No Law Against It

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

It would seem silly to us for a government to pass laws against qualities of character that we all desire to see in ourselves and others. Yet, we shouldn't give up hope, for governments have proven themselves capable of all forms of silliness, no matter how extreme the silliness may seem to us. This makes a certain amount of sense with governments being elected quite often by people who have a certain capability for silliness in themselves. We are not talking this morning of the kind of silliness where we act the fool for a laugh, but of the kind where we are the fool and it is no laughing matter.

The infamous 'whatever did I do that for?' moments help us to learn, but the fruit of the Spirit seems a much better way to go. If I knew and practiced love, it would be quite difficult to hurt my neighbor. Practice faithfulness and things like idolatry and adultery are tough to fall into. A life of goodness will not produce a reputation for badness. And then there is that toughest one of all for some of us: self-control. I'm not sure that I have faithfully practiced self-control ever in my life in what could be called a period of longsuffering. The occasional moment or two being about the best I have done.

Thank God it is list of the fruit of the Spirit. That means I have God's support and help, and, yes, authority to practice these fine qualities in myself. And as always, with my will being the weak and puny thing that it has been, the fruit production will come because God wills it in His sovereign and almighty will.

Bucky