(Note: This
is a call to action and contemplation. It is not meant to be a definitive and
exhausting investigation of the Fruit of the Spirit. There are many interesting
things found in this passage, significance of the number ‘nine’ in the Bible
and connections and cross references that can be made. However, this is not a
Bible study, but more of a plea to consider to whom you really belong.)
The Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law.
The fruit is the produce of
something. It is the result of some action having been taken, an investment
having been made. In the earth seeds are planted, the young plant is cared for,
and the result of the effort is fruit. In this the Holy Spirit of God is
implanted in a person when they trust the Lord Jesus Christ and in His
righteousness and not their own for eternal life, and when they believe what He
has said about Himself, and believe that He rose from the dead after His
crucifixion. The fruit of the Spirit is the proof that the person has actually
been born again, been saved. If these fruit aren’t apparent in the Christian’s
life although they don’t always come at once but may take many years to grow
and ripen by a strong and vital prayer life and time listening to God through
His words in His book; read word for word, heard line by line, and preached
faithfully then the self-styled saved person must be a very shallow and immature
Christian, if he is a believer at all.
What does it mean to have these
fruits or proofs of the Spirit dwelling in a Christian? If you will notice
bigotry, paranoia, fear, rage, love of violence, and selfishness don’t appear
in this list. Should not a great many Christians think clearly about what they
believe about things they encounter daily and who the source of those beliefs
are?
1. Love. The first proof or fruit of the Spirit is love. When asked,
the Lord Jesus Christ explained what the two greatest commandments were.
Matthew 22:34 ¶ But when the
Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were
gathered together. 35 Then one of them,
which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the
law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind. 38 This is the first and great
commandment. 39 And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets.
Loving God with everything you have
and loving your neighbor as yourself are fundamental to following Christ. (Your
neighbor is defined in the famous ‘Good Samaritan’ story as anyone you come in
contact with in Luke 10). Jesus also pointed out that this would be a
distinguishing mark of his followers, their love for each other.
John 13:34 A new commandment I
give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. 35 By this shall all men
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Paul, the
apostle to the Gentiles, explains this further in his chapter on charity, which
is defined in the Bible as the Christian’s love for his brothers and sisters in
Christ. (It is not about our definition of charitable giving as you can see by
verse 3).
1st Corinthians 13:1 ¶ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have
all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity
envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not
her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in
the truth; 7 Beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 ¶ Charity never faileth: but whether there be
prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is
come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put
away childish things. 12 For now we see
through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then
shall I know even as also I am known. 13
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of
these is charity.
The apostle,
John, in a letter, also emphasizes this.
1John 3:23 And this is his
commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and
love one another, as he gave us commandment.
1John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one
another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not
knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In
this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to
love one another.12 No man hath seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
perfected in us.
Christians are even supposed to love
their enemies.
Luke 6:27 ¶ But I say unto you
which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you. 29 And unto
him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that
taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. 30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of
him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do
ye also to them likewise. 32 For if ye
love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that
love them. 33 And if ye do good to them
which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye
hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to
receive as much again. 35 But love ye
your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward
shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto
the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye
therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Do you love your brothers and sisters
in Christ as unlovable as they may be? What about the stranger you meet that is
need? The lost soul bound for perdition? Do you love your enemies and those who
have used and hurt you? What about God Himself?
2. Joy. Rejoicing accompanies joy as the wise men experienced when the
pursued the star that led them to the child, Jesus.
Matthew 2:10 When they saw the
star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
The Psalmist links gladness and
rejoicing in the Lord.
Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the LORD,
and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
But joy comes from a willing heart to
give to God.
1Chronicles 29:9 Then the people
rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they
offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.
God is our joy.
Psalm 43:4 Then will I go unto the
altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee,
O God my God.
Importantly, joy and consolation are
linked in Philemon. We are restored in consolation, we are comforted in
consolation. Consolation is a key concept to understand joy by.
Philemon 1:7 For we have great joy
and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by
thee, brother.
Romans 15:5 Now the God of
patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another
according to Christ Jesus:
2Corinthians 1:5 For as the
sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for
your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same
sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your
consolation and salvation. 7 And our
hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings,
so shall ye be also of the consolation.
2Corinthians 7:7 And not by his
coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he
told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so
that I rejoiced the more.
Philippians 2:1 If there be
therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2Thessalonians 2:16 Now our Lord
Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath
given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
Hebrews 6:18 That by two immutable
things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
And joy is also linked with glory.
1Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen,
ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory:
Joy is a wonderful gift from God for
when you have it you are overwhelmed by it and when you don’t have joy you are
painfully aware of your lacking. Are you filled with joy? The foundation of joy
is a grateful heart, a thankful heart.
Isaiah 51:3 For the LORD shall
comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her
wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and
gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
3. Peace. We speak
of peace of mind, peace of heart, and peace and quiet. But, mankind is
constantly, in his natural state, at war with his Creator. Our hearts are in
and of themselves wicked and our flesh constantly strives against God’s
authority.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
In our natural state we do not
receive things that God wishes to reveal to us. So, the unsaved man, the man or
woman who does not believe and trust in Jesus Christ, or believe in the truth
of His Book, the Bible, is incapable of understanding it.
1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Our natural state is in rebellion against God’s authority and
that rebellion is akin to witchcraft itself so the natural man is an idolater
who worships an authority other than God, himself.
1Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the
word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
But, Christ
has made peace between us and God. As verse 14 of chapter two of Ephesians says,
“he is our peace.” He made peace between us and God, who He is in the flesh, at
the Cross of Calvary.
Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should
all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made
peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Because of
Christ, we have peace with God.
Romans
5:1 Therefore being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
The God of peace is not angry with
you. His wrath isn’t on you. Your future is not in doubt. He has forgiven you
because you trust Him, believe on Him, and believe what He did in the flesh at
the Cross and in His resurrection. You trust that by His righteousness and
perfection and not your own you will see eternal life. You are not walking
around wringing your hands afraid that God is mad at you or that in the natural
sorrows and griefs of this present evil world that He is somehow wanting to
punish you and buffet you. If you truly believe in what the Bible says about
you and about Him you should be at peace knowing He has forgiven you and put
your sins as far away from His view as the east is from the west. You speak to
Him in confidence.
Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
God. 7 And the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.
Being
“careful” in this passage means not worrying. Anxiety and a constant state of
worry and fear is not a sign of peace. Do you feel the peace of God in your
heart, Christian?
4. Longsuffering. Accompanying
longsuffering is compassion, mercy, grace, and truth.
Psalm 86:15
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious,
longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
God’s mercy
and willingness to be longsuffering has led many a person to faith in Christ
because God was willing to give them more than enough time to repent of their
wickedness and of what they were holding onto thinking it would get them to
heaven, whether it be church membership or simply a “do unto others as”
attitude, a feigned spirituality.
Romans 2:4
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and
longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
In this verse goodness and
forbearance are synonyms with longsuffering. “Despisest” means to hold in
contempt, to look down upon. Whenever someone says someone is good run a word
search on “goodness” and compare the person to the Biblical definition.
Longsuffering
requires an attitude of putting others first, of holding yourself in lower
esteem than you have for them, of being patient with other people and
circumstances.
Ephesians 4:1 ¶ I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2
¶ With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
Longsuffering
is patience but more than patience.
Colossians 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God; 11 Strengthened with all might,
according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with
joyfulness; 12 ¶ Giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light:
But even more importantly note in
verse 11 that it is longsuffering with joyfulness. You aren’t enduring with
bitter resentment, but you have a grateful heart for God’s longsuffering
attitude is far greater than yours will ever be. Be joyful, giving thanks, and be
joyfully patient or longsuffering. This is proof that you have the power of God
on your life when you can endure troubles and trials, nuisances and dangers,
with a longsuffering attitude always aware that God has endured far more and
for far longer than you will ever be called to do. If you are patient with joy,
mercy, grace, and goodness you are longsuffering. Are you, Christian? Or are
you full of rage and impatience, wrath and annoyance at people and
circumstances? Is your attitude pleasing to God and does it draw men and women
to Christ?
5. Gentleness. So,
men may be asking themselves if this isn’t a feminine trait. It may be odious
to a macho manly man or someone who thinks he’s a tough guy to imagine being
gentle. Well, if a man is so insecure in his manhood or is willing to sacrifice
the leading of the Holy Spirit for some type of social, movie, or playing field
construct of what it means to be tough I can only pray for him. He’s headed for
misery as a Christian and God will have to either take or come close to taking
someone very special in his life in order to get his attention. It can be a
child, as in my case, or it can be a spouse, parent, or dear friend. But, the
point is that gentleness is a fruit or proof or result of having the Holy
Spirit of God inside you.
Gentle is
the manner in which a caregiver takes care of little children, cherishing them,
affectionate toward them.
1Thessalonians 2:7 ¶ But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse
cherisheth her children: 8 So being
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.
We are not called to be
argumentative, hostile, or belligerent to others, particularly not to our
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2Timothy 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive;
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
We’re not to
be disrespecting people, being malicious in our speech, or haughty in our
mannerisms.
Titus 3:2
To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all
meekness unto all men.
The wisdom
that Christ gives us, if your wisdom is from Christ, has a gentle quality about
it, unlike what some fundamentalists like to claim.
James 3:17
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality,
and without hypocrisy.
So, if you
want to be a bad-a, a no-quarter-given-none-asked type of guy there are plenty
of philosophies and religions that will suit you better than Christianity. I
know of one prominent religion in particular that is a haven for the violent,
the immature, the selfish, and the misogynistic but there is no place in
Biblical Christianity for those attitudes.
Do you have
the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you? Are the fruit of the Spirit we’ve
discussed so far apparent in your dealings with others or are you just playing
a role like an actor who has no real investment in his character?
6. Goodness. By
God’s definition, human beings aren’t good, willfully so.
Psalm 14:2
The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if
there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all
together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Goodness is
an active thing, not simply a state of being. Goodness results in good, that
which is beneficial and useful even selfless, being done.
Exodus 18:9
And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to
Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Numbers
10:32 And it shall be, if thou go with
us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness the LORD shall do unto us, the same
will we do unto thee.
Romans
2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his
goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance?
In the
second chapter of the Bible good, that which is beneficial and useful even, is
contrasted with evil, defined in many places as either a disaster or calamity,
or malicious, violent, and self-centered.
There is no
room in goodness for malice or violence. Goodness seeks only to provide a
benefit to someone. Mercy is goodness.
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I
will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
One aspect of God’s goodness is His
mercy toward us. In what way are you good? Do you always seek to benefit others
by your actions? Is your behavior a win-win type where everyone winds up with
something beneficial and useful or are you the kind of person who needs, has a
pathological need to dominate other people, to take advantage of their physical
or mental weakness, their lack of experience, their naiveté, or maybe what you
perceive as their spiritual blindness or bad choices? Do you seek to do good
because goodness is not something you can claim while you sit idly by and watch
people suffer either physically emotionally? Goodness is a call to action. You
are not saved by works nor do you stay saved by works but Christians are called
to do good works because they are saved. Is goodness a gift the Holy Spirit has
given you?
7. Faith. This
fruit of the Spirit is a gift from God. Like the other fruit this is not
generated of its own in the natural man or woman where God is concerned. On the
most basic level faith is believing.
Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.
People have faith in all sorts of
things. We have faith that the morning will come because it always has, or that
the light switch will turn the lights on because it always has, or that a
particular chair will hold our weight because it always has. Some people have
faith in something they haven’t experienced and no one has ever witnessed
firsthand because someone they trusted told them it was so. Some have faith
that life happened on earth by a random assortment of events and that no god was
involved because someone told them it was so whose word they trusted. Some have
faith that birds became reptiles, that blood and DNA can last tens of millions
of years, or simply that at no time and at no place in the universe has there
ever been the God of the Bible.
So, clearly,
faith is typically either the result of expectations created by past experience
or it is a sort of wishful thinking based on the agreement of the statements of
someone we trust with our own worldview or opinions or even fear. But, the
faith that is a fruit of the Spirit is none of those. It is a revelation of God
planted in the heart of a person. It is not generated by the person. If you
have faith because you need there to be a God you do not have the faith of God.
If you have faith because you can’t handle the pressures of life and its
sorrows without believing there is, “something else,” then you do not have the
faith of God.
The famous
English leader, Oliver Cromwell, is quoted from his 1647 Putney Debates as
saying, “…I know a man may answer all difficulties with faith and faith will
answer all difficulties really where it is, but we are very apt, all of us, to
call that faith, that perhaps may be but carnal imagination, and carnal
reasonings.” So it is, often when men claim to be speaking something that “God
has laid on my heart,” it is but their own opinion filtered through the lens of
the Bible and when people claim to have faith it is really their own hope,
fantasies, and desires filtered through the language of the Bible.
Deep faith
is a gift from God. It did not come from your superior sense of the spiritual.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans
12:3 For I say, through the grace given
unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith.
Every man here, as in Titus 2:11
where “all men” is used is referring to those who believe by its context not to
every person on earth.
Deep faith is defined in the Bible by
not only where it comes from but what it is.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So, the kind of faith the Bible is
talking about is not always the kind of faith you have when you watch the
sunrise, see the light come on in the room, or sit down in a chair. It is not
always the kind of faith you have when you believe what someone in authority or
someone you respect tells you either. It is the kind of faith, at least in
Galatians 5:22 and cross references in Ephesians and Romans,that is imparted to
the believer by God and allows them to believe and have faith in the face of
horrible circumstances or attributing events and circumstances to God that
others simply write off as good or bad luck. The believer can know this because
this knowledge, this belief, and this faith comes from Him.
Jesus criticized the Jews who, having
seen direct evidence of His identity or at least His power, still questioned.
Matthew 16:8 Which when Jesus
perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among
yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 9
Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five
thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
Jesus also gave a warning to those
who rejected His authority and the things that He said to them.
John 12:48 He that rejecteth me,
and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have
spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
It is certainly true that many young
Christians have come to faith and trusted Christ because they trusted a
faithful mother or father’s words. But the faith mentioned here and in Hebrews,
chapter 11, is a faith that God Himself imparts into a person. This faith is
not based on sight. It is not based on signs. It is not based on receiving any
promises or answers to prayer as assurances. It is based on an act of God in a
believer’s heart and makes absolutely no sense to the outside world. It is a
faith like that of the three Hebrew young men who when Nebuchadnezzar threatened them with the fiery furnace
declared they would honor God alone even if He didn’t save them. Pay close
attention to verse 18.
Daniel 3:17 If it be so, our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy
gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
This is superhuman faith, unnatural
faith. It passes all understanding. The apostles saw Jesus heal the sick and
raise the dead and they had the faith that came from that witness to believe in
His authority and believe His words. But it was a supernatural faith that took
Peter from denying he knew the Lord to being willing to die for the gospel. Do
you actually think the Peter manifested in the Gospels and Acts came up with
that on his own?
Philippians 4:6 Be careful for
nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God. 7
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Do you have this kind of faith? Have
you even prayed for it?
8. Meekness. Moses
was said to be meeker than any man on the face of the earth.
Numbers
12:3 (Now the man Moses was very meek,
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
But, Moses
led millions of Hebrews out of Egypt, as we know, and was before that a man of
violent action when necessary as the following verses attest.
Exodus 2:11 ¶ And it came to pass in those days, when Moses
was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and
he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12 And he looked this way and that way, and when
he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the
sand…..16 ¶ Now the priest of Midian had
seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water
their father’s flock. 17 And the
shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and
watered their flock. 18 And when they
came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered
us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and
watered the flock.
Moses was no Caspar Milquetoast of H.T.
Webster’s iconic comic strip, The Timid
Soul, from the early twentieth century. Moses was hardly meek by human
standards, raised a prince of the world’s greatest superpower of the time,
probably trained in every martial art of the time, competent with spear, sword,
dagger, and chariot one could safely assume. He most likely knew Egyptian
religion, their views of history, and how to lead an army or get a government
project accomplished. So, what does this meekness mean?
The meek are contrasted against the
wicked.
Psalm 147:6 The LORD lifteth up
the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
They are linked to the poor in many
places but here is one example.
Isaiah 11:4a But with
righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of
the earth…………
(In the Bible, the rich are often
portrayed as evil because of their idolatrous dependence upon their wealth and
their oppression of the poor while the poor are usually displayed in the
opposite light as dependent upon God although both are held to the same moral
standard.)
They are lowly in heart in this verse
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest
unto your souls.
They have a quiet spirit.
1Peter 3:4 But let it be the
hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
So, here we have characteristics of
meekness and attributing those characteristics to one of the most formidable
leaders of history as well as the Lord of all creation. How is that possible
and what does it mean?
Clearly, the meekness these two
individuals in the Bible expressed was a surrender and submission to the will
of God the Father, the soul of God, the origin of God’s divine will and
intentions. Moses and Christ in His humanity were meek towards God and this
meekness was revealed in their constant concern with doing God’s will.
Just as Solomon, although the wisest
of all men in history, failed in his humanity, the subject of another time, so
did Moses in the incident at Kadesh in disobeying God reveal his humanity. But,
meekness, true meekness, is being subject to God’s will, realizing your
dependence upon God’s mercy, and not going against or ahead of God or doing
more than He tells you to do based on your own presumption.
Are you meek toward God? Toward God’s
will? Has God’s will for your life been less than pleasing to you? Were your
parents’ not rich enough? Are you not attractive enough, athletic enough,
healthy enough, smart enough to suit your ambitions or fantasies? Are you
dissatisfied, not with the things your sin has caused in your life which you
should be, but with the things that God has allowed to happen over which you
have absolutely no control or how God has used the consequences of your
failures to a greater purpose?
In our natural state we chafe at
God’s standards of righteousness. We don’t like not being able to dominate
others, to control events, to be told that gossip, fornication, sexual
immorality as defined by God, violence, usury, theft, making fun of others, and
things like exploitation of others are not acceptable to Him. When we first
believe we often aren’t willing to put our sexual desires, tobacco use, alcohol
or drug (legal or illegal) use, prejudices, bigotry, dress, entertainment
preferences, employment, or the things we love on the proverbial table, as
usually there is something of our carnal past we hold desperately onto even if
it is only an attitude, for God to possibly eliminate from our hearts, as He so
wills. In our natural state we may agree that God exists, believe in the
resurrection, trust in Christ’s righteousness and not our own to get to heaven,
and long for a relationship with God daily and yet still hold onto a pet sin
like a small child clutches a beloved stuffed animal.
Or, we might announce our trust in
God and then immediately, in the most unmeek fashion, declare how we will not
do this or that anymore, telling the world and issuing an unintended challenge
to the spirits of evil in the unseen world that we, in our best humanistic
fashion, with all the best intentions, but with complete impotence of will, be
holy. Subconsciously, as we inevitably fail and become discouraged in our
humanistic declarations and poorly reasoned drivel, we begin to be
self-righteous. Disappointed in ourselves but not willing to be meek to God’s
will and allow Him to change us through His word we point fingers at others,
often at people who don’t even believe and rant and rave about their sins and
how “they” are destroying the country or civilization itself or are bringing on
God’s judgment.
But we don’t accept that the only
thing that has changed about our country or our civilization is Christians
themselves. They no longer hunger for God’s will in their lives. They no longer
want Him to speak to them through His word. They no longer desire to surrender
every aspect of their lives to His determinations. Unsaved people have not
changed in two hundred years. They do and think exactly the same way they’ve
always done even back to the colonial days when the average person drank three
times the amount of alcohol we do today and any study of crime in early America
will show that the only difference between the lawless and the immoral of then
and now is that so-called Christians today accept more of what they do as
a-okay.
How did Moses, a man of action and
authority, become meek toward God? Toward His will? It was not simply a
decision He made to submit to a higher authority, a supernatural authority than
himself. I believe the answer can be found in Exodus 3. First, God introduced
Himself to Moses. Then, God overcame every doubt Moses brought up regarding his
own feelings of usefulness in God’s purpose. God even used Aaron and Zipporah,
Moses’ wife, in this effort to make this proud man meek toward God’s will. God
created a Moses meek toward Him and His will. It was not a facet of Moses’
natural character, but a work of God.
Have you prayed for God to make you
submit to His will? Be humble to His command? Be prepared for His service? Are
you meek toward God? Does He have to bend you and break you to make you have
any value in His plan?
Psalm 37:11 But the meek shall
inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth.
9. Temperance. The
concept of self-restraint in behavior or moderation in expression was not alien
to the Greek world. In our history the word “temperance” has come to stand
primarily for abstaining from alcoholic beverages, a relatively new idea in Christianity
as until recently drinking water alone that had not been converted into an alcoholic
beverage was a risky proposition fraught with the possibilities of diseases
such as cholera. The temperance in the Bible is the more general
self-restraint, or self-control. Peter ranks temperance above knowledge.
2Peter 1:5 ¶
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to
virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge
temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to
brotherly kindness charity
Proverbs is filled with admonitions
about self-restraint. For instance,
Proverbs 16:32 He that is slow to
anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that
taketh a city.
Controlling your temper and your
passions is a vital part of the Christian life as Paul will point out in Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go
down upon your wrath:
27
Neither give place to the devil.
Here, Paul
shows us that losing control of one’s temper, letting it boil until anger
becomes wrath, is playing into Satan’s hands. Self-restraint in our emotional
life and particularly regarding anger is taught by parents to children by
example. Some people are raised with an example of hot-tempered flashes of
childish and spoiled acting mothers and fathers who are no better than children
themselves. So, while it is good to speak of how you should have temperance in
your passions that suggestion leaves people cold who were not raised with such
a blessing. How do I gain control over my raging temper? How do I keep from
hurting or alienating the people closest to me or keep from taking an action
that could affect my whole life or the entire life of another person in a
moment of anger?
You have two
choices besides just ignoring it and living with the consequences. One, the
solution of most of Christianity is to purpose to control yourself. It is pure
humanism in its aspect. It says from the pulpit or the book that now that you
know what it means to be a Christian you need to clean up your act and behave.
That sort of thinking makes Christianity more of a philosophy, a political
ideology, or a form of gentlemanly manners. The other choice is to seek God’s
changing of your life and as with the other fruit to plead with God to impart
these fruit to you.
But that
prayer is only half the effort you should make. Letting God speak to your spiritual
heart through His word in His Book is vital to lasting change and to your
success in expressing true Christian values. Every day you should read the
Bible, asking God to speak to your heart and to change you. Acknowledge that you
are a sinner and that you can’t help yourself. Regularly, you should gather
together with other believers to pray, to worship, to study God’s word, and to
hear it faithfully and truthfully preached. The fruit or proofs of the Spirit
are important. Read the first six verses of the book of Colossians.
Colossians
1:1 ¶ Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ
which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
3 ¶ We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,
and of the love which ye have to all the saints, 5 For the hope which is laid up for you in
heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the
world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard
of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:
If you want
to bear this fruit as a Christian read your Authorized Version of the Bible,
also called the King James Bible, as God has laid His particular hand of wisdom
and understanding on the translators of that Book. Read it from cover to cover,
believing it, trusting in its words as the very word from God, and ask God to
change you and mold you, to sanctify you for His purpose with it. You can’t do
it yourself. You can’t trust your own intellect or your own conscience or mind
to change deep-seated prejudices, weaknesses, or family traits.
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are
the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
There is no way to overemphasize the
power of God’s word to effect a change in the Christian’s carnal heart.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through
thy truth: thy word is truth.
If you desire the fruit of the Spirit coming out
of your life as a testimony for others you will realize that in your humanity
you can’t create them yourself. You need Christ’s Spirit working through His
words changing your spiritual heart. Your good intentions will avail nothing.
With regard to spiritual things they are like physical exercise, profiting
little. The key to living as God would have you do is found in His Book, not in
those good intentions.
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