Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 62. The Perfect Gift to Give For Christmas (Part 1 – loving our way through this season)

Hello human.

What season is this?  Many would jump straight to characterizing it as the giving season.

Episode 62 initiates a three-episode journey leading up to and celebrating the birth of a baby boy in Bethlehem.

A journey driven by this question:  how do I give to others in this season? How does my witness motivate me, and motivate you, to love your way through this season, with a spiritual robustness that we have not experienced before.

I know I compete with your demanding Christmas list, with the immediate, daily anxiety that comes with finding the perfect gift for the people around you, with finding the time to do everything, with finding the time for helping those less fortunate. I want to help empower your giving path, and mine. Enrich our giving nature.

Let’s love our way through this season. Like never before.

The Divine Gift of all Gifts

Every season of giving comes with instructions, a spiritual manual.

Consider the words of James:

James 1:17

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

It is about giving to others what has been given to me. Jesus.

So that in this season, I am filled with joy for what God gives me every Christmas.

The John 3:16 gift. His Son, His beloved baby boy. Divinely conceived in the womb of a young, humble Jewish woman.

The Gift Jesus Gives Us

And what is the gift Jesus has given me? Salvation. Yes. Redemption. Yes.

What else? Well, what He has given me He wants to give others, so He gives us a way to live our earthly lives until the fullness of our eternal life comes to pass.

It is about giving to others what has been given to me. The love of Jesus enabled by the Holy Spirit.

That a life abiding in Jesus is about receiving what He gives us when we accept Him has Lord and Savior.

And passing it on. Out of the eternal abundance of being loved by our sovereign God.

When Jesus was resurrected, He returned to His disciples to assure them that He had a gift to give them, the Holy Spirit. 

John 20:21-22

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

 

I have received His gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus.

2 Corinthians 1:22

22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

And then what happens?

But the Fruit of the Spirit is…

Paul tells us.

Galatians 5:22-23

 

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

 

This comes as the contrast to the battle of the flesh, the sins we can expect, the behaviors we engage in, when our human nature rules. Paul spares no words.

So here I am in the middle of a Christmas message about giving, but talking about the Holy Spirit, and what it gives. Why?

Because the season is about giving to others what has been given to me. The fruit of the Spirit.

When I landed on the fruit of the Spirit, I felt super intimidated. So much has been written about the spirt-filled words from Paul to the Galatians, from Jesus, from the prophetic voices of the Old Testament. Could I even name all of them by memory without stopping to think about it?

And although I could go another direction to speak about the Holy Spirit—or several directions—the next three BUOYs are about the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. In this season. The perfect gift to give to set a path to 2024.

At first I thought, I will do this series in three’s, and pick one person per attribute, to “give” them that spiritual fruit… so, three “fruits”  for “three people” per episode, covering all nine attributes (with corresponding people) in Gal 5:22-23 over the course of three weeks, impacting the lives of nine people on my Christmas path.

Well… that is human nature talking, that is Kathryn planning, taking control of it, condensing it, organizing it, taming it into bite-sized hors d’oeuvres for a holiday tasting, wrapping each fruit in a nifty little holiday “trio” package, such an appropriate display of cleverness, clarity and creativity.

But not God’s intention.   

How do I know this?

I learned that the word for “fruit” is singular (karpos) and that it is widely thought that Paul intentionally uses this in the singular, opposed to his previous reference to sins of the flesh in the plural. I had learned this at one point, and forgotten it, but it was brought to my attention recently by a BUOY listener who also reads the show notes (thank you BK) and reminded me it is “fruit” not “fruits”… I mentally tagged it to return to… convicted to take responsibility for seeking wisdom from God’s heart so my soul would remember, forever.

Now is the time. When you search on the discussion about “fruit” as singular or plural, you will find dissenting opinions on whether the reference to “fruit” being singular or plural matters.

It matters to me. In fact, it is critical to accepting the power of the spiritual transformation we receive in Christ, when we believe.

The Fruit of the Spirit Represents Unity

Because the fruit of the Spirit represent the fullness of the character of Christ.

The KJV translates “fruit” by Strong’s (G2590) definition in the following manner:

• fruit
• the fruit of the trees, vines, of the fields
• the fruit of one’s loins, i.e. his progeny, his posterity
• that which originates or comes from something, an effect, result
• work, act, deed
• advantage, profit, utility
• praises, which are presented to God as a thank offering
• to gather fruit (i.e. a reaped harvest) into life eternal (as into a granary), is used in fig. discourse of those who by their labors have fitted souls to obtain eternal life

Vine’s Expository Dictionary tells us this about “fruit” as used in Galatians 5:22:  the singular form suggesting the unity of the character of the Lord as reproduced in them, namely, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance,” all in contrast with the confused and often mutually antagonistic “works of the flesh.” 

Recently I listened to a sermon by John MacArthur on the fruit of the spirit, part 1 of a series. I wanted to share an excerpt that resonated with me:

MacArthur says, “The fruit of the Spirit is put in the singular because virtue – listen carefully – virtue is not a list from which you pick. You don’t say, “Well today I’m going to show joy. Next Tuesday I may show gentleness. Couple days after that I may try to love somebody.” Doesn’t work like that. This is not a list…. It’s a collective bouquet [of flowers] and its beauty is composite beauty. It comes as a bouquet, it doesn’t come as isolated things side-by-side in a row. Fruit is a beautiful bouquet of virtues. That’s what the Holy Spirit produces in someone who walks by the Spirit. And you will see them all. You will see them all on display.” (John MacArthur, The Fruit of the Spirit, Part 1, Galatians 5:16–26 May 13, 2018)

Virtue is often defined as having a character of moral excellence. So, MacArthur’s explanation makes sense because each attribute has its qualities, but they are united into one character. The nine attributes Paul names in Gal 5:22-23 characterize how we act when we walk in the full character of Christ. God prompted me toward this understanding when I was about to go the “pick nine people” route, parceling out each attribute…

I pray that Jesus’ will bury this “fruit” deep into my subconscious thought (my intellect) for when I allow my human nature to get in the way of “walking in the Spirit.” For when I feel like parceling out pieces of the Spirit within me.

This happens to me daily, several time a day, by the way.

Simply Name the Fruit of the Spirit

So, I want to simply name the fruit of the Spirit of Gal: 5:22-23 here:  Love, Joy, Peace, Forbearance, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self Control.

I will return to them individually, but for right now I want to build a little context around them. And I also want to note, that we not get hung up on the number “9” … there are other attributes, and this is why Paul references “such things” in Gal 5:23. Jesus is in charge of fullness, of making everything complete.

Isaiah Says, The Spirit in a New Creation

When I am reading God’s Word I typically seek a reference in the Old Testament, a prophecy maybe, because the Bible is God’s story, from Genesis, the beginning, to Revelation, an end not yet realized. I came across two suggested scriptures (among others) in which Isaiah, the prophet, acknowledges the Spirit in the new creation, with references similar to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.

Isaiah 32: 15-18

15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,

    and the desert becomes a fertile field,

    and the fertile field seems like a forest.

16 The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,

    his righteousness lives in the fertile field.

17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;

    its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,

    in secure homes,

    in undisturbed places of rest.

Isaiah 57:15

For this is what the high and exalted One says—

    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:

“I live in a high and holy place,

    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,

to revive the spirit of the lowly

    and to revive the heart of the contrite.

 

The Love of Jesus Changes How We Love

In the New Testament, prior to his letter to the Galatians, Paul lays out a beautiful definition of love, a “fully ripe” description, that includes the fruit of the Spirit. It represents the fullness of Christ’s character, representing His Heavenly Father’s nature. I am taking the time to read this, for me, and to you, because everything Paul says in what is called the “love chapter” was fulfilled in the life of Jesus on this earth. Beginning with His birth in the humblest of surroundings. Paul wrote of the love he had come to know. It is deeply personal to him.

As I read Paul’s words, take it personal, human, because it is about how the love of Jesus changes each of us. And that love bears the fruit of the Spirit, empowering us to give His love to others.

1 Corinthians 13

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I think I have much to spiritually seek about the power of unity, about the power of completeness—how all the attributes of God’s character represent His love. Loving Him is about the power of one. The One.

I have much to spiritually seek in this giving season about how to love others in the fullness of Christ’s character, how to “give” the fruit of His Spirit to others as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I still have those same nine people, and more, but how I bring the fruit of the Spirit in my life to theirs is not about parceling out the fruit.

The season is about giving to others what has been given to me. All of it.

And spiritual transformation brings all the goodness to the table, in abundance. It makes giving the perfect gift every time… possible. Episode 63.