SEEDS, PLANTS and SOULS

11 SEEDS AGAIN

  We should remember
that the fruit is not the most important thing
that the plant produces, but rather the seeds inside.
These are the organisms
which make sure of the regeneration of the plant,
given the right conditions,
whereas the fruit is merely a vehicle
for enabling this to happen.

Biologists talk of the life cycle of the plant,
by which they mean the various stages of development
 that a plant goes through,
beginning with one seed and ending with lots of seeds.
So far,
in the analogy of a spiritual life cycle,
we got as far as the fruits.
What good are these fruits of the Spirit?
Is it only because
it is morally right to behave as Paul says
 - with love, patience, self-control?

That of course is not the whole answer.
The most important work that we can do as Christians
is to tell people about Jesus
and what he has done in our lives
and what he can can do in theirs.
But that has to go hand in hand
with caring and helping people.
This way the seeds of belief in Jesus
will be sown in their lives.
That is the great commission
that Jesus gave his disciples after his resurrection.

"He said to them,
'Go into all the world
and preach the good news to all creation.
Whoever believes will be saved,
but whoever does not believe will be condemned"
(Mark 16:15-16)

We are the successors of the disciples
and so it is our commission too.

One point I would like to make here
is that I don't think that we are all called
to go around preaching
in the sense of giving sermons or long discourses
on whether one is saved or not.
I am personally not gifted at that!
As Christians,
the Spirit of Jesus in our lives
provides us with many gifts or tools
to help us sow the seeds of faith in others' lives.
Paul mentions some of them
in his letter to the Corinthians:

"There are many types of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are different kinds of service,
 but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working,
but the same God works all of them in all men.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for the common good.
To one there is given through the Spirit
 the message of wisdom,
to another the message of knowledge
by means of the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
 to another miraculous  powers,  
to  another  prophecy,  
to  another distinguishing  between spirits,
to another  speaking  in different  kinds of tongues,
 and to still  another  the interpretation of tongues.
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
and he gives them to each one just as he determines."
(I Corinthians 12:4-10)

That may sound powerful stuff, and it is.
In practical terms it means asking
what God wants you to do,
then letting him give you the power to do it,
and then doing it!

But as Paul goes on to say,
all these things are like
a sounding brass and clanging cymbals
if we do not have God's love in our lives.
Our mere example of Christian living is, in itself,
a powerful witness.
Within the fruits of love, patience, self-control
are the seeds of Jesus
which will sow themselves in due course.

I say this, thinking of Nepal
where I lived with my family after Honduras.
At that time,
trying to actively convert people to another religion
was prohibited.
But there was no law against letting people
know you were a Christian and behaving like one -
by God's grace the seeds were sown and grew.

This is what Paul wrote about divine love -
not to be confused with brotherly love, or erotic love:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have faith that can move mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor
and surrender my body to the flames,
but have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
. It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres".
(I Corinthinians 13)  

In the last paragraph, can we substitute "I" for love"?

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