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Fruits of the Spirit: Gentleness

This sermon is part of a series on the Fruits of the Spirit as listed by Paul: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We have looked at Love, joy, patience as we find them in Scripture, as we find them in God – attributes we should expect to see in ourselves as we seek to follow God.

How about gentleness and self control – how are we on those – how can we encourage in others those gifts we find so hard ourselves? Christian life is not always easy. God’s love was a ‘Calvary love’ – love that involved pain, sacrifice, misunderstanding – Christian life, Christian discipleship has that Calvary element to it.

Dietrich Boenhoffer used to talk of ‘cheap grace’. Paul talks of the old self having been crucified with Christ. Crucifixion is ugly and brutal, long and painful – once the victim is secured to the cross the final outcome is in no doubt.

So there are times when Christian pilgrimage is not easy, times when I fail, when the old self reasserts itself. Times of isolation, of misunderstanding. Christ will not leave me, the end of my pilgrimage is secure.

These are fruits of the Spirit – not of my own self discipline or effort. It does not depend on me. Gentleness and self control do not automatically well up within me, cannot be induced by my discipline – only come to the extent I am prepared to allow God’s Holy Spirit to live and work in and through me.

Holy Spirit inspires all that is good in mankind – enables me to become more like Jesus. Fruits of the Spirit are characteristics of those who have grasped the reality of God’s love in Christ – an inner conversion of heart and soul not the grudging payments of a deal.

Lives changed by the totally gracious love of God in Christ – our lives, in all their imperfection, bear witness to Christ living in us. Gentleness of Christ is manifested in humility – emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.

One of barriers to gentleness is our pride, our dignity – hard to be proud and to be gentle – model of the father’s reaction to the returning prodigal. Gentleness, not pride, is a fruit of the spirit. Gentleness of Christ is shown in obedience, even death on a cross.

Another barrier to gentleness is our own wilfulness – what I want, what I think. We have to discover the lesson of Gethsemene ‘ Not my will but yours be done’. Next week is Holy Week – drawn into a deeper understanding of God’s love for us in Christ.