“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. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” –Galatians 5:22-26. (ESV)
On the farm where I grew up, we had fruit-bearing trees: apples, peaches, pears, cherries. My father learned the technicalities of grafting to help the trees produce better varieties. Sometimes I watched him do the grafting process and would sometimes cringe when he cut into the bark to graft a branch into the tree. As a small child I imagined the slash and attachment as bringing pain to the tree, much as a similar process would have done to my arm. But the end result of this method of improving the fruit trees on our farm brought delicious fruits at harvest time.
Likewise, the practical Paul, writer of the letter to the Galatians, had sound advice for those who would be fruit-bearing Christians. First, they needed to rid themselves of works of the flesh named in verses 19-21. Herein is a list of quite unbecoming and even pagan behavior. Cast away the unspiritual works of sin.
The fruit of the spirit is desirable and characteristic of a Christian led by the Holy Spirit. In talks about developing these spirit-led characteristics, I have pictured them with graphics. One was a drawing of a bunch with nine grapes, each representing the nine virtues bestowed by the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Another graphic to help learners remember is a building with the foundation as love, the walls made up of joy, peace, patience and goodness, the door of kindness, the windows of faithfulness and gentleness, and the roof of self-control. In whatever way we remember these nine qualities of Spirit-led living, me need diligence in practicing them. They come with daily “crucifying the flesh” which gets in the way of Spirit fruit-bearing. And in this whole lesson from Galatians, we learn that strong verbs indicate whom we follow: We walk in the Spirit, we live by the Spirit, we are led by the Spirit, we keep in step with the Spirit. Much followship, and that daily, is indicated by these positive actions. Rev. J. B. Phillips wrote, “Every time we say ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit,’ we mean that we believe there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.”
Is it hard for you (as it is for me) to list the nine fruits on the cluster of the fruit of the Spirit in order? Rev. Robert J. Morgan in his mnemonic devices for memorization of the scriptures suggests we use the first letters of each word of this prayer to remind us of the nine characteristics of Kingdom fruit: “Lord Jesus, please produce kingdom grace for God’s sake.” And there we have the nine-fold fruit: LJPPKGFGS: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. A general complaint of present-day Christians is that they are “too much like non-Christians,” that “no difference is discerned between the non-Christian and the Christian’s behavior.” Let us abide in the Vine this year that we may bear Spirit-fruit worthy of Him.
On the farm where I grew up, we had fruit-bearing trees: apples, peaches, pears, cherries. My father learned the technicalities of grafting to help the trees produce better varieties. Sometimes I watched him do the grafting process and would sometimes cringe when he cut into the bark to graft a branch into the tree. As a small child I imagined the slash and attachment as bringing pain to the tree, much as a similar process would have done to my arm. But the end result of this method of improving the fruit trees on our farm brought delicious fruits at harvest time.
Likewise, the practical Paul, writer of the letter to the Galatians, had sound advice for those who would be fruit-bearing Christians. First, they needed to rid themselves of works of the flesh named in verses 19-21. Herein is a list of quite unbecoming and even pagan behavior. Cast away the unspiritual works of sin.
The fruit of the spirit is desirable and characteristic of a Christian led by the Holy Spirit. In talks about developing these spirit-led characteristics, I have pictured them with graphics. One was a drawing of a bunch with nine grapes, each representing the nine virtues bestowed by the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Another graphic to help learners remember is a building with the foundation as love, the walls made up of joy, peace, patience and goodness, the door of kindness, the windows of faithfulness and gentleness, and the roof of self-control. In whatever way we remember these nine qualities of Spirit-led living, me need diligence in practicing them. They come with daily “crucifying the flesh” which gets in the way of Spirit fruit-bearing. And in this whole lesson from Galatians, we learn that strong verbs indicate whom we follow: We walk in the Spirit, we live by the Spirit, we are led by the Spirit, we keep in step with the Spirit. Much followship, and that daily, is indicated by these positive actions. Rev. J. B. Phillips wrote, “Every time we say ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit,’ we mean that we believe there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.”
Is it hard for you (as it is for me) to list the nine fruits on the cluster of the fruit of the Spirit in order? Rev. Robert J. Morgan in his mnemonic devices for memorization of the scriptures suggests we use the first letters of each word of this prayer to remind us of the nine characteristics of Kingdom fruit: “Lord Jesus, please produce kingdom grace for God’s sake.” And there we have the nine-fold fruit: LJPPKGFGS: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. A general complaint of present-day Christians is that they are “too much like non-Christians,” that “no difference is discerned between the non-Christian and the Christian’s behavior.” Let us abide in the Vine this year that we may bear Spirit-fruit worthy of Him.
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