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We finally have come to the end of our series on the Fruit of the Spirit. And we’ve been learning that every fruit of the Spirit begins as a virtue of God, gifted to us through the Holy Spirit, in order to make us more like Jesus. But I was brought up short this past week, when reading an author who has been a partner with me throughout this series. Because on this last fruit of self-control, he makes the claim that this fruit is not a virtue of God but something only necessary for human beings. Is that right? I don’t think so. In fact, I believe that Scripture offers us an important understanding of what it means to say that God exercises self-control. So you are about to witness a miracle this morning – an astounding, never-before-seen-divine-moment of self-control – this is a one point sermon. And the one point is this: God’s self control is God’s unchanging, unwavering, shadowlessness activity, to always be the fruit of the Spirit and to give those fruits to us. Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall, God bears and offers only good fruit.
A common practice among African-American churches is often a call and response liturgy where pastor and congregation speak to each other. And one of those call and responses is one that we also know ourselves. Let’s try it out: “God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.” And that is a great summation of James’ point in chapter 1:16-18 and a great explanation of what we mean by God’s self-control.
“Every good and perfect gift comes from above,” James 1:17 says (the Greek is awkwardly much more emphatic highlighting the goodness of both the act of giving and the thing being given and might literally be translated “All good giving and every good gift is from above, coming down”). And who is this giver? – “the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
As a sailor guides a ship by looking to the heavens, so you can guide yourself to God or know God, James says, and keep yourselves from being deceived, by one simple rule: If it’s good it’s of God because God is always, changelessly good. And that is because God determines God’s self. Vs. 18 says “He chose . . .” or “By his sovereign plan . . .” meaning that God doesn’t have to be talked into being good, doesn’t have to be worried over about whether he is good, as if we could do anything to change that God any more than one can change the stars. God’s self-control means that whatever the circumstance, whatever choices people might make, he always chooses the good. And that means that “God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, all the time. All the time, God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.” The self-control is the “all the time” part.
In that Spirit, God’s sovereignty, even in the Old Testament, is not spoken of as God doing whatever God wants willy-nilly but is repeatedly spoken of as God’s unfailing, unchanging, love in the face of rebellious people (Isaiah chs. 45-46). The mystery of God’s sovereignty, his claim to be greater than human beings (46:9), is not God’s capriciousness but God promise that he will save even nations that Israel does not know about (Isaiah 55:5) and, unlike human beings, will give mercy to the “wicked” and “unrighteous.” It is because of those claims that God will declare: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” (Isaiah 55:8). According to Scripture, God’s mysterious thinking, which is higher than our own, is that he is always fully in control of himself to be merciful. God is unchanging, and ever-sovereign in his own mercy, unlike us.
God’s self-control might best be expressed by a funny retort from an odd movie: The Internship (this isn’t an endorsement, it’s not a good movie). It’s about two aging salesmen of luxury watches who find themselves out of work and needing to find another career. So they both get into an internship at Google where they have to learn new things while sharing their own wisdom with their millennial interns. In one scene, the director of the Internship program is berating one of the salesman who smiles and responds, “Hey, not for nothing, you can’t get me not to like you.” That’s the fruit of self-control. It’s the integrity of maintaining one’s intention and character regardless of how others respond. In other words, God’s own self-control is that he is always and forever uncontrolled goodness and unrestrained gift. God is always, constantly, bearing all of these fruits. God’s own self control is understood when you hear God saying – “Not for nothing, you can’t get me not to like you.” And then recognize that God is saying that to you and everyone else, even your enemies.
And that’s what it means for us as well.
Now, I know all to well, that we are not God. But we have been learning that God wants to freely offer us these virtues, by the power of the Spirit, to make us more like Jesus. In fact, this is what James is stating in vs. 18 “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” In other words, God’s intent, God’s plan, God’s sovereignty, is that God wants to transform us so that we too will be unchanging, good givers of good gifts. In fact, in Isaiah God will swear by himself to do that and bring about salvation. So we are a to be a part of that sovereign purpose to reflect his character as human beings just like Jesus.
Friends, we are often the firstfruit of God that many will encounter. We are to be the firstfruits of the character of God. And that fruit itself is God’s transformative gift in our life. Because of God’s own self-control, we are gifted to act with the same fruitful integrity that Jesus acts – always good.
James is right – “Don’t be deceived . . .” the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ controls himself and God is always good and gifts us with the same integrity– to be generously fruitful at all times, in all seasons, to all people – unfailingly, everlastingly, fruitful. Amen.
