Jesusluvsall's Blog

One of my first ESL students was a woman from Sudan who had come as a refugee. Coming to a new country and culture means everything is foreign to a person and every day a person encounters new experiences. One day before our lesson, she asked me if something important happened like an important person dying or something. I asked her why she thought that and she replied that on Saturday everyone was wearing red.

It was a football Saturday and in my home city most people wear red because the colors of the football team are red and white. My student had never been in my city on a home football Saturday and didn’t know anything about American football, so she was trying to understand what she observed and understand why everyone was wearing red.

This story has served as a reminder to me that people watch us. They take note of things that we may think as common. It brings to mind a phrase from an old song:

“They will know we are Christians by our love.”

Jesus spoke about how others will know by how we live in John 17:

“I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

We live in a time and culture that is obsessed with personal awareness and growth. Never before in the history of the church has so much self-help information been available. We can tend to become so focused on ourselves that we lose sight of a simple truth,

Yes it is essential that we grow to become more like Jesus and for the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in our lives. But it isn’t just for our own personal growth and benefit. If that is our mindset than we have misunderstood.

Think about the twofold purpose of fruit. 1- to provide nourishment for the seed inside it so the seed can sprout and grow to become a fruit tree. 2- to provide nourishment for those who partake of it. So the purpose of the fruit of the Spirit includes an outward benefit for those around us to draw them to Jesus.

If a piece of fruit is left to spoil in the refrigerator and thrown out, its purpose is never realized.

So yes let’s grow in Christ, but let’s remember a big reason for that is to attract others to Jesus.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.