Fruit of the Spirit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against which there is no law.†Galatians 5:22
The fruit of the Spirit flows out from the character and nature of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love....it doesn't say “fruits†of the Spirit, but fruit. Isn't that interesting? God is love. Jesus is love. Now love is...and the fruit of the Spirit is love. (1 John 4:8; 1 Cor 13:4; Gal 5:22)
A seed is sown, “God loves you.†Now most people know that God loves them, but when the reality of that truth hits them, at the moment of recognition, “God DOES love me!" Joy bursts through casting off oppression; “God is not mad at me! He does accept me just as I am.†Joy floods me as peace is released; and it all seemed to happen at that moment, “God loves, me!†Glory to God, the joy of my salvation and whoosh, peace floods my body. “Oh, Lord, thank you because now I understand, now I see that I can be longsuffering with people because you were longsuffering with me. You were so patient with me when I stood hard against you, yet, your love was constant. It withstands the test of time. God, if You can do this with me, I can do this with those who come against me, people in the ministry, and yes, even those of my own family. I don't hate my husband after all, he is just hurting and needs to know that God loves him and is not mad at him. My children are not fighting against me, but they are fighting against God.†1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So with this understanding of love, I can be kind and gentle because it's who I am and they will see the goodness of God because of the faith I have in God, and from this life of being humble, then I will be able to respond to people who are angry with, “a soft answer turns away wrath,†because of the fruit of self-control that has been born out of love. (Prov 15:1)
The fruit of the Spirit was so evident in the life of Jesus. The love He had for people, the joy in knowing that freedom was coming for them because of what He would accomplish at the whipping post and at the cross which would bring redemption to mankind. His peace knew no bounds and He released His peace into all those he touched. He was longsuffering towards those who spoke against Him. He suffered ridicule from people, yet he opened not His mouth. He was gentle with the woman who was caught in adultery, he was good to those who didn’t deserve His goodness. His faith was simply believing His Father, seeing and doing the same things that He saw His Father say and do. He was meek, and He was able to stay calm in situations and yet judge righteously towards those religious folk.
As He is, so are we in this world. He is our example. We look to the Rock from which we are hewn and we go and do what He has commanded us to do, but it has to start from that place of experiencing the love of God personally. We do this by believing the word of God and receiving the truth, even if we don’t ‘feel’ it.
I encouraged someone to begin to confess, “I am the one whom Jesus loves†and almost immediately he began to experience freedom from condemnation. When people would be rude to him he would simply affirm to himself, “I am the one whom Jesus loves.†He would even tell his co-worker that Jesus loves him (the co-worker). Now he is doing a bible study on the love of God.
For me personally, when there is an area in my life that I have not renewed my mind to the word of God, that is the area where I need to take the truth of the word of God concerning that and begin walking it out, which will produce the fruit of the Spirit that is lacking.
No matter who we encounter, the fruit of people’s lives will be seen, either for good or bad. Instead of judging, we can remember when we used to be at that same low place and how by some divine encounter, someone poured into us without reservation, just like Jesus did, and the joy and freedom we found when we stepped outside of our own selfish wants and needs and dived into the mercy and grace of God and having experienced that mercy and grace, we are able to extend the same to others who need to know that God is not angry with them. That He loves them and His heart is for them to be set free and be the son of God they have been called to be.
