Because they did not receive a love of the truth, God sent them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Today I would like for us to study the fruit of the Spirit, or we might better say the fruits of the Spirit. It’s an astonishing fact, and a very encouraging one, that the Spirit of God, the very inner life of God Himself has come to live and dwell in us.

Before the Spirit could come and live permanently in mankind, the Eternal Son of God took on our human nature, lived as a human without sin, paid the sacrifice for the sins of mankind, overcame death, and took His human body and our human nature with Him to heaven. In a stable in Bethlehem, almost 2000 years ago, God became a human being; and He is still a human being. Oh, He is God too. He never left off being God. But even in His glorified state, He is still the God-Man. 

Paul made that clear when he spoke as follows: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men — the testimony given in its proper time.”  

He still is able to sympathize with us as our High Priest. 

Hebrew 4:14-15: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weak-nesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin.” 

But the most amazing truth in all this is that the same Divine-Human life that Christ lived is now ours. We have the very life of God dwelling permanently in our spirits, changing us “from glory to glory” into the very image of the glorified Christ. 

2 Cor. 3:17-18: “Now the Lord [Jesus] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord [Jesus] is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s [Jesus’s] glory, are being transformed into His [Jesus’s] likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 

So the fruit of the Spirit we are considering today is nothing more or less than the character, the moral qualities of the Glorified Jesus Christ, who has joined once and for all the nature of God with the nature of man!  The life and nature of Christ is so implanted in us, so imbedded, we might say, that He actually dwells in us AS US. Now this is a dangerous idea, so I want to be clear. The Spirit of Christ in us is not us. We will never be God, or even little gods. We will always be creatures with an infinite distance between us and the Creator.  And yet....  And yet Peter says that we “participate in the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:3).  As we shall see, in the indwelling of Christ in us it is nearly impossible to distinguish His Spirit from ours. 

And the scripture we are about to study shows that the Spirit’s fruit is our character.

It is the Spirit’s fruit, but it is harvested in our character, and our growing likeness to Christ. So the Spirit’s love in us is our love, His long-suffering in us is our long-suffering, and so on. 

Galatians 5:14-23:  “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature [flesh]. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” 

The fruit of the Spirit is fruit which the Spirit produces, just as the fruit of the orange tree is oranges, the fruit of the vine is grapes. The Spirit bears the image of Christ into our spirits and there reproduces Himself and Jesus Christ IN US. In past times men lived by law, a code of conduct external to them. Oh, some had the law ‘written in their hearts’; that is, they loved God and His law so much that they internalized it. But still the Law was outside of them. The New Law, the Law of Christ, is wholly internal; in fact, it is Christ Himself living in us. That’s why those who live by the Spirit will obey the law automatically. The fruit of the Spirit, Love, will fulfill the whole law by obeying it in letter and spirit. If Christ is being formed in us (Gal. 4:19), then we do not need external rules to make us behave.  If I love my brother, I will not covet his possessions. If I love my neighbor, no one needs to tell me not to kill him. Love fulfills the whole Law.  Now, let us examine each fruit of the Spirit. They are:  

Love   The flesh, our fallen, sinful nature, is all centered in US. Unregenerate human nature is basically self-centered. Even when we do good deeds, we have an eye open for how it makes us look, what praise we can get for it. Love is different. Love puts others before ourselves. 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” (I Cor. 13:4-6).  Love is the prince of all virtues. It is, in a sense, the root out of which all other virtues grow as branches. And the goal of all Law, the aim of every commandment, is “love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a genuine faith” (I Tim. 1:5).  Love is, to use another metaphor, “the bond of perfection,” the glue that holds it all together” (Col. 3:14). 

Joy   Because our sins are forgiven, and because we are so grateful for the salvation we enjoy, there is a rising up of joy in our hearts. Paul repeatedly reminds his converts that they ought to cultivate the joy that comes from gratitude. “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice” (Phil. 4:4); “Rejoice always...” (I Thess. 5:16). The Kingdom of God does not consist of food and drink, but of “righteous-ness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). Our hope in God is ample grounds for an ongoing joy that does not depend on circumstances: “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.” (Rom. 15:14). 

Peace    We saw above how often Paul joins peace with joy; indeed, they are twins.

The peace with God because of sins forgiven and the tokens of His love, and the trust in His power to save us “to the uttermost,” the hope of eternal happiness, should all well up in our souls as joy. When joy is lacking in a Christian’s life, it is a sign that one has lost sight (perhaps only temporarily) of God’s mercies and grace. In the same way, when we are out of peace, anxious, disturbed, it is a sign that we have lost sight for the time of God’s wonderful power to deliver and keep us. Peace should be a guardian over our hearts through confidence in God (Phil 4:7). It should be an umpire judging our thoughts and emotions (Col. 3:15). 

Patience     Patience is also called long-suffering because it implies that we endure something we would not choose. Jesus “endured the cross, scorning its shame.” Jesus did not regard the shame and suffering because of the joy set before Him and because of his love for mankind (Heb. 12:2; John 3:16). Patience, along with kindness and goodness, are branches of the heavenly virtue of love: “Love is patient, love is kind.” Patience comes from a habitual disregard of ones feelings. Love is “not self-seeking,” and is therefore patient. 

Kindness    Love is kind. When we do not act in kindness, we are not acting in love. Almost all beings, human or animals, respond to kindness. It was kindness which led the Good Samaritan to help where others did not. A kind person “always protects,” has what used to be call chivalry. What we call good manners grew out of the virtues of kindness and goodness. A well-mannered person is not intrusive, is considerate of other’s feelings, takes care not to embarass anyone or put anyone “on the spot.”  A kind person “It is not rude.”  Can you see how a person all wrapped up in himself or herself would be neither mannerly nor kind?  

Goodness     Goodness is a comprehensive word, which sums up many of the qualities of love.  Love “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...” Once again, such virtues as kindness and goodness are impossible for one who is demanding of his rights and comforts and who has little regard for the welfare of others? 

Faithfulness.   Love is dependable and trustworthy. Love “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Faithfulness is an absolute necessity in a relationship, whether it is marriage, friendship, or business. The Bible tells us, however, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Prov. 27:6). Young people sometimes misunderstand the obligations of friendship. They will go along with friends in doing wrong, or at least they will cover up the wrong. But “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” Love will sometimes require that we tell our friends hard truths and turn away from friends who persist in wrongdoing or try to lead us astray. A friend is not obliged to support us in doing wrong, or self-destructive things. Love always protects, but it looks to the higher and greater needs of a friend. On the positive side, we always know that a faithful friend is there, pulling for us, helping us, looking out for our eternal welfare. 

Gentleness    “Easy does it,” we sometimes say, indicating that gentleness is required in some situations. But not in all situations. Gentleness will not work with a raging bull or a hardened criminal, or an armed enemy. Gentleness is not appease-ment. Appeasement always acts out of weakness; gentleness acts out of controlled strength. We should never mistake gentleness for weakness.  The KJV translates this as “meekness.”  Jesus said, “I am meek...” Jesus was a Lion who behaved like a Lamb. Meekness makes me think of a powerful stallion willingly yielding to the reins, or of a mighty bull allowing itself to be led into a stall. Moses was meek, but no one ever thought of Moses as weak. The meek are going to inherit the earth: so it must really be true that “easy does it.” 

Self-control     Ah, self-control!  Wouldn’t we all like more of that?  Notice that self-control involves SELF. Since love puts others before self, love is also the key to self-control. Many people are very self-indulgent—in eating and drinking, in temper (love is not easily angered), in spending money, in their entertainment, in nearly everything. Let me tell you something I had to learn and tried to teach our children. Just because I feel bad, or am in a bad mood, that does not give me the right to inflict my feelings on others. There’s a saying, “If Mama ain’t happy, NOBODY is happy!” That shouldn’t be the case, should it? More often than not, though, it’s Daddy whose selfish indulgence of his dark moods casts a cloud over a household. It just isn’t right; it isn’t love. We need to control our tempers, our mouths, our appetites, and our thoughts.

The fruit of the Spirit is the character and image of Christ being brought forth in our lives and personalities. That's good news.