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The Fruit Of The Spirit
Rev Albert Kang
In the past, the
Pentecostal movement and the Charismatic movement had emphasized heavily on
teachings about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This emphasis was good at that
time because many churches had either rejected or neglected the manifestation of
such spiritual gifts. However, just like a pendulum of an old clock, these
movements had swung too much, so much so that there were limited instructions
about the fruit of the Spirit. If it was taught, it was placed only in secondary
to the topic of the spiritual gifts. The most appropriate way to teach the
church is to make a double emphasis - one cannot do without the other. It is
almost like making a double emphasis to impress upon a young child the
importance of both the father and mother in his life. He should not reject or
neglect one in preference for the other.
For The Father’s
Glory
The Bible makes it
clear that it is to God the Father’s glory that we bear much fruit, showing
that we are the Disciples of Christ (John 15:8).
The Father’s glory here is not referring to the glow around the throne
of God. This glory refers to how we conduct our lives that should ultimately
make obvious who God really is. For us to glorify God means that our every
behavior and action should reveal the presence of God tangibly enough to those
who have no ability to encounter God on their own. As non-believers are unable
to directly sense the Shekinah glory of His presence, they will be dependent
upon us to demonstrate that through our godly behavior and actions.
By Their Fruits
Jesus said that
Christians should be evaluated by their fruits but he never said by their gifts
(Matthew 7:16). When I was pastoring in Pennsylvania, I was invited to visit a
farm. The farmer never brought me to the tool shed to show me his tools but to
the field to show his crops. In the same manner, we should acknowledge that the
gifts of the Holy Spirit are but tools and therefore should not be used to
evaluate one’s spiritual growth and success. When we use the tools to bring
forth the fruits then the Lord will be pleased. He will evaluate or
effectiveness and productivity by our fruits. The number of tools will not
impress Him because after all He is the one who gave us those in the first
place.
Right Kind Of
Fruits
There were two
mischievous boys who were regularly punished by their father. One of the
punishments was to send them upstairs to their room with no dinner. However this
punishment was not effective because the boys had found a way of escape. Next to
their room window was a tree. They would wait until their father and mother were
comfortably settled down in front of the living room television, then they would
climb down the tree to the backyard, sneaked into the kitchen and find something
to eat. Sometimes they would even make a trip to the nearby Seven-eleven store
to buy candies and ice creams.
One day, during
breakfast, they overheard their father telling their mother that their tree was
not bearing any fruits. To their horror, their father had decided cut it down
and make it into firewood. Realizing that their escape route would be severed if
that tree came down, the elder of the two boys decided that they would help the
tree to bear fruits. They broke their piggy banks and used the money to buy bags
of big red juicy apples and some strings. That night, they spent hours tying
apples among the high branches. Next morning, in spite of their tiredness, they
joined their parents for breakfast. One of the boys then conveniently pointed to
sky and asked their father to explain something about the clouds. As the father
gazed at the sky, he did not see clouds but apples hanging on the high branches.
He ran out while calling his wife, “Honey, come quick! There is a miracle!”
He added excitedly, “The tree has produced fruits overnight!”
The boys were happy
that their plan was working. However when their mother came out and looked at
the apples and she became suspicious.
She said to her
husband, “This is really a miracle! Those are apples but they growing on a
pear tree!”
Looking at her sons,
she said sternly, “Boys! What have you done to the pear tree?”
Bearing fruits alone
is not enough because we must bear the right kind of fruits. We may try to trick
God by tying apples onto our pear tree. However that will not work. A pear tree
cannot bear apples. Jesus said, “Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or
figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree
bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear
good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16-20, NIV).
Growing The Fruits
The Bible always
refers to our human behavior and attitudes as fruits. This means that we are
responsible for bearing the fruits of the Spirit because God has given us the
Holy Spirit. Bearing fruits is hard work while receiving gifts is easy. The
process of bearing fruits is not so much in the doing but in the being. We can
do with being but we cannot be without doing. Jesus emphasized on the process of
becoming. That is why we are to be witnesses and not just do witnessing. We are
to be Disciples and not just going through the motion of being discipled. Jesus
is not happy with just the outward form but the real substance.
In Matthew 21:18 –
19, we learn that one early morning, Jesus while on his way back to the city,
became hungry. He saw a fig tree in full splendor and thinking that it would
have some fruits. However after He went to check, He found nothing on it except
leaves. He was not happy - even a fruit tree that had only form and no substance
would irritate Jesus. He spoke to the tree, “May you never bear fruit
again!” Immediately the tree withered. This incident was recorded so that for
generations, we may all learn a spiritual lesson from it. No matter how
self-important we are, if we do not bear the fruits that are required by the
Lord, we will all suffer the same fate as the fruitless fig tree.
The process of
becoming a fruitful Disciple lies within our nature. Like we have said, a pear
tree will bear pears and not apples, therefore a godly nature will bear godly
fruits and not ungodly ones. What if we see ungodly fruits? Well, that means
that we have not been grafted into the Vine (John 15, Romans 11). We have not
been abiding with the Lord regularly enough so as to allow His godliness to flow
through us. We have operated too much in our own wisdom and flesh and only the
fruits of the flesh are coming out.
One
Singular Fruit Of The Spirit
In Galatians 5:22-23,
we read the classic passage on the Fruit of the Spirit. Please take note that in
this passage, Paul used a singular tense for word “fruit”. This means the
Fruit of the Spirit is a singular item. We are often mistaken by thinking that
there are nine parts to this fruit. The fact is that there are only eight parts.
Love is not a part! The whole fruit is known as “Love” or in the Greek,
“Agape”. Joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
are the eight parts that form the manifestation of this singular “Agape”
fruit. I have used an orange in my teaching to illustrate this fact. An orange
has many slices inside. These slices are distinguishable. This means that one
slice should be mistaken for another slice. Faithfulness should not be confused
with patience; peace should not be mistaken to be self-control etc. If we take
away the slices, the orange skin alone does not constitute the whole orange.
Therefore, recognizing that, we must remember that it is all the slices combined
together to make a whole orange. It is all the eight parts that combine together
to make the Fruit of the Spirit known as “Agape”.
Let me reiterate:
Agape love represents the whole Fruit of the Spirit. What Paul wrote in 1
Corinthians 13 also substantiates this fact: “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. It always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4 –7).
If we allowed our
hearts to be filled with the love of God, then all the other eight parts of the
Fruit of the Spirit will be manifested. Let me conclude this article by sharing
these pointers.
Love as the Fruit of
the Spirit is manifested in:
Joy – Joy is the
gratefulness of Love
Peace – Peace is
the confidence of Love
Patience – Patience
is the fortitude of Love
Kindness – Kindness
is the expression of Love
Goodness – Goodness
is the demonstration of Love
Faithfulness –
Faithfulness is the reliance of Love
Gentleness –
Gentleness is the modesty of Love
Self-control –
Self-control is the stamina of Love
May you grow in the
love of the Lord Jesus Christ and bear the Fruit of the Spirit.