Another Bonhoeffer thought.

I really liked Bonhoeffer's thoughts regarding the fruit of the spirit occurring naturally and not being something that can be produced by our own deliberate efforts. Bonhoeffer wrote:

"Works are done by human hands, fruit thrusts upward and grows all unbeknown to the tree which bears it. Works are dead, fruit is alive, and bears the seed which will bring forth more fruit. Works can subsist on their own, fruit cannot exist apart from the tree. Fruit is always the miraculous, the created; it is never the result of willing, but always a growth. The fruit of the Spirit is a gift of God, and only he can produce it. They who bear it know as little about it as the tree knows of its fruit. They know only the power of him on whom their life depends. There is no room for boasting here, but only for an ever more intimate union with him. The saints are unconscious of the fruit they bear."

Works are not something we create; works naturally occur as the result of our faith. As James writes that faith without works is dead, Bonhoeffer notes that a human cannot create works to prove that one has faith, because to do so, would also show that his or her faith lacks authenticity and intimacy with the object of faith, Jesus Christ. How wonderful is that?!