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 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. They are known to be
positive characteristics by the general public, 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 WHICH BEAR '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 purpose 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 (Mt 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 (Rm 7:4), or James (Jm 3:17) about being full
of mercy and good fruit. Or John the Baptist in (Mt 3:8), or even the
proverb (Pv 11:30)
which says that "the fruit of righteousness is a tree of life"
(one of the earliest examples 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 also comes 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 the glory of
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 didn't go around saying that they
had the Holy Spirit and thus needed no human teachers. They instead upbraided 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 fruit 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 catholic ('of the 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.
RECAP
- 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, in the manner of Jesus Christ.
- 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 fruit will show themselves in each Christian as he or she goes deeper into
their walk with the Spirit.
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