"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is not law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." (Galatians 5: 22-26, ESV)
When I was in youth ministry in North Georgia I taught on these verses. I asked the group how people would know they are Christian. One of the youth answered by stating, "From the fruit you bear." One must remember the setting in order to understand that it sounded like this young man said, "From tha fru-chi-bear." As soon as I heard him I began to picture t-shirts, posters, bookmarks, etc... that would have a big fat bear with fruit around everywhere. This bear would be able to tell who was a follower of Christ and who was not.
That is a funny picture that has stuck with me for years now and I shared this in a sermon recently and actually got some great artwork from some of the listeners that pictured a bear and some fruit. We are having a great deal of fun with this and yet we still remember people will know that we are in love with Jesus because of the fruit that we bear. People will know that we follow his teaching because the love of Jesus comes out in us.
Humor helps us remember, but scripture helps us grow in our understanding of what it means to bear great fruit for Jesus' sake. I want to encourage everyone to continue to read scripture and apply it to their lives because one can only put away sin and desires of the flesh by reading God's word.
It is a blast loving others and it stinks when we try to do it with our own power.
