Behaving Badly
How are you at your worst?
Are you impossible to live with? Do you have no regard for others? do you just want to do your own thing and be let alone?
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. - Galatians 5:19-21
In today's reading, Paul is trying to change behavior. He wants the members of the young church in Galatia to give up the way they have been living and to put themselves in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
He has definitely created an interesting assortment of behaviors that he lumps together as the works of the flesh, from promiscuous acts to quarreling and drunkenness.
I am sure most of us can find ourselves acting badly in one way or another, if not in these, then in others that may come to mind.
The carrot he is holding up for us is entrance into and inheritance of the Kingdom of God, which sounds great, even if we are not really sure what it is. If we are going to inherit something that God treasures, it has to be good.
So, we know what not to do, and maybe we can tow the line, but what is more important is that Paul gives us a way to move in the right direction.
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
Ah, these are things we can do, right?
If we were told there was a special pill that we could take once a day and it would help us to see the world in a new light, one where we would find it easy to love one another, to have more patience, to be kind and generous, we would take it, wouldn't we?
That's Paul's point, I think. We already have that pill in us in the form of the Holy Spirit. So, why are we focused on the wrong things?
Sure, it is much easier to give in and behave badly than to be the example we would like our children to follow, but we slip and lose control.
The good news is we can draw on the Spirit and come back to center.
Now, once we are there, the hard part is to get others to join us. That's the gift we need to seek, for we don't want to be alone.
Why is it we can more quickly follow the example of someone who is behaving badly than someone who is being good?
If we find the answer to that, just think how easy parenting could be.
More to come...
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