Galatians 5:13-26

 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

I guess the post title should be “Christians are SUPPOSED TO BE fruity people.”

People have been judging each other since the beginning of people. To an extent, there’s a survival instinct aspect — “That person seems dangerous; perhaps I should avoid them, seeing as they’re waving a weapon above their head and screaming.” But as we’ve evolved as a species, we’ve gotten smaller and pettier in our judgments —  “I don’t like what that person is wearing; I’m going to make some comment to make them feel lesser.”

As time has gone on, I feel we have only gotten worse about this, about judging each other and making pronouncements about each other, claiming this group is evil/sinful/corrupt/just generally awful, etc. The thing is, one of the loudest groups guilty of making such statements is Christians, or at least people who SAY they are Christians.

I draw this distinction because Jesus’ command to love one another DOES NOT INCLUDE THE WORD UNLESS.

“Love your neighbor as yourself” IS A COMPLETE SENTENCE. Jesus did not say to love everyone unless they are gay, or Hispanic, or trans, or anything exactly like ourselves. But some of the loudest among us ignore that. They hang onto a sentence clear back in Leviticus as proof that God hates gay people, and that it is our duty as Christians to shun them and tell them they’re going to Hell.

I can hear some of the counter arguments now. “But Jesus said that not one word of the law would be stricken! He came to uphold the law!” Given His other issues with judgmental people back then, I’m fairly certain in my belief that He meant the law of GOD, not the law of a bunch of bitchy old men. People who say “Love one another as yourself” and “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone” doesn’t strike me as the sort who would also be okay with treating people like dirt based on someone else’s say so.

I know Christians are renowned for cherry-picking the Bible, but come on. You want cherry picking? Here:

Paul is clear that the believer in Christ is no longer under the Law: “We were held in custody under the Law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the Law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (Galatians 3:23–25, BSB). We are not under the Mosaic Law but under “the law of Christ” (see Galatians 6:2).

That’s from GotQuestions. https://www.gotquestions.org/abolish-fulfill-law.html

Thank you, Paul. But seriously, Christ’s commandment is clear. “Love one another as yourself.” Don’t be an asshat.

Instead, let us live our lives as fruitfully as possible, filled with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And let’s be loud about doing so, encouraging others to live this way. You look at the news, almost regardless of source, and you find more stories of people who don’t do these things. You get stories of people who view such qualities as being “woke” or signs of weakness.

It is not weak to be gentle. It is not “woke” to love each other, and to treat each other with kindness even if the other person is different from you. These days, showing self-control and gentleness is strength and hard to do. Loving each other and striving for peace is what we are called to do. So Christians who are truly listening and following should do these things, and teach our fellows who seem to have forgotten the way.

We are meant to be fruity people.