Not earned—overflowing
Our deeds do not earn God’s love. When our love overflows in deeds, we become aware of the presence of love. We have an objective experience of God loving in and through us.
~~Page 235,Spiritual Freedom, From an Experience of the Ignatian Exercises to the Art of Spiritual Guidance, by John J. English, S.J.
This statement reminded me of something I read earlier about I Corinthians 13:4-8, the well-known “love verses:”
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Over the years, I’ve heard, as probably many of you have, that we should have a goal of trying to be able to substitute our name for “love” in those verses: “Mavis is patient, Mavis is kind. She does not envy, she is not proud,” so on and so on.
Or similarly, Galatians 5:22-23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.
Jason Micheli, in Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional, Vol 2, writes:
When we read this list, we may feel as if we are being told who we should be or what we ought to do: As a Christian, you should be generous. As a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, you ought to be patient and kind. You must become more gentle and joy-filled! But this list is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is proclamation, not exhortation.
Paul does not say, “Become more patient.” Paul says, “The fruit of the Spirit is…patience.” To turn the fruit of the Spirit into aspirations is to stumble back into the law, just like the Galatians. As Paul says earlier in the epistle, if our righteousness were to come through the law, then Jesus Christ died for absolutely no reason.
As law, this list just reinforces the message you hear 3,000 times a day: You’re not good enough. There’s always more money you could’ve left in the plate; there’s always someone for whom you have neither patience nor kindness; there’s always days–if you’re like me, whole weeks even–when you have no joy.
But your lack of joy or gentleness or self-control does not make you an incomplete or inauthentic Christian. Because notice: After Paul describes the works of the flesh, his voice changes completely. He shifts from active voice to a passive image: fruit. He says “fruit of the Spirit,” not “works of flesh.” The opposite of vice isn’t our virtue. The opposite of vice is the Vine of which we are the branches.
What you do not hear in any vineyard is the sound of anyone’s effort. Except the Gardener’s. Fruit does not force itself to grow; fruit is the byproduct of a plant made healthy. To think that you are responsible for cultivating joy and kindness in your life is to miss Paul’s entire point that, apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ, you are a dead plant, but in Him, you’ve been made alive.
Now, in and through you, the Holy Spirit can grow joy, gentleness, peace, and patience. These are not the attributes by which you work your way to heaven. This is the work heaven is doing in you on earth.
How about that?! “Fruit does not force itself to grow; fruit is the byproduct of a plant made healthy.” In my studies of the Ignatian tradition, I often hear, “Let God do the work.” This passage is saying that. God is not saying, “Keep trying to reach that goal of a good Christian who is loving and patient and gentle, etc., etc., etc.” He is saying, “You are in me and I am in you and we (not you, not even you-with-my-help, we) are loving, patient, gentle, etc. Hooray, be glad, we are doing this together. Because you and I are one, those fruits of the Spirit grow.”