By: Dale Weckbacher
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against
such things there is no law.
(ESV)
With all the news of kneeling or standing before sporting
events, missile launches in North Korea, and of course the eternal sport of
Trump bashing, media continues to ignore one significant issue occurring in the
United States. I am speaking of a record
number of homicides in Chicago in 2016 of 762, up 57% from last year. (1) 2017 does not appear to be much better with
519 homicides as of September 29. (2) While issues like the threat of war in Korea,
and global terrorism are serious, I wanted to take time to bring attention to
those murdered in Chicago and the families grieving their loss.
What these items have in common is they create an atmosphere
of fear. I am sure many living in
Chicago fear going out, thus becoming prisoners in their own homes. The only cure for this epidemic of hatred is
love.
The first fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 is
love. However, this is not a love as the
world defines it which is a love based upon feelings. Instead the love mentioned in scripture is an
all-encompassing love from God. It is
not a love based upon feelings for God even loves those that reject His Son and
even loves those that had His Son crucified on the cross (John 3:16). The basis of God’s love is not feelings for
if it was, why would he love those that caused him great grief by crucifying
his Only Son. (3)
While the love of God is unconditionally given, its
reception is conditional for the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ
(John 14:6) and to receive salvation one must acknowledge Jesus’ death, burial,
and resurrection (Romans 10:9-10). God’s
love is also not void of hatred but instead is a hatred directed at sin with a
purpose of exposing sin, giving individuals an opportunity to repent and
receive God’s gift of salvation.
Rob Hoskins, a man who grew up in Beirut is all too familiar
with violence and hatred. In his August
2, 2016 article appearing in Goodnews Florida, he posits the cause of the escalating
violence and hatred in the world to othering.
According to philosopher Michael Foucault, othering occurs “When we see
ourselves as members of a group described as “we,” and other people are formed
into a different membership we call “they.” (4) To phrase it another way, class warfare is a
root cause of the escalating hatred in the world. Add to the equation, instantaneous
communication among groups using social media and we see an acceleration of the
spread of hatred.
Demonstrating the fruit of Godly love however does not mean
we as Christians are just to sit idly by and not react out of love but instead
means showing the fruit of love as Jesus did.
Matthew 21:12-17 records the account of Jesus clearing the temple. Since Jesus is God (John 1:1) and since God
is love (1 John 4:7-8), Jesus anger in the Temple did not violate his perfect
love. Instead Jesus directed his anger at
the sin of the merchants in the Temple who had turned the Temple where God’s
presence on earth dwelt into a “den of thieves” to quote Jesus.
To show the fruit of the spirit of love in our lives we
must,
1)
End any hatred directed at individuals in our
own lives – In the New Covenant, God no longer dwells in a building but he
dwells in the hearts of those who have accepted Jesus as their savior (1Corinthians 6:19-20). The sin of hatred
in our hearts is like the greed in the hearts of the merchants in the Temple
and something we must overturn in our lives.
2)
Not fear speaking out against divisive hatred in
our world spurred on by division of people into classes and instead share the
message of the Gospel that God loves all of humanity and unconditionally sent
His Son to die for them. Instead of
division, we must show the fruit of love by offering others, even those we
perceive as enemies (Luke 6:27), the opportunity to accept God’s gift of
salvation.
3)
Stop the divisiveness within the church for that
is how we show the world the love of Christ (John 13:34-35)
A world full of hate with people living in fear needs to see
and eat of the fruit of God’s love. We,
God’s people are the trees that must bear that fruit (Galatians 5:22). However, if we ourselves harbor hate in our
lives, fear speaking out against divisive hatred in our society, or allow
division to cripple our churches, the world will starve due to a lack of supply
of the fruit of love.
Next Wednesday we will look at the fruit of joy.
1. Fox News. Chicago records 762 homicides in
2016, up 57 percent from previous year. www.foxnews.com. [Online] Fox
News, January 1, 2017. [Cited: September 30, 2017.]
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/01/01/1-chicagos-bloodiest-years-ends-with-762-homicides.html.
2. DNA Info.
Chicago Murders. www.dnainfo.com. [Online] DNA Info, September 29, 2017.
[Cited: September 30, 2017.]
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017-chicago-murders.
3. Driskell, Robert.
How Does God’s Love differ from the World’s Definition of Love? www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com.
[Online] What Christians Want To KNow. [Cited: September 30, 2017.]
https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/how-does-gods-love-differ-from-the-worlds-definition-of-love/.
4. Hoskins, Rob.
A Biblical View of our Escalating Culture of Violence. www.goodnewsfl.org. [Online]
Goodnews Florida, August 2, 2016. [Cited: September 30, 2017.]
https://www.goodnewsfl.org/biblical-view-escalating-culture-violence/.
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