Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit       

 

Most of us have grown up learning the Bible and memorizing the Books…that was a tough one in Bible school huh? But how many of us know, truly know what it means to be in the fruit of the Spirit? How many of us live these daily in our lives?

 

First you must know and understand what it is to Love.

1 John 4:7-12 says:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

 

God calls us to love one another as He loved us. Are you an example of love?

 

Second you must have Joy.

Joy that is a fruit of God's Spirit has its roots in the realization of God's purpose and its outworking that transforms us into His image. Biblical joy begins when God calls and we hear the gospel, understand and believe it. Notice this in Isaiah 61:1-3, which Jesus quoted as He began His ministry:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.

This is only the beginning because the process continues. Paul writes in Romans 5:11:

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

And when our time here is done we will long to hear:

Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. (Matthew 25:21)

Next is Peace.

 

Most dictionaries will define "peace" as freedom from war, harmony, concord, agreement, calm, tranquility, serenity, quiet, undisturbed state of mind, absence of mental conflict, contentment, and acceptance of one's state and the absence of anxiety. It will list its antonyms as war, anxiety, disorder, disturbance, disruption, conflict and commotion.

 

In the gospels Jesus did not make many direct statements about peace, but one given on the eve of His crucifixion is very revealing:

 

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

His use of "heart" reveals that the peace in which He is involved while we are in this world is a state of mind. John 16:33 confirms this:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Patience, Kindness and Goodness are the next three to be counted

God clearly holds Jesus up to us as the example of patience we must strive to follow.

For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer for it, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: "Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. (I Peter 2:20-24)

Jesus vividly illustrates the kindness of God in His instruction in the Sermon on the Mount.

You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)

 

 

Moses writes in Deuteronomy 6:18, 24:

And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. . . . And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.

He adds in Deuteronomy 12:28, "Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God."

Faithfulness

Jesus says in His prophetic message about the church:

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. (Matthew 24:45-47).

Meekness

Meekness is so important that Jesus mentions it in His foundational teaching, the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). Obviously, the world's ideal of the perfect man is very different from His. The meek are among those so favored that they will share in Jesus' inheritance of the earth.

 

Self Control

 

In I Corinthians 9:24-27, the apostle Paul strongly advises us to self-control:

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

 

I ask each of you as well as looking inward, what must be done to attain these attributes?

It is our calling by Jesus Christ to learn and live these. To teach others though our actions.

Today I buried my grand-mother, I felt a sense of joy and happiness to hear all of these remembered and seen by others in my grand-mother.

Grandma Pat. "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord."

In Christ,
Rick