THE FRUIT TEST
By Bob Longman
courtesy of www.spirithome.com
Fruit of the Spirit - Visible Growth in
Jesus Christ
"Fruit of the Spirit" is a biblical term
that sums up the nine visible attributes of a true Christian life. Using the
King James Version of Galatians 5:22-23, these attributes are: love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.
We learn from scripture that these are not individual "fruits" from which we
pick and choose. Rather, the fruit of the Spirit is one ninefold "fruit" that
characterizes all who truly walk in the Holy Spirit. Collectively, these are the
fruits that all Christians should be producing in their new lives with Jesus
Christ.
Fruit of the Spirit - The Nine Biblical
Attributes
The fruit of the Spirit is a
physical manifestation of a Christian's transformed life. In order to mature as
believers, we should study and understand the attributes of the ninefold fruit:
Love - "And
so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in
love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). Through Jesus Christ, our
greatest goal is to do all things in love. "Love is patient, love is kind. It
does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does
not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians
13:4-8).
Joy - "The joy of the Lord is
your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"
(Hebrews 12:2).
Peace - "Therefore, since we
have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ" (Romans 5:1). "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as
you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy
Spirit" (Romans 15:13).
Longsuffering (patience) - We
are "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all
patience and longsuffering with joyfulness" (Colossians 1:11). "With all
lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love"
(Ephesians 4:2).
Gentleness (kindness) - We
should live "in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit
and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of
righteousness in the right hand and in the left" (2 Corinthians 6:6-7).
Goodness - "Wherefore also we
pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and
fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power"
(2 Thessalonians 1:11). "For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and
righteousness and truth" (Ephesians 5:9).
Faith (faithfulness) - "O Lord,
thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done
wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth" (Isaiah 25:1).
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through
his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith" (Ephesians 3:16-17).
Meekness - "Brethren, if a man
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the
spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Galatians
6:1). "With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).
Temperance (self-control) -
"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,
to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to
perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness love" (2 Peter 1:5-7).
-----------------------------------------------------------
( The following is
an expanded look at the subject of the evidence of the “Holy Spirit maturing a
person” over time as that person grows as a Christian. The person contributes to
this process by reading God’s word, acting on God’s word (putting it into
practice), praying, giving to others, staying away from wrong things, judging
others less, and just thinking about God and His laws, nature and ways etc…….
Keygar)
PAUL DESCRIBES IT
The most famous passage about the 'fruit
of the Spirit' is in Galatians 5:22, where Paul gives us a list of fruit. The
list is meant as a contrast to the list of the deeds of the flesh' found in
5:19-20. The fruit list is clearly not intended as an exhaustive description of
the fruit, but was given to highlight the fruit that Paul wants the Galatian
church to keep in mind. He lists the following fruit:
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
self-control
When Paul follows the list of the fruit
of the Spirit by saying that "against such things there is no law", he was
talking about the fact that the societal and religious authorities find it
pretty hard to object to behavior that shows these characteristics. Even a
staunch enemy of the church will likely find these qualities appealing. And,
God's law supports that kind of character. These are known to be positive
characteristics by almost everyone, in most eras, in most lands.
Let's look at a few of these fruit. I'll set 'love' to the
side for now, because Paul describes that well enough in 1 Corinthians 13, and
Jesus deals with it even better in the Gospels. Check them out yourself, and
see.
'Gentleness' is an interesting one. It has a tie-in to
Jesus, too, for didn't he speak of the meek inheriting the earth? The gift of
'gentleness' isn't about being wishy-washy, indecisive, unassertive, or just
plain wimpy. It is connected instead to a refusal to use power over anyone, an
unwillingness to cut and slash at people, wounding them for vengeance, spite or
control. It's about being out to build people up instead of harming them or
scaring them. There are gentle ways to be bold, non-violent ways to stand up for
what is right, non-manipulative ways to lead and to convince. But it is not in
the human nature to be that way. It goes beyond 'instinct', or 'education', or
'society's influence'; we are simply not gentle creatures.
Certainly not males,
despite the term 'gentleman'. Women have historically been more gentle, but that
is a relative matter; they have their own ways of being vicious and destructive.
No. If we are to be truly gentle, we need God to give us the ability to be
gentle when it counts.
Then, there's 'long-suffering' or 'patience'. As someone
who growls when the car in front of me doesn't move when the light turns green,
I can't say that I'm a patient man. I'm a New Yorker, you understand, and I'm
raised to demand instant action. I live in a fast-paced world which is getting
faster even as age slows me down. Life's too short. I do not want to sit still
for other people's troubles; my first instinct is to move on and let them stew
in it. Me, suffer over someone else?
Bah! When I see someone spending a large
amount of time in devotions and prayer, my first thought is that they're
escapists running away from the world. Don't they know they're running out of
time?? There's too much to do, and curse to hell anyone who gets in the way.
In that way, I am a man of my era. I'm today's human
creature, unwilling to put up with that which doesn't conform, ditching the
spouse if things aren't working out just right, making short-term investments to
make quick bucks, dumping chemicals in a nearby stream (or a nearby slum),
unwilling to wait until the commercials are done to get something watchable on
television.
Those who bear emotional burdens over those they love seem like
fools who should cut loose 'for their own good', or so it's said. However, the
Spirit, who can be faster than any of us, is not in it for the quick hit. The
Spirit counsels patience : you have all of eternity, and all that is not joy
today will pass away someday. Remember that God wins in the end, and trust in
that.
OTHER PASSAGES ABOUT BEARING FRUIT
Notice that the Galatians list is made of stuff that is both something you are and something you do. It is the Spirit giving you the character of Christ. There are other such lists in the Epistles, and they are also relevant to any talk about the 'fruit of the Spirit'.
In 1 Cor 13, in the midst of Paul's description of the gifts of the Spirit, there is a section on love. While not directly about 'fruit', it is about what springs from love, and it is in much the same vein. According to verses 3-8, love:
suffers long
is kind
does not envy
does not parade itself
does not get 'puffed up'
does not behave rudely
is not provoked
does not think evilly, nor rejoice in sin
rejoices in the truth
bears all things
believes all things
hopes all things
endures all things
In Phillipians 4:8, Paul advises us to think on things that
are:
true
noble
just
pure
lovely
of good report
of any virtue
worthy of praise
In Colossians 3:12-16, the church members are told to put on (wear) these things:
tender mercies
kindness
humility
meekness
patience
Then, they are further instructed
to:
bear with one another
forgive one another
love
let the peace of God rule their hearts
be thankful
have the Word live in them
teach and admonish one another
sing with grace in their hearts
All of these lists are describing a Christian's character. There was no word in there about being given the Midas touch for resolving all financial woes. There's not even the slightest signal in there about tongues being the evidence of the Spirit's presence. There's nothing about crusading for a just society, though there is something about being just. These lists are completely silent about miraculous deeds or the gifts of wisdom or knowledge or discernment as signs of the Spirit's rule within a person.
It sounds instead like a repeated refrain from Jesus (Matt 7:16, 20) that one knows God's followers 'by their fruits'. Or, like Paul's urgings that the Roman church bear fruit for God, or James about being full of mercy and good fruit. Or John the Baptist, or even the proverb which says that "the fruit of righteousness is a tree of life" (an early example of 'fruit' to describe results). These matters of character are the stuff that gives life-ness to life. It is something you are, not just something you do.
In Jeremiah (6:19), God speaks of the disaster which is
about to come, and speaks of it as "the fruit of their plans" -- that which
comes from evil scheming. So bad character can also come to fruition.
The early church continued this concern about how those
with the Spirit develop a character like that of Christ's. Some of them spend
much of their writing time on describing what this character is. Polycarp, for
instance, in his letter to the church in Philippi, wrote that the church's
leaders are to have "a wide compassion for humanity", which does not put off
doing kindnesses. (Think here of Jewish mitzvot ; it's about going beyond merely
doing good, into being someone who is characterized by doing good, to honor God
and for the sake of others.) He, like Paul, also writes about what is not a part
of this character : gossip, the undermining of others, easily believing ill of
others, loose sexual behavior, empty speech, quick temper, and most especially
the eagerness for money.
The early Protestant pietists shared this concern. They
knew from Scripture that if the Spirit dwells in a person, that person will
start taking on the characteristics described as the fruit of the Spirit. The
Spirit works to change Christians so that they have the depth of character the
Bible talks about. It's not automatic or sudden.
Like everything else in this
broken world and its broken people, it's something that arises in part, not
completely, in this life. We are always 'under construction', just like any good
web site is. Many later pietists and Holiness believers, unfortunately, forgot
how deeply marred we are by sin, and saw failure to live in these 'fruit' as
proof that the Spirit was not at work. This resulted in a new legalism made of a
decision to obey behavioral rules rooted in law, not in a soul which grew
through the Spirit's work to bear good fruit.
We don't need to turn to the Law to give rise to character
in ourselves and our children.
We need to turn to the Spirit, and understand that the
Spirit will be working overtime to change us, working literally till Kingdom
come, refashioning us into being like Christ.
The early church understood this. They instead took each
other aside and corrected each other, and those who understood the Christian way
best (especially the apostles) taught it to the others. Even the apostles were
not above correction, as Paul so sharply points out in Galatians. They
understood that by way of mutual education and the use of discernment, in the
power of the Holy Spirit, they could grow as Christians. The evidence of that
growth was the fruit.
ON RECONCILIATION AND UNITY
Unity is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
But not always immediately. Jesus' work set father against son and mother
against daughter, and the Spirit takes after Jesus' ministry. In Acts 15, even
though the Jerusalem Council was being guided by the Spirit, division arose. It
takes some wrestling with the matter, a struggling done with an attitude of
submission, of 'show us, Spirit!'. While this is going on, we may differ, even
vigorously. But the disagreement itself can be part of the process the Spirit
uses to get the matter sorted out.
Often what results is a surprising unity, in which we have
spiritually grown and stepped toward the future in a vision for mission.
Sometimes the disunity may represent differing paths which may have to co-exist
in tension, at least for a while, to inform and correct each other. Either
result can be fully in keeping with the Spirit's work.
The organism known as the Christian Church is able to hold
and to benefit from the human race's many cultures, outlooks, theologies,
histories and styles. Yet that Church can only be whole when it embraces and
sustains the whole truth. That means not just being broad in most ways, it also
means being clear about what to reject.
Conformity and uniformity tend to be deadening, but at
specific times may be crucial to the task at hand. Try, for instance, fighting
to defend one's country against invaders. If everyone had a different type of
gun, the supply of munitions would be impossible and the nation would fall. Or,
can you picture how repairs would be done if every individual car's parts were
all unique to that particular car? The core identity of the Christian faith is
what identifies church from non-church, it is what allows us to operate
together, even for a moment, even on any one matter, as if we were one body. In
a way, we are, or so says the Bible.
_________________
SUMMARY
Where there are 'the fruits of the Spirit', the Spirit is at work. We can trust that.
We can't be godly apart from the Spirit; we just don't have that ability.
As a matter of our nature, we are hell-bent on getting what we desire. Even the best of what we are gets twisted by this inner drive.
God has a very different way, and wants us to follow it. Since we can't, the Spirit grows us up, cleans us up, and makes good ('fruit') come from us.
Each person in the Spirit has a different share of each
fruit, and each fruit has a different shape in each person.......
but all the fruits will show themselves in each Christian as he or she goes deeper into their walk with the Spirit.
_______________________
