Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. There is no law against these things!
Verse 22 starts with the word “But” that is a
contrast preposition to the previous verse or passage. Previous verses (19-21) speak of sins (deeds)
of the flesh. Sins of the flesh are in
the plural form meaning that each sin is separate from the others. However, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is in
the singular form (fruit, not fruits) meaning that each fruit is connected with
the others. Therefore, sinful man will
sin in multiple ways (15 specific sins listed), but not all of them. The Spirit-filled man is filled with all 9
spiritual fruits, not just a few of them.
If you have sincere love in heart because of the filling of the Holy
Spirit, then you also have joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness
and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control in your heart. You cannot have one with also having all
eight others.
The
fruit of the Holy Spirit is the character of Christ being formed in the
Christian who is filled with the Spirit.
Nine attributes are the result of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, and peace are fruits of mental
attitude, inward thinking that reflects the lack of mental attitude sins and
the relaxation that comes from knowing Bible truth. These first three fruits directly related to
God; it is the love, joy and peace of God that is in you and allowing you to
manifest (demonstrate) these qualities that you and others notice. Patience
(some translations state long-suffering), kindness, and goodness are outward,
or directed toward "neighbors."
Long-suffering, for example, is a relaxed attitude toward the human
race; a result of having love, joy, and peace.
People and circumstances will always bring stress and pressure into your
life, but spiritual fruit evident in your life will enable you to handle/manage
stress with patience and kindness and goodness.
Faith, gentleness, and self-control are fruits directed inwardly first
that, as developed and practiced, then are directed upward, or God-ward. Gentleness (humility), for example, is a
grace attitude with regard to divine provision that gives glory to God for all
support and blessing in life, rather than taking the attitude that one is
self-made.
When you sincerely ask God every morning to
fill you with His Holy Spirit, after confessing your sins and asking for
forgiveness, His fruit appears within you.
Have you ever sensed this after praying for forgiveness and
filling? It’s truly a supernatural
feeling. You suddenly feel affection for
others that prior to your prayer you felt nothing. You feel joy and peace in your heart despite
the turmoil going on around you. You
feel exuberance for life balanced by serenity.
You feel an inner strength to keep pursuing what you are convicted you
must do. You feel a sense of compassion
in your heart for others and able to direct your energies in ways that benefit
others. Oh, it’s a mind-blowing
experience to be living your life as a Spirit-filled Christian with the
accompanying fruits and what they do for you and what you do for others.
Psalm
1:2-3 describes the person who loves God’s Word and follows it. He is like a tree firmly planted by streams
of water that yields fruit. This is the
fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is
outward manifestation and application of why God created humankind, to be like
God Himself. The fruit of the Holy
Spirit is God’s works in our lives. The
mark of an obedient Christian life is to bear the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. Jesus emphasized this at least
three times--
· John 15:1-6—When branches, representing people, fail to bear fruit, the
vinedresser, representing God, cuts them from the vine, representing the
kingdom of God and burns them. Only
branches bearing fruit remain on the vine that are continuously pruned so that
they will bear even more fruit.
· Luke 13:6-9—God is
patient with people (fig tree) who do not bear fruit, but if the fig tree
continues to fail to bear fruit, it will be cut down.
· Luke 8:5-15—the
parable of the soils where the good soil, representing people who hear and
respond to the Word of God, bear fruit in their lives abundantly.
Do
others see fruit in your daily life? Do
you know for sure that your life is bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God? Are there areas of fruit and fruit bearing in
your life that need strengthening, e.g. feeling more peace, showing more joy,
having better patience, having more self-control, more impact on others’
lives? An open and willing heart to be
obedient to God will enable you to be a Spirit-filled Christian whose life is
filled with fruit and bears fruit in others’ lives.
“The
fruit of the Spirit grows only in the garden of obedience” — Terry Fullam
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