God has acted through his Son and by his Spirit to create a community that is now hidden with Christ in God. Indeed, Christ is their life. In union with Jesus, we are called to be different in the way we find our identity and worth before God and one another.  

God expresses his grace towards us without regard to worth.  He accepts all freely as they are and not as they should be.  Christ died for the ungodly and the ungodly may be gladly received and renewed. People may assess the worth of others in terms of race, status, gender, wealth etc. Within God’s new community, all these grounds for competition among people have no significance. Our worth is found in who we are in Christ.  Our identity is a gift received, not a status inherited or achieved. 

God’s Spirit creates and energises the community as well as each member. So the Spirit’s primary manifestation is communal life, not individual ecstasy. To be “in Christ” is to be in relationship with people in whom Christ dwells through his Spirit. It is to share an identity that is always shaped in relation to others within the bond generated and sustained by the Spirit. 

We may slip into thinking about the “fruit of the Spirit” as individual qualities.  However, the fruit is not primarily about my individual virtues, but our communal life.  As the Spirit moves within the community we relate to one another in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.