The fruit of the Spirit, as listed in Galatians 5:22 – 23, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Notice that the Bible does not call these attributes the “fruits of the Spirit” (plural). Taken together, they’re the “fruit of the Spirit” (singular), meaning that where the Spirit of God is present, all of these attributes are present in some degree. Some are present more than others, but they’re all there.
We also forget that we cannot hang fruit. We try to hang it, but the graft fails every time. Our errant picture of who God is and who we are often goes something like this: Now that he’s shown us awesomeness, we should go be awesome. And we stink at it.
Well, that verse says we’ve got to be patient, so I’m going to go try some patience today. Right.
I’ve tried this self-dependent approach before, and God crashed my personal party with a clear message: “If you’ll dig your roots down deep in me, I’ll produce the fruit. Just know me and learn who you are in me. Now that you know who I am and that I’m in control and that I’m bigger than your past and stronger than your weakness and can reach further than you can run, and now that you know that you’re new and your old is gone, and you’re not trying to stay saved but I’ve got you — now go do life. As you’re doing life, I’m going to give you a chance to be patient today. Don’t create moments. It’s going to happen.”
You can’t hang fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit. It’s not the fruit of Mark or the fruit of [insert your name].
It’s also easy to fall into the trap of thinking, The fruit proves the tree is alive, and if there’s no fruit, I’m not even saved. I’m going to get cut down and burned. The Enemy works to make us think we must produce fruit to prove to God — and to ourselves — that we belong to him.
So what does define a follower of Jesus?
Whatever you thought first in answer to this question is your definition of a Christian. Does it match Scripture? If what just popped into your head involves anything you do, you’re in trouble. What if you don’t do that tomorrow? Or the next day?
This thinking bogs you down in fear. You never know the cutoff date. How long can you not do it before you’re not in? No one will call and tell you.
The fruit of the Spirit is produced when we instinctively seek out nourishment. My previous album and book were all about Jesus being The Well, the source of living water for believers. Our job is simply to know him, to be fed and refreshed by him, to thrive in him, to rest in him, and to love him. Paul said his goal was to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith — that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:9 – 10).
If you were to place a real apple beside one of those fake apples that collect dust in a kitchen table bowl, you could tell the difference at a glance. God sees that kind of difference when you try to work your way to him versus allowing him to work his way out of you.
Paul tells us in Philippians 2:12 to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We’ve taken that one verse and isolated it in the back of our heads as we wrangle through the faith-versus-works battle. But the next verse reads, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
He’s worked his life into you, and now you have to work it out. It’s not a salvation question, because he’s already in you. He’s in you in the person of his Holy Spirit, and that is a fact. It’s done. In the process of growing you, God tries to work himself into all of your life and into how you react to people and circumstances.
For me, God has to work in me to control my smart mouth. If I’m wronged or on the bad end of a sarcastic comment or joke, my first thought is usually not nice. I go through a list of responses in my head and hope I don’t say a bad one. I haven’t allowed God to have all of me in that area yet. He’s still working himself in, and my first instinct is still to say the smart-mouth thing.
In the June 6 devotional of his classic book My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes this:
With focused attention and great care, you have to “work out” what God “works in” you — not work to accomplish or earn “your own salvation,” but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an opposing will up against God’s will — God’s will is your will. Your natural choices will be in accordance with God’s will, and living this life will be as natural as breathing.*
That’s our fight now — working it out, allowing the Holy Spirit to mold us and produce fruit through us.
Lately, I’ve been telling a lot of my students who are high school seniors one simple message: “For a long time, your life has been Wednesday night Thrive services, DNow weekends, Breakout summer camp, and Thrive University on Sunday nights. It’s all little logos and fill-in-the-blank worksheets and follow-the-leader worship services with certain songs. But now you’re about to walk out into a hostile world, and the training wheels are off. Now your faith is trying to fight its way out of your quiet time and into your life. God is in you and encouraging you that he and your faith really and truly were in you all along. And he says, ‘Now let me start doing life through you and help you make choices.’ ”
I’ve started asking myself questions lately.
Am I giving to be blessed? Or am I blessed, so I’m giving?
Am I serving to be loved? Or am I loved, so I’m serving?
Matthew 5 – 6 prompted these questions about my good deeds and whether I do them to be seen, heard, loved, or respected. Jesus says, “If those are your motives, well, congratulations. You have your reward.” Those are ornaments. He called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs for all their pretty ornaments.
Fake fruit are plastic and hollow. They’re pretty and shiny ornaments, but they nourish no one. Many people have bitten into ornaments piously offered in the name of Christ, and that’s why they don’t come to church. They’ve chomped down on plastic fruit — from their parents and from other Christians who were a mile wide and an inch deep — and they’re still as empty as the ornaments they tried.
Jesus has an answer. “Just know me and make me known. Take the moments I give you. Make the most of every conversation, and let each be seasoned with salt. Look for me and chase after me. In whatever opportunities I send your way, whatever is the very next thing I say to do, do it with all your heart.”
That is God’s will for your life.
Point to Remember
We can’t produce the fruit of the Spirit; we must yield to God.
* Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 2006), June 6.