Fruit of the Church: Fruit of the Spirit
By: Kristen Neighbarger Published on: 27/09/2023I have strong feelings about church hurt, spiritual abuse, toxic faith communities, hate masquerading as love, and churches spewing faulty theology. It grinds my gears, to say the least. Whenever I see a new documentary that seeks to expose these things in churches, I find myself drawn to them, and I never have to look far because it seems like every few months there’s a new series, podcast, or book that highlights spiritual abuse. I first got sucked in when Christianity Today highlighted “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” From there, it was like an onslaught of information from other sources. From “The Way Down” to “The Secrets of Hillsong” to “Shiny Happy People,” the litany of spiritual abuse tales never seemed to end. To be completely honest with you, I think there’s a large population of people who don’t know how to process these documentaries or podcasts, and I get that. It’s so much easier to see these stories and to think, “That would never happen here” or that these are isolated incidents in megachurches. It’s easier to attempt to put distance between ourselves and these stories than to realize these same scenarios are playing out in churches down the road from us every week.
Life in the Spirit: Fruit of the Spirit
By: Kristen Neighbarger Published on: 20/09/2023Last week, I dug into Paul’s words immediately following his list of the qualities of the Fruit of the Spirit when he says: Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless. Galatians 5:23 (TPT) There’s still one more paragraph at the end of Galatians 5, though, and as I was reading all these hate-filled comments from the religious folks on Instagram, these words resonated in the back of my mind. Paul ends this section of his letter to the Galatians with these words: Keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus Christ have already experienced crucifixion. For everything connected with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Messiah. If the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives. So may we never be arrogant, or look down on another, for each of us is an original. We must forsake all jealousy that diminishes the value of others. Galatians 5:24-26 TPT As Paul explains, if we belong to Christ, all remnants of our selfishness and our life dominated by self have already been crucified with Christ. As a result, our life source is the Holy Spirit, and we are called to allow the Holy Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives. Every aspect of our lives.
Limitless Fruit: Fruit of the Spirit
By: Kristen Neighbarger Published on: 13/09/2023I had planned on being done with this series until last week when I was writing what I thought was going to be my last post. I found myself getting caught up again and again on this last sentence in this set of verses: Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless. Galatians 5:23 (TPT) As I was writing on strength of spirit/self-control last week, it was like this sentence got cemented in my brain and kept surfacing over and over again. I just kept thinking that God doesn’t want us to be jerks. He wants us to be led by the Spirit and have these limitless qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control so that we aren’t jerks! And, if we miss that message, I just have to think we are completely missing the point.
Strength of Spirit: Fruit of the Spirit
By: Kristen Neighbarger Published on: 06/09/2023Paul refers to the self-control and discipline of successful athletes in this analogy. He explains how they are disciplined in every respect, hoping to win a prize that will eventually fade away. The lesson Paul is teaching here, though, is that we should institute spiritually, mentally, and physically the same discipline and control champion athletes practice. That discipline and control can only come from a strength of spirit. If our spirit is weak, we will be weak. If our spirit is strong, we will be strong: In word. In deed. In mind. In body. Too often, self-control is related to our physical selves–how we control what we eat, drink, say, and do, but, like the other qualities of the fruit of the Spirit, this control is actually something that is rooted in our hearts and our spirits.
