How to be holy

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22

When the New Testament talks about the Holy Spirit it’s likely to be talking about one of three things: patience, purity or comfort.

Comfort is a major theme in Jesus’ final conversation with his disciples, as he promises them that he will be with them for ever (John 14-16). You can’t get more comforting than that!

Power is what was shown on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) – the Spirit came like a gale-force wind and “tongues of fire”. Wind inspires, blowing away the cobwebs and breathing new life. Fire purges, burning away the dross of sin and compromise.

But purity is the focus of Paul’s great list - the “fruit of the Spirit” - in Galatians 5:22-23. The Spirit comes to live within us and produce in our characters a harvest (that’s pretty much what the word “fruit” means) of beautiful qualities. A good way to grasp the importance of what Paul is saying is to ask the question: What sort of world would planet earth be if every human being acted in accordance with this ideal? The answer is simple: it would be a paradise!

Wouldn’t we all love to make the world perfect? Of course we would. But that’s not possible. So our chief business as Christians is to live in such a way as to bring that little hint of paradise into our tiny corner of the world.

Various thoughts spring to mind…

First, fruit is something that grows naturally or not at all.

You can’t force it. You can, if you like, hang plastic pears or rubber grapes on their respective trees. They may look very nice. They may even look real. But it won’t take anyone long to discover that they’re fake – and a big, big disappointment.

In the same way we can train ourselves to put a nice covering on our personalities; this is what we mean by being “civilised”, and that’s fine.

But that isn’t what Paul is speaking about here. No. He is talking about something that grows, as it were organically, from deep within us. And it does so because it is essentially the work of God’s Spirit. You can tell a truly Spirit-filled person because they are natural, easy, unassuming; they don’t give the impression of trying to be something that they’re not. This is why it is so important to let the Spirit fill us every day; only then will the fruit flourish.

Second, this list isn’t optional.

You may have sat an exam where you are asked to tackle only a certain number of questions – four out of ten, say. You can safely ignore the other six; it won’t count against you.

But that isn’t how Paul’s list is to be treated! You can’t say “Well, I must admit that I’m not much good when it comes to love, patience and self-control. But joy, gentleness, kindness and faithfulness? – well, I reckon I’m not too bad there. And let’s face it, four out of nine isn’t bad!”

NO! These beautiful characteristics are intended to grow together, side by side. You never get any of them truly “sorted”; you can never tick any of them the list. And neither can you act as if some of them don’t matter. Indeed, examining them in that kind of way would be totally artificial, for the fact is that only someone else is in a position to judge how far on we are in this holy business of being “filled with the Spirit”. (In fact, anyone who claims “I am a Spirit-filled Christian” shows by that very fact that – they aren’t!)

Third, there’s a real sting in the tail of the list.

Read it right through and you get the impression of a very gentle kind of person. But bringing up the rear is something much more muscular, so to speak: self-control. Ah!

Do you find yourself thinking, “Ouch, that really is a weak spot of mine! Yes, I do have a tendency to fly off the handle… I can be pretty undisciplined… I’m a bit of a glutton, to be honest… I’m not really good at keeping confidences and generally guarding my tongue…”? I suspect many of us do.

I’m glad Paul put self-control in, because some Christians give the impression that, in their view, being Spirit-filled is a bit like floating on a spiritual cloud-nine, complete with an angelic smile on our face. Again, no! Growing the fruit of the Spirit calls for real determination and seriousness about following Christ.

As I said, it’s not for us to assess ourselves when it comes to being Spirit-filled – that’s for others to do. But what we can do – indeed, should do – is give this list serious thought, and ensure that we allow ourselves the conditions for such growth.

Jesus said, “Remain – abide – in me”. That’s what’s at the heart of it. That’s how to produce the fruit of the Spirit.

Lord God, make my life like a harvest-field, producing in me all that is pure, holy and Christ-like. Amen.