The Fruit of the Spirit is not a watermelon. Nor is it several attributes we may or may not receive from the Holy Spirit after we are saved. The Fruit of the Spirit is singular - it is 9 attributes that all make up one fruit. We receive this fruit when we are saved and growth in them is a by-product of our salvation and part of our transformation.
Join us as we delve into the Fruit of the Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. How do we bear the Fruit of the Spirit? How do we grow them? How are we transformed by them?
Thanks for tuning in! Be sure to check out everything Proverbs 9:10 on our website, www.proverbs910ministries.com! You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Rumble, YouTube, Twitter, Truth Social, and Gettr!
The Fruit of the Spirit is not a watermelon. Nor is it several attributes we may or may not receive from the Holy Spirit after we are saved. The Fruit of the Spirit is singular - it is 9 attributes that all make up one fruit. We receive this fruit when we are saved and growth in them is a by-product of our salvation and part of our transformation.
Join us as we delve into the Fruit of the Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. How do we bear the Fruit of the Spirit? How do we grow them? How are we transformed by them?
Thanks for tuning in! Be sure to check out everything Proverbs 9:10 on our website, www.proverbs910ministries.com! You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Rumble, YouTube, Twitter, Truth Social, and Gettr!
Episode 126 – Transformed to Bear Fruit
Welcome Back! So today’s episode may involve a lot of transformation for some of us. We are going to talk about the Fruit of the Spirit. And, Chris, we need to start off right off the bat, noting that it’s Fruit of the Spirit, not fruits of the Spirit. This implies that all attributes listed in Galatians 5 are a package deal.
A lot of people do assume that it is fruits and that the 9 characteristics listed – Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – are all separate fruits that we need to strive for and work on.
Before we get into the fruit of the Spirit, though, let’s spend a few minutes talking about something that many Christians often link to the fruit of the Spirit, and that’s Spiritual gifts. They are not the same, but they are often linked. I’m not sure how many churches still use them today, but 10, 15, 20 years ago, a big tool churches used to help its members get plugged in was what was called a “Spiritual Gifts Survey.” It was a survey of like 100 questions that you answered and then you got results that showed areas you were strongly gifted in and areas you were weaker in. This survey was based on passages in Romans 12, 1 Cor.12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4 where Paul and Peter talk about different gifts of the Spirit that Paul says in Romans 12:6 are given in varying degrees to believers because the church is one body made up of many members and those members do not all have the same function. The Holy Spirit gives us different gifts according to the grace given to us, and we are to use them for the glory of God. Paul and Peter lists gifts like service, teaching, exhortation, generosity, leadership, mercy, evangelism, wisdom, faith, discernment to name just some.
It’s interesting and important to note that in all 4 of those passages that talk about Spiritual gifts, Paul and Peter both presuppose listing gifts the Holy Spirit may give believers with an exhortation. And all the exhortations are the same, just worded differently – be humble, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the Gospel, and any spiritual gifts you receive are for the good of the church and God’s glory. Some of us may receive several Spiritual gifts, while other may only receive one or two. Paul and Peter’s point is that none of the gifts are given to you because you are smarter, better, or a harder worker than someone else. They are given, according to God’s pleasure, to be used for the good of the church and for His glory. And that brings us back to the Spiritual gifts survey you mentioned earlier that was big a few years ago, and is still be used by some. And we don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, because our main purpose in this episode is to be transformed to bear fruit, and we want to get to that.
The idea behind these Spiritual gift surveys is that you should use the gifts you are strong in to serve in the church. For example, many, many years ago, when I took this survey, my strongest gifts came out Administration, Teaching, and Discernment. As a result, I taught Sunday School and became the treasurer of the church. While on the surface, you wouldn’t think there is anything wrong with these surveys, they do cause a problem – on a few levels. They cause us to say, okay, here is where God has gifted me – teaching, for example, so I should be teaching. And that is the only area you want to serve in. In addition, we often forget the other end of the scale – the gifts we score very low in. If, let’s say, we score really low in mercy, it can make us avoid serving in any mercy ministry in the church or anywhere. We aren’t gifted in mercy, why would we set ourselves up for failure and harm God’s mercy ministries? This survey can make us just write off the areas we aren’t strong it as oh, well, that’s just not my thing. And as we said last week, we need to be open to try new things – especially if there is a need in the church.
And really, these Spiritual gift surveys are basically personality tests, which is why you can take them years apart and still get the same results. They are helpful for assessing where your personality or talents could be utilized in the church and where you would probably enjoy serving, but it’s not necessarily your gifting from the Holy Spirit nor is it necessarily where GOD wants you to serve. Going back to getting a low score in mercy – none of us are exempt from showing mercy – absolutely none of us. We won’t all be called to be missionaries in a third world country, but we are to show mercy to everyone around us. That was the whole point of the good Samaritan parable Jesus told. When Jesus asked the lawyer who was a neighbor to the man who was robbed, the lawyer said the one who showed him mercy. Then Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” So it’s very possible that an area you are weak in, like mercy, is the area God is calling you to so you can strengthen it.
And to that point, Tim Challies looked into spiritual gifts tests and found that a man named James Sundquist researched if there was any biblical model for them and found this: He couldn’t find “one single Scripture that says finding our gift was EVER a problem for the Church, not Scripture instructing how to find our gift, nor that finding our gift was a problem for the Church Fathers, nor one single Scripture which uses a subjective balance of weighing our strengths and weaknesses to determine our gifts of the Holy Spirit, nor any Scripture that uses personality to determine our course in Christ or in the church, nor Scripture that instructs us to come up with a numerical value or rating system to find our gift, and …Anything we do in Christ in not through our strengths, but is perfected in weakness.”
That’s a very important point! And one more thing he found, was that the vast majority of spiritual gifts surveys are drawn from the teachings of Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who believes in a theory called “the collective unconscious” – a belief that human beings are connected to each other and their ancestors through a shared set of experiences. He’s about as far from Christianity as you can get. And really quickly, I’ll mention another test some churches are using to find people’s gifts and that’s an Enneagram, which is similar to the Meyers -Briggs personality tests. It gives you a number as a result and then that number is interpreted. In the words of Joe Carter of the Gospel Coalition, “We definitely should be concerned when the Enneagram is being used, as many Catholics have, as a form of Gnostic-based numerology. We shouldn’t be seeking divination from a tool that was developed by someone who claims it was handed to him in a vision from what sounds suspiciously like a demon.”
So all this to say, you don’t need to take a survey to find your Spiritual gifts. We all know our natural abilities and interests. And it’s important that we are open to God possibly stretching us to grow in areas we aren’t necessarily strong in. The Holy Spirit will use our natural abilities for sure and gift us to use them in service to God, but we should be working on cultivating all the gifts. That would be called transformation! Besides, we all at some level use all the gifts mentioned by Paul and Peter – except those that were only meant for the 1st century to start the church. Let’s take teaching for example. You may not be naturally gifted to teach in front of many, but we all need to grow in teaching, because we are all required to be a teacher at some level. We are all called to teach the Gospel to our children, our neighbors, or anyone else we get the opportunity to.
Maybe the gift of giving comes our low on our survey because we were poor growing up and we are worried about being in that situation again. Therefore, we do not give generously. In this case, part of our transformation is to learn to trust God with our material wealth and trust that we can be generous. Learn to trust that He will take care of giving us all we need. Okay, so that’s all we are going to say on Spiritual gifts. Now to the Fruit of the Spirit – which is different. While believers have different amounts and different Spiritual gifts bestowed on them by the Holy Spirit, the Fruit of the Spirit is different. It is the result of us being regenerated, saved, having the Holy Spirit indwell in us, and cooperating with the Holy Spirit to kill our old sinful self, and more and more resemble Jesus.
Paul says in Galatians 5:17 - 24, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh for they are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
And we can compare Paul’s words to Jesus’ words in Luke 6:43 – 45, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” The way we, and the world, will know that we truly belong to Jesus is by our fruit. Our fruit doesn’t save us, but if we aren’t producing any fruit, most likely, we a bad tree and still operating in the desires of our flesh, and are not saved.
So let’s look at this fruit that we should be more and more seeing in our life. As we said, we can’t pick and choose, all 9 of these attributes Paul mentions should be growing in us, transforming us more and more. And we’ll say up front that, because we are all different, with different personalities, some of these will come easier than others.
And like the beatitudes, these aren’t meant to make us feel guilty because we don’t have them perfected. We will never have them perfected on this side of heaven. Like the beatitudes, they aren’t a to do list that we are striving to check off. Love, check, joy, check, peace, ooh gotta get that perfected so I can check it off and make God happy with me. If that’s how we approach them, we will fail and feel discouraged. Again, like the beatitudes, what they are is a picture of Kingdom life and the characteristics God’s people can have now that they are no longer slaves to their sin, their flesh, or Satan. They are only possible because of the indicatives we see in Scripture. Indicatives are descriptions of what God has done for us. In light of those indicatives, we can (and sometimes are commanded to) do other things. Because we have had our hearts regenerated and are no longer slaves to sin, our flesh, and Satan, and because we have the Holy Spirit living in us sanctifying us to more and more resembles Jesus, we can have the attributes described in the Fruit of the Spirit.
Exactly. And while the list of the Spirit's fruit is not a list of imperatives (meaning commands), they are an invitation to exercise and grow in your new nature – the new nature God has given you. If we approach them as the ideals of Kingdom life, and with the attitude that while we will never get them perfect, we can and should be growing in them, we will see a true transformation in ourselves.
They will be what sets us apart from the rest of the world. And we said that Fruit of the Spirit is singular. That’s because they are a package deal. Being really weak in one is not an excuse to blow it off. Just like we said being weak in the gift of mercy doesn’t excuse you from being merciful and seeking to grow more merciful, neither does being weak in one of the attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit excuse you from intentionally trying to growing in them. That’s true transformation. That’s being transformed by the renewing of our minds to know the will of God and know what is good and acceptable and perfect. Okay, so Chris, let’s start with love.
Lots and lots of verses on love, but let’s start with the reason we are to love, and that’s found in 1 John 4:19 – 21, “We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” We have been shown what perfect love looks like – in fact we used the earlier verse from 1 John 4 for the episode on fear – perfect love drives out fear. Just to repeat, that perfect love is God’s love for us – it’s Jesus! Jesus has given us a flesh and blood model of what real love looks like. It’s not a gushy emotion – although it should hopefully spark warm feelings for people in you – but at its core, it’s not an emotion, it’s an action. Jesus was GOD and He temporally laid aside His glory to be trapped in a prison of flesh so He could show the world God and save His people. He was mocked, harassed, arrested, betrayed, beaten, and ultimately killed, yet He resolutely moved forward despite all that, knowing what He was doing was in the best interest of His people. That is real love! Putting your own interests aside and doing what is best for someone else regardless of the cost to you. Jesus exhorts us to do exactly this in John 15:12 – 14, “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”
So the first good fruit we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to cultivate is love. Learning to put others before ourselves. Being so thankful and humbled at what Jesus did for us, that it is our pleasure to do exactly that. So we should periodically check ourselves – are we putting others before ourselves. Are we concerned with the well being of others over our own well being? Or is this an area that we need to pray about and ask the Holy Spirit to convict us and grow us? The next fruit of the Spirit is joy. We’ve all heard that there is a difference between joy and happiness. Chris, you want to explain what real joy is?
The best definition of joy is contentment and gladness that is not in any way tied to your circumstances. It is, though, directly tied to your salvation. We’ve said this before, but if all God ever did was save us, that would be so much more than we deserve. Joy is truly knowing that. It’s knowing that God has already fulfilled your biggest need – your separation from Him and being under His wrath. He has conquered your biggest enemies, sin, Satan, and death. And He has given you His Holy Spirit to indwell in you while you are on this earth. That is the stuff that real joy is tied to and that is why a believer should be joyful regardless if the world around us is dark and dangerous.
Further, Jesus in His High Priestly Prayer in John 17 says in verse 6 and then 13 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. . . But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” So, Chris, even though those reasons you gave to have joy are more than enough to warrant it, Jesus goes even further. He prays that His people will have joy based on all He taught us while He was on earth. Those things include forgiveness, fellowship with other believers, unity in the church, being a light to the world, sharing the Gospel with others, serving others, and we could go on and on. But the point is, that doing Kingdom work is what should make us joyful. That’s the reason that Paul and Silas, after being beaten and chained up in prison could spend the nights singing hymns! It’s why the only way we know Paul wrote letters from prison is by using dating in Scripture. When we read Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon, there is no indication of the severe affliction Paul was suffering from being in prison. When he does mention it, it’s only to give glory to God and say that that is where his joy is found – not in his circumstances.
In John 16:22, at the last supper, Jesus tells His Apostles, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” Our salvation is sealed for eternity. God, who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. And all the while, we have God, Himself indwelling in us to grow us and be with us every second we have to spend on earth. THAT is the joy that no one can take away. And we said that joy and happiness aren’t necessarily linked, but the truth is, joyful people are much happier people. They learn to live in the moment and be grateful for everything God has given them. So you could say that joy results in real happiness. And the next fruit correlates with joy and that is peace.
They definitely are similar, but while joy is a feeling of constant gratitude for all God has done for us, peace is a constant feeling of contentment knowing that God is sovereign and in control of every molecule in the universe at all times. It’s knowing that God uses everything – even the horrible stuff we may have to endure for our spiritual good and for His glory. Peace is what results when you are transformed to crush the fear factor. It’s a lack of fear! Peace is freedom from anxiety, worry, and dark thoughts. As Paul tells us in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Peace, or irene in Greek, is a term that carries several connotations. It was used in the Greek culture to mean the state of goodwill between parties from which come all blessings for land and people. And, of course, we are all probably familiar with the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom. Shalom has connotations of material benefits that is particularly a gift from God. It is a result of God’s intent to save His people as Psalm 85:8 shows us, “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints.”
Here’s what Ligonier Ministries says about the fruit of peace, “This peace that Jesus Christ gives to us leads us to partake fully of spiritual blessings “in the heavenly places”, including access into the Lord’s presence. But it is not a merely spiritual peace; its benefits are also physical. We will enjoy these favors in total when our bodies are resurrected to life in the new heavens and new earth. And even today we can expect, though not as a given, physical and material provisions as firstfruits of this inheritance.” Yes, peace is knowing that God is the Almighty, sovereign Creator, Sustainer and Master over everything, but it’s also knowing that because of Jesus, we are at peace with God. Ever wonder why Jesus is called the Prince of Peace when He says that He did not come to bring peace, but division? That’s because for His people, He is the Prince of Peace. He has given them peace with God – reconciliation with God. If we belong to Him, we are no longer under God’s wrath and have nothing to fear from Him.
And I’ll throw one more reason out there why we can have peace no matter what. 1 Cor. 14:33 says, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” Paul is using peace in this context to mean that God is not chaotic or random. We saw this over and over again when we did the study on Revelation. No matter how chaotic and out of control things in the world may seem, they aren’t. They are part of God’s perfect plan and purpose. We don’t have to be thrown off by things that happen to us, because God has everything well in hand. And, Chris, all these things we just pointed out are exactly why Paul says in Phil. 4:6 – 7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
We said some might be tougher for us than others, and the next one can be a tough one sometimes – Patience. People tend to think patience is the ability to wait, but it’s more than that. Patience is defined as slow to speak and slow to anger – it’s basically restraint that keeps us from speaking or acting hastily even when we are faced with frustration, disappointment, disagreement, opposition, or even hostility. Paul tells Timothy in 1 Tim 1:15 – 16, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worse. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”
Scripture is full of passages about God’s patience or long suffering. We looked at some in the episode on bringing God glory. And, let’s be honest, we have no chance of having the kind of patience that God does on this side of heaven. But because we have been, and continue to be, the recipient of God’s patience, we can grow and transform to pay that patience forward. Proverbs 14:29 says, “A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.” And there’s a very practical reason why this is true. When we are talking, we learn nothing. It is only by listening that we learn. So if we are hot to have our opinion, our frustration, or our issue voiced, we may be missing out on listening and fully understanding the situation. And that is folly. If you are so bound and determined to ball out a slow cashier because you are now late for an appointment, you might miss the sadness or distress in her eyes or voice that would tell you something terrible happened to her today.
And along those lines, Prov. 15:17 says, “A hot tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.” That’s because, like we said, when you are quick to listen and slow to speak, you can get pretty good insight into what’s really going on. But if you fly off the handle and are only concerned that your voice is heard and your needs are met, you’ll not only accomplish nothing, you will be conforming to the world. Insisting on their own way and that their voice be heard is exactly what the world does. But in light of the incredible patience God showed, and continues to show us, Paul can exhort us to, “warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.” (1Thes 5:14)
Okay, the next one ties directly in with mercy like we talked about earlier. And that’s kindness. First, what kindness isn’t. Kindness isn’t niceness. Jesus was always kind, but there were plenty of times where he wasn’t “nice” by the world’s standards. Kindness is being merciful and tender. It’s having a sweet temperament that puts other people at ease instead of being intimidated by you. And, again, kindness isn’t niceness. It isn’t watering down truth or condoning or ignoring sin so you don’t hurt someone’s feelings – that’s niceness. And nowhere in Scripture are we called to be “nice” by that definition. However, we are called to be kind. Believers are supposed to be winsome according to Paul in Col. 4:6, “Let your speech at all times be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer each one.” We cannot be salt and light to the world if no one wants to be around us or listen to us. We have to show others respect, mercy, and tenderness. And, as always, Jesus is our model. Titus 3:4 says, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”
Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O Man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.” A Place for Truth compares what they call the false kindness of the world with real Biblical kindness. They say, “False kindness is being useful to others only when it is useful to me. It will appear at advantageous times, such as when we are being observed, or around those we like, or to get what we want. False kindness is touted by the world as a slogan or a feeling. False kindness is Judas Iscariot feigning concern for the poor while skimming off the top of the money bag.
But true kindness is generous. It flows freely and impartially to those we disagree with, those we hardly know, and those who cannot thank us. True kindness looks odd to the world. It means meeting the needs of others, without the need for recognition. It means self sacrifice, without the thought of self preservation. True kindness is the Samaritan, who reached into his own pocket to meet the needs of a suffering enemy stranger.
And a fruit of the Spirit that is the older sibling of kindness is goodness. The dictionary defines “goodness” as the quality of being morally good or virtuous. But that’s not the Biblical definition. We defined God’s goodness in an earlier episode as His care, concern, protection, grace, generosity, and mercy towards His children. This is the Biblical definition of goodness. And if you really look at that definition, you quickly see why Jesus says nobody but God is good. However, when we are made a new creation, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can be transformed to display goodness (even though it will be flawed). Basically, the fruit of goodness is being generous and gracious to others with no ulterior motives.
Psalm 23:6 – a former memory verse – says, “surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Eph. 5:8 – 10 says, “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.” Before we are saved, we are evil. Our old self was dead, it was an enemy of God, and it was evil. But we were made a new creation when we were saved. We are no longer evil. What’s the opposite of evil? Good! And, again, we won’t get this right while we are on earth, but no longer being evil is a good place to start!
We called goodness the older sibling of kindness because goodness goes further than kindness. Kindness is being merciful and tender with others so as to put them as ease. Goodness is the ability to do and say the right thing in kindness. It is not just saying the right thing, its knowing what the right thing to say is and saying it in kindness. And it goes even further. Goodness is reaching out in kindness to those undeserving of our kindness. It is being like God who offered us His kindness and goodness in Christ when we were undeserving of it. As Dr. Jeffrey Stivason puts it, “Goodness will not wither because goodness has a Christological fortitude that cannot be shaken by the sticks and stones of the world. To put it another way, this goodness is the fruit of the kindness of God that overcame our own opposition.”
And as Paul tells us in Galatians in the chapter right after the he lists the fruit of the Spirit, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Gal 6:9 – 10) All the attributes of the fruit of the Spirit, especially goodness, can be tough at times, and downright exhausting at other times. Let’s be honest, there are times we don’t want to be selfless, generous, and gracious. And things were the same even back to Paul’s time, which is why he admonishes us not to grow weary of doing good, but press on. Can you imagine if God got weary of doing good and stopped saving those He elected? What if He called it quits in the 1600’s thinking He has plenty of children already, He’s not going to worry about the others. He’s tired of dealing with sinful, ungrateful humans. Now, of course, this would never happen, but Paul’s point is that we can’t do this either because there is a harvest out there – and God has called us to be harvesters. Does He need us, no, but He calls us to be part of the process. And since He has promised goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, shouldn’t it be our privilege to pay that forward?
And not giving up leads very nicely into the next attribute of the fruit of the Spirit – faithfulness. Faithfulness is a firm, loyal devotion to God. It’s being dependable and trustworthy. The reason we can be faithful – i.e have a firm loyal devotion to God and be dependable and trustworthy – is because God is faithful. He is sovereign and working out His plan and purpose which is always for our good and His glory. As Lamentations 3:21 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” The Book of Lamentations is made up of five poems that mesh to form one huge lament. It is a corporate lament expressing God’s people’s sorrow, repentance, and plea for deliverance. The people were lamenting because through Jeremiah, God told the nation of Judah they would be overthrown by Babylon because of their sin and idolatry. But as the verse in Lam. 3 we quoted says, great is God’s faithfulness. God did punish the nation of Judah. They were in exile in Babylon for 70 years, but He didn’t leave them there. He brought them back to Himself. God is always faithful to His people. As our memory verse from Joshua 1:9 says, “The Lord Your God will be with you wherever you go.”
The despair of the people we see in Lamentations was caused by the faithlessness of man. Even though they received warning after warning about their sin, and even saw the Northern nation of Israel overthrown by Assyria, they still kept up with their idolatry and faithlessness to God. In contrast to that, the hope we see in Lamentations like in verse 3:21 shows the faithfulness of God. We can be faithful because as Hebrews 3:6 tells us, “Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold onto our courage and the hope of which we boast.” Because we have the Holy Spirit in us, we can be faithful to God. Because we know God is constantly working on our behalf, we can put our complete trust in Him., and we in turn can be trustworthy in the handling of His truth. And just as we are not to grow weary of doing good, Proverbs 3:3 says, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Jesus has some strong words that show us how important our faithfulness is. And this ties in with why we need to crush the fear factor and be transformed to contend and not to cower or cave. He says in Rev. 2:10, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Okay, 2 more to go. Gentleness is next. Gentleness is similar to kindness in that we should not be intimidating, but it does even further. To be gentle is to be calm, humble and non threatening. It is not timidity or weakness. In fact, gentleness comes from a place of strength and confidence. It is someone who can exercise strength appropriately. And our best example for this – Jesus. Matthew quotes Zechariah 9:9 to show this is exactly how Jesus came, “See, your King comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey.”
Jesus tells us Himself that He is gentle in Matthew 11:27 – 28 when He says, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jesus was the most powerful man who ever lived – He is God incarnate. But never did Jesus bully people with His power. Instead, He tempered His power with gentleness. He stood for truth when necessary, and even tossed tables over, but He was quick to show mercy to those who humbled themselves before Him and were repentant.
Interestingly, the other major covenant mediator in Scripture – Moses is also described as being gentle. Numbers 12:3 tells us that Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, was “very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” Meek here is a synonym for gentleness. So, Chris, given all this, I think it’s safe to say that gentleness is imperative. God isn’t looking for His people to bully others into believing His truth. He doesn’t want us shaming or demeaning people as a way to get them to believe. Like we said, Christians are to be winsome. And a gentle spirit is definitely more attractive than a know-it-all bully. Paul confirms this very thing in 1 Cor 4:21, “What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip or in love and with a gentle spirit?”
He reiterates this in Phil. 4:4 -5, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all.” And notice how Paul is linking other attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit with gentleness. We can be gentle when we rejoice in the Lord – that would be having the attributes of joy and peace. And they are all related. All of the 9 attributes are one fruit – they are all part of being a whole Christian. And that brings us to the last attribute, which is definitely linked to the others – self-control. Self- control can be defined as being able to restrain one’s emotions, actions and desires. It’s being in harmony with the will of God and living for God, not ourselves. Self-control is closely tied to gentleness. God does not exercise His power arbitrarily or chaotically. As we said, He is orderly and precise. Even when Jesus comes back and the wicked are judged, God will not go all hog wild on them. He has an orderly plan of judgement and punishment already in place.
Jesus showed tremendous self-control while He walked the earth. 1 Peter 2:23 – “When His accusers hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when Jesus suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” And the greatest example of self-control was Jesus in the garden. Luke 22:41 – 42, “On the night he was betrayed he knelt down and prayed, Father, if you are willing, take this cusp from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.” Talk about restraining your emotions, actions and desires! Jesus, fully Man, didn’t want to drink the cup of God’s wrath. And since He was fully God, He could have easily backed out, but He didn’t. He didn’t because the Trinity had this plan in place from before creation and He had enough self-control to know that it wasn’t about His feelings, it was about God’s redemptive plan for His people.
And, of course, we aren’t God. We will never have the self-control Jesus had this side of heaven. But, we can emulate Him – in fact, like we’ve been saying for weeks – that is our transformation – to more and more resemble Jesus. And Scripture gives us verses that show us how to display self-control. Prov. 29:11, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” Titus 2:11 – 12, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say No to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” And 1 Peter 4:7, “The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.”
Showing and growing in the Fruit of the Spirit is definitely a sign that we are truly saved and belong to Jesus. Like we said, it is not meant to be a to do list to check off as you master each one – and that’s a good thing because none of us will master any of them. It is meant to transform us into the new creation we have been made. To help us walk in the Spirit and more and more deny the desires of the flesh. People often say they want to be more holy or more righteous. Developing the Fruit of the Spirit will do that. Dr. R.C. Sproul has noted how important it is that Scripture gives the third person of the Trinity the title Holy Spirit. Although the Bible certainly understands the Father and the Son to be holy, they are not given the titles Holy Father or Holy Son. This difference points to the special role of the Spirit in helping us become holy in practice.
And this happens by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, along with our cooperating to pursue holiness. We started out talking out the Spiritual gifts believers may receive. But nowhere are we told that we are to pursue those gifts – they are something that we may or may not receive according to God’s pleasure. However, we are told to pursue the fruit of the Spirit. It’s not an option. We should see all of the fruit listed in Gal. 5:22 -23 in our lives. And we should be growing in them.
You’ve probably guessed that our memory verse is Gal. 5:22 – 23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control.” Our hope is that by memorizing those verses and the 9 attributes of the fruit of the Spirit, they will be on our mind and in our heart ready for us to put them on display to show the world that we are not conformed to it, but have been transformed by our glorious, gracious God!
And that’s a good place to end for today. Have a blessed day everyone!