©2004 David
Drury
Back to David's Writer’s Attic
The
Fruitful Life
8
Ì
Love in a World of Hate
In Galatians
“But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” – Galatians 5:22
BACK TO THE BASICS:
LOVE
We finished our first week speaking of love
and so it is fitting that we launch into our second week talking about love
again. If you’re already feeling like
you’ve heard enough about love, then beware—you may need to hear more of it
than most people. We need to always
return to the basics, and there’s nothing more basic to the way of Jesus Christ
than love.
Our world has no love. Our world is full of hate. Instead of love, our world is full of war,
terror, revenge, infighting, jealousy, rivalry, nasty mobs, violent men,
deceitful women, angry children and bitter old people. In this world of hate the first fruit of the
spirit is so needed: love. We will have
this quality showing in our lives if we are truly connected to the vine.
The great philosopher Soren
Kierkegaard once said that love is hidden… “however,
this hidden life of love is known by its fruits, and love itself has an inborn
need to be recognized by its fruits.” As
we have seen the fruits of love are justice, truth & grace. How do we show these fruits of love? How do we know if we’ve got them or not?
Three of the greatest early apostles talk
about each color of love described in the previous chapter. In fact, each of the three emphasizes one
portion for us and in so doing weave a beautiful balance.
James emphasizes the part of love we see as
justice. This is true in two ways. First, the book of James if
full of calls to the Church to live what we believe. He pleads with us, “Do not merely listen to
the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do
what it says” (James
James, we would hope, lived this out in his
own life as well. Early church fathers
report to us that he would pray so righteously in the temple on his knees that
he developed huge callouses on them and his knees
became as hard as a camel’s. He was
nicknamed “camel-knees” because of this.
Another nickname stuck with James even more, because of his righteous
life and ministry. To this day James is
known as “James the Just.” He is a great
model of the justice emphasis within love.
John emphasizes the part of love we see as
truth. Often the Apostle John is seen as
a gentle and meek person. He is even
portrayed in some classic paintings as almost feminine in his demeanor. But the disciple John was vastly different
than this. He was an impulsive and
demanding person, as the title “Son of Thunder” he was given implies. And his writings include some of the boldest
records in scripture. He proclaimed
truth and attacked its enemies.
Of course, part of why John is known by the
softer image is that his books contain more talk of love than any perhaps any
other scriptures. But when writing about
love John is often emphasizing the truth dimension of it: “I have no greater
joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth”[1];
and “If we claim to have fellowship with God yet walk in the darkness, we lie,
and do not live by the truth”[2];
and even “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”[3] John is a great model of the truth emphasis
within love.
Paul emphasizes the part of love we see as
grace. It is impossible to read Paul’s
writing or hear his testimony without being confronted by and comforted by the
concept of grace. He thought of himself
as the least of the Apostles because he persecuted the church before his
conversion. But he affirmed that, “By
the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect” (1
Corinthians 15:9-10). Paul’s
transformation from a violent persecutor of the church to bold missionary for
the kingdom is perhaps the greatest example of grace in history.
GRACE
SCRIPTURES
But even more his books in the Bible are
loaded with grace. In fact, of the 156
times the word grace is used in the New Testament, 100 of them are in the books
of Paul. His letters all begin and end
with grace, literally. And in between
are the most profound statements of grace ever heard:
·
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness.” (1
Corinthians 12:9)
·
“I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me. The life I live
in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. I do not set aside the grace of
God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for
nothing!” (Galatians 2:20-21)
·
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is
rich in mercy, made us alive with Chirst even when we
were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated
us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming
ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his
kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians
2:4-10).
Paul is a great model of the grace emphasis
in love.
In the end all three of these apostles are
striving at the same goal. The Apostle
James makes it clear to us that “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
action, is dead” (James
Long
Sidebar:
EXERCISES
IN GOD’S LOVE
Christian Schawarz
suggests twelve simple options or exercises[4]
that concentrate on different aspects of love which help us to practically
display this fruit in our lives toward other people:
1)
Fill up with God’s
Love
– here is the re-emphasis to stay connected in the vine, where “God has poured
out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he has given us” (Romans
5:5). Schwarz notes that “if you are a
Christian, you don’t have to produce love’ you merely have to open yourself up
to the love og God so that
it can flow through you to other people.
God’s love is the source and the stream.
Your contribution is simply to keep the ‘channel’ intact.”[5]
2)
Love yourself – 1,700 years ago
Augustine said “If you can’t love yourself, you cant’
truly love your neighbor.” Those words
are even more relevant today as they were then.
Loving yourselves means finding your identity in Christ and realizing
that you are human—and humans are to be loved.
All humans.
3)
Wear other people’s
glasses – this is the process of empathy, seeing the world the way another
does. Jesus taught us to not only do
this for the needy (Matthew 22) but even for our enemies (Matthew
4)
Put an end to
spiritual hypocrisy – this means speaking the truth in love. It’s being honest with who we are and who
others are, and finding the tactful way to say things how they are. Too often we fake love by seeming to
accommodate others—when in fact it’s just for show. And that’s not love.
5)
Learn to trust – part of love if
learning to trust others. This means not
suspecting the worst from people, assuming they have ulterior motives. Trust builds the environment needed for love
to grow.
6)
Make yourself vulnerable – many couples falling in love come to that
point when one feels the need to verbalize it.
There is that very vulnerable moment when one says, “I love you.” The responses could come back in a thousand
different ways, but just one, “I love you too” rewards the vulnerability of the
expressed love with returned love.
Making oneself vulnerable is a very difficult thing to do—but the
rewards are worth it.
7)
Dare to forgive – anger is the
opposite of love. And nearly all anger
is formed because of a lack of forgiveness.
There is no more loving act than forgiving a wrong against you. But as scripture teaches us, we will be
forgiven in the same way we forgive others.
8)
Be transparent – being authentic
is the key to transparency. Who you
really are is exposed. But without this
transparency our love is just for display.
It is manufactured, rather than coming from who we really are. But this also opens us to be loved for who we
are as well, rather than for who we simply seem to be.
9)
Train active
listening – you were given one tongue and two ears, and the logic goes that you
should use them in the same percentage you were given them. However, too often we talk twice as much as
we listen. Responding with love is only
possible after we truly listen to where someone else is coming from. Most of us need to train ourselves to listen
like this.
10)
Surprise with gifts – the essence of
the best gifts are that they come as a surprise. Expected gifts are really more like
exchanges: I give you this because you already gave me that. Practice a life full of give giving and
spread the joy.
11)
Use your humor – you’re funny in
your own way. Use your humor to lighten
the tensions that don’t serve good purposes.
And know that the humor level in your church and the love level are
strikingly connected. But above all,
learn to laugh at yourself!
12)
Have a meal
together – few things show how loving a church is more than how often it’s people eat together.
And few things show how much you love your neighbors than how often you
eat with them. Having a meal together is
perhaps the oldest and most sacred of the simple acts of love and
hospitality. Regardless of how you get
it done – eat together!
9
Ì
Joy in a World Chasing Happiness
You need more joy than happiness in your life.
While your happiness comes from self-pleasure, your joy comes from
self-less pleasure. Joy and happiness are
nearly opposite in their source of focus.
You are happy when things are going good for yourself. It is an entirely circumstantial and
emotional state. It can change from one
minute to the next. You are have joy
And notice that joy and happiness are not even the same kind of
word. You can’t “be joy.” You can “be happy.” You can’t “have happy.” But you can “have joy.” That’s because happy is an emotion and joy is
a possession. You feel happy. But you own joy. That’s why we can talk about things “stealing
your joy.” The joy is yours to own… but
things can steal it away. As a disciple
it is important to know that circumstances may not make you happy, but to still
not let them take away your joy in the long-run.
THEY JOY OF CHILDBIRTH
There’s no better example of joy over happiness than an expectant
mother. I can remember vividly my wife’s
first pregnancy and childbirth. I
remember that people said she had that “pregnant mother’s glow.” She went through all the typical pains and
struggles, being uncomfortable carrying this other human being inside of
her. The birth affected her, and I, in
tremendous ways. In fact, something
happened to me during this time that I still have a hard time believing.
Apparently, there is this condition among men whose wives are
pregnant. It’s called “sympathy
pains.” Some get morning sickness. Others have their back hurt. It’s a somewhat unexplained phenomenon –
since it makes no sense. I don’t know
what it was, but while Kathy was pregnant I began to get extreme pains in my
hips at the bottom of my back. I had
never had this before but it was excruciating.
Kathy looked it up in her medical dictionary and thought I might have
sciatica. She noted that sciatica was
very common among pregnant women but very uncommon among other types of
people. The pain was so unbearable for me
that I couldn’t sleep any better than her, and eventually my many months
pregnant wife had to take me to the emergency room. As I entered with this pregnant woman on my
arms, people began to stir to get her a wheelchair and admit her. She said, “Oh, no, it’s not me, its my wife.” The
orderlies looked at me like I was a creature from another planet, and got me a
room. In came the doctor and again she
went towards my wife who again had to point out that it was me – the #1 wimp
over there – that was actually in need of medical help. It was one of the most humiliating nights of
my life.
But once the real deal delivery happened (and my sympathy pains had
vanished, praise the Lord) the pain Kathy was in certainly surpassed anything
I’d experienced or witnessed in my life.
But still, once our son was born Kathy cried big tears of joy. The whole pregnancy and birth was not a
“happy” experience at all. In fact, it
was a painful one, in part even for both of us.
You see, even in the middle of pain joy can be an underlying and
overcoming fact of life.
COMPLETE JOY
Did you know that the secret path to joy is found in the vine. In John 15:9-11
it says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in
my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his
love. I have told you this so that my
joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” It seems that the key to joy is remaining in
Jesus’ love, which he flat out tells us here happens when we obey his
commands. It doesn’t get much simpler
than that. The beautiful thing is that
Jesus says that he’s laying all this out for us so that his joy will be in us,
and even more, so that our joy may be complete.
I love that! Complete joy!
Is anyone ever completely happy?
Even if they get everything they’ve ever wanted and all life’s
circumstances are peachy they still want more.
I think of the little girl who was asked the familiar question, “If you
rubbed a magic lamp and a genie came out and granted you three wishes, what would you wish for?”
The girl scratched her head contemplating all her amazing options for
wishes, her eyes spinning with possibilities.
The girl straightened up and said, “First, I would wish for a million
dollars. Second, I would wish for a
pony. And third I would wish for more
wishes.”
THE PURSUIT OF JOY
In my country the pursuit of the American Dream is a continual process
of wishing for more wishes. Our
declaration of independence stated “the pursuit of happiness” as among the
three chief “inalienable rights.” We do
have that right. But even the founders
knew that “the pursuit” is all that we could be guaranteed.
When you possess joy the normal people around you that do not yet know
God want what you’ve got. They may
experience happiness. In fact, at times
they may “feel” even more happy than you ever do. All sorts of material things give fleeting
happiness. Even some drugs can alter
your mood to make you “happier.” But nothing
physical can give you joy. You can make
someone else happy. But you cannot give
someone else joy. They must make it
themselves by actually caring about you more than themselves. Joy is not store-bought. It’s always homemade. If someone else seems to express joy (more
than just happiness) when they hear of good things in your life – that is
evidence of the fruit of the Spirit we call joy in their life. They are selflessly joyful about you. And any investment they’ve made in you
translates into their own joy over things.
So
people notice this joy in you. They
pause in their pursuit of happiness and see that you’ve attained a fruit in
life they’ve never tasted. This is what
draws them to you: your joy. Even in
hard times you still have it, and they know it, and they want it too. And they begin to stop pursuing happiness and
start pursuing joy. And that’s a pursuit
God has given every human being the right to in the vine.
10
Ì
Peace in a World of Conflict
You were meant to be a peacemaker not a troublemaker.
Many people have an interesting practice
these days in
This may be a trivial practice among buddies
that want to give each other the verbal equivalent of a “punch in the
arm.” However, the reality is that most
of us really are better at causing trouble than making peace. Trouble seems to follow us around. We are troublemakers at heart.
But God encourages us to be the
opposite. During the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”[6] A peacemaker is one that spreads peace to
others around themselves rather than trouble.
But notice what happens to a peacemaker.
They are called “children of God.”
The original language here that Jesus used was “sons of God.” That seems strange at first. Certainly Jesus was not inferring that only men could be peacemakers, or likewise
gain his blessing as children. Perhaps
Christ was drawing a parallel to his own Sonship, and
title of “son of God.” Just as he does
in the “vine and branches” portion of John 15, Jesus says that when we do as he
does he pulls us up beside him and we somehow gain the same benefits he has in
the kingdom.
For sure, being a peacemaker results in great
fruit for our lives. When we make peace
we do something that identifies us with God’s family and Christ’s own role in
the
PEACE
IS FRUIT AND LEADS TO FRUIT
We were meant to not only have peace but to give peace. For centuries there was a common practice in
churches to “pass the peace.” Many would
think it a strange practice today – but everyone was to turn to each other
(much like our “greet each other” practice today) and say, “Peace unto
you.” Then the person who just received
your peace would return it, saying, “And peace also unto you.” I suppose it’s
formality caused it’s widespread disuse.
But where else are we in the recurring practice today of giving out
peace. Perhaps we church people came to
church because we were looking for peace – and got it through the
minister. Then when we see others in
need of peace we assume it’s the minister’s job to spread that peace. But we miss out on the blessed beatitude of
God when we delegate up to the professionals the job of passing out peace.
“Let us therefore make every effort to do
what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
Romans 14:19
OUR
MESSAGE IS ONE OF PEACE
When those that do not know Christ see us
coming, they often see us as troublemakers not peacemakers. The general view, whether accurate or not, of
evangelical Christians today among those that are not is that we are
troublemakers. How do we overcome this
image-problem? Not through controlling
the media or shaping a better message to the world. We overcome it by rediscovering that our
message was always about the opposite of trouble in the first place. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet
of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who
proclaim salvation, who say to
TRUE
PEACE MAKES NO SENSE
But don’t fool yourself. This peace is not one we can logically
explain or intellectually pass out to people.
We have more people studying the Bible and preaching the Word than at
any other time in history. We have
schools full of people that know the original language and, they stress, know
the original meaning better than ever before.
But why is there still so little peace in the world with all these students
and communicators of the Word? Because
the peace we think about and articulate is one of our own making. But Paul advised us so long ago that when we
present our requests to God, “…the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”[8] We can’t intellectualize the peace God
gives. You must experience it—then pass
it out from not only a protected mind but a protected heart, just at Paul advised.
A
WORLD OF PASSING PEACE
The world can only manufacture a passing and
limited peace. Every two years my wife
becomes engrossed in the Olympic games. Since she was a young girl it was almost as
if the calendar rotated around these worldwide athletic events. Now our I and our
children are into it almost as much as her.
My four-year old son can hum the theme song to the Olympics
already.
Did you know that there is an old tradition,
dating back to the Greek games thousands of years ago, of a declared peace
during the games.
Of course, the greeks
often warred during the games. But there
was an ideal of peace. When the modern games were initiated this
declared worldwide peace was part of the ideal goal again. But two times in the past 100 years the
summer games were cancelled because the entire world was at war—a world war
being a new invention of war in our age.
And twice in the 1980s there were mass boycotts of the Summer Olympics
as the key cold-war cities of
Countries do no better at peace-making than
individuals. They in fact do worse. There is always the ideal of peace in our
governments and worldwide get-togethers.
There is always a song of peace, a flag of peace, a handshake
truce. But our hope for peace has never
and will never lie in governments and the leadership of men. Jesus said as much to us, but we’re still
trying to do it on our own. Our Savior
lived in an age where “Pax Romana” was the motto of
the empire. This “Roman Peace” was achieved through constant Roman conquest,
subjugation, and violence. Jesus knew
that the peace of men is mostly propaganda.
He came from the beginning bringing peace. The angels told the shepherds, “Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace to the men on whom his favor rests.”[9] And when Jesus ascended into the heaven from
which he came peace was again the gift. “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.”[10] Jesus has given you peace as the fruit of a
life lived in Him. Now give peace away
at every turn. Make peace between
conflicts. Make peace with unspoken struggles. Make peace with the past. Make peace when wronged. Make peace a way of life. Then you will not only live in Christ’s peace
but be living for His peace.
11
Ì
Patience in a World of Hurry
David was just a young shepherd boy tending sheep in the hills when a
messenger was sent to him. The messenger
quickly told him how the prophet Samuel had invited himself to David’s father’s
house. He asked that all David’s
brothers be walked in front of him so he could look them over. The messenger inferred that Samuel was making
some selection of importance to God.
David hadn’t even been invited to the party. The youngest son, he was left to do the dirty
work while the others had the honor of this amazing guest—the most famous man
in all of
As soon as he entered, God told Samuel that he was the one. Samuel called him over, made him kneel down
and then poured oil on his head. The oil
dripped down his neck behind his ears and down the edges of his cheeks, meeting
on the few hairs he had managed to sprout on the edge of his chin. From there it poured to the ground. Samuel announced that this boy, the youngest
brother not even invited to the party, was anointed as the next king of
So what happened next? In most
old stories you would expect there to be a huge processional of the new young
boy-king entering into his castle and sitting on his throne. Did David become king the next day? No. The next year?
Nope. Even in the next
decade? Sorry, not even then. David would spend decades on the bench,
waiting to get into the game. David went
back to tending sheep after being anointed.
And even when David would come to the brink of fame and kinghood either
circumstance, God’s will or David’s own patience would sit him right back down
on the bench.
When David defeated Goliath… he had patience, and didn’t usurp King
Saul’s throne.
When David was threatened by Saul… he had patience, and didn’t threaten
him back, but instead, ran away and lost his place in the King’s court.
When David had Saul, unaware, cornered in a cave… he had patience, and
didn’t kill him, only cutting a corner of his robe off to show his mercy.
When David had Saul, again unaware, at the tip of his spear asleep… he
had patience, and didn’t kill him, only taking his spear and water jug to mark
his passing.
Even when David heard of Saul’s death… he had patience, not wanting to
assume his place too quickly or without mourning the loss of a valued human
being.
David sat on the bench for years upon years, knowing he was chosen by
God to be the King, and he still waited on the Lord’s timing to make it
happen. David had the fruit of the
spirit we call patience.
Author and speaker John Ortberg writes of a mentor
he had talked to on the phone. He was
asking for advice about his busy life—and getting all he needed to get done
completed. The answer he received
surprised him. The mentor said, “You
must start by ruthlessly removing hurry from your life.” John paused, wrote that down, saying “that’s
good stuff” to himself. Then he asked
the mentor for the next bit of advice.
The mentor said, “No, that’s it, nothing else. Just ruthlessly remove hurry from your life.”
How hurried are you? How hurried
did Jesus seem to be? How far apart are
those two? If you put your hurry level
on a scale of 1-10 how high would it be?
And put Jesus on that same scale now.
It’s time to ruthlessly remove hurry from your life and find the time for what counts most: the relationships that
reap fruit for the
It could be said that we do not have evangelistic fruit because we
aren’t taking enough action. This is
true in large part. We need to do
something about it. However, our efforts
for evangelism are also hurt by of our lack of patience.
When interacting with someone we suspect needs Christ, we are prone to
fall to one extreme or another. On the
one hand, we say nothing about spiritual things in order to keep the
conversations comfortable. On the other
hand, once we do say something we throw patience out the window and call them
to a commitment immediately. Both
extremes are harmful to producing fruit and are caused by our general dislike
of discussing spiritual things with someone who does not yet know Christ
personally. We dislike those
conversations so much we either avoid them altogether or once we’re in them we
want to get them over with quickly.
The opposite should be true. A
conversation about spiritual things with someone we does not yet know Christ
personally should become one of the most enjoyable things we ever do,
regardless of our spiritual gifts or wiring.
It is of utmost importance—and in reality all we’re doing is sharing our
story of what Christ has done for us… which should be our favorite thing to
share anyway.
But if we’re honest with each other we’ll admit that we don’t like these
conversations much. Why is that? Why do we avoid them then speed through them
when they happen? Perhaps it has to do
with an over-emphasis on getting a “notch” in our belt for evangelism. Whether it be a sense that “I did my best and
now I don’t have to worry about it” or “I got another one in the boat” we often
make evangelism into a statistical record-race.
We need to move from that philosophy to a style of living where we seek
out conversations with those that don’t know Christ and hope to carry on those
conversations over many months, perhaps years, as we “make disciples” out of
them. This takes a style of evangelism
we could call “patient evangelism.”
It doesn’t mean we toss boldness or truth-telling to the wayside. But it does mean that we worry about starting
the conversations more than ending them.
If anything, ending a spiritual conversation with someone who doesn’t
know Christ, even if they accepted Christ at the end of the conversation, is a
bad thing. That new Christian needs tons
of more spiritual conversations with you, perhaps till you or they die, as they
are discipled and follow Christ. Evangelism isn’t about quickly ending
spiritual conversations with non-believers while we try to “close the
deal.” Evangelism is the process of
starting and carrying on the conversation about spiritual things with
them. Here again the line between
evangelism and discipleship is blurred… and it’s a good thing. Jesus didn’t say “Go, and make converts” or
“Go, and teach the already convinced.”
He said, “Go, and make disciples.”
Be patient in your evangelism.
You’ll make disciples, and have way more fun doing it.
Long Sidebar:
Jesus had a pretty significant To Do list. If he ever wrote it down on a scroll, it
looked something like this:
My To Do List:
q
Humble
myself and take on the form of a man, call this the “Incarnation” and try to
explain how I’m fully God and fully man 100% to the uneducated masses in
q
Recruit
12 people that will run things after I’m gone and write down all the important
things I did. Start with fisherman.
q
Tell
stories that no one will ever forget
q
Heal
people as often as possible
q
Cast
out demons occasionally
q
Fulfill
each and every prophesy ever made about the Messiah, exactly
q
Keep
the big plan a secret from everyone but my inner circle of 100 or so people
q
Go to
q
Suffer
like no one has in history, and offer my life up as a sacrifice, even though I
could stop it at any moment by wishing it to be stopped
q
Defeat
hell and death
q
Rise
from the dead
q
Give
parting instructions to the aforementioned disciples
q
Do all
the above in just 33 years, most of it in the final three
q
Build
and prepare individual rooms in my Father’s house for every single of my
followers who ever lived in all of history
q
Remember
to come back in a few years and give a vision of the end times to my buddy John
q
Answer
every prayer of every righteous person in all of history
q
Come
back at the end and win the battle of Armageddon
And even with a to-do list like this, Jesus still found the time to play
with children, relax in the living room with Mary and Lazarus, sleep in the
bottom of the boat and build friendships that changed the world. In fact, Jesus did most of the above list through
relationships in the first place.
What’s your to-do list look like?
12
Ì
Kindness & Goodness in a World of Evil
Are you good for nothin’?
YOU’RE GOOD… ADMIT IT… YOU’RE
GOOD
My Father loves the classic movie “Analyze This”
with Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal. He particularly loves the way DeNiro’s Mafia boss character looks at
What if God turned toward you with his finger wagging and did the same
thing. “You’re good… admit
it, you’re good.” That would really feel
weird—God calling you good. But his
Bible tells us that the fruit of connection to His son is flat out goodness. Ephesians 5:9 says, “For the fruit of the light
consists in all goodness.” If we have the fruit of Christ we will be
good. So be good for goodness sake.
If you’re wondering what you’ll be remembered for, don’t look at what
you’re good at. Look at how good you are. Look at who you are
good to. Look at what you are good for.
HOW GOOD YOU ARE
At its core goodness is a quality.
Goodness is about your soul, spirit, character. It’s the essence of you. You can’t be good on your own. Many you talk to that have no relationship
with Jesus Christ will tell you they just “live a good life” and “are basically
good.” You and they know this isn’t the
case. We all instinctively know that we
don’t live good lives… we aren’t basically good. We’re basically bad when it comes down to
it. Romans
WHO YOU’RE GOOD TO
Whether you have the fruit of the spirit called goodness in your life
can be determined by who you are good to.
Are you only good to those that are good to you? Are you good to those you want something
from? Are you only good to those people
easy to be good to? It’s being good to
those that even harm you that sets you apart as being
connected to Christ. That’s not possible
without His Spirit. True evidence of
fruit in your life comes from being good to those you can’t get anything from. That’s unconditional goodness. You are good even when you’re treated bad. That may sound
impossible for you to do. And you’re
right. You can’t do that. That’s why it’s a fruit of the Spirit… not a
quality you develop. If you have trouble
being good to certain types of people pray that God will give you goodness
through His Spirit – which he’ll do as you become more connected to
Christ. If you’re selective in who you
are good to you’re defective in who
you’re connected to.
WHAT YOU’RE GOOD FOR
Are you good for nothing? Or are
you good for God? What you’re good for
is all about motivation. People can
sense motivation. Each and every person
has a natural inborn motive radar that is beeping
whenever you talk to them. This is why
nearly every person in the world dislikes telemarketing. The person getting the call…. The person
making the call…. etc
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE KIND?
Kindness is the natural outgrowth of a good person’s spirit. If you are good then you should be kind. There are three ways ensure you have the
fruit of kindness:
13
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Faithfulness in a World of Broken Promises
Jesus never fails.
My grandfather on my father’s side lived in a
mobile home park in the mountains of
I remember doing a report for school on
kidney dialysis, I chose the subject since I had a real life family example to
look to with my grandpa going three times a week to get his “blood
cleaned.” I remember finding out in my
research that many people with kidney failure would eventually have to have
some of their limbs amputated.
Eventually, with his kidney dialysis only going so far and his
circulation not improving, grandpa’s legs began to die. They were both amputated right below the
knee. He would never walk again without
prosthetic limbs, two canes, and a lot of help.
Usually he was in a wheelchair.
But grandpa never let me know the pain that
limitation caused him. More than
anything else, I remember him smiling all the time. He had this grin that would come over his
face whenever he looked at me. A grinning old man with no legs in a wheelchair—that’s how I
remember him most.
When we visited grandma and grandpa’s trailer
mom and dad would sleep in the guest bedroom and my brother and I would sleep
in the living room. I would be woken up
frequently by the cukoo clock they had there. They had all kinds of trinkets, paintings and
keepsakes on the walls. Above the
hallway leading out of the living room there was a little carved block of wood
that had some strange markings on it. I
couldn’t make out what it said at my age.
One early morning I was still sleeping in when the cukoo
clock made it’s multiple chirps at me. I looked up and saw that grandpa had already
woken up and was in the kitchen. He was
sitting there eating cereal and reading his devotions. When he was done he wheeled back past my
sleeping bag and toward the hallway. As
he rolled passed me he noticed I was awake, and grinned his grandpa grin at me
as always. I felt bad for him. Why did he have to go through all that-when
he’d given his whole life to serving God?
He was such a nice man… why was he suffering? When he entered the hallway I looked above
him and saw that block of wood he had hung there above the doorway. For some reason that was the first time I
remember understanding what the carved block read. It said, “JESUS NEVER FAILS.” For years to come, even after grandpa finally
lost his physical battles, whenever I entered my grandma’s home my eyes would
immediately lock on those words, the theme of their home.
We human beings are not naturally faithful
people. We’re prone to break more
promises than we keep. A man of his word
is an unusual man for sure. And when we
try to be faithful in our own strength the results aren’t much better. Try as we may we eventually let people down.
But God the Father doesn’t. Jesus never fails. The Spirit won’t let you down. Scripture is full of promises about the
faithfulness of God. In just the book of
Psalms we read:
So through our connection to the vine we can
channel this faithfulness to others.
Faithfulness is one of those qualities that is
innately Godly. We can’t display it on
our own. We must have faith in the
Faithful One to give us faithfulness.
A faithful person in the world stands out
like a sore thumb. Faithfulness gets
noticed. And faithful people make the
best friends. Be faithful to those
around you and opportunities to reap the fruit of evangelism will abound. People will go to you for help because they
know you to care and follow-through.
People will ask you for advice because they see your faithful
character. People will start spiritual
conversations with you in order to figure out what makes a faithful
person like you tick. “Jesus” is of
course your answer. He makes a faithful
person’s clock tick better than the Old Faithful Geyser.
14
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Gentleness & Self-Control
in a World of Rage
The way you carry yourself shows who carries
you.
The next two fruit of the spirit are
gentleness and self-control. These
effects of the Spirit connection in your life have everything to do with your demeanor. They relate to the way you come across to others. If at times you come across as out of
control, then it’s a fruit of the Spirit problem. If you come across as harsh to others, then
it’s a fruit of the Spirit problem.
We often think of words like this, as well as
other words like kindness, meek & humble, to be weak and spineless. Sometimes those of us that want to appear
strong have trouble with the need to appear gentle to others. And those of us that have used a good
temper-tantrum to get our way, whether we are 4 years old in the grocery store
or 40 years old in the board room, have trouble with the importance of
self-control.
Jesus’s life on earth is
the best example of the kind of demeanor we should have and the way we should
carry ourselves. Jesus epitomized
gentleness and self control. But Jesus
was no spineless wimp. In fact, he was
in control of everything at all times.
Perhaps our concept of self-control and the way Jesus practiced it is
the doorway we should walk through first.
Jesus spends a lot of his time in the gospels
responding to traps and tricks that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law
set for him. These were temptations to
his gentleness and self-control. Jesus
knew what was going on – as scripture sometimes tells us – but that didn’t make
it any easier. He knew their conniving
ways and still restrained himself. If I
were in his situation I would have turned a few Pharisees into mustard seeds
every few days just out of poor-self-control.
Instead, Jesus walked into each and every
situation with complete control of himself.
But he wasn’t a wimp. Being a
wimp means you can be easily pushed around.
Nobody pushed Jesus around without his consent. Self-control is the opposite of being
weak. Only the truly strong can resist
the temptation to react with rage rather than respond with gentleness.
The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah speaks
about those that plotted to get him in the 11th chapter of the book
that bears his name. He says, “I had
been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had
plotted against me, saying, ‘Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him
off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.’” (Jeremiah 11:19). For thousands of years we have described
Jesus in these terms as well. Like a
silent gentle lamb, Jesus not only carried himself with dignity to his death—he
allowed it to happen when he could have stopped it.
The irony is that Jeremiah and Jesus’ enemies
thought they would destroy their fruit by killing them. In fact, their fruit was all the more
effective in their persecution. Their
finest hours of fruit came at their deepest points of pain. The fruit of gentleness and self-control
prevailed over the world of rage around them.
FRUIT
THROUGH GENTLENESS
Those around you who do not know Christ
personally are reached through a gentle word.
The world is a mean place – they face the opposite of gentleness every
day at work, on the way to work, from friends & even from family. People are naturally mean to one
another. But when you respond to
someone’s meanness with gentleness – they notice. They see that you respond in a way that is
unnatural. At first—this may make them
step back. But over time, they know that
there’s something different about you.
The difference is the fruit of the Spirit in your life. And if you practice this one you will see
evangelistic fruit in even the meanest people around you.
FRUIT
THROUGH SELF-CONTROL
Those around you are also reached through
your self-control. Often times friends without a personal relationship with Christ
will test your “religion” by doing this or that to offend you. It’s a common tactic. They want to see if you’re a hypocrite or
not.
My great-grandfather was an immigrant
coal-miner in
He was reached through his own wife’s
self-control. She exuded this fruit of
the Spirit from the get-go, and only by Christ’s power in her life. And then he became the first and best
evangelistic fruit of her life: the patriarch of a Godly family legacy with
Christ-followers and even many ministers flowing from his family tree. In some ways I am a part of her fruit as
well. And it all started with exhibiting
the fruit of the Spirit we call self-control.
Week Two
08.09.10.11.12.13.14
Group Questions
1) Exercise: Everyone in the group write their favorite kind of fresh fruit on a
card or piece of paper. Then hide it for
nobody to see. Everyone guess what each person’s
favorite fruit is before they reveal the truth.
2) Share which of the 12 “Love Exercises” on page 29 you are going to
focus on doing in the coming week. How
can you focus the one you picked on the non-Christians you know?
3) What are the things that give us the most joy?
4) In what ways can we ruthlessly remove hurry from our lives? Are you ever in too much of a hurry to reach
out to non-Christians?
5) Which of the 9 Fruits of the Spirit is easiest for you to display:
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness & Self-Control?
6) What of the 9 Fruits of the Spirit is hardest for you to display: Love,
Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness
& Self-Control?
7) How has God been faithful to you?
How do you need him to be faithful in the coming weeks and months?
©2004 David Drury
Back to David's Writer’s Attic
[1] 3
John 4, NIV
[2] 1
John 1:6, NIV
[3]
John 3:16, NIV
[4]
Found on pages 82-116 of The Three Colors of Love by Christian Schwarz
[5] ibid. p82
[6] Matthew 5:9 – NIV with italicized
gender-neutral “children” instead of sons.
[7] Isaiah 52:7 NIV
[8] Philippians 4:7 NIV
[9] Luke
[10] John