A Fruit-Filled Life

No temptation has seized you that isn’t common for people. But God is faithful. He won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your abilities. Instead, with the temptation, God will also supply a way out so that you will be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 CEB

If we are willing to consider a perhaps fuller, more comprehensive reading of the text, what can we take away from our reading? First, and very, very importantly, God is faithful and in control. Things are going to change. We have no idea when, but eventually, the kingdom of God will come. Second, we have to acknowledge our temptation to chase our tails when we get anxious and follow other gods. This is what 1 Corinthians 10 is talking about. It’s talking about humanity’s instinctive desire to plan for its own survival when it doubts that God is in control. It shows up in the various ways we chase idols. Whether it is a golden calf like they did in the Old Testament or the relentless pursuit of security and success in today’s society, we bail on God anytime we get scared or impatient.

What Paul is suggesting is that this is common, and so it will be true for us. It’s gonna happen. We can prepare for it by making a different choice: persevere.

We persevere by chasing after the distinct ways of God. We ask ourselves, what are the things that are uniquely and distinctively of God? We find the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control - and we persevere in living a fruit-filled life. We don’t argue with people on Facebook because it probably violates a bunch of those fruity qualities. We don’t punch back when someone hurts us. We persevere in the ways of the Lord even when it feels like the cards are stacked against us. And friends, they are stacked against us if we believe the point is winning.

But the point is not winning. It’s not avoiding temptation so that we lose ten pounds or do not cheat on our spouse. It’s persevering so that we make choices that would preclude cheating as an option. See the difference?

Instead of staring at a list of “don’ts”, we peer intently into the light of God’s ways and we stick to the journey of chasing the things that are distinctively of God even as we struggle, feel anxious and even afraid.

I choose protein smoothies over egg Mcmuffins because of what I want out of my life, not to avoid temptation. What do you choose?