THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

Galatians 5:16-26

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell, Pastor

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

Pentecost Sunday, May 11, 2008

A “Spirit-filled Christian.” Have you ever heard this term before and if you have, would you have a definition of what this means? How would you describe such a person? What would a Spirit-filled Christian look like to you?

I remember when my wife and I were leaving Oxford, Ohio to go to Louisville, Kentucky to attend seminary, a couple in our apartment building asked where we were moving and why. As I told them, they spoke of the importance of being “Spirit-filled Christians,” but this surprised me. To my knowledge, they had no relationship with any church. The term also surprised me because, quite frankly, as a young Christian just going into seminary, I wasn’t really sure what a “Spirit-filled Christian” might look like! Well, thankfully, Paul actually gives us a description of a Spirit-filled Christian in this passage from Galatians.

Author John Stott makes this very point when he speaks on our passage:

This, then, is the portrait of Christ, and so – at least in the ideal – of the balanced, Christlike, Spirit-filled Christian ... The Spirit gives different gifts … but he works to produce the same fruit in all. He is not content if we display love for others, while we have no control of ourselves; or interior joy and peace without kindness to others; or a negative patience without a positive goodness; or gentleness and pliability without the firmness of Christian dependability. The lopsided Christian is a carnal Christian; but there is a wholeness, a roundness, a fullness of Christian character that only the Spirit-filled Christian ever exhibits. [i]

Well, it’s clear that God’s will is for us to not be a “lopsided Christian.” So, if we are to “live by the Spirit” and be “led by the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Spirit,” what must we know in order to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, the fullness of Christian character into our lives?

WE MUST KNOW

THAT WE NEED TO BE HUMBLE BEFORE GOD

and TRUST GOD FOR THIS TO EVER HAPPEN.

The fruit(s) of the Spirit - like the “gifts of the Spirit” are just that – “of the Spirit.” They are ultimately spiritual and supernatural in their origin. In describing it this way, Paul makes it quite clear for us that we can’t produce such fruit in our lives. These characteristics must come from the personality-shaping power of the Holy Spirit, rather than from the shallow soil of our sinful nature. For this reason, we need to humble and submit ourselves before God in the confession that we cannot be Christ-like on our own; that this must be something that occurs by the work of the Spirit dwelling within us.

At the same time, we need to have faith in God and truly believe that it His will that we become Christ-like and that He has the power to make us Christ-like. You will recall that Jesus spoke of this in the Upper Room. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” [ii] This again calls for humility, because the fruit of character is the need of every Christian - young, old or in-between.

In Max DePree’s book, Leadership Jazz, he makes the point that we are never as good as we often think we are. He tells the story of the Germans developing a very fine bit for drilling holes in steel. In fact, the tiny bit was so small that it could bore a hole the size of a human hair. The Germans sent samples off to Russia, the U.S., and Japan, boasting that this was the greatest achievement.

“In time, they heard nothing from the Russians. From the Americans came inquiries as to the price of the bits, possible discounts, and options for licensing the product. As for the Japanese, there was a predictable and polite response … complimenting the Germans on their achievement, but with a postscript noting that the Germans’ bit was enclosed with a slight alteration. Excitedly, the German engineers opened the package, carefully examined their bit, and to their amazement discovered that the Japanese had bored a neat hole through it.” [iii]

Beyond such products to the point of who we are before God and one another, there is always “room for improvement,” isn’t there, as we humble ourselves before God and seek Him to do His work in us.

WE MUST KNOW

THAT DISCIPLINE IS REQUIRED OF US

IF THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

IS TO EVER GROW WITHIN US.

As the season of spring has greeted us and we start to work on our gardens, flower beds and lawns, we know that vegetables, fruits, flowers and grass grow best under the right conditions. For example, I was really surprised this week so far as my lawn is concerned. I enjoy working outside and enjoy looking at a well-kept lawn. Well, this week when a fertilizer and weed killer treatment was applied to our lawn, the technician left me a note. Yes, it was a bill, but with a note saying: “Your lawn looks good. Keep up the good maintenance.” That was really good to hear in light of the time and effort I have given to it, because this certainly won’t happen all on its own!

This is just as true of our own moral and character development. We need to provide ourselves with the proper conditions, environment and habits if we are to bear much fruit. This includes the kind of company we keep, what we choose to watch on TV or the internet, or read in magazines or books … we all know that our thought life is greatly affected by such things. If we choose to discipline ourselves in such a way that our mindset is transformed in a positive way, then our character will also follow along eventually.

Perhaps you remember the proverb: “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit; and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” So, as we think of the fruit of the Spirit, we might ask ourselves, “What am I personally doing to sow the good seed of a thought, an act, a habit, and a character trait?”

I love the story of Charles Simeon, one of the great English evangelical pastors of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. His influence continues today, but his character was not without its shortcomings. For a great while, he was short-tempered, proud and impulsive. When Simeon visited Henry Venn and his family for the first time, he left quite an unfavorable impression on the daughters. Venn’s eldest daughter described what happened: “It is impossible to conceive anything more ridiculous than (Mr. Simeon’s) look and manner were. His grimaces were beyond anything you can imagine. So, as soon as he were gone, we all got together into the study, and set up an amazing laugh.”

But a biographer reports to us what happened then: “Their father summoned them into the garden and, though it was early summer, asked them to pick him one of the green peaches. When they showed surprise, he said, ‘Well, my dears, it is green now, and we must wait; but a little more sun, and a few more showers, and the peach will be ripe and sweet. So it is with Mr. Simeon.’” [iv]

In time, Venn’s daughters discovered that ripeness and sweetness in Mr. Simeon. Because Charles Simeon sowed carefully, he reaped fruitfully, becoming in time more kind, gentle, humble and patient under the power of the Spirit. And so will all who follow such a course as this.

III

WE MUST KNOW

THAT SUCH FRUIT WILL OFTEN

BE NOTICED BY OTHERS.

The fruit of the Spirit is hardly something we will want to mention in drawing the attention of others to ourselves. Whereas one might say, “I have the gift of teaching or in administration,” one should not be expected to say, “I have the fruit of love or patience or kindness.” If such fruit are developing in us, we won’t have to mention them at all. People will see such fruit for themselves.

You’ll recall that Jesus also talked about fruit in this way. Concerning false prophets and teachers, Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” [v] He also said: “Make a good tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” [vi] It doesn’t take much discernment to discern whether the “acts of the sinful nature” or the “fruit of the Spirit” are operative in a person’s life. “A tree is recognized by its fruit.”

On Mother’s Day, I so often think of Monica, the mother of Augustine. Augustine (4^th and 5^th century) is noted as one of the most influential Christians of all time. But his life before becoming a Christian was marked by many of the “acts of the sinful nature” that Paul lists in this passage, including “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery … selfish ambition … and envy.” Nevertheless, Monica, Augustine’s mother, was a deeply committed Christian who modeled the Faith and prayed for him constantly.

At one point, Augustine deceived his mother, against her prayers and pleadings to the contrary, so that he could leave her behind in Carthage as he traveled to Rome. But being the committed Christian that she was, filled with the Spirit and graced with the fruit of the Spirit, Monica persevered in praying for her son, with a broken heart but unrelenting faith. And in the providence of God, it was Rome that became an answer to Monica’s prayers, for it was in Rome that Augustine became a Christian.

In Confessions, Augustine’s autobiographical work, he speaks in deep regard for his mother. Upon her death, he writes in prayer:

Accept my confessions and thanksgivings, my God, for innumerable things even though I do not specifically mention them. But I shall not pass over whatever my soul may bring to birth concerning your servant, who brought me to birth both in her body so that I was born into the light of time, and in her heart so that I was born into the light of eternity. [vii]

Augustine had surely seen the fruit of the Spirit in his mother, which then made a difference of eternity in his own life.

So, do we now know what a “Spirit-filled Christian” looks like? I believe we do. So let us seek to be one, in humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit, in establishing the right conditions for growth, and so that God may get the glory and other’s lives are changed as they see such fruit in us. Amen!