Facts about the Fruit
Galatians 5:22-23
ACS North Campus Chapel
August 30, 2007
I like fruit. Not every fruit. Just some fruits.
For instance, I like apples and bananas. But I don’t like apricots and blueberries.
And I like pineapple, as long as it’s not on pizza.
But there’s a kind of fruit that I like whenever I come across it, and it’s the fruit of the Spirit.
I like people who are kind, patient, loving, and all that cool stuff.
And who doesn’t? I can find all sorts of folks who don’t like being around people who are rude, inconsiderate, and selfish.
But I don’t think I’ve found anyone who doesn’t like seeing the fruit of the Spirit in people. Have you?
Over this school year you’ll be focusing on each of the nine things listed under the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 –
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Today I just want to give you some general stuff to keep in mind over the coming months.
Aside from living in us, the Holy Spirit does at least two things to help us live for Christ.
First, He gives us gifts that help us serve Him. These are things like the gift of evangelism, mercy, service, and that kind of stuff.
And He also makes fruit grow inside us to make us more Christlike, and that’s what these things are – attributes of Christlikeness that the Holy Spirit produces in us.
So today I just want to go over some facts about the fruit that I think will help you as you go through the year focusing on each one.
1. First, it’s important to note that one of the main differences between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit is that while the Spirit gives certain gifts to certain people and not everyone has every gift, the fruit of the Spirit is supposed to be evident in every person who claims to love and follow Jesus.
We are all supposed to loving, joyous, peaceful, patient, and so on.
Not everyone has the gift of evangelism, not everyone has the gift of administration, not everyone has the gift of mercy. That’s because the Holy Spirit, in His wisdom, determines who gets those.
But these things that are listed here are those things that should be evident in all who have the Holy Spirit living in them, which is everyone who has trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior.
When Paul lists the gifts, he says, “To some He gives this gift, and to some He gives another gift…”
Here He says that this is what should be happening in everyone who claims to love and follow Jesus.
These things are the natural result of living for Christ.
Notice that it doesn’t say the “fruits” of the Spirit, it says the “fruit” – singular. If you’re intentionally living for Christ, the Holy Spirit bears fruit in your life – this fruit.
That fruit shows itself in these nine ways.
2. Second, I think it’s helpful to understand that the gifts of the Spirit help us do something for Christ and His kingdom. But the fruit is there to make us be something for Christ and His Kingdom.
You’ll notice that all of these things are character qualities, and real character isn’t something you can “do.”
You can’t do “patient” or “kind.” You have to be patient or kind. It’s part of who we are.
The bad news is that on our own, without the Holy Spirit, our character defaults to the negative stuff we see all around us.
But the good news is that because the Holy Spirit lives in you, He can work in you to make you a person of Christlike character that possesses and exhibits the fruit.
But you do have a part to play in that development. You have to cooperate with the Spirit.
How do you do that? The main way to cooperate is to obey the Scriptures.
Humble submission to Christ and His Word opens the door for the Spirit to do His work in you.
And here’s the third fact about the fruit I want to mention today:
3. One of the best measures of a person’s maturity in Christ is how well they exhibit the fruits, not the gifts.
Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians where he says that even if he could do all these amazing things for Christ – in other words, exercised all these great gifts of the Spirit, but had not love, then it was all for nothing.
And wouldn’t you know it – love is the first fruit of the Spirit listed here.
My most favoritest thing in the whole world is to tell someone about Jesus and see them give their life to Him.
God has allowed me to see that happen a lot, and I’m thankful.
But I could be really good at that, and still be a jerk. I could be the best evangelist in the world, and if wasn’t loving, than I’d still be immature in my walk with God.
It’s not what you do for the Kingdom that makes you mature in Christ. It’s who you are in Christ that counts.
And maturity in Christ only happens when we are in loving submission to Christ and His commands.
I mentioned a little bit ago that we have a part to play in the development of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, and that is to cooperate with Him by obeying the Scriptures.
And one of the best ways you can do that in this setting is to listen to your teachers and do what they tell you to do.
I know, you didn’t really want to hear that, but you have to understand something.
Their job goes way beyond teaching you how to do geometry or to speak "gooder" in public.
Their job is to help you develop into young men and women who serve Christ and reflect His love to a world that needs Him so desperately.
And believe it or not, their instructions in the class and in the homework are part of all that. It may not be evident, but it’s true.
When you reject their teaching and instructions, you are going against what we’re supposed to be exhibiting in the fruit of the Spirit.
You’ll notice that “argumentative” isn’t listed here, is it?
I think you get the idea.
You know what? The world sees enough crud, I think.
But I also think that if the world could see more young men and women like yourselves become, they might just see that there is more to life than just getting by every day.
They might just see that when God has the opportunity to touch a life and change it, good things happen, and hope can come into a life where it was dying or non-existent altogether.
So let me just end with an encouragement to be intentional about allowing the Holy Spirit to do His wonderful work in you.
It’ll be a blessing to you, to your teachers and fellow students, and to those you touch outside of these walls.
And you know what’s really cool? Everybody likes this fruit. No one will be turning up their noses at what God is doing in your life.
Let’s pray.
