By Colleen O’Sullivan
Brothers
and sisters: If you are guided by the
Spirit, you are not under the law… (T)he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. Against such there is no
law. Now those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow
the Spirit. (Galatians 5:18, 22b-25)
The Lord
said: “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of
every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for
God. These you should have done, without
overlooking the others… And he said,
“Woe also you scholars of the law! You
impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not life one
finger to touch them.” (Luke 11:42, 46)
Piety
His mercy endures forever, his
faithfulness lasts through every generation.
(Psalm 100:5b)
Study
Our Scripture readings today each point up the difference between life
under the Law vs. life lived in the Spirit of Christ. By Jesus’ time, the Law had truly become a
burden. Much of human origin had been
added to it over the generations. There
was a rule or regulation to fit every ritual, every social situation as well as
every moral circumstance. Adherence to
the Law was considered the path to God. The
Pharisees and the scholars of the Law were always quick to point out where a
person wasn’t living up to the letter of it.
Their sanctimonious attitude is what angers Jesus so much. He says they have forgotten about the love of
God and about having compassion for others.
Paul reminds the Galatians that they are free in Christ – free from life
under the Law and free to live in the Spirit.
When a person lives in the Spirit, his or her life bears the fruits of
the Spirit. Those who know love and
forgiveness through Jesus gratefully pass these gifts on to others through
these fruits.
As I reflected on these readings, it struck me that in a way it’s a mind
vs. heart issue. Our hearts don’t need
to be involved if all we are doing is following a checklist of do’s and don’ts.
Our minds will suffice. And for some of us, that’s as far as we want
to go. If we want to live in the Spirit,
however, our hearts have to be open to the indwelling presence of the Spirit. We have to come to know the Spirit of Jesus
through prayer. Our hearts have to be
willing to be transformed through the power of the Spirit. It’s the path to true freedom, but it
requires more of us.
It also occurred to me that the checklist approach or simply following a
list of rules involves an image of God I don’t want anything to do with. I don’t think God is a God of conditional
love, but if getting it all right is the path to this God, what happens if we
miss a regulation or two? Is God going
to be angry with our imperfection? Is
God going to give us the cold shoulder or love us less?
God loves us unconditionally and, out of that love, places his Son’s
Spirit within each of us. If we live in
the Spirit, our lives will produce fruits that pass on the love of God to others. That is what God desires of us – that we
share what we, through grace, have received.
Action
The indwelling Spirit produces fruit in our lives as a result of our
relationship through the Spirit with Jesus.
What fruit do you desire? Spend
some time today praying for that gift.
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