Galatians 5: 22-23
Counterfeit Fruit

You may have heard the phrase "the good is the enemy of the best." I believe it applies to our understanding of and our attempt to live out these verses, to bear this fruit.  We know that they describe our expected behavior, and they're also, often, the very way we want to be.  So we attempt to exhibit them, and often we succeed, more or less.  And this is good.  But if this success is the product of self-discipline, or right- upbringing, or habitual training, or anything else of that nature, it is not what Paul is really calling us to.  It is only when our behavior and our attitude are the result of the working of the Holy Spirit in us that it is fruit and not work.  No doubt these virtues, even as works, are better than the works of the flesh, and I urge you to practice them and to avoid the former.  But again, the good is the enemy of the best.  Now you may protest that I am seeking a subjectivity that unnecessarily separates the Spirit from the ordinary means of sanctification, that I am talking about this as though it were magic.  We believe that the growth in grace that occurs in the consistent believer is supernatural, but nevertheless it is true that these means through which it comes to us are entirely natural and clearly they require our cooperation.  But the way we cooperate is not only in obedience to the various behavioral commands, though that is necessary, but by seeking the Holy Spirit in relationship by the regular, consistent use of those means He has given us, and which you have often heard listed from this pulpit; the sacraments, particularly the communion because of its frequency, the word, both read and preached, fellowship with other Christians, and prayer.  Are you consistent in your cooperation with God in these things?  I hope to show, in seven points, using Paul's list, how you might discern the difference between the good, which is the fruit as a result of your human effort, and the best, that is, fruit as the result of the Holy Spirit's work in you as the outcome of your consistent fellowship with Him.

To do this, I'd like us to look at each of these virtues, these fruits, and consider the difference between them as practiced by us primarily out of discipline, which I will claim is counterfeit fruit, and these same fruits as the supernatural outgrowth of life lived by the Spirit of Christ, which is far better.  I would like all of us to consider which of these, in our individual lives, seems most difficult to allow the Holy Spirit's work in, which most reveals where our sense of how we ought to act excludes the work of grace, and then I intend to mention a few ideas that might help us improve our fellowship with our heavenly father, particularly our private devotional lives; that we turn inward, before we turn outward, if when we turn inward we find real relationship with Christ.

Lets begin then, with love.  Love's opposite is hatred, a real dislike of someone, and that is certainly something that we have to fight against, sometimes, as individual Christians and as a church.  But it is not as common, nor as damaging as love's counterfeit, which is mere natural affection or affinity that passes as love.  Eros, a love that desires the loved, and phileo, which is friendship or affection, are good and vital things, rightly ordered, but they are not the love that Paul is speaking of here.  Agape, as most of you know is the love that God had for you, when you were naturally rebellious, and that is passed by you to the fellowship of the saints and to those God has put before you for His purposes.  Consider your duty and your actions toward those for whom you have no natural friendship, particularly in this church, and what it might mean to love them as you are loved by God.   And of course, I mean not only show love to them, but love them.  You cannot possibly, by an act of the will alone, love anyone in this way. But the Holy Spirit can create that love in you, and will as you seek Him.

Next is joy.  Its counterfeit is good feeling based on present circumstances.  True joy is only found in genuine encounter with God.  So Paul can say in Romans 5: "we rejoice (find joy) in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."  It may be that only suffering will reveal the source and the depth of your joy.  I believe that often when one speaks of "getting something out of" a worship service, they are speaking of this good feeling, this counterfeit joy.  It has no endurance, no ability to support us in difficult situations.  Meditate on what brings you joy and why, and recognize that many of the things that do so will disappear, sooner or later.  Practice acknowledging God's gift of those things, and know that they were given not only for the joy they bring but to lead to the giver of all good things.  True joy is His presence.

Then peace.  Once again, its opposite, open enmity, is not the problem that its counterfeit, which is a surface calm, fragile and dependent on behavior and mood, seems to be in many fellowships. Surface calm keeps track of wrongs, but without confession and forgiveness.  It is easily broken down.  Restoration does not take place.  Union with Christ is harmed by disunion with one another.  Are you carrying a grudge, even though you are "acting as a Christian" and not showing it; or "turning the other cheek" as it were?  It is good to do so, but again, only the Holy Spirit can change your heart, and your heart must be changed.

The opposite of patience, fourth on Paul's list, is quick fault-finding; and this is, admittedly, a common problem among those of us who seek good behavior over many other things.  It may be particularly peculiar to our age, when we have no time for mistakes, for indecision, for waiting for our brother or sister to "catch up."  But it seems to me that the greater problem is indifference, a patience that doesn't invest but only tolerates.  It is the situation in which I am with you, and listening, but my attention is really somewhere else.  You and I suffer great loss as a consequence.   True patience, a genuine fruit, would change every marriage, every church.  You may argue that this much patience, this much time spent, would leave no time for those other things that are equally important.  But again, the only way to know what God would want you to do in certain situations is to be led by His Spirit.  When you're talking with someone, either end the conversation, if you don't have the time, trusting that God is leading you, or fully engage the other as an ambassador of Christ, with all patience and trust.

Kindness, goodness and gentleness go together, and their counterfeit is sentimentality.  Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon claim in the book that some of us are reading, titled Resident Aliens, ".sentimentality (is) the most detrimental corruption of the church today.  Sentimentality, after all, is but the way our unbelief is lived out.  Sentimentality, that attitude of being always ready to understand but not to judge, corrupts us and the ministry.  This is as true of conservative churches as it is of liberal.  Sentimentality is the subjecting of the church year to "Mother's Day" and "Thanksgiving." ..Sentimentality is "the family that prays together stays together."  Without God without the One whose death on the cross challenges all our "good feelings," who stands beyond and over against our human anxieties, all we have left is sentiment, the saccharine residue of theism in demise." [end quote]  The truly good and kind believer wants nothing less than Christlikeness in those he loves.  This comes at a cost, and to try to lessen this cost is to harm the one we intend to help.  Have you ever intervened in a situation where God was doing His work and you either did not know enough to recognize it or you did believe He was working but didn't trust Him enough to let Him have His way?

Next is Faithfulness, whose opposite would be faithlessness.  More often, I believe, it is counterfeited by double-mindedness, our being neither hot nor cold.  We don't act in any clearly disobedient or harmful way, but we have no boldness.  The faithless man tries to keep options open, to have a back-up plan, to discover the potential outcomes of a course of action even when the duty is clear.  This believer has no true sense of God's presence and direction, no witness of the Spirit that his actions are of God. So he hesitates and hedges.  Do you second-guess your decisions?  Husbands, I take for granted that you are outwardly faithful, and you control your lust, and don't even contemplate adultery.  But do you love your wife without reserve - as Christ loved the church, giving himself up for her.  If not, your withholding probably reveals your two-mindedness, your less than full commitment and willingness to obey God.

Last is self-control.  Now this might seem to be a sort of summary virtue that contradicts all that I have said above.  We are to do the right thing, act in ways that display the fruit of the spirit, be disciplined, be Christ-like.  But this cannot be merely external.  We cannot live long with two evenly matched adversaries, the old man and the new man, to use Paul's terms, warring inside us.  There will always be such a battle, but if it is our unaided conscience warring against our fallen desires, though some of us will succeed for a time, we will wash out in the end.  The very term, self-control doesn't seem to take into account the two selves that Paul talks about in Romans seven.  Which self is in control?  True self-control recognizes that its main task is to direct us toward grace; to act as a stabilizing force in a fallen world and in fallen creatures, to be supplanted eventually, in glory, by the freedom of real holiness.

Now my point in listing and analyzing these things is not to have any of us become more critical of ourselves than we already are.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  Don't seek to merely do better at displaying the fruit, although that is certainly good.  The best is to seek God diligently where He may be found; in your private devotional life and in the use of the means of grace.  He will come to you.  He will effect change in you.

So finally, I'd like to suggest some ways to enhance your use of those means.  To many of us, the idea of working so hard at something that comes so naturally in life with certain people in easy friendships seems forced or dishonest.  But remember -- you were estranged from God because of what you were, and your relationship with Him requires real change in you.  The means of grace are not just opportunities for fellowship with God they are offered to convey that thing that forms Christ in you.  So let me suggest seven things:

1. Submit in a serious way to the habits and practices of those who have gone before you.

2. Deal in a useful and deep way with those things that you are unsure of concerning the faith. Don't demand of God, but faithfully seek clarity where needed that you might trust Him more.

3. Listen to the prayers of others, the language, the content, and consider them, trying to discern what has gone on between the one making the prayer and the Lord.  Remember Dr. Pellitier's frequent use of the Psalms, and the clear awe and respect in his public prayer.

4. Center your conception of God on what He says about Himself, not on how you feel about Him at any particular time.  Acknowledge what you have seen Him do.

5. Meditate on the personality of Jesus, recall events in His life, compare His reactions to situations with your own, not in a simplistic WWJD way, but thoughtfully.

6. Memorize a favorite verse of a hymn (it may be easier than memorizing scripture) and use it as a part of your devotional time.

7. Finally, humble yourself.  Recognize that the fruit of the spirit is not yours by right, that it spoils if not regularly renewed, and that our purpose is not even primarily to bear fruit, but to be in relationship with the giver of these gifts, first and last.  When you are, you have much to share with us, the church, and we with you; let there be true fruit in abundance.

Christ said to his disciples, in John 15;

By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.

And in verse 17;

The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.  I in them, and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.