We need to pay attention for a moment to the doctrine of the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. The difference between the fruit and the gifts is that the fruit represents the kind of development which must occur in all regenerate life, while the gifts of the Spirit represents the empowerment that the Holy Spirit provides for each child of God to contribute to the life and the blessing of the community of God, the congregation or the church.
You expect only one kind of fruit in any one tree, but in the work of the Holy Spirit, the full diversity of these fruits must be recognized and every Christian must be adorned with each of them.
The fruit of the Spirit is listed for us in Galatians 5:22, where we have a list of nine different attributes or qualities which ought to characterize any Christian life. The apostle says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Here we have something that differs from the botanical situation with respect to fruits. You expect only one kind of fruit in any one tree, but in the work of the Holy Spirit, the full diversity of these fruits must be recognized and every Christian must be adorned with each of them.
These fruits are placed in contrast in Scripture with the fruit of the sinful nature, and in Galatians 5:19–21, we read, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Here we have a rather frightful listing of the forms which sin takes in its open manifestation in the life of human beings. Similarly in Colossians we have actually two lists, one after the other. Colossians 3:5 and following, “Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. You used to walk in these ways, in the life that you once lived. But now you must rid yourself of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator.”
A still more frightful catalog of sins is found in 2 Timothy 3, where the apostle says that “in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.” And he concludes by saying, “Have nothing to do with them.”
The fruits of the Spirit must be eagerly desired, and no one should say, “Because I have this fruit, I am not interested in this other one.”
This contrast between the manifestations of the unregenerate life and the fruits of the Spirit is very notable, and the Christian is encouraged again and again to examine himself or herself in the light of these precepts. The fruits of the Spirit must be eagerly desired, and no one should say, “Because I have this fruit, I am not interested in this other one.” In fact, it is the fullness of a regenerate and sanctified life that is the object of our desire and of our daily walk.
This article is excerpted from The Doctrine of Salvation, a course offering from Our Daily Bread University. To read the rest of the lesson, click the link or the banner below.
