The following was an introductory paper given to the St. Paul's Lutheran School teachers as we began the 2011-12 school year. The theme verse is Galatians 5:22-23, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." This was meant to help the teachers get a grasp on these verses. Each month we will select a student of the month that exhibits the fruit of that month. I will also begin to post those monthly papers about each fruit as they become available through out the year.
Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23
2011-2012
“But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (ESV)
The theme verse for the 2011-2012 academic school year at St. Paul’s is a familiar
verse for many of us. We have heard often of the “Fruit of the Spirit.” These
“fruit” will be what is used to find our “Student of the Month.” Each month we
will be looking at one of the “fruit” and will be considering the student that
best fits that “fruit.” In order for us to be prepared to make this decision,
it would be good for us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest these words
for ourselves.
For us to have a good understanding of the fruit of the
Spirit, we need to look beyond just these two verses to see the context of what
Paul writes. We will be looking at Galatians 5:16-26. Listen as we read these
verses:
Through out this section, we see the contrast between life
in the Spirit and life in the flesh. It begins with: “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of
the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires
of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to
keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Galatians 5:16-17 ESV)
Paul gives us this contrast in other letters. In Romans 8:9
we read, “You, however, are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” (ESV)
Again in Ephesians 2:5, “…even when we
were dead in our trespasses, [God]
made us alive together with Christ.” (ESV)
The old (also known as the Old Adam, the old man) = the
sinful nature that is opposed to God and the life one has in Christ.
The new (also known as the new man) = the life that is
filled with Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit.
This beginning verses from Galatians 5:16-17 are a challenge
to the Christian life. To walk by the Spirit is a challenge. The desire of the
heart is to walk according to the sinful flesh. The reason is because of the
original sin within each of us. Born sinful, our very nature is sinful. To walk
by the Spirit means to not follow the depth of the depravity of our souls.
This is not something that we do on our own. To say to the
children, you must try harder to bear the fruit of the Spirit is not what we
need to be saying to them. Once again, it comes down to the very fact that we
are sinful by nature and cannot by our own power walk by the Spirit. We recall
the explanation to the 3rd Article of the Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or
strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit
has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept
me in the true faith.” (Small Catechism, 3rd Article) It is only as we are made new by the
Spirit that we walk by the Spirit. He leads us. He guides us. He is the One
that empowers us to follow the way of the Lord. This is important to remember
because it is so easy to say to one another, “Try harder. Be a better
Christian. You must really work hard to bear the fruit of the Spirit.” That
puts the pressure on us, which means that we will only fail the test. In and of
ourselves we will not and cannot walk by the Spirit.
So how does this happen? How is it that we walk by the
Spirit? It is as we are guided by the Holy Spirit through the Means of Grace.
He empowers us in the very way that He has told us that He will work – through
the Word of God, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Calling us by the Gospel – in
the waters of Baptism and through the Word as it is read and proclaimed. Each
of our children has been called by the Gospel. The reason that we celebrate the
Baptism birthdays of each of the children is because of the importance of their
Baptism. It isn’t just a “nice” thing to do. We recall our Baptismal birthdays
in order to remind us of the importance of this day when we have been called by
the Gospel. We continue to study the Word as He enlightens us daily – leading
our children in devotions, religion class and in various other ways that we
bring that Word into our lessons.
Back to Galatians.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like
these.” (Galatians 5:19-20 ESV) Paul
gives us the works of the flesh which is not comprehensive. It isn’t that we
look at this list and say, “Those are not things that I do so I am all right.”
We can find ourselves in this list at some point in time. In fact, as we look
at the fullness of the Law, we see that we are definitely struggling with the
works of the flesh. That is something that we are led to help our children to
understand about themselves.
The works of the flesh are against the commandments of the
Lord. We teach these to the children, even having them memorize them through
the yeas. The works are evident – other things take the place of the Lord in
the heart and life, language is not as the Lord would have it to be (in the
classroom as there is disrespectful language against one another, on the
playground when no teacher is around, at home), the heart is not worshiping the
Lord in the classroom, at home or in the church, respect is not given to
parents, teachers or others in authority, etc. Yes, it is evident to see the
works of the flesh. It is a struggle between walking by the Spirit and walking
in the flesh.
Our task as teachers is to guide the children from the works
of the flesh to the life in the Spirit. As we do that, we find that we must
first be guided by the Spirit in our lives. It is easy for us to focus on the
children and forget that we must begin in our own hearts and lives in order to
then be able to guide the children in their lives.
Turning to the Fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is
no law.” The fruit that is born by the Christian is the fruit that comes
from being connected to Christ. Jesus tells us, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in
him, he is it that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John
15:5 ESV) Connected to Christ in Word and Sacrament, we grow in our lives of
faith and in growing, we bear much fruit. It is much like the crops planted in
the field. We cannot enjoy sweet corn without it first being planted, nurtured,
watered and harvested. The ear does not come by itself. It cannot grow on the
ground without any connection to the corn stalk. Nor can it grow without being
watered by rain or irrigation. So the Christian cannot bear fruit without being
connected to Christ Himself (the very word “Christian” shows us that Christ is
the center of who we are and without whom we would not be “Christian”). Nor can
we bear such fruit without being watered by the Holy Spirit through the Means
of Grace. Connected to Christ, we are to bear fruit.
Is it an option, this bearing fruit? No it isn’t. We will bear fruit one way or
another. Paul writes,
“Likewise, my
brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you
may belong to one another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order
that we may bear fruit for God.” (Romans 7:4 ESV) Bearing fruit for God,
bearing fruit in our lives, is what we are to do. We do not believe and that is
the end of it for our lives here on earth. No, we are called to bear fruit.
What type of fruit we bear shows where our heart and life is as Jesus says,
“So, every healthy tree bears good fruit,
but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit…Thus you will recognize them by their
fruit.” (Matthew 7:17-18, 20 ESV) Bearing good fruit is what we as
Christians are to be about.
And what is the fruit? It is what the Holy Spirit works in
our hearts and lives. It is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Each month we will be emphasizing one of these fruit. At the same time, we will
need to remind our students that it isn’t just for that month that we are to
bear the fruit of the Spirit. It is to be that which we do day after day, week
after week, month after month, long after we have finished the 2011-12 school
year, the fruit of the Spirit is still to be part of our daily lives.
We can divide these fruit up into 3 categories (for our
benefit): Love, joy and peace are inner qualities that reflect our Christian
relationship with God. Patience, kindness and goodness show themselves in our
attitude and actions toward one another. Faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control reflect how the new man conducts himself in view of the duties,
opportunities and obligations that come to him because of his Christian
calling.
For our students, we will begin by looking at those fruit
that reflect their life in Christ and their relationship with their heavenly
Father. Love is that which begins in God’s heart and is poured into ours as we
love one another as Christ has loved us (which includes the attitude of
forgiveness towards one another). Love is the foundation of all else that comes
in our lives. If we do not love God, we cannot love one another. It is as John
writes, “Beloved, let us love one
another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows
God. Anyone who does not love does not know god, because God is love…Beloved,
if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (I John 4:7-8,11
ESV) So we begin our year with love – love for God and love for one another.
Each month, I will bring forward at the staff meeting the next fruit so that we
will have a fresh look at what each fruit means for us and for our students.
August/September – Love
October – Joy
November – Peace
December – Patience
January – Kindness
February – Goodness
March – Faithfulness
April – Gentleness
May – Self-control
May the Lord bless our school year as we, as teachers, bear
the fruit of the Spirit in our classrooms and lives and as our children bear
the fruit of the Spirit each day.
