are enticing us to come back to our old ways, or they’re new acquaintances with a supposed “new” way to live. Neither one will keep your spiritual fruit fresh. Each of us have a great responsibility to be relevant and fresh for God, the church, and for those looking for “real produce” to replace their spoiled life.
Jon Warnes
Bedford, TX