The Fruit of the Spirit

Thought this was a fitting picture for this entry.

The other night we were discussing the fruit of the Spirit. Specifically we were discussing gentleness and had some really good discussions.


But neither Jesus nor God was always gentle, take a look back at the Old Testament and how God often treated those that were disobedient, well I can't say that he was always gentle in his actions. Look at Jonah, the Israelites, the Egyptians, Sodom and Gomorrah

Also when Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple, he was not very gentle.
Matthew 12:12 Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

Are we to always turn the other cheek as Jesus taught?
Matthew 5:39v But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Or should we be as taught in the Old Testament?
Deuteronomy 19:21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

I believe the fruit of Gentleness is simply being soft in our approach to others, being gentle as we show them the love of Christ, having compassion and mercy for those around us. I do not believe that this is meant to say that you should just let others run over you or that you should not stand up for the truth, or that a man should not defend himself.

With everything there is balance, which is the most difficult part to obtain. It is easy to be one extreme or the other but to obtain balance is the key and that is what I believe Christ taught; never to instigate but do not retreat either, never to condemn but that does not mean you condone.

This spurred me to think about why the example of a fruit was used. For anyone that has ever grown a fruit tree they will most likely understand. Fruit trees require allot of work and allot of pruning. If you just let a fruit tree grow wild they will usually kill themselves because the weight of the un-pruned fruit will tear out the branches. Just like the fruit tree we alone, without God, are self destructive. The pruning is the balance we need to be healthy Christians and we must allow God to prune us as He so often does through everyday life events and by His word.

Now….another reason I used the banana and the monkey in the pic above is because my Mom just gave me a couple of banana trees. She called me up and asked if I wanted a couple and before I even looked up any info on them and to see what type of care they needed I said “sure, bring them on”. Well….come to find out….they are not the easiest things to grow and need allot of water and some really specific soil conditions in order to produce fruit. So I guess I will just get to see how green my thumb is….up until now it hasn’t been very good….usually turns everything else brown! It will be just like the picture above; a MONKEY growing a banana tree!

I guess this one ties me back to faithfulness and commitment that I talked about last week. I am committed to make these banana trees grow but I have little faith that I can really do it!


So..........

God help me and the banana tree!

May God also help each of us to prune each other and our children with gentleness!