“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” ~ Galatians
5:22 (NRSV)
The sermon ended with a simple question: “What
fruit does your life bear?” Afterward, she confronted me in the narthex: “You
totally omitted all the context that goes before that verse—that stuff about
the fruit of the flesh and all that sexual immorality.”
Never mind that of the fifteen listed fruits of
the flesh, only three made any reference to sexual immorality. Of the dozen
remaining fruits (idolatry, sorcery,
enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness,
carousing), most of which she (and I) commit regularly, if not daily, eight relate to animosity in human
relationships.
We tend to specialize when it comes to sin; and
I suspect it’s the sins we don’t regularly commit that show up most
frequently on our list of “worst” sins. I want forgiveness and pardon for my
jealousy, factionalism, strife, enmity, etc.; but throw the book at him for his
sexual immorality.
And never mind that the New Testament is
abundantly clear that there is no hierarchy of sins. Sin is sin, and “the wages
of sin is death.” The breaking of one law—one sinful act—makes
us sinners. How fast do you drive in a 65 mph zone? If you drive 66 mph you are
a law-breaker.
Yeah but…
So, out of a list of 15 fruits of the flesh, she
picked out the three that relate to “all that sexual immorality.” She wanted me
to damn the sexual sinners to hell.
My response was, “Yes, I recognize that there is
a list of fruits of the flesh. My question for us today is, ‘Do our lives bear fruits
of the Spirit?’”
“But, what about those sins of the flesh?” she
countered.
“Don’t do them.” I responded. “If your life produces Fruits of the Spirit you won't have to worry about fruits of the flesh?”
“But aren't we supposed to rebuke and correct
sin?”
“I’m wondering if you’re confusing the task of
Scripture[1] with our task. Our task is to bear fruits of the
Spirit.”
She persisted, “Well, we can’t be soft on sin,”
and turned on her heels and left in a huff.
It’s been my observation that in a culture smothered
in the residue of Puritanism and Victorianism, most people already know all
about sin. But threats of hell and other fear tactics never seem to make a dent
in the preponderance of sinful behavior. Fear tactics, however, do produce a lot of guilt and self-justifying behavior; and one of the easiest
ways to justify oneself is to condemn others: “his sin is greater than mine.”
Among the prophetic writings of the Hebrew
Scriptures, far and away the most frequently named sins of Israel were idolatry/unfaithfulness
toward God and injustice toward the poor. Jesus most frequently condemned the
hypocrisy of the religious leaders and their unjust treatment of the poor. Yet in many Christian circles today injustice toward the poor has become a scripturally sanctioned institution by blaming the poor for their lot.
The obsession over "welfare fraud," [you don't work, you don't eat (II Thessalonians 3:10)] justifies the withholding of all assistance in all forms from all people. Yet it is documented repeatedly that welfare fraud accounts for a minuscule portion of monies spent on public assistance. Administrative embezzlement accounts for much more.
The strategy I infer from the confrontation in
the narthex is, “Don’t let anybody get away with anything!” It’s a diversionary
tactic to focus attention away from my own brokenness.
We are not responsible for the sin of others (Ezekiel 18:3, 17, 19). Our calling is part of “the more excellent way”
of I Corinthians 12:31. Love calls us to bear faithful witness—with integrity
of words and actions—to the Love of God. And Jesus was crystal clear: we will
be known by the fruit we bear. But by emphasizing the sin of others, we risk neglecting the orchard.
That’s the way I see it through the flawed glass
that is my world view.
Together in the Walk
Jim
[1] A reference to II Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…” The
reference apparently was wasted on her.
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