The Fruit Test
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).
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( 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;
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.
This is all to be done in the name of Jesus, to further
the purposes He came for.
WHAT IS IT? WHERE IS IT FROM?
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.
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.
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