Fruit of the Spirit
“Let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.”1 John 3:18
Jesus speaks to the intimate relationship that exists between Him and His followers using the imagery of vine and branches. Just as the branches can only exist and grow only if they remain grafted onto the vine, so too, the extent to which the followers of Christ are true followers depend on their dependence on the Lord. The vine is the source of life for the branches. Jesus ought to be the source of our life and all that we do, but is He? How do we know? The answer may lie in the fruit that we bear.
St. John encourages us to not simply love with our words; in other words, do not just pay lip service. We ought not to simply say, “I love the Lord” or “I love my brothers and sisters,” but rather to show it. We cannot say “I love the Lord” and do things that do not show this. We cannot say we love the Lord and deny life to the unborn or neglect the poor and the hungry. We cannot love the Lord and hate our neighbor. We cannot profess to know the Lord when we do not pray or spend time with Him. The fruit of our “love” will show if our live is true. The fruit in our lives will show whether we are grafted onto the True Vine that is Christ or the vine of the world.
We must live in the Truth and love with our whole beings, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, instructing the ignorant, visiting the imprisoned, and caring for orphans and widows. The Lord took on our human flesh so that we might share in His divinity, partaking in the communal life of the Trinity, partaking in love eternal.
Let us today examine our lives and reflect on the kinds of fruit we have borne. Do they reflect the Father’s love? Do they reflect our own ambitions? If we truly remain in the Lord, the Spirit will dwell within us, and the fruit we bear will lead us to God. The fruit of the Spirit is love and peace. Let us choose to remain in the Lord today and to be grafted onto to Christ so that all that we think, say, and do might reveal to ourselves and others the love that moved the Lord to the Cross.
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