The Bible is clear: righteousness comes from God on the basis of faith (Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:22; Romans 9:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). God declares us to be righteous because we have become part of His family, and he is righteous. We are part of the Righteous Family. The fancy biblical term is that he ‘imputes’ it to us – he gives his righteousness to us.[1] It means we are in ‘right standing’ (thanks to Jesus) and that we are committed to doing the ‘right thing’ (imitating Jesus).
Two weeks ago, we reached the part in 1 John where John wrote about “practicing righteousness” vs. practicing sin. Paul talked about this also:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16)
Last week I introduced the idea that we ought to be practicing[2] what the Bible calls the ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ [3] They are gifts from God, but we are responsible for the exercise, the practice, thepoeio. It’s simply being purposeful in doing the things that someone like us is made and empowered to do. So let’s keep going with what it looks like to display and practice the fruits of the Spirit.
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Kindness is the ability to serve others practically, often in ways which are costly or make us vulnerable. Our hearts are broken by the things that break the heart of God, and we do something about it. It’s active empathy[4].
· Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
· Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
I recently read a book on marriage[5], and the concluding advice from the authors was: be kind. Everything falls into place if you are kind to each other.
The counterfeit[6] of kindness is manipulation. You do kind things - to be noticed and to get something in return. Practically, people say, “Wow, you are generous with your time (or money).” But…you did it so they would say that. If nobody noticed, or people don’t honor you lik you want them too, you would probably stop doing it. Or maybe people do respond by giving you something you want in return, so now kindness is a means of getting what you want. You might even be trying to manipulate God with your impressive displays of kindness. That’s manipulation masquerading as kindness.[7]
The opposite of kindness is rudeness, which is just being a jerk. We bully people with our words, or our emotions, or even physically (anywhere from intruding on personal space to abuse).
· How do we respond when the waiter messes up our order?
· When the person checking out at Meijer takes foorrreeevvveerrrr.
· When a family member steps on our emotional toes?
· When someone gets on our case for wearing/not wearing a mask?
· When someone ignores us or overlooks us?
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
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Goodness has to do with personal integrity. We are the same everywhere, and our actions and heart and speech are integrated. If friends from our different social circles met and they started talking about us, they would all know they were talking about the same person.
For a Christian, goodness (personal integrity) cannot be separated from our standard for goodness: Jesus. It’s not enough to have our hearts and hands aligned – I mean, you can be consistent and be a terrible person. Marilyn Manson told us for years what kind of guy he was, and it turns out he was that kind of guy. Fair enough. I suppose he had integrity – he was integrated – but that’s not enough to really count as a mark in our favor Maybe a more thorough definition for us as Christians is righteous integrity.
“Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” Proverbs 10:9
“Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.” Proverbs 28:6
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.” Proverbs 11:3
The fruit of the Spirit is that we are consistent, integrated person in the path of righteousness.
The counterfeit of goodness is puffed up goodness – pride. You might not be a hypocrite – that’s the opposite; wait for it - but you’re a jerk. You think that you are all that and then some, amazing just as you are, so there is no reason to be tempered by things like… the fruits of the Spirit J You think people can’t handle you because they can’t handle being around someone who walks so boldly and consistently in righteousness, when really they just don’t want to be around someone who walks so obnoxiously in pride. Something about a resounding brass or clanging cymbal...[8] “At least I’m not a hypocrite! You know exactly who I am!” That’s not always a mark in your favor.
The opposite of goodness is hypocrisy.[9] Personal dis-integrity. You are not integrated. You are different people on the outside and inside; you say one thing and do another; you are on person at home and another person at church and another person at work; you claim to believe one thing but live a different way; you say, “I’m this kind of person” but… you’re not.
“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” (Matthew 15:7)
“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” (1 John 4:20)
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.” (James 1:26)
““Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
“They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.” (Titus 1:6)
Some of us are hypocrites and know it, but for many of us, this can be surprisingly subtle. Like Matt Chandler likes to say, nobody lies to us as much as we do. We can become really good at genuinely believing that we are fantastic ambassadors for Jesus when we are not.
“I love my neighbor.” Do you, though? How have you been broken and spilled out lately, loving at cost, “esteeming them better than yourself,”[10] honoring all people[11], serving in love[12]rather than asking to be served? Do we have contempt or judgment for someone whose appears weak to us on what the author of Romans call’s “disputable matters.”[13] How’s that going with your spouse? Your kids or parents? Your friends? People here at church? At work?
“The Bible is the foundation of all truth.” Cool. When you think of cultural issues that have grabbed your attention and on which you have strong opinions, did you start with the Bible? Did you spend time studying passages that address this issue, and seeing if the church has a historical stance, and looking to see what Christian pastors and theologians and historians are saying? Did you do that before reaching an opinion based on a different foundation and then which you then used to filter the Bible, or did the Bible filter those other things for you?
“My faith is the most important thing to me.” Quick question: when you schedule gets full, what gives – is it the practices of your faith (prayer; Bible reading; gathering for corporate worship, teaching and fellowship; staying in connection with Christians brothers and sisters; getting your kids involved in the rhythm of prioritizing things of the Kingdom)? If someone did a faith audit of our lives for 6 months, what would they conclude has the power to prioritize how we live?
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good[14], pleasing and perfect will… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:2;21
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Faithfulness is courageous/righteous loyalty. It’s being reliable, dependable and honest even if it’s difficult. Faithful people offer a grounding or stabilizing presence to the people around them. Faithful friends don’t lie, they don’t leave, and they don’t cover up sin.
When the writer of Hebrews unpacks what we call the Hall of Faith,[15] he uses a phrase to summarize what kind of people endure in the midst of incredible hardship. He says they are people ‘of whom the world is not worthy.’[16] The mettle within the faithful person is not of this world. Their endurance is not characterized by perfection; it is characterized by courageous, righteous loyalty. They do not forsake the truth on which they stand and of which they proclaim. They never stop living it. The mark of faith-fullness is faithfulness.
The counterfeit of faithfulness is enabling loyalty. You are loyal but not courageously truthful, and chaos follows from that. I mean, Hitler had faithful followers, and that’s not a sign of character on their part. Loyalty is not enough. It must be courageous and stabilizing. How many youtube videos go viral because loyal friends don’t stop their stupid friends from doing stupid things? How many people failed to get their friends help because “Dude, I won’t tell anybody because I am your friend”? Loyalty, on its own, is capable of covering up a multitude of sins. Faithfulness doesn’t waver in the midst of the uncovering, because it’s courageous in its loyalty.
That, by the way, is why faithful Christians can talk honestly about the sins in the history of the church, and why American Christians who love their country should be the first to talk about the sins in our history as a nation, and why we can talk honestly about the failures or struggles in the past and present of this church. God forbid we merely be enablingly loyal. God help us be courageously loyal.
The opposite of faithfulness is unreliability. This is a form of consumerism. You may or may not show up when others need you, and that has to do with your words, your presence, and your material help. Faithfulness focuses on the one to whom we are being faithful; the opposite focuses totally on the self. Maybe the opposite of faithfulness is selfishness: I am invested in you only as long as it benefits me.
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Gentleness is the humble, healing use of power. It’s what helps us play games with our kids when we don’t like the game, we don’t like the pace at which they play it, and we are annoyed that we can’t seem to win at Wii tennis. It’s why we rein in our words when we know we could bully or hurt people with our words. It’s why we talk about things like servant leadership, modeled after Jesus, who as part of the Godhead humbled himself and became like one of us, serving even to the point of death.[17] The gentle make the powerless feel powerful. It’s why those of us with the power of Christ in us must be oh, so careful that any type of authority or power brings humility in us, not pride, and that we heal the world with the gospel and the gifts of Jesus Christ.
The counterfeit of gentleness is patronization. It’s very similar to manipulation. We help, but it's a kindness that reminds the recipient and others that they are lucky they have a powerful person like us around. We feel good about ourselves, but leave others diminished and ashamed. The counterfeit makes the powerful feel more powerful, and the powerless are reminded of how much they lack. As with all the other counterfeits, it has once again become about us.
The opposite of gentleness is abrasive use of power. It’s bullying or even abuse. It’s a callousness to how people are impacted by us. Let’s talk about words as just one example. I had a humbling moment when I reviewed a popular author’s book years ago. I didn’t care for it, and I wrote a pretty sarcastic review on my blog. Shockingly, he responded in the comments seciont. And one of his comments was along the lines of, “I didn’t expect this from a pastor.” Ouch. I was a minor blogger. A couple hundred people (maybe) read my review. But I still had power, and I abused it. Like, the Bible was clear about the power of words, and I had just ignored it. [18]
I’ve talked to too many people this past year who work in restaurants or stores who have talked about how mean customers have been over COVID stuff. Look, I get it. COVID has made a looooot of things super frustrating. But we are Christians. We are followers of Jesus. We claim to have God’s Spirit indwelling us, and as a result we have the fruit of gentleness – a fruit we have opportunity to practice right now with our words and presence in Michigan in every business we enter.
“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5)
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Self-control is purposeful living. Self-control has to do with controlling the self for the sake of others. We understand what God wants us to prioritize in life, and we practice that prioritization. We practice self-reflection, repent where needed, and then ‘turn around’[19] and actively practice doing the right thing.
· We don’t just stop gossiping, we actively build up others with our words.
· We don’t just stop consuming entertainment 5 hours a day, we purposefully do something productive with our time.
· We don’t just stop building a 250 foot poop wall between us an our neighbor (#truestory[20]), we tear and down and put in a path.
· We don’t just stop wishing terrible things would happen to our enemies, we start praying for them.
The counterfeit of self-control is willpower. It’s controlling the self for the sake of the self. It’s about purposeful restraint rather than purposeful momentum. Restraint of something bad is a good thing, please don’t misunderstand. It’s just only half the battle. Jesus told an interesting story:
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.” (Matthew 12:43-45)
Willpower cleans a room in our lives. That’s not a bad thing, but that room will fill back up. Self-control cleans the room in order to fill it with something better.
The opposite is self-indulgence.[21] If self-control is purposeful living for the sake of others, self-indulgence is purposeless extravagance at the expense of others. It’s gluttony applied to more than food.
“It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory. Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man who has no self-control over his spirit.” (Proverbs 25:27-28)
We seek our own glory and pleasure. We are consumers of things and people. We are the monsters characterized by zombies and vampires: we live to feed, and everything and everyone around us is food, and their worth to us depends on how much they fill us.
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What do the fruits have in common? Agape love that sacrifices self for the sake of others.
What binds the counterfeits and opposites together? Selfishness that sacrifices others for the sake of self.
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10)
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[1] Romans 4:22
[2] Jesus had already given instruction on how to practice righteousness well: "Beware of practicing (poieo) your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 6:1)[2]
[3] Seek and pursue the fruit of peace (Psalm 34:14) as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:18).
Consider it the fruit of joy when you face trials (James 1:2), or when we share in Christ’s suffering (1 Peter 4:13)
Choose the fruit of love (Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen…”)
Be patient (James 5:7-8) like a farmer waiting for crops, imitating the saints before us (Hebrews 6:12)
Make every effort to add to your faith goodness and self-control (2 Peter 1:5-7)
Clothe yourself with gentleness and kindness (Colossians 3:12)
[4] “Let a righteous man strike me--that is a kindness; let him rebuke me--that is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it, for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.” (Psalm 141:5) Interesting: kindness is not passivity or enablement. One can be kind and confrontational; in fact, sometimes kindness demands confrontation.
[5] The Great Sex Rescue, by Joanna Sawatsky, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Sheila Wray Gregoire.
[6] “The real trouble is that 'kindness' is a quality fatally easy to attribute to ourselves on quite inadequate grounds. Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. Thus a man easily comes to console himself for all his other vices by a conviction that 'his heart's in the right place' and 'he wouldn't hurt a fly,' though in fact he has never made the slightest sacrifice for a fellow creature. We think we are kind when we are only happy.” (C.S. Lewis)
[7] Key check point: You might be a manipulator if a) you build a relationship through your kindness, then demand that relationship unfold on your terms, or b) you are kind as long as you have ownership or control of the relationship.
[8] 1 Corinthians 13
[9] https://www.openbible.info/topics/hypocrisy
[10] Philippians 2:3
[11] 1 Peter 2:17
[12] Galatians 5:13
[13] Romans 14
[14] agathós – inherently (intrinsically) good; as to the believer, 18 (agathós) describes what originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith. (HELPS Word Studies)
[15] Hebrews 11
[16] Hebrews 11:38
[17] Philippians 2:8
[18] Epic fail on my part. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14 )
[19] That what repentance means in the Bible – turn around, change direction, move toward the right goal instead of the wrong one.
[20] https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/man-builds-poop-wall-in-washtenaw-county-after-dispute-with-neighbor (“It's not a poop wall. It's a compost fence," said the dude who built it.)
[21] I got the foundation for the opposites from Sophia McDonald at https://unlockingthebible.org/2017/02/the-fruit-of-the-spirit-or-the-flesh/