It’s beginning to look a lot like summer. It’s May, but already the temps are in the 90’s. Time to get fit for those dog days. You want to be active. So, you want to eat right. Everybody is watching what they eat even churches. A church had a picnic and invited the entire community. The pastor placed a basket full of apples on one end of a table with a sign saying, "Take only one apple please. Remember that God is watching." On the other end of the table was a plate of cookies where one of the children had placed a sign saying, "Take all the cookies you want. God is watching the apples."
God’s not just watching apples. He’s got his eyes on another fruit—His fruit—the Fruit of the Spirit. It comes in nine tastes and textures: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Like the milk advertising—Fruit: it does a body good.
We need to have our eyes on the “Fruit” as well because they represent nine traits that God’s Spirit-filled believers should produce. With His Spirit operating in us, good, healthy, spiritual qualities should come out from us—the Body of Christ. Like the Arby’s commercial, “We have the Fruit”. Conversely, lack of “Fruit” is evidence of an unhealthy spiritual life.
What are the nine qualities of a Spirit-filled Christian and Church? Pentecost, is the planting of this Fruit with the pouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles in Acts, chapter 2. The church celebrates Pentecost in June.
So, this summer, we celebrate Pentecost as fruit inspectors of each of these nine qualities in our lives listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Today, we look at the first quality—love. Aptly so. Christ identified love as the first and greatest law: to love God and love your neighbor. It’s that second application—loving your neighbor, I want to focus on today because if we practice this one, the whole Body gets blessed. But loving a neighbor is not easy, that’s why many, like the expert in the law in the parable of the Good Samaritan, tried to avoid it by deflecting to a smoke-screen question—who is my neighbor? Jesus had an answer. Turn to Luke 10:25-37.
First, we will see who is not a neighbor you want nearby in time of trouble because they lack fruit. Second, we see a neighbor who you do want nearby in a time of trouble. They qualify for the title of “the Good Samaritan” neighbor” because they have the “fruit” that does a body good.
First, we see who is not a neighbor you want nearby because they lack fruit. They qualify for the title of “the other-side” neighbor. We see them in the parable of the “Good Samarian. Look at verse 30-32:
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
The priest and the Levite—church people, if you will—passed by on the other side of the robbery victim. The irony is these men, considered men of faith, acted contrary to the faith, by acted in a lack of fruit to love thy neighbor. Both served in the temple. But they couldn’t use the excuse that they didn’t want to be defiled by the blood of the victim. According to the text, they were heading away from Jerusalem. Their job was done. Their job to be a good neighbor wasn’t. They had no excuse.
Today’s church people have no excuse either. But there is too often evidence of the church’s lack of Fruit:
Too often, church people are too busy with church-work to do the work of the church. Curtains and carpet color does not a church make.
•Too often, church people judge victims wrongly, blaming them for their situation, that they are deserving of their pitfall. They say, “They must have done something wrong.”
• Far too much, and much too often, church people don’t identify with victims because they are not part of their community, culture or church. They say, “Let their own people take care of them.”
But we shouldn’t be not be a surprise that the people we expect to act the right way act totally different. The reality is, people, like guns, shoot what they are loaded with. What’s on the inside is not evident to the naked eye. But eventually what’s in a person will come out. Just look at the love-on-the-lam episode of career corrections officer Vicky White and her convict companion Casey White. She helped him escape from jail, led police on a wild-goose chase for two weeks that ended in his recapture and Vicky taking her own life. She was described as a model officer and motherly figure. But her other side—a darker side—came out. Her colleagues’ neighbors didn’t see it coming.
Church, when the Fruit of the Spirit of love is missing, a darker, other side comes out. People ignore the compassionate thing to do. When the Spirit fell at Pentecost, it is available to everyone who believes and receives it. We have the Spirit. But if it is not evident in acts of love: stopping to help the homeless, encouraging the lonely, helping the sick, you might be “the other-side” neighbor. Like the famous Wendy’s commercial question of years ago—Where the Beef? —the world is asking the church: Where’s my Fruit?
Second, we do see a neighbor you want nearby in time of trouble because they have the fruit. They qualify for the title of “Good Samaritan” neighbor. Like the priest and the Levite who were a surprise in their response to the robbery victim, the real neighbor is a surprise, too. Look at verses 33-35.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.
As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise! It’s a Samaritan who had the fruit. The Samaritans were despised, devalued and disenfranchised because they were considered tainted Jews, having inter-mixed with the Assyrians when the Northern Kingdom was sent into exile for their disobedience. Yet, it was the disenfranchised, yet fruit-filled, Samaritan traveler who came to the rescue of the robbery victim. Fruit people produce fruit:
• Fruit people show pity, not a pointed judgmental finger.
• Fruit people get personally involved, willing to touch someone with a caring touch.
• Fruit people use their personal resources in the recovery of the hurting. They put their money where their mouth is.
• Fruit people follow up. It’s not over till victims are over the hump.
Fruit people can be found in unexpected places like Samaria and New York’s Union Square where a number of homeless people live. A reporter doing a social experiment deliberately dropped his wallet containing $2,000 in cash right in front of a homeless man. This man called its owner and rushed to give the wallet back. Caught on camera, the reporter gave the homeless man a reward. Cameras continued to secretly film him as he went to a nearby food cart and bought three meals for other homeless people. The reporter then approached him. “Why did you do that? “Giving back is the thing to do. The more you give the more you get,” he said.
The homeless man got it. “He had the Fruit”. Jesus wanted to see if the expert in the law got it. He ended the parable by asking him a pointed question. Look at verse 36 and 37:
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Church, if there is no mercy in your game, your fruit is waxed fruit. It looks good on the table, but it does the body of Christ no good. As you come to the Lord’s Table each Sunday, be a fruit inspector.
• Is there mercy in your response to people in need who do not look like you?
• Is there mercy in your response to people who are not part of your community?
•Is there mercy in your portfolio of resources to help those in need who do not share your views?
Be on guard that bias in benevolence is possible. Just compare the preferential treatment at our southern borders of recent Eastern European refugees and not-so-recent South American refugees, both claiming flight from the ravages of war. The response has not been the same.
Church, be the neighbor who you want nearby in time of trouble because you have the fruit where there is no place for bias. Be the Good Samaritan neighbor. Have pity, get personally involved, use your resources, and follow through no matter who is your neighbor in need.
CONCLUSION
It’s summertime—time to get fit for the days ahead, time to watch what you eat. But God has his eye on your fitness for the entire season of your Christian walk. He’s got his eyes on His Fruit in you —the Fruit of the Spirit—that comes in nine tastes and textures: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Like the milk advertising—Fruit: it does a body good.
If the Spirit of God is in you, there should be some evidence of it like love. Are you lacking love, walking on the other side of mercy when your neighbor is in trouble? Ask yourself, “Where’s the Fruit?” Be the Good Samaritan neighborly church. Let there be no doubt to the world in a ditch, “We’ve got the Fruit.
So, the conclusion of the whole matter is this: The question is not who is your neighbor, but what kind of neighbor are you: Other-side or Mercy-side?
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