A Life Full of Virtue – Fruit of the Spirit Part 8

ByJim Stephens

Scripture: Galatians 5:16-26 22 But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, 23 gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless. (Galatians 5:22-23 TPT) A Life Full of Virtue is a life that is full of goodness, a life lived with pure and unmixed motives. The New Living Translation calls it “goodness” and in another place “moral excellence”. A Life Full of Virtue is about our morality: our sense of right and wrong. It’s about not seeing how far you can go over the line before you get caught. It’s not about seeing how close you can get to the line without sinning. It’s about wanting to stay away from the “sin line” and keep right in the middle of the “right path”. It’s about loving good and hating evil. Not about loving the good in us and hating the evil in others, but about loving good and hating evil in our own hearts. (And confessing our own evil and receiving God’s gracious forgiveness and cleansing). And it’s definitely not about hating other people who are different from us!

It’s a quality that leads you to love the truth and to tell the truth even when it reveals that you’re not perfect. It makes you passionately desire to know the truth, to believe the truth, to tell the truth, and to not be taken in by those who twist and manipulate the truth so it’s not really even the truth anymore. Living a Life Full of Virtue is about pure motives. It’s often more important why we do something than what we do or how we do it. You can do a right thing with a wrong motive, and it may do more harm than good. You can do a wrong thing with a good and right motive, and it may actually do more good than harm. Does this stuff seem confusing? It’s not if we remember God is not focused merely on rule-keeping but is working on changing our hearts to be like his. Prayer: Father, Please shape our lives into lives full of virtue, marked by moral excellence. We want to be good people; good-hearted, good-mannered, honest, upright, and truthful. We welcome your correction and adjustment. For Jesus’ sake.

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