“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”
– Galatians 5:24
Hi James and Ellen,
What is your favorite fruit? Fruit comes in all kinds of colors, shapes, sizes and smells. Fruit grows on trees, bushes and plants. Fruit grows in gardens, in orchards and ‘in the wild’. A fruit may have a lot of pits or seeds, a single pit or seed or no pit or pits or no seed or seeds. A fruit may taste sweet, tart or bland. A fruit’s flesh may be firm and crisp or soft and juicy or slimy and stringy. Apples, pears and peaches do not need to be peeled to be eaten. Banana, passion fruit and avocado peels are not eaten. Cantaloupes, mangos and pineapples are easiest eaten after their peel has been cut off and their fruit’s flesh sliced into wedges or diced into chunks. Raspberries, blackberries and strawberries have no peel. Figs, prunes and cranberries can be dehydrated before eaten. Fruit can be made into jams, become pie fillings and used for snacks. All fruit have vitamin A, potassium and fiber which are a must for a guy, gal and kid to have in his or her diet.
The pungent, sweet smell of a guayaba will immediately take your grandpaa back to being in an open-air market in Bolivia. A guayaba is slightly smaller than the size of a baseball. A guayaba’s flesh may be yellow or pink. The first time that your grandpaa ate a guayaba was the first time that he was making the ‘tres kilómetro mas’ climb around and up the side of the plateau that towers over the railroad town of Chochis to where Enrique Klava has a plot of land on which he has chickens, several livestock, a small corral and a crumbling, two story house that he made with bricks that he made from mud. As your grandpaa and Tim Eckles and Bryant Pellson – the two guys who were with your grandpaa on his initial Chochis visit, neared Enrique’s plot of land, Enrique stopped at a small tree that had pale green peel fruit on it. After Enrique showed your grandpaa how to eat a guayaba, your grandpaa picked another guayaba to eat. Just as your grandpaa was about to eat the yellow flesh of the guayaba that he had picked off the tree, your grandpaa spotted a small wriggling white larva in the flesh of his guayaba. Because your grandpaa really liked the taste and texture of guayaba and probably because your grandpaa was really hungry, your grandpaa quickly learned to first look for any small white larva before he ate any of guayaba’s flesh. On this same trek up the right side of the plateau that overlooks the town of Chochis to Enrique’s parcel of land, Enrique stopped under several trees that had orange mandarin or tangerine looking fruit growing on them. After Enrique peeled one of the fruit, he gave Tim, Bryant and your grandpaa a piece of the fruit. Enrique thought that it was really funny the look that was on your grandpaa’s face as well as the looks that were on the faces of Tim and Bryant after they began eating the pieces of fruit that he gave to them – as the mandarin or tangerine looking fruit was really, really sour. The fruit was a sour mandarin. Your grandpaa would sometimes play the same trick on a guy who had traveled with your grandpaa on the eighteen-hour train trip to Chochis from Santa Cruz, as he led him on the sometimes muddy, arduous walk up the ‘three more kilometers’ trail to Enrique’s farm – which your grandpaa called The Ponderosa.
What is your favorite fruit of the Spirit? Is love your favorite Spirit fruit or is it joy or peace or patience or kindness or goodness or faithfulness or gentleness or self-control? Paul cites the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Paul is referencing God – as God the Spirit, as Who the Spirit is Who brings about the bearing of Spirit fruit. As God – as God the Spirit, constantly sanctifies or cleanses God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids from their sin acts – which might be called the ‘fruits of the devil’, in which God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids may have been involved in at one time – which may have been immorality, depravity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, anger outbursts, jealousy, envy, conceit, selfish ambition, niggling and drunkenness, God – as God the Spirit, is growing righteous fruit in the lives of the guys, gals and kids who God – as God the Father, specially elected before He arbitrarily placed planet Earth into a trajectory around a blazing orb called a sun. The ‘delectable’ Spirit fruit that God – as God the Spirit, is growing and maturing – which is the life of a guy, gal or kid who was specially elected by God – as God the Father, and who has been ransomed and justified through the death of God – as God the Son, on a cross, for God – as God the Father, is sometimes illustrated as being like a cluster of grapes. Because Paul uses fruit of the Spirit in a singular context, your grandpaa takes this to mean that Paul’s nine fruit of the Spirit elements are all meshed, melded and meted together in a single life. Because of the inhumane suffering and shed blood of God – as God the Son, on a cross that led to through His death an everlasting sacrifice for every guy, gal and kid who God – as God the Father, specially elected for Himself, the spirit of the devil can no longer come into play. Verse 24 says, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” When God – as God the Spirit, prompts a guy, gal or kid to go to and through the faith/grace door, the guy, gal or kid becomes a Christ-follower and he or she begins to have every aspect of the fruit of the Spirit – that has been grafted by God – as God the Spirit, into the life of the guy, gal or kid, begin to grow and mature in his or her life.
Galatians 5 (981)