As we look at the world around us, I think it would be hard to realize we struggle with the idea of morality.

Did you know we have a significant issue even talking about it? In this article, Jonathan Merritt shares how tough it is finding words to use for religious conversations. In it, he references a study that shows our usage of words of the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) has gone down significantly in the last 100 years.

Why is this?

Our final fruits tell us the story. We have forgotten to be involved in our own salvation and growth. They are the final two fruits, and they are the ones that often cause us the most self-reflection. They expose our own attempts at making a world that we can easily control and predict. Gentleness and Self-Control tell the story about who we are.

Gentleness & Self-Control

Here are the two passages we will be reading.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

James 3:13-19 NRSV

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.

5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

2 Peter 1:3-9 NLT

What's so funny about both of these is they seem to be the markers of people many of us would consider weak. But what scripture shows is gentleness and self-control are actually some of the strongest ways we can conduct ourselves.

Let's dive into two books we haven't heard from in this series, with authors who understand the life Jesus calls us to really well. And let us learn to use the words to speak of the faith we believe in.