The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
One of my wife’s relatives said
she had better hurry up and do something notable so that they will have
something to say about her at her funeral.
Similarly, we might feel on hearing Paul’s list of the fruits of the Spirit
that we had better hurry up in acquiring one or two of those virtues, in whatever
time we have left. This is not entirely
facetious – no matter what we say, good church people assume two things about
these virtues. One is that they are,
hopefully, provisional, or perhaps negotiable; it may not suit me on occasion
to be gentle or generous or patient… or more likely these days, I simply don’t
feel like being kind or peaceable. We might
assume we’re doing well enough if we achieve just one or two of them, some days.[1] And the other assumption is that these
virtues are up to us to achieve anyway – if I am self-controlled, or patient,
it is because I decided and did it.
All of this is to miss the
point. Paul is writing about what he
calls living by the Spirit. These virtues are, he says, fruits of the Spirit. We don’t generate them ourselves. We make space for them. The Spirit Jesus promised grows them in
us. Our task is to make sure that ego/Self
is not in the way, compromising the growth.
Once again it’s timely to stress… ego (or simply Self) is not “bad”. Indeed, it is essential. Jesus had an ego. If he had not, then for instance the
temptations in the desert are meaningless.
Our ego is a basic part of our identity, it includes essential survival
mechanisms and much else. The ego
however is typically demanding, insistent, often dominant. So it can be very much in the way. It can take over -- and we get what Paul
called works of the flesh… the life
determined by Self. Again, it is not
necessarily “bad”. The point is whether
Self is in control (or thinks it is), or whether Self can stand aside so that
the Spirit may bring those fruits, and much else, to fruition in us, gently,
over time.
Paul sheds another light on this,
in this passage in Galatians – he calls it Freedom. For
freedom Christ has set us free, he writes – don’t submit again to the yoke of slavery. Living in submission to Self is slavery. Christ has set us free. Trying to be good is something the ego does[2]…measuring
our goodness, justifying our lapses, trying helpful disciplines that might
work, feeling guilty, seeking some church or religion that better accomodates
our ego… all of this is ego work, and very draining of spiritual energy. Then it may be, we discover the discipline of
silence and stillness, sitting light to Self, gently using a mantra, realising
it can be done, for a little while at a time anyway… we are not asking for
anything, not even for virtue, let alone miracles… We are being present, and so far as it lies
with us, opening the doors of Self to the Spirit who restores what God created
in us and always intended.
[1]
Rather like the church noticeboard which read: Special this week – obey any eight of the Ten Commandments.
[2]
And about as problematic as trying to lose weight and keep it off.
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