THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Galatians 5:22-25; Ephesians 4:29-32
I would like to speak about the thought of fruit-bearing, and abiding in Christ. The word ‘abide’, I believe, conveys the thought of dependence and affection; both are conveyed in the matter of abiding in Him. I think that as believers, we need to depend on the Lord Jesus, to prove that we could not do without Him. I challenge myself if that is true of me. It is easy to say; but is it true that I could not do without Him? If I am going to know something of abiding in Christ, then I need to feel that I could not do without the Saviour, could not do without the Lord. Then along with dependence upon Him, there is the matter of affection. The thought of abiding conveys affection and closeness. A believer’s place is in relation to the Lord Jesus as depending upon Him and as loving Him. The Lord’s love is greater than ours, and His love was there first, because He loved us a long time before we knew Him. He loved us first, and He looks for a response in affection and in ready dependence upon Him. Then abiding in Christ results in fruit-bearing, in what is sweet to the taste of that blessed One. The question that would come up in the hearts of every one here who loves Christ is, How is this going to be? How am I going to make a reality out of what is described by the Lord Himself in these first verses of John 15? Then if I do make it a reality, how am I maintained in it? How is it going to be something more than just touched momentarily?
Sometimes we take account of other Christians that we know, and we see that they are enjoying something of communion with the Lord, something of heaven, something of the atmosphere of heaven, and maybe we wish we had more of that ourselves. I have sometimes felt like that in the company of spiritual persons, that they are able to bring in words of wisdom and tenderness and feeling, bring in the Lord’s word, and I feel very searched as to what I can say. I think the secret of being maintained in the experience of abiding in Christ lies in the activity of the Holy Spirit of God. It is a vital truth. You might say that the first vital truth is that we need to come to Christ as our Saviour, as our Redeemer, because as sinners away from God, we have a deep need for a Saviour. That is true, but God has more than that in mind for believers. He has in mind that believers should become vessels for the Spirit of God. A divine Person came down here right at the beginning at Pentecost in order to be with and in believers. That is the truth that we find in the Scriptures. You might think that it is difficult to take in such wonderful things, that a divine Person should come in such a way, but as depending on Christ and loving Him, our hearts are prepared to accept the gift of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I feel the importance of this for myself. As I give the Spirit scope within me, there is something worked out that is not according to me at all, certainly not according to what is natural. It is something that is spiritual, worked out in the believer, and then it has results, and the results are the fruit.
The fruit is spoken about in this well-known passage in Galatians 5, a passage that has been spoken from many times, but that makes the subject more blessed rather than less. The more we speak about it, the more blessed it becomes. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness – how fully we see these things in the Lord Jesus. He was full of the Holy Spirit, He was unique and incomparable in that way. And it is the same blessed Spirit that is available to the believer. As I give the Spirit room within me in my life, give Him more scope, because there is always more room to be given to the Spirit, then these blessed aspects of the fruit – and it is one fruit – will come out into expression. The qualities that are spoken of here, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control” are pretty much entirely experienced and expressed when believers are in relationship with one another, and with those around who may not be believers. They are all qualities that relate to right relationships together, and these are according to God. Relationships should be held and enjoyed according to God’s standard. Our brother was speaking about God’s standard, the gold standard. Sadly, relationships generally in the world are becoming more and more degraded, but God has in mind that relationships are maintained, and for believers they are to be maintained in the power of the Spirit according to these qualities that we have here. The point I wanted to make is that these qualities are brought into expression, and they are an expression of a divine Person in the believer, seen perfectly in Christ here, and still carried forward now in Him. They are to be seen in each one of us, which is a very practical matter. There is a powerful testimony as these qualities are seen. They are lacking in the world; morally we see the very opposite of this in what is brought out in people by the operation of the devil himself, where you get lust and hatred and greed, and all such things. We are saddened to see it expressed in the world, sometimes in the grossest form, entirely opposed to what God has in mind. But God does not only have it in mind (although He does, which is a blessed matter in itself), but everything that God has in mind is to be brought out into expression, and the power is given in the Spirit for these blessed thoughts of His to be expressed in believers.
You might say that in a sense this is abstract, what is in the mind of God Himself, expressed in Christ. But it is also intended to come into expression in measure in those that love Christ, those that are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We are to live by the Spirit, and to walk by the Spirit. So it becomes a characteristic matter that governs our lives, it becomes the great regulating principle of believers’ lives, that we walk and live by the Spirit. You might ask, Where does Christ come into this? You speak about walking by the Spirit and living by Him, but what about the Lord Jesus? Well, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God’s Son too (Gal.4:6), and as we give the Spirit the place in our hearts that He deserves, He brings Christ with Him. As the Spirit is free to express Himself in those that make way for Him, Christ is expressed there. There is no divergence between what the Spirit would express and what Christ is, so that the features of Christ come out in the believer who lives and who walks by the Spirit.
Then my attention has been drawn to Ephesians 4, particularly having in mind the importance of not grieving the Spirit, which is a very practical matter. The Spirit is marked by sensitivity. One of the figures of the physical form that the Spirit took in the Scriptures, when the Lord was baptised and the Spirit came upon Him, was that of a dove, and the feature of a dove is its sensitivity. The Spirit is a very blessed and holy divine Person, and He is sensitive. One of the great exercises that I should carry more keenly is to provide conditions in which the Spirit can be free in me. To do that, I need to be conscious of His sensitivity. Another figure of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is the anointing oil, and in Exodus we learn that the oil was never put on man’s flesh. It was put on the blood; it was put, typically, on what was redeemed, what had come into the ownership of the Lord Jesus Himself. So the Holy Spirit is not going to come upon me naturally, He is not going to glorify some aspect of my fallen nature, my flesh. He comes upon what has been redeemed, which is what the blood speaks of, what belongs to God. So we have to be careful that we do not grieve Him. I say that to myself and to all of us. It says here “with which ye have been sealed for the day of redemption”. That is God’s seal of ownership put on the believer in the sealing of the Spirit. We are to be careful not to grieve Him. There is also the matter of quenching Him (1 Thess.5:19), but here it is the matter of grieving. We might restrict the Spirit and grieve Him and cause Him to retire. I think I sometimes do that. But our desire should be, I believe, (and I seek the Spirit’s help for myself and each one of us) not to grieve Him, but to judge ourselves, and thus to give room for Him. We need to judge what is of the flesh that would intrude and get in the way of the Spirit’s activity. Things have to be removed from us and so we are to “be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another”. These would all be linked to the fruit of the Spirit that we read about in Galatians, and then “so as God also in Christ has forgiven you”. Something of the features of God Himself, a forgiving spirit that so characterises that blessed One, is to be seen in us, in believers. That is not at all to set aside the importance of being able to discern what is right, and to love it and hold fast to it, holding aloof from every form of wickedness, as the scripture says (1 Thess.5:22), but the characteristic feature to be seen as the result of the operation of the Spirit in the believer is forgiving one another. I must not hold any kind of grudge or grievance against a brother or sister, or hold something in my heart against him or her. It is very important to allow the Spirit to have His way and His influence in every corner of my heart, so that I have no part dark. The Spirit would shed light and love in the heart of the believer. That is a very blessed and practical matter, to be enjoyed particularly as we are together, in our relationships together as believers. We are to prove how blessed and precious it is to walk in the Spirit, to live in Him, as we abide in the Lord. The practical, blessed result in testimony of fruit bearing would be a sweet result for the Lord Jesus Himself, and indeed for the Father, and the product of the Spirit’s work would also be for His own joy and satisfaction.
May these few thoughts be for our encouragement.
Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
10 December 2013
A.M. Brown
Edited and Published by John A Brown
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