Are You Trying to Grow Spiritual Fruit the Wrong Way?

How to grow the fruit of the Spirit-and why Galatians 5 points us beyond trying harder.

By Pastor John Erickson | Galatians 5:13-25

I love oranges. I grew up in California, and we had an orange tree and a lemon tree in our backyard. Nature's candy, right there for the picking.

But suppose I wanted to grow oranges, so I started by studying one. I peel it, examine the sections, put it under a microscope, and take some very impressive notes.

Am I ready to grow an orange tree?

Not even close. I've learned about the fruit. I still need to learn how to cultivate the tree.

We can make the same mistake with spiritual growth. In Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit grows as we walk with the Holy Spirit. Our part is to cultivate a life responsive to Him, rather than trying to manufacture a better personality through sheer determination.

What is the fruit of the Spirit?

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul names love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Read that list and tell me you wouldn't like a little more of those things in your life. I would.

So we decide to become more patient. We grit our teeth, try not to snap at anybody, and hope nobody asks us one more question. Or we decide to be joyful, put on a convincing smile, and wait for our insides to catch up.

Paul calls these qualities the fruit of the Spirit. That tells us something about their source.

A farmer prepares the soil, waters, prunes, and protects the tree. There is real work involved. But the farmer doesn't manufacture the life inside it. The work helps create conditions for growth.

Prayer, Scripture, confession, worship, and honest relationships matter. They make room for us to respond to the Spirit who changes us.

Paul offers something better than a longer rulebook

The churches in Galatia were struggling with how to live. Some were insisting on law observance as necessary for belonging to God's people. Paul opposed that. Being made right with God rests on faith in Christ, not our ability to keep score.

But freedom wasn't permission to do whatever pleased them, either. In Galatians 5:13-15, Paul calls them to serve one another in love instead of tearing each other apart.

Then he tells them to walk by the Spirit.

Think about three dogs. One pulls against a leash for the entire walk. Another runs loose as though it has no owner at all. The third stays close because it knows and trusts the person it's walking with.

That last picture helps me understand obedience that grows out of love. We learn to trust God's goodness and respond to His direction. Freedom and faithfulness begin to belong together.

Stop stapling oranges to the tree

You could staple oranges onto a tree and make it look productive. Drive past at thirty-five miles an hour and it might be quite impressive.

Pull over and look closely, though, and we have a problem.

We can do that with our lives. We display the qualities we think people expect while keeping them at a safe distance from what's really going on. It looks like growth until somebody gets close enough to notice the staples.

The answer is to bring our actual lives to God. Where am I feeding resentment? Where do I need to apologize? What keeps getting my attention while my relationship with Jesus gets whatever is left?

Those questions get beneath appearances and into the soil.

Keep in step with the Spirit

Here's another picture: an air-filled balloon. To keep it up, you have to keep smacking it toward the ceiling. Tap, tap, tap. Eventually you're tired, and the balloon is still falling.

Fill it with helium, and it rises because of what's inside.

That illustration has limits-we don't float through life without responsibility. But it exposes how exhausting faith becomes when every attempt at goodness depends on another round of guilt and self-motivation.

Galatians 5:25 calls us to keep in step with the Spirit. This week, choose one place to practice that. Before a difficult conversation, pause and pray. Read a short passage slowly. Tell the truth about something you've been hiding. Follow through on an apology.

If you need somewhere to begin, prayer can be an honest conversation rather than an impressive performance.

You don't have to make fruit appear by tomorrow. Tend the soil. Walk with the Spirit. Trust Him with the growth.