2 Timothy 3:2-5 English Standard Version

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

That is a rather long list of character traits to avoid. Perhaps today we can look at just one of them which does not stand out quite as noticeable as some of the others.

Unappeasable, not able to be pacified, placated, or satisfied. The definition adds three parts of personality traits that differ slightly.

Pacifiers are given to babies. The implication is a lack of maturity.

Placated has to do with haggling, coming to agreeable terms. They are unreasonable.

Satisfaction is the most common of emotions and revolves itself around self-interest. Some people just have to “have it my way”.

We might find this true of a Christian who is not yet matured and is still struggling to catch their footing. This trait by itself does not indicate a person is not a true Christian. So how can we decide just which traits are contained with certain personalities that should be avoided?

It is likely that these personalities contain more than one of the character flaws but the real clincher is in denial of the Holy Spirit’s power to change them. They will hide behind the facade of godly behavior. Fellowship in the spirit is beyond their capability. There is no unity of faith.

Ephesians 4:11-14 English Standard Version

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Galatians 6:9 English Standard Version (ESV) And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

We sow the seeds of the gospel and knowing God’s Word produces the fruits of repentance, we have this expectation of seeing at least a sliver of a leaf that indicates a root has formed.

What if we were to look to produce the fruits of the spirit rather than repentance. Not that we look for it in others but in ourselves. Those fruits will sustain us during the droughts that happen from time to time in the gospel fields.

Doing good should be its own reward because we do it by faith and faith will never disappoint us if we look in the right places.

John 4:35-38 English Standard Version

35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

The sower and the reaper can only rejoice together in the fruit of the spirit joy. They share the common goal, to gather believers in Christ, into the protective shelter of His embrace.

That is only one attribute of the fruit of the spirit. All things work together for those who love God and are called according to His purpose, not our own. Yes we want to see the fruit of our labors but those are better expressed in the fruit of the spirit than they are in our efforts. We may never partake in the harvest of our own sowing. The fruit of the spirit is not dependent on self-will, and human effort.

Those who sow and those who harvest have this one thing in common, the fruit of the spirit.

The lesson of John 4:35 is not to stand around doing nothing while we are waiting for a day we may never see. There is much to be done now as indicated in verse 36.

Doing good does not mean we only have one work to do.