IDEA: The fruit of the Spirit is shown in how we regard others who fall, ourselves, and those who teach us. TEXT: "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load" (Galatians 6:1-5).

PURPOSE: To help listeners recognize how God's work in our lives shows up in our actions.

In Galatians 5, Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit. There are nine: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When we think of the expression of those virtues, what kind of picture comes to mind?

I. We sometimes look at the fruit of the Spirit in our lives in a very individual way.

I consider myself spiritual if I feel love, joy, and peace, etc. So the spiritual life is something that goes on inside of me. Is that necessarily wrong?

Paul sees the fruit of the Spirit expressed in corporate ways.

II. One way is that we are to carry one another's burdens and in this way we fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

Carrying one another's burdens is applied to a brother or sister who is caught in a sin. How we treat people who fail or fall says a great deal about our relationship to Christ. Does this surprise you?

We should restore that person with gentleness (Galatians 6:1).

There is a danger of those who are spiritual and trying to live the Christian life to judge the sins of other people very harshly. There is an element of hardness in many a good person.

There are many good people to whom you could not go to sob out a story of failure, defeat and mistake. They would be bleakly unsympathetic.

How does that action of restoring someone with gentleness reflect what Paul described as the fruit of the Spirit?

Love is concerned about other people. There is a kind of burden that falls on someone from the chances and changes of life, it comes from outside. Some emergency, some sorrow. We fulfill the law of Christ to help anyone who is up against it. The wider principle is there.

Kindness, gentleness, patience and goodness are all shown in the way we respond to someone who has fallen.