Chow-chow. Have you heard of it? No, it’s not a dog! We’ve been discussing tomatoes. How does a dog even apply? Chow-chow in the south is a tomato relish. Many will put this relish on their peas, or at least that’s how my daddy eats it. In doing a little research into chow-chow, I discovered in Pennsylvania they make a sweet tomato relish. It’s like chow-chow but sweeter. I might like that.
We are down to the last two fruit of the spirit, and they are sweet ones. They aren’t always easy to come by, but when mastered the sweetness of the Spirit comes through and draws people to Christ.
TOMATO 8 – Meekness
I define meekness as gentleness with humility and submissiveness. This fruit is void of ALL PRIDE. The first time I identified meekness in anyone was when I looked at the life of my grandmother. Growing up during the Depression, her father abandoned her mom, her younger sister and herself to start another life up north. My grandmother, her sister and mother lived in doorways, squatted in abandon apartments, ate in soup kitchens, and when her mother had a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized for the rest of her life, my grandmother and her sister were passed from one relative to another. If anyone had a right to be angry, bitter and depressed it was my grandmother, but she wasn’t. She was gentle, humble and submissive. She embodied meekness, and she did so while raising 3 hairy-legged, trouble-making boys with my grandfather. So you can see, why I love the word meekness. It doesn’t mean I am meek, but I had a great example.
So, why do Christians need meekness anyway? Galatians 6:1 says we can restore the wayward in meekness. James 1:21 says we receive the engrafted word in meekness – grafting is what you do when you add a branch to the vine. Grafting makes a branch that was once disconnected now connected to a life-giving source in the vine. Think of it as a way of restoration. 2 Timothy 2:25 In meekness instruct those who oppose – If you are bowed up in pride are people more receptive to you? NO. It’s a turn off, but if you go in meekness, people may be more receptive.
Meekness opens the door to commune with God and to draw others to God. There can be no pride when communing with the Spirit because pride is a sin. We have to put our ego and pride aside if we want intimacy with the Spirit and if we want to lead others to Christ.
TOMATO 9 – Temperance
What in the world is temperance? Sounds like an old-fashion, southern woman’s name, and actually if the southern woman is a steel magnolia they probably need more temperance than most. Temperance is self-control. Some southern women I know need temperance especially over their tongues.
2 Peter 1:5-8 But also for this reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and about, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There aren’t many verses which use this Greek word for self-control. Maybe because behaviors exhibited in self-control are addressed separately like dealing with anger and the words we spew. I’ve heard people say about their anger, That’s just the way I am or I’ve always been this way. Then what you are telling me is you are refusing to submit to the Holy Spirit. You are refusing to be meek. You are refusing to crucify your fleshly ego and pride. You are not filled with the Spirit because the Spirit-filled believer has the power of the Spirit to enable him to master his passions (versebyversecommentary.com).
Truthfully if you look at the complete list of the fruit of the Spirit, if you have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith and meekness, there is absolutely no reason why you would lack self-control. If you love someone who is different than you, self-control is needed to know when to speak and what to speak. If you have joy, there’s a time and a place to shout for joy, and there’s a time not to shout for joy like funerals. If you have peace, means you aren’t in turmoil and reacting to every stimuli. If you are longsuffering, gentle, and good, it means your pride takes a backseat to serving and loving others the way Christ loves us. If you have faith and are meek, there would be no need to lose control because you know who is in control. So if you don’t have control over your anger, your impulsive actions or your mouth, then you probably don’t have the other fruit either.
The last part of the verse reads, against such there is no law. The last blog will address the law and the fruit. God revealed something very poignant to me on this. Hope you will come back for one more post.