THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

There is a list in Galatians 5:22 that most of us have encountered so many times that it has lost some of its wonder, and yet it is worth taking some very deliberate time with, because what Paul is describing is what grows naturally in a life that is staying connected to the Spirit of God. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are the fruit of the Spirit, and fruit is not produced by the branch but by the vine, through the branch, when the branch stays where it is supposed to be.

Joy appears second on that list, tucked between love and peace, and the fact that it is described as fruit rather than as a feeling tells you something important about its nature. Feelings are responsive; they go up when things go well and down when things go badly, and most of us have spent a significant amount of our lives chasing the circumstances that produce good feelings. Fruit is different. It grows in a life that is rooted and connected, and it keeps growing through seasons that feelings alone could not survive.

Jesus said in John 15:8-10 that His Father is glorified when His disciples bear much fruit, and He connects that fruit-bearing directly to keeping His commandments and remaining in His love, which brings the whole passage back to the same point it keeps returning to. The fruit, including the joy, is not available apart from staying, and the staying is the invitation Jesus extended to everyone who belongs to Him.

REFLECT
• When you look at the fruit of joy in your life, does it feel like something you have been producing through effort or something that has been growing through your connection to Jesus?
• What does it tell you about the nature of joy that Paul describes it as fruit rather than as a feeling or an achievement?

PRAYER
Father, I want the kind of joy that grows rather than the kind that fades, rooted in You rather than dependent on what is happening around me. Let me stay connected long enough to bear the fruit that only You can produce. Amen.

TODAY'S READING: John 15:8-10; Galatians 5:22