The Fruit of Spiritual Gifts
by Yolanda Miller

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." - Galatians 2:22

I am a gardener with a puke green (that sickening color somewhere between green and brown that can only be described as the shade of vomit) thumb. That is, sometimes I manage to help plants flourish; other times, they take a ride down my garbage chute.

One of my recent victims was an orange tree I nurtured for about a year and a half. The strange thing about this orange tree was it never bore any oranges! For 18 months, it had lovely lush green leaves, bloomed fragrant white blossoms, but the blossoms always fell away and any baby fruit it developed never grew larger than a pea before also dropping to the ground.

I tried everything - fertilizer, water, less water, sun, shade, but the fruit just wouldn't come. Then one day, for no apparent reason, it dropped all its leaves and within the week, it was dead. After lamenting yet another agricultural failure, I took solace in the realization that this event had spiritual lessons in it.

See, there's a lot of talk about spiritual gifts these days. Spiritual gifts tests abound, as do various categories of spiritual gifts (I believe I have the spiritual gift of sleeping). BodyWorks, an excellent class offered right here at FPC, does a great job of educating us about what the Bible teaches about spiritual gifts. Deep at the heart of this class lies the truth that when we use what God has given us, we are richly blessed.

But the spiritual gift is the cart, not the horse. Someone who focuses on their spiritual GIFTS without first developing their spiritual FRUIT inevitably ends up spiritually barren, and then, dead. 1 Corinthians 12-14 emphasizes that God gave spiritual gifts to edify, or build up, the Christian community and its unity. But when believers exercise their gifts without developing the character that the fruit of the Spirit brings, pride develops, gifts are used to glorify individuals, and divisions occur due to jealousy or just plain irritation at the arrogance of others. This is an absolute perversion and travesty of God's gifts to us.

The place to begin is not what we do (gifts), but rather, who we're becoming (fruit). God has not put us here on this earth merely to do His work; He has put us here to be His work. The whole point of the Christian life is transformation. If we violate God's intention for our very existence, which is to be transformed as evidenced by our spiritual fruit, we slowly inch towards spiritual death. Of course, we as Christians should serve and use our gifts, but these gifts are to be used as an extension of our changed hearts and transformed lives, not as a substitute. So, feed your soul and grow your roots deep into Christ. Not only will you avoid the compost pile, you'll bear lots of fruit and bring glory to your Heavenly Gardener!

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