“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23
My plan was to write this as an independent post but I realized it relates well to the series on the fruit of the Spirit. So think of this as a postscript. (And like I did in the rest of the series, I’ll quote Bible verses from the NASB in this article.)
By way of review, the first post defined the fruit of the Spirit as Christ’s character grown in His people by His Spirit. In the second post, we discussed how God’s Word presents the fruit as one and many. Then we stressed the social dynamics of the fruit in what I thought was the last installment.
But here’s another!
The fruit of the Spirit is verbal. We can express every item on Paul’s list by our words. I don’t want to exaggerate the importance of speech. As the apostle John warns us,
“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” – 1 John 3:18
If we have to choose between actions and statements, let’s go with actions. But most of the time, we don’t have to select; we can do both. So lets!
We have the opportunity to speak life into our Christian brothers and sisters. Words of love will do wonders for those enduring persecution for following Jesus. Celebrating with someone who had a major breakthrough is a way to share joy. And communicating in a soft and gentle manner defuses an argument before it blows up (see Proverbs 15:1, 17:14).
Scripture compares the words we speak to fruit. And according to Proverbs, we’re the immediate beneficiaries of what we say.
“From the fruit of a man’s mouth he enjoys good, but the desire of the treacherous is violence.” – Proverbs 13:2
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” – Proverbs 18:21
As I mentioned in the third post, the fruit of the Spirit is personal but not private. We impart the personality of Jesus to others only when the Spirit is forming Christ in us (see Galatians 4:19). And when we share, we fortify the health of the church. Yes, our words make a difference.
Paul warns us against tearing others down.
“Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.” – Galatians 5:26
In contrast, God challenges us to build up others.
“My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. 22For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body.” – Proverbs 4:20-22
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” – Ephesians 4:29
As the Spirit develops His fruit in our lives, He also encourages us to bless our neighbors. Doing so distinguishes us from the rest of society. Dominated by social media, our world delights in degrading people. Sarcasm, mockery, and now cancellation rule the platforms.
But the way of the Lord is different. He has us dead to rights; we’d deserve all His scorn and taunting.
Yet Jesus shows us mercy because He wants us healthy. And since He does, we can, as Paul says, “give grace to those who hear” us.
In every venue.
Including social media.
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