Talk:Fruit Of The Spirit
From BrethrenPedia
The Fruit of the Spirit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25
Note in the passage above, it is “fruit” – not “fruits” – of the Spirit. One would not say that the fruits of an apple tree are seeds, stems, white pulp (the nutritious part of an apple), skin, fructose (sweetness), oxalic acid (tartness), allyl alcohol (the odor), red color (of the skin), roundness (shape), etc. Rather, we speak either of the fruit (plural) which are the apples in the entirety of a crop; or of fruit (singular), which is an apple in the summation of all its characteristics and qualities, including growth dynamics. A particular fruit appears first as a bud on a branch; then a blossom whose germ cell, fertilized from outside, is made viable. As this cell multiplies and differentiates, it becomes a small, green, bitter, poisonous appendage. From this unpromising infant all parts, growing concurrently and in proportion, ripen to perfection, until it is attractive, firm, and sweet, ready for the harvester’s hand.
Similarly, the fruit (singular) of the Spirit (the perfect character of Christ) is developed in one’s life through bitterness, immaturity, trials (storms of life, attack by Satan’s pestiferous minions), the transfer of life-giving nourishment (the revealed Word of God), and daily exposure to the Light. Maturation may seem imperceptible day by day; but seen in review, the Holy Spirit of God does make progress with us, when we stay attached to the Branch.
No aspect of the ripening natural fruit can, or will, lag behind another, else distortion and deformity would result. By analogy, if we find that we are lacking in one attribute of the Fruit, let us look to find also immaturity in other aspects. That is, should I lack peace, I will probably find immaturity in self-restraint (temperance) and faith. Or if I feel unloving and unloved, let me look to gentleness and meekness with others; as well as to the joy of being with the Lord in prayer, and in meditation on His engrafted Word.
One may note that the fruit of its own self contributes nothing but complete yieldedness to the process put in motion by the germination, the birth of a new creature by the agency of an external progenitor of life. In a like fashion, the born-anew believer in Christ will doubtless find peace in the midst of the turmoil of testing, by patiently trusting that the limitless Grace of God – not one’s own self-willed strength of mind or body – will fully provide both the desire and the power to accomplish His prescribed commandments and activities for maturation, to the measure of reaching the stature of the fulness of our precious Lord Jesus Christ, to a mature man or woman of God.
C. F. Smith
Wilmington, DE
May 2003
