Live free, powered by the Spirit

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

I love Paul’s passion for believers in Jesus to swap slavery to religion for freedom to love, so that we can meaningfully choose to serve people instead of being trapped grudgingly into a system of commitments.

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” When Paul talks about faith, he doesn’t mean weak belief that never leads to action, but strong belief which results in love showing up in practice, overcoming the doubt and hesitation I feel when I don’t know how things will work out. That’s a life I want more and more.

I also love that Paul credits the Spirit as the enabler of this life - it's not possible through our cleverness or ideas. Being empowered by the Spirit is amazing, but in case we thought it was easy, Paul points to the battle which results from living like this - a conflict between our "flesh desires" and the leading of the Spirit. Recognising this conflict, Paul shows us something life-changing that we need to know, seek and share as we work this out.

"The fruit of the Spirit" - love, joy, peace and the rest in a single, tasty package seems necessary to me all the time. If I lack something on that list, I’m in trouble. So I often use this as a gauge to see how well I am letting myself be led by the Spirit instead of my flesh.

I've also found that spiritual fruit is brilliant for sharing missionally, even where there are rules against evangelising. Lots of people don’t want religion, but who doesn’t want love, joy and peace? "Against such things there is no law." This fruit is grown in us for sharing. I love that God’s mission to us is simply to share what he produces in us and give him the credit.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God is less concerned with an old rulebook and more with what we can do with his new, outrageously good and abundant blessing. For this reason, he is pleased to pour out his Spirit on us. He grows love in us while giving us freedom to share it, and this will change the world more than any religious system ever could.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I'm going to keep a closer eye on the quality of what I produce over the next week at least – how much will be spiritual fruit rather than products of “flesh desires”? If I’m not seeing faith expressed through love, I will need to take my priorities to Jesus for a re-think.

Who am I going to share this with?

As we get started on “The SHAPE of you” course, we are going to look out for what we see God doing in each other. This will be a great chance to share and receive encouragement.