Spirit of the Fruit - Smart?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

Admit it, you want people to think you are smart, you want people to look up to you for your knowledge, for your understanding of God, for you maturity as a Christian.  If you right now are saying “No, I don’t” then you are either delusional or a liar. 

It is obvious that while we must certainly know Him to love Him and to know Him we must study Him.  However that may make what I am about to write seem strange for someone to write who spends so much time trying to “know” God.  However the truth is, that no one has studied Him more completely than Satan, and it hasn’t done him a bit of good. 

When Paul describes the body of Christ as a body, part of which includes hands, ears, and so forth, we are quick to claim our territory — we are the brain of the church. Leave it to the American Christians to miss the point. 

Re-read Galatians 5:22-23 again, ‘smart’ is not one of the fruits of the Spirit. It goes without saying that we are to love God with all our minds.  However, we are to love God with all our minds, not simply seek to understand Him.  “We do not, of course, increase the intensity of our emotions by reducing the capacity of our brains.  Neither, however, will we ever bear the fruit of the Spirit if the seed of the Word is planted only in the rocky soil of our brains rather than the fertile soil of the heart.” Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul.

Unless and until we learn to stop pursuing academic knowledge for knowledge’s sake,  and start seeking the kingdom of God, we will not, get better.  We are to put behind us all our earthly desires and worries.  We are to stop seeking those things that the those of this world seek. Start trying to be the salt. 

The fruit of love, in the end, is the fruit of the Spirit.  Love begets love. Love bears joy. Love bestows peace. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control: all these break forth in the heart. None of these, however, comes from the barren soil of our intellectual curiosity.  If I were a doctor I would diagnose the condition that we are suffering from when our knowledge fails at traveling the distance from our heads down to our hearts, as spiritual emptiness. There is not a magic pill to cure that emptiness, The  truth is, that we will not begin to get better until we come to embrace this obvious truth: we come into the kingdom not as scholars or students, but as children. www.ligonier.org/tabletalk

Forgiveness, Must I forgive someone who is not rependant?

If I were to sin against you, are you under obligation to forgive me even if I refuse to acknowledge and turn from what I have done against you?  This is a not nearly as complicated as most of us make it.  I have heard to many times to recall from someone who has betrayed their spouse, stabbed their co-worker in the back, or taken something from another person that the one who has been injured just needs to forgive them and get on with their life.  It is a coldly callous and self serving attitude along with a distorted Christian viewpoint.  Frequently I wonder just why the individual supposes that God has forgiven them of their sins, when the Bible clearly says otherwise. 

Jesus taught his disciples to pray ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors’ Matthew 6:12.  Does that mean that we have to forgive someone even when they refuse reconciliation, someone who refuses to repent?  That question is far more important than most of us realize, it is a hard question, one that cuts to the heart of our faith, the individual who seeks to forgive, and to the individual who needs the forgiveness.

First, we must acknowledge that the debts we owe one another pale in comparison to the infinite debt we owe God, our heavenly father.  It is because we have been forgiven an infinite debt, that it would be an horrendous act of evil to remotely consider withholding forgiveness from those who (and this is important) seek it.  Thus we must always be willing to manifest the kind of love that is willing to forgive those who wrong us. 

Furthermore, forgiveness is by simple definition a two-way street, one that leads to the restoration of fellowship.  By that I mean, that it requires someone who is willing to forgive, and someone who wants to be forgiven.  If you are to forgive me for the sins I have committed against you, I must be willing to turn from those sins, I must be willing to seek to restore that which I took from you; I must be repentant; otherwise, there can be no restoration of fellowship (i.e. forgiveness).  Nowhere in the Bible does God offer forgiveness without repentance on the part of the individual who has sinned.

Finally, we must never suppose that our standard of forgiveness is higher than God’s standard.  He objectively (something that actually exists) offers us forgiveness and restoration of fellowship with Him.  However His forgiveness is not subjectively realized (it does not belong to you), until you repent. 

For those who need to forgive and for those who need forgiveness these two verses might well be worth taking to heart. 

“Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:37-38

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you; leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

As I have said before, If your faith can not save you from your own self-centeredness, your own selfishness, then it will not save you from Hell.  Is it possible for you to say this prayer and mean every single word?  If you want to get over yourself, this is a good place to begin.

Lord, 

Make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)