As I was researching in preparation for this article, I came across an article from USA Today entitled “Weirdest Laws Passed in Every State.” In previous generations in the United States, many laws have been passed that are truly odd in today’s world. In Tennessee, a person cannot hold a public office if he/she has been involved in a duel. In Virginia, a person cannot hunt on Sunday, unless it’s for raccoons. In Vermont, forbidding people to put up clotheslines is illegal. Until 2015, Minnesota law limited nursing homes and senior centers to only two days of bingo per week. In Kansas, putting ice cream on top of cherry pie was at one time outlawed. In Georgia, eating fried chicken with a fork was deemed as illegal in a proclamation passed in 1961.
While there are certainly some peculiar laws out there, we are all familiar with law. While laws can be expressed both positively (telling us what we should do) and negatively (telling us what we should not do), we are probably more familiar with laws that stand against specific actions. As we drive down the road, there are laws against speeding, texting, and not wearing a seatbelt. There are laws against discrimination, robbery, and murder. There are so many different laws that are designed to prevent harmful behavior that they could not all be possibly mentioned here.
Take a moment to consider what we have been discussing over the last ten weeks. As Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). As we have explored each one of these characteristics individually, there is one more statement that we need to mention at the end of Galatians 5:23: “against such things there is no law.” There are a lot of different laws that exist against a lot of different actions; however, there are no laws that exist against the fruit of the Spirit. When we live based on these nine characteristics, we will never do wrong; instead, we will always do what’s right. We will never harm others; instead, we will always benefit others. We will never drive people away from Jesus; instead, we will always bring people closer to Jesus. We will never be the reason that people cry; instead, we will always be the reason that people smile.
So as we close this study, here is a question for all of us to consider: what’s holding us back? What is stopping us from living based on “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, selfcontrol”? I heard a character on a television show say one time, “There are always a million reasons not to do something.” Maybe, some of us need to address a certain sin in our lives, change the attitude that we have, distance ourselves from a bad influence, spend more time building a strong relationship with God, or alter the way that we think about other people. Whatever it might be in your life, please don’t allow it to hold you back anymore. There are no laws against the fruit of the Spirit; there is no reason not to live based on these nine characteristics. Every day, let’s be people who are defined by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
-Tyler Alverson
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