‘The Fruits of the Spirit’
La maîtrise de
soi contient tous les autres fruits de l’Esprit.
From the days when I could
systematically remember things, I have always remembered that ‘the Fruits of
the Spirit’ were a nine-to-five job. Nine fruits, from Galatians chapter
five. If I have heard, say, 40 sermons a year for the last 40 years, then
one of the very few of the 1600 that I can still picture is that delivered by
the commanding figure of my own father - preaching on the Fruits - from
the pulpit of St Michael’s Church, Highworth (in north Wiltshire)
around the mid-1970s.
For me, the odd one out is
‘Self-control’. The first eight Fruits are nice, comforting, even
predictable – Love, Joy, Peace etc. But ‘Self-control’ is something else –
a rather ugly expression, and seemingly a modern construct. (The King
James Bible had it as ‘Temperance’.) It’s not so obviously a good
thing in itself, and more of a way of corking up the bad but nonetheless very
compelling things we might like to indulge in, like Money, Sex and Power. (Aren’t
these three so much more interesting than their opposites, the monastic vows of
Poverty, Chastity and Obedience?)
And yet, my word, we do pray for
‘Self-control’. Paul unfolds a colourful list of ‘passions and desires’
from which it can restrain us. Not many of us move in circles offering
much in the way of 'witchcraft', 'debauchery', 'drunkenness' and 'orgies' (in
this respect, Brussels pales next to Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe), but I
would wager that most of us tick off almost all of the Seven Deadly Sins, on an
almost daily basis. Anger, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, Gluttony – ah
yes, one of each, please, and gift-wrapped, if you will.
But the greatest of my sins is
undoubtedly ‘Self’. Self-pity easily tops the list, often linked to its
close associate Self-confidence. How is my good ‘Self’ feeling now? Happy? Sad? Middling? Up
and down, and a bit of each? Whichever, both my default and my inherent fault
is to impose and inflict myself on others, and to make sure that they know just
how I’m feeling...
So, suddenly, this rather ugly
expression ‘Self-control’ has new and urgent meaning. It makes ‘Restraint’
as precious a thing as the other eight more obviously good things. In
fact, it actually exhibits them all – Love, Joy and Peace as above, and
Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness. Amen to that, and Amen
to the ninth Fruit, ‘Self-control’.
John Phillips
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