Units 4 and 5: Virtures of Godly Wisdom/Fruits of the Spirit

These 2 units of study were similar in nature so I thought I'd address them together. They both focused on Christ's lifestyle...the way he lived out what God wanted him to do. The scriptures involved are James 3:17 and Galatians 5:22-23. These lessons I found particularly difficult because they were so word oriented. I consider myself somewhat of a "word" person, but when you throw out 17 terms...it tends to boggle the mind. There are 8 virtues mentioned in the James passage and 9 fruit mentioned in Galatians. Our task was to consider all these in relation to ourselves and pick out the one (or ones) that we particularly find difficult.

I did like the approach that the author took in giving many synonyms for each word. Then contrasting the virtue with the opposite...and finally giving what he calls a "perversion" of the virtues. We decided for clarity's sake that the virtue itself would be what we would be striving for, the opposite would be what a non-Christian might exhibit, and the perversion would be what Christians so often do, which is take the good and tweak it into something that God never intended to have happen.

The 8 virtues mentioned in James are adjectives...the 9 aspects of fruit of the Spirit are nouns. I don't know that it has any significance, but I had never noticed it before. I'm going to list the words in question just so anyone reading who isn't doing this study can sort of see where this was going.

Opposite----- 8 Virtues in James (NIV)----- Perversions

Lustful----- --------Pure----- ---------------------Puritanical

Fussy----- -------Peaceable (peaceloving)-------- Compromising

Harsh ------------Gentle (Considerate) ----------Unkind restraint

Unapproachable --Entreatable (Submissive) --------Yes -person

Merciless ---------Merciful (full of mercy) ----------Indulgent

Fruitless ----------Fruitful (good fruit) -----------Fruit-obsessed

Wavering----- ----Steadfast (impartial) ------------Inflexible

Lying -------------Honest (sincere) -----------------Brutal

Opposite -----9 Fruit of the Spirit -----Perversions

Hate, fear------------ Love -------------Possessive, permissive

Pain----- -------------Joy ---------------------Frenzy

War -----------------Peace --------------------Neutral

Impatient -----Longsuffering (patience)----- --Lenient

Hard -----------Gentleness (kindness)----- -----Soft

Badness ----------Goodness ---------------Self-righteous

Unbelief ---------Faithfulness --------------Presumption

Arrogance -------Meekness (gentleness) -----Weakness

Undisciplined ---Temperance (self-control) ---Fleshly effort

Suppose that God had created the Bible in a sort of "Book of Lists" format...no stories, no examples, no people. Just lists. A giant "To Do" book for living life the way he wants us to. There would be the 10 commandments, the Beatitudes, these qualities listed above, but no one to flesh them out for us. The "don't do this" lists and the "do this" lists. That would be difficult. I think that's why these lessons were a little hard for me. I need to watch someone live this out so that I can see, "Oh, that's what that looks like". So, one of the things I tasked the group to do was to pick a fruit, and then think of a person that they know personally that embodies that characteristic. I heard some wonderful stories of people some of us all knew, and some that were new to us. Think about it. Who do you know that is a great example of ___.? You fill in the blank. Watch them...learn from them. Like Paul's admonition to follow him as he follows Christ, see how they manage to live it out in the day to day. Then, pray for God to strengthen you in those areas in which you are weak. He wants so badly to help us walk with greater strength and faithfulness in this life. Sometimes we just need to realize we need the help...and ask for it.