“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. 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. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit,
let us also be guided by the Spirit.”
-
Galatians 5:19-25
Never
judge a book by its cover, they say. But of course, we do it anyway. Think
about it—when you’re in a bookstore or library browsing the shelves, you almost
never have the time or inclination to read every dust jacket, much less to open
every book and read a chapter or two. Your interest in a particular book is,
inevitably, sparked by the cover, whether by its bright design, its clever
title, or the familiar name of its author. What grabs your attention and makes
a first impression, for good or ill, is the cover.
And
the same goes when the principle is applied to people. What you see on the
outside of a person inevitably affects what you expect about who they are
inside, whether that expectation winds up being correct or not. Everything from
a person’s clothes to their posture creates your initial impression of them—and
while repeated exposure to them may disprove what you first thought, it’s hard
to overcome the first impression.
This
goes double when applied to your actions, the most outward expression of who
you are, the true cover of your book. Even the kindest people have moments of
cruelty or thoughtlessness, just as even the meanest people can occasionally
show grace. One out-of-character action should not define you indefinitely in
the eyes of others. But sometimes it will. For the down-on-her-luck waitress,
how you tip when her service wasn’t up to par is your only chance to show her
your heart is governed by grace. For the umpire at your child’s little league
game, what you shout from the stands determines whether he thinks your heart is
full of joy or bitterness. The driver who cuts you off in traffic can only
judge your capacity to forgive by how you react to him in that split second.
The
Bible teaches that we are all sinners, prone to stumble and fall away from God.
The promise of the cross is that there is forgiveness for your sins, that when
you place your faith in Christ, God judges you not on your own righteousness,
but on Christ’s. God’s impression of you is based on the totality of who you
are in Christ, not on one false step or ugly word.
But
the people around you, especially those outside the community of faith, do not
have the luxury of knowing you as God does—they can only call it like they see
it. So their impression of you and of your God is largely based on your
demeanor, your priorities, and your responses to injustice. If what they see
from you is “the works of the flesh”, then they are unlikely to see any need
for the God you call your Lord—after all, He doesn’t seem to be making you very
different from anyone else.
“If
we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit,” says Paul. Few lives
are truly open books, but every one has a cover, something observable to all.
If your life has been saved by Christ’s forgiveness, mercy, and righteousness,
then your call is to be a light to the world on his behalf, for the Holy Spirit
to bear fruit in you so that others will see in you love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The world
will judge what’s in your heart by what they see from your actions—will they
see Jesus?
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