New fruit!

Most Christians know Paul’s list of the “fruit of the Spirit,” those attributes of the Holy Spirit’s character which Christians, when we follow him, ought to produce. The list of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control Ga 5.22-23 isn’t comprehensive, but it’s a start.

Problem is, it’s much easier to indulge in the works of the flesh—our instinctive, self-focused, Spirit-opposing attitudes are as unlike Christ as anything. I’ll quote St. Paul; again, it’s not a comprehensive list.

The works of the flesh are obvious in anyone who is the following: Promiscuous. Unclean. Unethical. Idolatrous. Drug-hooked. Hate-filled. Argumentative. Overzealous. Angry. Partisans. Dividers. Heretics. Envious. A stoner. A partier. And other people like these. I warn you of them just like I warned you before: Those who do such things won’t inherit God’s Kingdom.

—Paul, Galatians 5.19-21 KWL

But for those Christians who want to indulge in these traits—and find cheap grace isn’t as useful an excuse as it once was—our wider Christian culture has invented two new “fruits” to accommodate them.

Zealousness.

Y’know, one of the works of the flesh is zílos, which I translated “overzealousness,” the KJV translates with the obscure “emulations,” and other bibles go with “jealousy.” But elsewhere in the New Testament, zílos is seen as a good thing. When Jesus whipped the merchants out of temple, his students remembered the verse, “Zeal for your house eats me up,” Jn 2.17, Ps 69.9 and Paul even admitted he felt the zeal of God over Corinth. 2Co 11.2 Surely zeal can be a good thing, right?—if for the right cause.

And what better cause than the cause of Christ? So for this reason, Christians encourage one another in the “fruit” of zealousness—of being so fired up for Christ, we’ll fight to the death for him. We’ll take on all comers, whether they’re lukewarm fellow Christians, people of other religions, pagans of no religion, or godless atheists.

We’ll fight them in the coffeehouses and breakrooms. We’ll fight them on the sidewalks in front of city halls, statehouses, and abortion clinics. We’ll fight them on Facebook, in the op/ed sections of the newspapers, in the forums and comment sections on the Internet. We’ll fight them in the political arena, by pushing our politicians and propositions. And if need be, we’ll get guns and fight ’em conventionally. We’re in a war for the soul of our very nation… which may not be the Kingdom of God, but hey, when Jesus returns he might find it righteous enough to make it the solitary exception when he overthrows every kingdom in the world.

Because it’s for Jesus, because we’re so zealous for him, yeah, we’re might slide just a little bit into the works of the flesh. We might come across as hate-filled, argumentative, overzealous, angry, partisan, divisive, and envious. Admittedly, some of us less-mature Christians might actually be all those things, and are simply taking up the crusade because it gives us license to sin under a righteous guise. But just as the church, during the crusade, gave a free pass to the crusaders for all the atrocities they were gonna commit in Jesus’s name, zeal does the same thing, right? It’s all for Jesus. We’re fighting the good fight, and that covers a multitude of sins.

Relevance.

Y’know, Paul commented he needed to be all things to all people so he could win ’em. 1Co 9.22 And it’s for this reason Christians have adopted the “fruit” of relevance—of needing so much to speak to this generation, it’s okay if we immerse themselves in their culture, dabble in their activities, keep up with their trends, and speak to them from a position of insiders instead of outsiders.

Okay, I’ll admit: Unlike Jesus, who went to their parties yet never partook of their sins, we go to their functions and deliberately partake. Which we can do, ’cause freedom in Christ and all that. Plus there’s grace. Plus we’re reaching the lost!—we’re showing them we’re cool, kinda like those undercover narcotics agents whose covers would be blown if they refused to sample the heroin in front of the dealers. (Difference is, we’re not all that reluctant to try the heroin.)

So yeah, our “relevant” lifestyle tends to drift towards promiscuity, uncleanliness, idolatry, drug-using, getting stoned, partying too much… but again, that’s not all of us. The less-mature Christians might actually be all those things, and embracing relevance because it’s a free pass to live like a pagan yet still call ourselves Christian. But let’s not lose sight of the main goal: We gotta connect with this generation! What’s more important, getting ’em saved or making ’em righteous?

Pity everybody thinks we’re hypocrites.

Pick your poison.

Just as different works of the flesh appeal to different people, these “new fruits” tend to appeal to different Christians. If you wanna divide ’em by partisan lines, the Christian Right tends to favor zealousness, and the Christian Left tends to favor relevance. But I’ve found people of all stripes in either camp.

For these folks, their entire lives are about the “new fruit.” The other fruits are in there, somewhere; sometimes used as justification for some of their activities. A zealous Christian will rip a skeptic a new one, and claim they’re doing so out of “tough love.” A relevant Christian will indulge in all sorts of questionable behavior, and justify it by appealing to the unconditional love God has for his prodigal children. Both camps sure know how to spread the Christianese, and make their “new fruit” sound like it jibes with the old.

But it’s far closer to fake Christianity than the real thing.