The Holy Spirit seeks to minister to us in two particular ways. To make us more pure through the fruit of the Spirit and to impart spiritual power to us through the gifts of the Sprit. The two are of equal important but this study will concentrate on the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

1 – Love

Love is the chief distinguishing mark of a child of God. Love is greater than anything else such as power, faith, service, etc. If love is lacking, then everything is lacking. Major evidence that we are growing is that we are growing in love. Why? The very nature of God is love.

We are only mature to the extent that we can love and give our love to everybody. There is a “sucker love”. This is growth that has no growth in love and bears no fruit. This love takes without giving.

Love should be the compelling motive and force in our lives. The love of Christ should compel us. God’s love (“Agape” love) never fails. It may not always have an effect on others but it most definitely affects us. We are better for loving.

Never, ever try to manufacture love or create it in your heart. We are to linger at the cross and focus on how much you are loved. This creates love in human hearts.

2 – Joy

It is no accident that joy follows love as it is a by product of love. If you concentrate on finding joy it will elude you but if you concentrate on finding love, joy will seek you out. You will automatically be joyful. We need to remember that the fruits if the Spirit are not natural attributes but supernatural. We cannot manufacture them. They appear in our lives as we allow the Spirit to work within us.

• Spiritual joy is different from happiness – A non-Christian can experience happiness but not supernatural joy. Pleasure and happiness depends on circumstances. Christian joy is completely different as it is independent of our circumstances. It is there even when strength, health and friends have gone.
• Spiritual joy is constant. We can look back over the years at the things that gave us pleasure and see they have changed. The joy of God is constant.
• It is possible to have too much pleasure. While pleasure satisfies, it can in time repulse us. Christian joy is the greatest, most perfect joy in the Universe. It is the prerogative of a Christian.

Harmful thoughts and emotions can evade souls with ease when there is no joy and grows more easily in someone who is despondent. Joy keeps the Holy Spirit in the believer from attack.

3 – Peace

Peace is next in line as it is the consequence of joy. Peace cannot be manufactured as it is divinely given. It is a consequence of God’s presence in the soul. When we remain in Christ, we are given a peace that transcends all understanding. You cannot have peace of mind until you have peace in the depth of your spirit. The mind becomes peaceful because it is part of our spirit. Real joy is entirely independent of our circumstances. The peace of God does not require easy circumstance in order to operate. The continuance of this peace is guaranteed only if we fulfil certain conditions.

• Obedience to God’s moral code.
• Keep our minds stayed on Him.
• Complete faith in God.

Those who know the Spirit’s perfect peace are those who do not simply resign themselves to God’s will but rejoice in the realisation that His will is always best.

4 – Patience

This fruit of the Spirit expresses the attitude to people which never loses patience with them, no matter how unreasonable they may be. Patience never loses hope for this person no matter how unlovely and unteachable they may be. We need supernatural patience if we are not to lose our cool!

When we lose our patience we usually become angry. When we become angry it is usually for destructive purposes. Our temper turns to good or bad according to what is behind it. Our temper is never the means of achieving God’s true goodness. The only way to transform bad temper into good is for us to be indwelt by the Spirit of God. When the Spirit is allowed to work in us, He alters our reactions so we respond to life’s situations with praise rather than resentment.

If our temper is tempered by the Spirit, a surprising thing happens. Bad temper is replaced by a sense of humour to laugh at things but also to laugh off things. Humour often reduces things to their proper size. Don’t just exist – LIVE.

5 – Kindness

Kindness is a very beautiful word. It means a kindly disposition or warm good will toward others. To speak for example of an “unkind Christian” is a contradiction of terms. Kindness is a supernatural virtue endowed by the Holy Spirit which pervades our whole disposition. It is on the inside and all we have to do is to let it flow out.

Kindness involves more than just actions but attitudes as well. Kindness is treating others in the same way that God has treated us. It is not the result of trying to be kind, but flows from us because of our relationship to Jesus.

Notice that kindness is right in the middle of the nine fruits of the Spirit. Without kindness there is no virtue in the other virtues. This one puts flavour in all the rest. Without it they are insipid and tasteless.

6 – Goodness

Goodness is the hardest fruit to define as the word “good” is used so widely. Goodness consists not just in the outward things we do but in the inward thing we are. It first has to be an attitude before it becomes an action. It may even be more non-verbal than verbal.

Goodness is the impression a Christian makes as they move on their way unaware of the fact that in their demeanour they remind people of Jesus Christ. They may be largely unaware of this fruit at work as it’s not something they try to manufacture but that flows from their deep relationship with Jesus.

Goodness is not goodness unless it wishes the good of others and is alert to every opportunity to put it into action. Although it is true the essence of goodness is to be found to some degree in all Christians, it overflows in those who know what it is to die to self.

7 – Faithfulness

Faithfulness is the quality of reliability or trustworthiness marking a Christian as someone whom others can utterly rely on and whose word they can utterly accept. It has been said that the ultimate test of a person’s character is if there are any circumstances in which that person will lie? If so, then that person’s character is blemished!

Keeping faith to the end is yet another characteristic of faithfulness. Through times of testing the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to see things through to the end. Never is the work of the Spirit demonstrated more wonderfully than when it is seen in the lives of those who are faithful.

8 – Gentleness or Meekness

The words humble and gentle are found together a number of times in the New Testament. We should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We should also not think more lowly of ourselves than we ought. Humility is rooted in a correct view of God but also fixed in a correct view of ourselves.

Humility is a gentle graciousness and submissive spirit. Christians who approach the Bible with a proud and know it all attitudes will find it firmly shut and it will not reveal anything to them. Those who think they are not gifted by temperament to relate to people with gentleness and humility need not despair. The Spirit who dwells in you, will if you allow Him, transform your temperament so it becomes increasingly Christ-like. God gives grace to the humble. See James 4:6.

9 – Self Control

Underlying the word is the idea of self-restraint and mastery of one’s personality. When the Spirit is at work in our lives, He gives the power to do what we should do and also the power not to do what we shouldn’t. If we begin with self-control then we are the centre and we are controlling ourselves. However, if we begin with love we end with self-control. What are some of the areas of life that we need to have self-control?

• Sex.
• Tongue.
• Food.
• Sleep.

Most of us admit this is a fruit we definitely need. It helps us offer to God an obedient personality, not clogged by comfort or sluggish from indulgence, but sensitive to guidance and ready for His will.

Categories: Galatians