Prodigal: I ain’t got a dadblame thing to do.

Me: I will share with you then.

This is from the book A Church Called Tov by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer

The fruit of the Spirit begins with love and includes goodness, but if we focus only on the positive traits mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 and overlook the “acts of the flesh” described in verses 19-21, we might miss an important point: Each aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is also an act of resistance. To do tov requires us to resist what is not tov, what is bad and evil and corrupt. To live in the Spirit is to resist the works or acts of the flesh. Over and over, the Bible teaches us to pursue goodness and turn away from evil. “The acts of the flesh are obvious,” writes Paul, and he lists such things as sexual immorality, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, and selfish ambition. To live of tov means resisting the sinfulness and toxicity of these acts of the flesh.

And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him. Genesis 38:7 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org