Saturday, September 20, 2008
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The Fruit of the Spirit
"Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Corinthians 5:5).
Did you know that your ultimate purpose is to become more like God? That each day that we are alive, we are to become less of a creature of the world and more of a new creation in God? And did you know that God gave us his Holy Spirit — the third person of the trinity yes, but the one of the three who is solely his essence, his being, all he is — to move us in that direction? He has given us his Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing all that is to come in the future.
When we become a believer and say our "yes" to Jesus, we are immediately a recipient of the Holy Spirit. He comes in and begins the work of regeneration — of changing us into what God wants us to become. We begin to receive in increasing measure the fullness of God. And, part of that is getting rid of all of the negative and sinful stuff that was a part of our life before we met Christ and that falls short of the glory of God. Picture a farmer pruning a grape vine and getting rid of the parts that aren't going to help the tree be fruitful. Jesus said,
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful" (John 15:1-2).
Recognize the fact that none of us can bear the kind of fruit that God and his Spirit want to see apart from him. We need to be grafted in to him if we are ever going to accomplish our purpose in Christ. Jesus said, "No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me" (John 15:4). We need to continually, every day, draw into Jesus and draw our nourishment from him. The good news is that he "has given us everything we need for life and godliness — the becoming more like him and his Father that is our ultimate purpose in life!" (2 Peter 1:3).
One more thing. Did you know that a tree or a vine or any plant does not bear fruit for itself? Growing the branches and growing the leaves are the things that the plant does for itself. So, just to pride ourselves in the fact that we are growing as Christians is not really saying anything and may even at times take us away from our purpose. Our purpose is to bear much fruit, in fact, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" (John 15:8). The fruit that we bear is always for the advantage or blessing of others. We are spending our energy and resources to produce it so that we can give it away and multiply ourselves in the lives of others!
We have been given the Spirit of God. We have received the fullness of God and who he is. For the purpose of fruit. God's first commission to humanity was to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). That was the physical side of the new commission that we have received. It is still a commission to "be fruitful and multiply" in the spiritual realm. Galatians 5:22-23 says,
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
And, since we have been given the Spirit of God, these are the kinds of things that should be growing out of our lives. They are the kind of things that resemble God and his Spirit. And, while they will certainly have some benefit for us, we need to recognize that the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is not primarily about us, but so that others who need more of God can come to our tree and pick of the fruit and be blessed and nourished by what God through his Spirit has been able to do in us.
Like always, we have a choice. We can choose only to produce leaves. Selfish and self-absorbed. But, "He cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit" (John 15:2). Remember on one occasion, Jesus saw a fig tree by the road but when he went up to it, he found "nothing on it except leaves." Because of that fact, he said, "May you never bear fruit again!" and immediately, the tree withered (Matthew 21:19). Where is the glory in that? There is none. "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit" (John 15:8). We have been born again to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with the glory of God. That is why God has given us his Spirit.
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