The Fruit of the Spirit is...Joy!

My Fruit of the Spirit mug!

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Galatians 5:22-23a.  You might be familiar with it: it's the one that details the fruit of the Spirit: love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  In other parts of the Bible, love has been described as "the greatest of these," but notice what's listed second?  JOY!

Now that's the popular part of the verse.  That's the part of the verse that you'll find on posters, t-shirts, and mugs (like mine!).  But guess what follows after that?  The whole two verses read as follows: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23, NASB).  Against such things there is no law...part of the reason why that line is there is because in the preceding verses, the chapter outlines all sorts of things that are against the law of the Bible.  (You can read the whole chapter here.) But I think we can also take this to mean that not only should we seek the fruit of the Spirit, we deserve these fruits.  We deserve to live a life filled with joy, and we should share that joy with others!

Sometimes it's easy to let life get you down and to sink into a kind of negative thinking.  You know, those voices that tell you that maybe you don't deserve to be joyful, maybe you aren't meant to live a life of joy.  Life's challenges loom large, and you might even feel guilty feeling joyful.  But here it is, right in the Bible...joy is not against the law!  Be joyful, seek joy, and spread joy!

I'd love to hear from you!  Comment below on how you seek joy for yourself and/or spread joy to others!