Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And suspicion?
The fruits of the Spirit included on this list should look pretty familiar to anyone who has spent time in a church. So should the final item--even though it’s certainly not a fruit of the Spirit.
It doesn’t take a new Christian long to discover that the church is full of damaged people, healthy wheat and toxic tares growing side by side. If a church leader is of the toxic tare variety, those affected by the leader’s poisonous words or deeds have to find a way to reconcile the sinless life of the Christ they follow with the hurt and confusion they’ve experienced as members of his body. To move forward, many of us re-brand our innocence as naïveté and our newly minted sense of suspicion as wisdom.
But I believe that as our suspicion grows, our ability to trust God, and others, gets lost in the translation. Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment