The Fruit of the Holy Spirit and Childbirth: The Link
“Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: ‘I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women’.”
You cannot give birth in the natural realm without labor. This is just as true in the spiritual realm. In order to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is love (the rest of the list in Galatians 5: 22, 23 are characteristics of love), we must first experience labor.
This is a figurative interpretation of a literal passage, but if you’d like to read the passage for context, click here.
To walk in perfect love is to be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”(James 1: 2-4). We only become perfect and complete, or mature as we endure trials or temptations that test our faith.
A Difficult, Painful Process
This is a difficult, painful process. Resisting temptation- and every trial is also a temptation, (that’s a big part of what makes it a trial)-is painful.
It involves death to sin, to needs to self. This is the “labor” that makes us perfect and complete (mature). And produces the fruit of the Spirit, which is love.
We cannot give birth to a child without labor. In the same way, we cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit and become perfect and complete (or mature) without resisting temptation.
Both are painful. Both involve suffering. And both are necessary to bear fruit.
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit and The Upside-Down Kingdom
This general principle of humility before exaltation is found throughout scripture:
- The narrow path leads to life
- Lose your life to find it
- Obedience produces maturity
- The fear of God produces wisdom
- Suffering produces glory
- Resist temptation and it will flee
- Exert ourselves to enter rest
- Go through the wilderness the enter the promise land
- Wage war with sin to have peace
To read another post related to The Fruit of the Holy Spirt and Childbirth: The Link, see What Does It Mean to Trust the Lord with All Your Heart?