Remember in my last post Now That’s Good Fruit I was going to go shopping for a fruit tester because I was worried that I might be cutting myself off from part of God by rejecting his good fruit in others when I don’t recognize it?
Well guess what? It turns out I don’t need to buy a fruit tester because someone else is going to test it for me. Guess who? GOD!
The answer was right there all along in the letter to the Colossians 2:2-3. Paul told them that the tool they need to tell the difference between Image of God Fruit and rotten fruit is LOVE. And, of course, God IS love!
So Love is going to sort it for me, and God is love, therefore God is going to sort it for me. Does that make sense?
Love is so powerful that it’s absolutely mind boggling to me!
Right now I'm imagining it like a force field that only lets Image of God Fruit in, (i.e. Love), and keeps everything else out.
This sure simplifies things for me! When I let Love do the work for me, I don’t have to wonder, “What should I do about this thing”, or “that person,” in each circumstance, because the only appropriate response is Love:
- If someone trying to share their image of God fruit with me, love lets it in. (Phil 1:9-10; 1 John 4:12)
- If someone is hiding their image of God fruit from me, love seeks it out and brings it to me. (Matt 5:44-48)
- If someone is throwing rotten fruit at me, love keeps it out, and teaches that person a lesson at the same time. (Eph 6:11; Rom 12:17-21)
- When I’m having a hard time incorporating everything, Love glues it all together for me. (Col 3:14)
I do have to admit though, that in some ways, complying with this standard is going to be quite challenging for me. I’m kind of embarrassed to confess that there is a small part of me that wants to make those bad fruit throwers of the world suffer, and for them to know, that I know, that they know, that I know, that they are WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Sometimes this impulse is very hard for me to control. But at the same time I also have to acknowledge that with the whole I know, that they know, that I know, that they are Wrong thing, there is a part of me that enjoys it,
but also another part of me that suffers from it. And the part of me that feels good about sticking it to someone is not a part of me that I’m proud of, and the part of me that hurts when I stick it to someone, is the part of me that I want to work on healing and strengthening.
Not only that, but what choice do I have? God vs. Not God. That’s a no brainer! Furthermore, I know that when this way of Love does get hard, all I need to do is ask God and he’ll send me all the help I want. And since I’ll be focused on his name, or nature, that is to say, Love, I’ll be asking “in his name” and guaranteed to receive the extra help I need.
This has brought up an interesting consideration for me, Querci. You know when Jesus is asked about what the greatest commandment is, and he says, first love God, second love neighbor? (Mt 22:36-40) Well that “first” and “second” cannot mean in the priority our actions, as if to say, first go love God, then go love your neighbor. The fact is that we HAVE TO first love our neighbor before we can love God, because we only know God through our neighbor.
ReplyDelete“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”( 1 Jn 4:20)
So, God does have priority in the sense that we love our neighbor BECAUSE of the fact that God is in him/her, but we can’t separate our love of God and love of neighbor.
Namaste!
Querci - thank you for the warm welcome
ReplyDeleteI wanted to make a correction to what I said above. I said "we only know God through our neighbor". That's not quite right because we also know God through loving ourselves and all of God's creation.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'm confused by the term, "Love," because it is often misused in contexts that are really selfish.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a good litmus test for the genuine Image of God Fruit Tester Love is to discern whether it is accompanied by the other fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians: Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness and Self-Control (Gal. 5:22-23).
Querci...that was a feast of simplexity! I liked thinking of the golden egg laying geese in Willy Wonka and of your "sticking it to em" stick figure as the Mad Madam Mimm from Disney's animated The Sword in the Stone movie. I am absolutely impressed by your supporting evidence Biblical references (with modern day interpretations) for Love as the only appropriate response.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to sit with this a bit for sure.
Leaven...Thank you for the reminder about Joy Peace Patience etc. All of these qualities feel so good when they're in place. It really is an easy test, I think.
@all: Excellent insights. Thank you.
ReplyDelete@Leaven: Hmm...That gets me thinking about what I want to post about next.
@Halcyon8: Simplexity! I love it. Thank you. You've just given me my new favorite word.