The Fruit of the Spirit revised May
16, 2014
I am not a minister and I’ve never
been to seminary, but I’ve been very curious about the fruit of the Spirit, and
decided to share what I’ve learned from the Bible about exactly what the
phrase, “the fruit of the Spirit,” means.
For the longest time I thought the “fruit”
were rewards. For example, Jesus stated at the end of the parable of the sower
and the seed in Matthew 13:23: “But he who received seed on the good ground is
he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces:
some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Did that mean some received one hundred blessings, thirty thousand dollars? A better house? Better health? A
longer life? Better relationships?
“Later, I thought that I was “bearing fruit”
when friends accepted my invitation to come to church. I was really excited and
happy about that, actually thinking, “Yeah, yeah, I’m bearing fruit!” When
those people came a couple of times and didn’t come back, I was deflated and
realized that couldn’t mean what the “fruit of the Spirit was all about.
I had read Galatians 5:22-23 many times but I
never realized that the “fruit” were actually described in detail:
“But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, Against such there is no law. The original King James Version says,
“love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness faith, meekness,
temperance.’ Having the attributes of the Spirit spelled out in this way, I
see that both of my interpretations: one of rewards, the other of trying to
bring people into the church was both self-centered. Amazingly, however, and
this is due to the goodness and generosity of God, the real fruit of the Spirit
can actually lead to actual life rewards and really influence people to come into the fellowship of faith. After
all, Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father in heaven.”
One of the definitions
of fruit is “anything produced or accruing; product, result, or effect; return
or profit”
“The Spirit”
refers to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit of God, and
the presence of God in our lives. The fruit of the Spirit, then, is the
presence of God in our lives that produces certain characteristics or
attributes. The Spirit of God is the promise given by Jesus before He went to
the cross. The Spirit gives power and reveals truth. He is the Helper and the
Comforter and He helps us to “remember” what Jesus taught while on earth.
Jesus said, in John 14:16-17, “I will pray to the Father, and He will give you
another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – 17. the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you, and
will be in you.”
In John 15:26, Jesus said, “But when
the Helper comes, who I will send to you from the Father, He will testify of
Me.” He continued in John 16:13 “However, when He, the
Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not
speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak and tell.”
The very phrase in
Galatians 5:22 that begins, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…”
seems to be grammatically incorrect. It seems that it should say, “the fruits
(being plural), however, the very first “fruit” is “love.” All the other
attributes stem from and are contained in the word “love.” Therefore the
sentence could stop with “the fruit of the Spirit is love.”
I now think that
the fruit of the Spirit are actually attributes of God Himself that He deposits
into us. After all, He created us in His own image and likeness according to Genesis 1:26-27. The very breath we
breathe came from Him. Genesis 2:7
says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The
circumstances in our lives sometimes cause us to forget that we were created in
His image and likeness and that we have His sacred breath in our lives. But
God, knowing that we would need a reminder, in fact a guarantee, sent us His
Son. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.”
When we accept God’s great gift of salvation,
we are immediately filled with the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is
restored in us, the way God first intended. However, just as we don’t feel that
we’ve been converted overnight when we receive Christ, (when in fact we are
converted,) we don’t always immediately feel or appear as though we’ve received
the attributes of the Spirit until we’ve been on our journey for a while.
Usually, we look back and think, “Wow I remember when I used to get angry so easily and now I don’t. I’ve really changed.” In spite of being
able to look back over our lives and see our progress, sometimes we’re still
shocked when we find out that we’re still holding on to some of our old ways of being easily offended, quick to lash out in anger, quick to find fault, and quick to blame other people for our problems. At those times, we think, "Uh oh, I haven't really changed at all." This is a mistake. What we ought to think is, "I haven't fully changed yet." In Philippians 1:6, God promised to continue the good work He started in us. Of course,
when we “catch” ourselves thinking that ungenerous thought, we’re now equipped
to see that it’s wrong and to at least make the effort to refrain from such
thinking.
Having the results
of the Spirit in our lives means that we have these inner-qualities: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance and also that we act with these qualities as we relate to each other. The results then, aren’t just attributes, but
they are also actions. The results of the Spirit effect how we feel about each
other, how we talk to each other, how we show respect for each other, and how
we believe in the goodness of each other. These results not only improve how we
see each other and treat each other but also how we see God and how we see
ourselves. Do we see God as good? Do we see Him as gentle? Do we see ourselves
as peaceful?
God is the originator of the qualities
described in the fruit of the Spirit:
Love:
Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Joy:
Zephaniah 3:17: “The LORD your God in you midst, The Mighty One,
will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His
love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Peace:
1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God
is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the
saints”
Longsuffering: Exodus
34:6 “…The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in
goodness and truth”
Gentleness:
Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Goodness:
Psalm 145:9 “The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are
over all His works.”
Faith:
Hebrews 12:2: Faith
“looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher (perfecter) of our faith, who for
the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Meekness:
Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened
not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its
shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.”
Temperance:
Exodus 32:14 “So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He
would do to His people.”
The fruit of the
Spirit are the qualities of God. As we cultivate God's presence in our lives, we actually take on His qualities. People begin to notice our peaceful natures and our inclinations to see things from the other's point of view. People notice that we're not complaining all the time and looking at people's faults. Some people say we're pleasant company. Of course, people who love to engage in vicious gossip and character assassination will find us to be quite boring.
The fruit of the
Spirit are also inter-relational. Where there is love, joy, and peace, there is
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and temperance. Note the above scriptures
and the ones below that show this inter-relation.
Colossians 3: 12-15: “Therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility,
meekness, longsuffering; 13. bearing
with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against
another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do 14. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of
perfection. 15. And let the peace of
God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be
thankful.”
The fruit of the Spirit is
different from the gifts of the Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.
These gifts are not given to all believers, they are specific gifts to
individuals. However the fruit of the Spirit is given to all of us. In 1 Corinthians 13:8 Paul wrote that the
gifts will pass away, but love remains. Note that both faith and love are
included in both the fruit and the gifts. The fruit of the Spirit is given to
us by the presence of God Himself. These gifts fine-tune us, taking us out of
our selfish ways and helping us to truly love God, ourselves, and others.
