No matter who hosts the gathering, participants usually pitch in with various family favorites. The added dish is sometimes enmity, though, as personalities and ideologies clash. As we ponder the menu and the participants, let’s plan to be led with the fruit of the Spirit.
Families. All Christians have them, and most are a mixed bag of saved and unsaved. As we prepare to join together for Thanksgiving, our contribution to the menu should include the fruit of the Spirit — the makings for the best Thanksgiving meal.
No matter who hosts the gathering, participants usually pitch in with various family favorites. The added dish is sometimes enmity, though, as personalities and ideologies clash. As we ponder the menu and the participants, let’s plan to be led with the fruit of the Spirit.
The epistle to the Galatian church is known as the Apostle Paul’s “angry” letter. In it, Paul addressed people he loved, people who had strayed from the pure Gospel and turned “to a different Gospel—which is really no Gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-7). Paul is rightfully angry and seeks to turn the hearts and minds of the Galatians back to the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ, because some people perverted the truth and threw the Galatians “into confusion” (Galatians 1:7). Paul was stern and direct in his admonition to the church and said anyone who preaches a different Gospel should “be under God’s curse” (Galatians 1:8).
In chapter five, Paul tells believers we are to use our freedom to walk by the Holy Spirit which opposes the flesh and its failings.
In Galatians 5:16-26, Paul shares and directs us in this truth, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Let’s look at the fruit a Spirit filled life produces as we gather for Thanksgiving with loved ones. (This includes a menu from my Midwest family holiday gatherings.)
Love (the Entrée)
Love should be the first ingredient every Christian adds to interaction with others. John 3:16 says God so loved the world. His love saved us by sending Jesus Christ to the cross to die in our place.
But your loved ones need the full explanation of what God has done since the Fall. Every person at your Thanksgiving meal is a sinner — some saved by grace — others as yet to possibly surrender to the Lord in repentance and faith (Acts 20:21). Perhaps the Lord will use one of us to proclaim the Gospel in love as we obey His command to share the good news (Matthew 28: 19-20; 1 Corinthians 9:16).
Buying, preparing, and serving a well-seasoned and cooked turkey is an act of love.
Joy (a Necessary Side Dish)
The second active sensation a Christian experiences is joy. Active because once joy enters a person, they cannot hold it inside. Only believers know true and fulfilling joy which lasts to eternity (Psalm 16:11; Habakkuk 3:18; Matthew 13:20; 25:21). When we join with beloved family and friends, our joy will spill into the room like the smell of the baked and roasted foods.
It’s hard to imagine a Thanksgiving meal without stuffing in the turkey. Joy is like that, too; a Christian’s joy permeates their countenance and nothing and no one can steal it (John 15:11; 16:22).
Peace (another Needed Side Dish)
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). When do we need peace more than when we sit with unbelievers? The world’s troubles are not ours, and no matter how agitated a loved one may become over the state of the city, state, country, or world, we carry the peace of Christ with us. As we pass a plate, instead of buying into unbelieving loved one’s distress, we can pass a peaceful outlook and countenance (Romans 12:18).
Mashed potatoes without gravy is like peace without a winsome smile (in our hearts and on our faces). Jesus promised us His peace; as we meet with family and friends for the holiday, share His peace by sharing news of His peace-filled kingdom.
Patience
Our Lord said, “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). When we gather with our families and friends, we’d love for our unsaved beloveds to make a profession of repentance, faith, and surrender to our Lord right after we share the Gospel and how Jesus has changed our lives. But the Lord has us wait until it’s His time.
It’s a protection, really, from pride. We pray to be good witnesses for Christ, but we dare not even try to get in His way. They may come to faith apart from us, and we praise God because we know His timing is perfect and it’s all for His glory.
Homemade baked goods for Thanksgiving are a treat. Baking is chemistry, and making yeast rolls takes patience as you wait for the dough to rise before popping your little goodies into a hot oven to bake to “perfection.” So too our patience is rewarded if God saves our beloved in His perfect time.
Kindness
God’s kindness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Planning to get together with unbelieving family and/or friends always merits extra kindness. If we react with anything else, we sully our witness for Christ. It’s hard to hold our tongues at times (James 3:8-12), but hold them we must as we rely on the Spirit’s guidance in all our conversations (speaking and body language).
As we plan our Thanksgiving meal, we think about how “the dessert follows the entrée follows the appetizers.” Don’t forget to pass a cup of kindness when you pass your plate.
Goodness
For Christians, we never worry about what comes after this life because we know we will be with Jesus.
Left as unregenerate, we’d never know goodness because there is no goodness in any of us except Christ. As we meet with unsaved loved ones, don’t expect their goodness to be good as defined by our Lord. They are defined by the flesh; we are now defined by the Spirit.
Paul says, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:3-7).
Good food is worth the wait, whether it’s at a restaurant or at the home of a cherished family member or friend. Every soul thirsts for the goodness of God, and Psalm 34:8 tells us to, “taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”
Gentleness
None of us likes to be badgered, and we cannot force someone into Christ’s kingdom according our will. God will save whom He will save when He has decided to save them. Period. When we meet with our families and friends at Thanksgiving, be gentle with them as you display all the fruit of the Spirit and as you share your faith. Don’t whip everyone up into a fury.
If you whip the cream for the pumpkin pie too long, you’ll make butter. Whipped cream takes a gentle process to get it to its stiff-peaked beauty atop a piece of luscious pumpkin pie.
Faithfulness
Psalm 85:10 encourages us, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” As God is faithful to us, so too we are to remain steadfast in our faithfulness to Him. Being faithful to the Lord means living a holy life in faithful worship of Him. We can’t do that without Him, and people are watching for us to stumble. God was faithful to His promise to send a Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Jesus said when he directed His disciples to enter into communion with Him, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you’” (Mark 14:24).
The red thread of the Bible — the course of the Old Testament through the New — all points to Jesus. As you behold the tart/sweet and red cranberry relish, may you remember and share what Jesus did for you on the cross.
Self-Control
The dangers of Thanksgiving include over-indulgence and possible provocation by others to engage in unwholesome conversations and even disputes.
2 Timothy 1:7 states, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 serves as a backup for the 2 Timothy passage, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”
Thanksgiving is a time to remember who we are in Christ and how we are to behave. Our soft answers and self-control (even with food consumption) may provoke some questions which can be answered Gospel-specifically.
After the turkey and all the trimmings and delicious side dishes comes the big finish — dessert. We’re all full, the stuffed turkey has transferred to our full bellies. But the pies! Do we eat a slice of pumpkin? Pecan? Or do we have both? Can we wait until after a “digest the food” walk or is the dessert calling our names? Self-control has its own rewards and as we control our appetites and conform our wills to His (Romans 12:2).
Lord,
May we share with our unsaved loved ones “every good and perfect gift comes from above,” from You! Help us bring glory to You—the Lord of the harvest—as we gather for our time of Thanksgiving.
In Your holy and precious name we pray.
Amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Alex Raths
