Lakeside Visitor November 2010

 

Last month I’m sure I tripped many of you up with my Shakespearean quip and possibly gave others the license to jump down someone’s throat with a rebuke. But hopefully you are all wise enough to proceed with caution when confronting others. I would like to say I am, but sometimes I think it’s better to be right than to be like Christ. Let me explain.

Galatians 5:13-26 has been speaking volumes to me over the past months. Please read it now, or my words will be weak and ineffectual. I read that we are called to live in freedom–but to love and serve others, not to bite and consume. Yet this is so often what we do. I find my heart breaks for those in my life I care about as others mercilessly attack them. The vocabulary may be normal and pleasant enough (or not), but the spirit behind their words is not for their benefit and–though this is hard to write–most likely not of God. It is hard to know what to do in such situations. When should we speak? When should we stay silent? More importantly, what are the unintended consequences of each option?

Now, I encourage you all to read the list of fleshly deeds over and over again. Are you there? Have you been? Relating these words to our speech can immediately make me feel ill at ease, especially since Jesus said our thoughts are as real as the actions themselves. How often do we use our words to cause strife in another’s life, disputing non-essential issues until hearts are pulverized by our personal convictions? How often do we break people apart by asking others to see our side of an issue instead of the truth? What is most important to us?

Bottom line, all my articles come from a place, and this one is no different. In Paul’s epistle the fruits of the Spirit of God come after the deeds of the flesh because they are where the Spirit works, where God covers our sinfulness. The deeds of the flesh are by-products of our selfish and controlling natures. But the Spirit? Those who practice living by the Spirit of God exhibit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If people are controlled by the words we say, if they are manipulated by our speech, then we have taken the reins on our tongues from God for our own ends. It takes self-control to advise where we might rather demand. It takes gentleness to hear another’s story when we’d rather conform them to ours, or at least something we’re more comfortable with. And it takes patience to get to know another well enough to speak with them about certain issues and convey love instead of judgment. I have fallen here more than I care to admit. But I do not practice those deeds. I practice living out the fruits of the Spirit I received because of Jesus the Christ.

The greatest of these is love. Have we shown ourselves to be loving children of God, above reproach (Phil. 2:14-15), or children of God who love to reproach? Hopefully we don’t practice deeds of the flesh, but we would do well to be mindful of them so, as they creep up in us, we can overpower them by practicing life in the Spirit. And please, for the sake of Jesus–whose name we bear–and others, put aside your own stake in another’s life so the Holy Spirit can accomplish in them what He has set out to do. Either way, your words will betray your motives.