I have been banging on about "impossible living" for some time now - a change of living that sees us existing first and foremost as spiritual beings (rather than physical beings). This involves us being linked so closely with God that we basically don't exist apart from God - a 24x7 existence.
Within this paradigm, we exhibit the fruit of the Spirit - the characteristics that the Word notes as the fruit of the Spirit are not characteristics and behaviours that we can simply "do" or "display" - they are a "by-product" of the Spirit living in us.
OK, so having thought about the back story, I began to dwell some more on the fruit of the Spirit and realised that these fruits were more than characteristics or behaviours of God - they are in fact God's VALUES.
The interesting thing about what we think about as values is that, when it comes to our society, they are really hard to define. I've been trying to find some definitive statement of our values - can't find one. There's some ethereal (mamby pamby) stuff but nothing hard core. What I've basically come to realise is that we don't think much about values - we think a lot about the stuff that surrounds values but not values themselves. We are not (I am brave enough to say) "values orientated".
OK, how can I make such an outrageous comment to you fine upstanding Christians? A very quick picture is in order ....
Remember - I am talking about human values here for a moment. I'll get to God's values but I need to draw a distinction.
If we stick VALUES in the middle of a page, sitting underneath them are BASIC HUMAN NEEDS(food, clothing, shelter). Values mean nothing to the average punter if the basics don't exist. These are non-negotiable, in that you can't trade anything valuable enough to make someone give up these things.
Sitting on top of values are INTERESTS - desires and wants. These are usually negotiable - you might trade or compromise an interest in one area to get a bit of another desire or want. This is where lawyers make money.
On top of interests sit POSITIONS - these are "surface" demands - I won't get into this, sufficed to say that they are the most easily negotiated - sometimes you might take a position simply to make someone angry, fearful, confused, etc. - like arguing about the price of something you are prepared to pay full price for but just want to "tweak" the deal..
Back to values - these are the things that motivate the way we act, think, interact, etc. They are our beliefs. They are the things that we deem to be good and true. It encompasses the concepts of individual and group identity, security, self esteem and justice. The term "values" could in fact be replaced with the term "motivators". These are very hard to negotiate - some say impossible.
Values define the way we look at the world - how we perceive reality.
Take a group of 12 people and define with them their top 10 values - compare the lists - I bet you find that there is some duplication but no two lists will be the same, and the priority of the values will also be different. Multiply that by 20 million Australians. You see why we have such discord and disharmony in society! Perhaps the church.
Given that God's desire is to harmonise us - make into a single spiritual (Spirit-led) entity, it becomes clear that unless our values align that this is impossible.
See, God's values (motivators) are the things that drive His plans and purpose. If we understand His values, we can come to grips with God's purpose and reasoning. Which is, to say the least, incredibly wild!
Which is why understanding the fruit of the Spirit as values is so important - they are not optional, nice to have, Christian "bling" - the fruits are all there is! Non-negotiable "must have's.
In summary:
- Living as Spirit-first people is crucial - we move from following our bodies and minds and start linking in with God...and we need to force ourselves down that track;
- As we listen, walk, obey, quieten down, etc the fruit of the Spirit becomes a "natural" resultant of this. We cannot simply be fruitful - the Spirit creates the fruit in us;
- These fruits are a "value transplant" - we start to be motivated in thought and action in every situation by the fruit...we are compelled by the fruits or values;
- These compelling values create an environment in which we start to attack life the same way God does - we see what God's purpose is - we understand His heart, His plans. We get vision.
Absolutes
I'm going to shamlessly copy almost verbatim from a friend's response to the draft of this section of the manifesto....I have great friends!
In thinking about defining what our values are (in natural terms....not the fruits of the Spirit), we shouldn't be surprised that we find it difficult to define our values. For the last 100 years or so we have gradually worked away from a position where these things were considered 'absolutes' to a point where we (human society) deny the existence of absolutes. The modern era has seen this happen in philosophy, art and music to a point where we take it for granted in general culture.
The church has not escaped unscathed from this movement - a kind of postmodernism that perhaps doesn't throw away God's values, but either "re-interprets" them to make them more palatable, or studiously avoids discussing values that might either create confrontation or scare away the punters!
(THIS BLOG IS NOT COMPLETED)
