What Kind of Fruit Do You Bear?

19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.

Galations 5: 19- 26

Christians are warned not to judge one another. The judgment we judge with will be the judgment we receive. Yet, another one of those paradoxes in the Bible is that our conduct betrays what is inside of each of us. By observing a person's behavior, one can identify a person's spiritual maturity. On the one hand we are not to judge; and, at the same time we examine the content of each person's life. The tests are really simple. Paul's lists in Galations gives us a feel for the kind of conduct that is either unbecoming of a one who bears the name "Christian"; and, the good fruit of the Spirit that reflects the nature of God in us. Our goal is to "live by the Spirit", so we can "walk by the Spirit". To do so requires humility and self-control not to envy one another.