Bearing the Fruit of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5:22-24)
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:7,8)
The concept of the Christian bearing fruit unto God is familiar to believers. We can notice, in the preceding two passages, three facts that are true concerning the fruit of the Christian discipleship:
The fruit is the "fruit of the Spirit," not the fruit of reformed flesh.
Bearing the fruit of the Spirit has both a negative and a positive aspect. If the believer does not bear fruit he comes under the curse of God. If he does bear fruit he receives blessing from God.
It is not merely a good thing to bear fruit, it is essential if we are to inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of the presence of the Kingdom of God and is the Kingdom of God. The fruit of the Spirit is the moral image of Christ created in the human personality.
The fruit of the Christian discipleship is the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit takes of the Substance of God, of the grace of God, of the Word of God, of the Virtue of God, and applies these aspects of Divinity to our life. Our personality is as bare soil. We have nothing to offer the Spirit except an honest, sincere heart.
No Divine good can come out of human beings, out of flesh and blood creatures. "The flesh profiteth nothing." This is a difficult concept for us to accept, but until we accept it we continue to wear ourselves out attempting to bring about some of the scriptural commandments and promises by our own efforts.
We cannot create in ourselves the moral image of Christ by our own ability. It is a hopeless task. We cannot make gold out of wood, and we cannot create the fruit of the Spirit by human effort. What is Divine is Divine and what is human is human. Divinity cannot be created by human wisdom and strength.
The Holy Spirit employs three elements in bringing forth fruit in the Christian: (1) the Substance of the body and blood of Christ, which is the Substance of God, added to our new born-again inner man; (2) the Word of God given to our mind, which results in the transformation of our mind into the mind of Christ; and (3) the power for living and ministering that is the resurrection Life of the Spirit Himself.
The operation of these three elements is, and continues to be, possible only because of the atoning authority of the blood of Christ shed on the cross. The blood of the Lord Jesus forgives and keeps on forgiving the believer, thereby making it possible for the Spirit of God to bring him into righteous, holy, and obedient behavior. If the blood of Jesus did not keep on forgiving us and cleansing us from sin, God could not receive us into the long process of fruitbearing.
It is the anointing of the Spirit that enables fruitbearing. The flesh can do little except to use the will power it possess to do what Christ has taught us.
It is not enough that we are anointed by the Spirit for ministry. A powerful, "successful" ministry is no substitute for godly behavior. Ministries and gifts are one aspect of the Spirit's operation in us; but the Holy Spirit also is leading us and forming us in the realm of moral re-creation.
It is possible to accept the Spirit in ministries and gifts, and then to neglect the Spirit's work in us pertaining to moral re-creation. Some outstanding ministers have done this.
The opposite error would be to accept the Spirit's work in us pertaining to moral re-creation, concentrating on our own moral perfection, and then to neglect the Spirit's desire to use us to build up other people by our ministry and gifts.
Every Christian has a ministry and gifts from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives a gift to every member of the Body of Christ. The Body is built up by that which every joint supplies.
We can see that the Holy Spirit performs many works in us. Among these are the assigning of ministries and gifts and giving wisdom and power to use them; creating the fruit of righteous, holy, and obedient conduct; enabling us to put to death the deeds of our body; giving personal counseling, comfort, admonition, and guidance in our daily life; and inspiring us to keep on pressing forward in Christ.
The Holy Spirit has been charged by the Father with the responsibility for bringing forth the perfect Wife of the Lamb.
The positive and negative work of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is righteous and holy conduct, and the absence of the lusts of the flesh. We understand, therefore, that there is both a positive and negative aspect of redemption. The creation of godly behavior is the positive aspect. The destruction of unclean and rebellious behavior is the negative aspect.
There is both light and darkness in the Christian personality. The Holy Spirit separates the light from the darkness, naming each element of our being for what it is: light or darkness.
God is refining, refining, refining our nature. Each deed, word, motive, imagination, attitude, fleeting thought, is named as being light or darkness. We cannot keep up with this much analysis but the Holy Spirit can and does.
Our task is to stay filled with the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, and to work in cooperation with the Spirit as He provides the wisdom and the enabling power. This is true of our moral re-creation, of our ministry to the Body of Christ, and of our witness to the world of Christ's atoning death, triumphant resurrection, and soon return in His Kingdom.
The ninefold fruit of the Spirit. Let us look first at the "light," at the positive aspect of the redemption of our moral conduct.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith [faithfulness], Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22,23)
The love of which we are speaking is Divine love. Divine love is free from self-seeking, from pride, from self-pity, from sentimentality, from indulgence, from pettiness. The love that comes from God is deep, strong, pure. The love of God can rebuke and embrace with equal power. It is eternal but never blind. Human love often is weak and filled with self-seeking. It can turn to hate in a moment's time because it is, to a certain extent, based on love of self.
God's love created in us is not based on love of self, it is fashioned from Divine Substance and imparted to us. It is as high above our love as Heaven is high above the earth. When God's love is revealed in us it results in peace. It has a constructive effect on everyone around us. The Spirit's fruit of love proceeds from the Father and it never fails. God's love flows from Him and creates His image in the earth.
God's love does not turn away from the cross.
Joy is another aspect of the Divine Nature. Human joy depends on comfortable circumstances and pleasant prospects. Divine joy flourishes in impossible places: on the sick bed, in the midst of persecution, in a prison cell.
Divine joy is a well deep in the heart of the saint. Trouble, confusion, distress, pain, worry, come and go in the life of the believer. They float on the surface of the sea of his life. Underneath is a joy that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away.
There is a gulf between Divine joy and fleshly pleasure. It is written that in the last days men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We see the fulfillment of that prophecy today as people give themselves over to orgies of riotous living until the scenes of Hell itself are appearing on the earth. The pleasures of the flesh are frantic, demonic, destructive, God-defying, and everything else that is evil.
Christ lives in the fullness of joy. Yet, His life on earth was conducted in the shadow of the cross. No other man ever has experienced such undeserved rejection and perversity as He. His joy always was with Him, sustaining Him in all circumstances, keeping Him always cheerful, always full of hope, always ready to share happiness with those around Him.
The Christian who has the abiding Presence and work of the Holy Spirit in him is not dependent on the circumstances about him to give him joy. His joy comes from Christ and it will sustain him no matter what comes to pass in the earth.
The peace created by the Spirit is familiar to God's saints. God's peace comes from above and overcomes all trouble. Sin brings torment, confusion, worry, frantic activity, unrest, lack of security, God's peace is calm, untroubled, full of faith. God's peace passes understanding because it does not depend on outward circumstances, Christ gives us His peace.
There is no peace to the wicked. When God beholds wickedness in us He chastens us as His dear children. The chastening is not pleasant but it produces righteous, holy, and obedient conduct in us. Righteous conduct brings rest and peace to our spirit, soul, and body.
Sin is on the rise today in the world as never before in the history of mankind. Sin always is accompanied by unrest. We witness that unrest throughout the earth. No matter how much turmoil there is in the world, the saint of God will enjoy peace, provided he pays close attention to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will bring about consistent, continual peace in the heart of the Christian regardless of what is taking place in his environment. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3).
Longsuffering is another important aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. God is a patient Person. The Holy Spirit is patient. Christ is waiting patiently until His enemies have been made His footstool.
It is well for us that God is patient in His dealings with us or we would have been destroyed long ago. God is waiting patiently for the precious fruit of the earth, for Christ's righteous image in us to come to maturity.
Whenever we think of Jesus an image of longsuffering comes to us. He endured all types of problems, waiting patiently for the Father to bring about justice and goodness in the earth. Much trouble and confusion come our way when we grow impatient. Can you think back in your own life to situations that would have worked out better if you had been patient until the correct solution came?
The violence, hatred, murder, and every other kind of evil work that fill the earth today stem from the lust that compels people to demand gratification now. "If we cannot have what we desire now, we will tear down everything and everybody around us." God is not pleased with this attitude.
One of the foundations of successful Christian discipleship is the willingness to accept delayed gratification cheerfully. There are many things—often good things in the Lord—that we desire, but they do not come. They do not come. This is where longsuffering is revealed. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life" (Proverbs 13:12).
Some of the most glorious changes that occur in our personality result from God denying us something we desire greatly or keeping us doing something we think we "cannot bear for another day." How truly God understands us! How hopefully He waits for the moment when we have been fashioned to His liking and can now receive our desire without impairing the necessary transformation that is taking place in us!
We must learn patience if we are to be saved to the extent God desires. Although God is quite capable of acting with lightning speed, He ordinarily works very slowly (from our point of view). His actions are deliberate, thoughtful, and complete. His workmanship always is perfect and we are His workmanship.
God never wastes time, money, personnel, or any other resource. Our glory comes right on the second of schedule; and if we are praying consistently for our desire we do not have to worry that God will be late. Our answer will not come in advance of schedule because that would result in an imperfect work.
The testing of our faith produces patience, and patience causes us to be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Patience is as important as love, joy, and peace. We will make shipwreck of our Christian experience if we cannot learn to settle into the harness of longsuffering and allow God to take all the time He requires to perform His task perfectly and completely.
Gentleness is part of the Personality of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every teacher of the Scriptures must be gentle. God is gentle with us. The wisdom that comes from above is gentle and peaceable. The Holy Spirit came down upon the Lord Jesus in the form of the gentle Dove.
When the Spirit came as tongues of fire on the early Church it was for the judging of sin. The Spirit comes to us also for the judging of sin. As soon as sin has been destroyed out of us the gentleness of the Holy Spirit becomes manifest to us.
All people desire to be dealt with in gentleness, particularly if they are being threatened with pain of any kind. The way of the evil princes of darkness is to come against people with harshness and fear. God, who possesses the power to cast His creatures into the Lake of Fire, visits us with gentle entreaty, bearing patiently with us in the hope that we will turn and choose His righteous ways.
Patience and gentleness are related in that each allows a person the opportunity to be certain in his mind about the steps he is taking. Harshness beats us with a whip if we do not jump on command. Gentleness invites us to choose the good way, and then waits quietly to see if we will perceive the wisdom and mercy of what is being offered.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are gentle. If we would be in the image of God we must become gentle in nature. The Lord Jesus is able to act roughly, as in the case of the overturning of the tables of the money changers in the Temple. When Jesus appears He will exercise wrath and violence that will crush all opposition. There is savagery in God. We can witness that savagery in the wild animals God has created.
One of the greatest mistakes that people make concerning God is the belief that the meekness and gentleness of Christ are the only nature of God. God is as much in the raging lion as He is in the cooing dove. Fortunately for us, God prefers to work with His creatures in meekness and gentleness.
God desires that all His children put on the meekness and gentleness of the Lord Jesus Christ and treat other people meekly and gently. It is not proper for us to rage at our brothers and sisters in the Lord when they are not fulfilling our desires or meeting our standards.
God's gentleness makes us great. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to remove all strife and harshness from our spirit so we can learn to be gentle as He is gentle.
The quality of goodness is that of good will toward all individuals. When people come to us they know that our attitude toward them will be one of endeavoring to help them in their need.
God is good. He is good to us. Jesus informed us that there is none good but God. True faith maintains that God is good and that if we will come to Him and perform His will we will be given an egg and not a snake. If we are to be in the image of God we must be of such a nature that people always will understand that we will treat them with generosity and good will. The Holy Spirit teaches us to be good. He works in us character that is good by nature.
We learn to be wise as serpents in "catching" people for God, but our craftiness is free from all malice and all desire for personal gain. Our intent is innocent and full of hope that people will receive from us increased ability to enter the Kingdom of God. Goodness is not self-seeking but attempts to provide benefits for everyone. Goodness does not avenge itself but trusts in God for mercy and judgment.
There is terrible wickedness taking place in the earth today and it is growing worse. Some of the evil is so perverse, so virulent, so loaded with the serpent's poison, that the best-intentioned Christian barely can escape its infections. The wicked practices can be found in the household of faith as well as among the people of the world.
No matter how righteous we think we may be, how mature in Christ, if we are not exceedingly diligent and prayerful there may come a point at which we begin to fight back. But evil never can be overcome with evil. Evil can be overcome only by good. We cannot overcome the devil's fire with fire of our own making.
In no way can a righteous individual, whether Christian or not, extract from his own personality enough goodness to counteract the evil that is in the world today. There is but one source of goodness that contains enough virtue to overcome the wickedness and perversity of the present age. The source of goodness of which we are speaking is the body and blood of Christ.
If you draw near to—or even speak about—some of the evil that is upon us today you will be contaminated. Either in the world or in the churches you will encounter it. When you do encounter it, no matter how good your intentions may be you may find yourself fighting back. It scarcely is possible to be touched by today's virulent perversity and demonic wickedness without being pulled down by it into fretting and rage.
When we call on God to fill us with the body and blood of Christ we begin to experience the Goodness from Heaven coming down into us as a transfusion of Life. We then receive enough Divine strength to keep our gaze on the Lord and to ignore the wickedness in which we are immersed.
This is how Jesus was able to survive the perversity and malice that were His daily portion. He kept His gaze steadfastly on the Father, being filled continually with the Holy Spirit. He was able to keep on showing goodness and mercy to all.
Goodness is part of the image of Christ that is being created in us by the many aspects of the grace of God.
Faithfulness is an important part of God's character. Can you imagine what our life would be like if God were not faithful?
Perhaps we do not spend much time considering what would be true if God had Satan's nature. What if God were not faithful to keep His promises? What if God said one thing and then did another? Indeed, if God were like Satan if would be far, far better for us if we had never existed!
"Faithful" is a name given to the Lord Jesus.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. (Revelation 19:11)
The Lord Jesus is the faithful Witness of God.
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)
No person can make a success of the Christian discipleship if he does not faithfully follow and obey the Lord.
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Matthew 25:21)
Ours is a day of covenant breaking, of not keeping the promises we have made. This is because people love pleasure more than God. We place the highest value on the pleasure and "rights" of people. Because of the curse that is on the world due to the sin of Adam, we cannot make our life one of continued pleasure. If we are determined to live in pleasure we must keep on breaking vows we have made.
It appears that most believers are not oriented properly to the plan of salvation. They were not told when they were baptized in water that they were entering Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. As a result they are unwilling to submit to the discipline and rigors of discipleship.
The only individual who will be made a partaker of Christ is the one who has patiently, faithfully endured to the end. He has kept faith with the Lord Jesus. He has clung to the Lord through every danger, every trial, every snare. He promised to serve Jesus and he has kept his word, by God's help.
One could hardly overemphasize the importance of the quality of faithfulness in the Christian personality.
The faithful saint knows that God exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently. God is taking pains to teach us faithfulness. Have you ever wondered why God works so carefully all through our life to teach us to hold faithfully to His Word, knowing we shall die and pass into the spirit realm—there to be able to know beyond doubt that God exists?
It is because faithfulness is not limited to the knowledge that God exists or that Jesus is His Son and Christ. The demons know beyond doubt that God exists and that Jesus is the Holy One of God.
Faithfulness includes the conviction and the courage that impel people to seek God in the assurance that such seeking will bring them the joy for which they were created. Our faithfulness is measured by the degree of diligence with which we seek the Presence of the Lord.
The person who is faithful to God will be faithful to man. It is impossible to be faithful to God and yet be treacherous toward man.
Many Christians spend their time and energy seeking an assortment of things and circumstances, but few believers are devoted to faithfully seeking the Lord in order to bring the will of God into the earth. Yet, such constant seeking is the expression of what the Holy Spirit means by "faithfulness."
God brings the believer into circumstances in which his faithfulness is tried exceedingly. Is this happening to you?
Faithfulness maintains our relationship to God.
Our faithfulness is our personal testimony concerning God's Character.
Faithfulness keeps us seeking after God with all our strength. Faithfulness is compounded from love for God, perseverance, trust, hope, and courage. Faithfulness is dynamic, continually being in motion toward God. Faithfulness grasps God and will not let Him go.
God gives us His own faithfulness because human beings are treacherous and conniving by nature. The person who has the faithfulness of God will leave everything this age has to offer and choose God over all else. The faithfulness of the believer rests in the faithfulness and will of God, and is restless until God's will in every situation and at all times has been perceived and acted on.
Faithfulness enables the believer to stand fast in the most rigorous testings of obedience—to the point of sifting his identity as a person. Yet he cannot let go of God because God is his All in all. We humans do not possess so much as a mustard seed of faithfulness until the Holy Spirit begins to create faithfulness in us—the faithfulness that is the fruit of the Spirit.
The reason God spends our lifetime teaching us faithfulness to Himself is that faithfulness is as necessary in the spirit realm as it is on the earth. The angels who were in the heavenlies with God fell into sin because they chose not to remain faithful to God. Sin commenced in Heaven. Sin was introduced into the Garden of Eden by creatures from Heaven—creatures who at one time had lived in the Presence of God in Heaven, had heard his Word, and refused to be faithful to God.
The development of faithfulness in us is for the purpose of insuring that never again will there be a rebellion against God. In fact, the fruit of the Spirit being developed in each true believer in the present hour will serve God and every creature now, in this world, and also in the ages of eternity yet to come.
Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) while faith is a gift of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12:9). Let us think for a moment about the fruit of faithfulness and the gift of faith.
They are different in the level of maturity they represent.
The gift of faith is a tool of ministry. It is as "manna" being given for the nourishment of Israel during the years of testing in the wilderness. The fruit of faithfulness, on the other hand, is part of the character of the believer. It is as the "old corn of the land," the food grown in the land of promise.
Ministries and gifts are given in a moment, although the effective use of them requires considerable practice. We keep on learning how to become more skillful, more productive in the exercise of the gifts God has given us.
In presenting the Word of God, for example, we learn by practice to hold forth the food in such a manner that the "sheep" will eat. The best of spiritual food may not be accepted by God's people if they are offended by the manner in which it is offered. Also, we learn how to fight off the enemy as he attempts to prevent our using our spiritual ministries and gifts.
However, unlike the ministries and gifts, the fruit of the Spirit is not given in a moment. The fruit of the Spirit must grow in the believer's personality, and like most growing things it is slow in developing. Manna drops from above in a short space of time. Corn must be grown with patience.
The gift of faith is given to Christians selected by the Holy Spirit according to the design God has in mind for bringing to maturity the Body of Christ.
The fruit of faithfulness is to be borne by every Christian, and does not represent a means to the maturing of the Body of Christ but the maturity itself. The gift of faith is a means to the final result of the plan of redemption. The fruit of faithfulness is the final result itself: it is the image of Christ.
As we have stated, faithfulness is part of the fruit of the Spirit. The remaining eight aspects of the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, and temperance) have to do with what we are and the manner in which we respond to the people who are around us. Faithfulness, on the other hand, as well as benefiting the people around us, is the anchor that secures us in the Person of God Himself. The faithfulness that is the fruit of the Spirit has to do with the manner in which we respond to God and His Word.
Faith, hope, and love are three massive pillars in the temple that is the saint. The greatest of the three pillars is love. God is love and without love we cannot abide in God or know God. Faithfulness also is a pillar, for it is impossible to please God unless we are a good and faithful servant. Our faithfulness is our personal testimony of the trustworthiness of God and it is proclaimed by what we do. We reveal our faith in God by our faithfulness to God.
The quality of meekness is that of humility, of teachableness, of submission to the will of God. We maintain the attitude toward God that we have no confidence in ourselves but always are looking toward Him, always are learning from Him and leaning on Him, always are ready to move with Him in any circumstance. A meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God.
The same attitude of meekness, humility, and quietness of manner is extended toward other people. We are interested in what they say and we learn from them. We are able to receive the admonitions and exhortations of the elders. In fact, we can learn from all persons—Christians and non-Christian alike.
We do not push our way into prominence, making certain our will is performed and that other people know who we are. Just because we are Christians we do not take an arrogant attitude toward non-Christian people; rather, we consider the merit of what they say and do. Our way is one of kindness and gentleness, trusting in God to remedy injustice.
There is a world of difference between meekness, on the one hand, and fear, man-pleasing, cowardice, double-mindedness, insecurity, false humility, and weakness, on the other hand. Jesus was the meekest Person who ever walked on the face of the earth. Yet He was without fear. Christ did not strive to win the favor or to gain the support of His listeners. He never was cowardly. He never acted with double-mindedness, never lost His security in God, never moped about in false humility attempting to impress people with His piety.
Christ never shrank back in weakness from the problems set before Him. Jesus was commanding in His Person. Yet He was meek and lowly of heart.
Meekness proceeds from courage rather than from fear. A coward is not strong enough to be meek. It is the fearful person who shouts, fights, and demands his way. Meekness speaks only to please the Lord, never to please the listeners. Meekness acts bravely. A coward cannot succeed as a Christian because of the necessity for going against the opinions of people and for fighting the forces of darkness.
Meekness never is double-minded but submits to God and does His will. Double-mindedness is compounded from self-seeking and fear, while meekness is neither self-seeking nor fearful. If you are a fearful person, God will give you courage if you ask Him. Meekness is not insecure but rests in the promises of God. Meekness is truly humble, being unmindful of its own humility. False humility is a deceitful image covering a bonfire of pride and self-will. Meekness glories in God alone, seeks not its own advantage, and has nothing to hide. Meekness is the fullest expression of strength and courage.
The weak, fearful person acts and speaks in confusion, sometimes boisterously, sometimes timidly. The believer who genuinely is strong in the Lord and in the power of His might can afford to take the lowest place, can afford to be unnoticed, can afford to be quiet and confident. His security and strength flow from the heavenly sanctuary.
There are legions of the most powerful of God's warrior angels, a terrible army indeed, who instantly are ready to come to the aid of the least of God's saints. Only the believer in Christ can be truly meek because no person on the earth other than the Christian has absolute power and authority in continual operation on his behalf.
Temperance is self-control. Someone has declared that the fruit of the Spirit is a ladder with love at the top rung and self-control at the bottom. Another viewpoint is that the fruit of the Spirit is one fruit and there are many different parts that interact until the whole fruit has developed.
We may have observed already that love is related to kindness, gentleness, and goodness, that meekness is related to faith, that peace and joy go together (how could one have joy apart from peace?). Also, self-control (temperance), while it may not sound "heavenly," nevertheless is an important basis on which the structure depends.
Self-control is the ability to behave in moderation according to the needs at hand. The immoderate person is in bondage to some thing or some person. The believer who would press on to complete victory in Christ must employ self-control in eating, in playing, in working, in ministry, in his relationships with people, and in everything else he does.
The present evil age is one of excess, of gluttony, of the clutching to one's self with violent passion the things of the world. Satan drives human beings to covet more and more. Yet no matter how much money or "fun" one manages to grasp, there never is enough. Covetousness of the riches and pleasures of the world is a tormenting fire that burns its slaves with the flames of Hell.
"Be content with such things as ye have," the Scripture commands.
"Be content with your wages," John the Baptist advised those who came to him.
We may not see the wisdom of this. We may be under the impression that a man's life consists of the abundance of the things he possesses. In actuality the things possess the man although he may not realize it. How many people throughout history have turned away from Christ because they were pulled down to Hell by lust for the things of the world? We are to use the world but not abuse the world. God has given us richly all things to enjoy but God desires that we be in bondage to none of them.
The moment that God requires of us that we give up something or some relationship, we are to do so promptly and as cheerfully as we can. It does not matter who or what the person, thing, or circumstance may be. When God requires it we give it up. Obviously God, who has promised us green pastures and quiet waters, does not bring us into pain or anguish or confusion unless He intends to perform something marvelous in us or for us. If we cannot surrender to God what He demands, we are in horrible bondage. We are guilty of idolatry.
Self-control (temperance) keeps our relationships with all people and all things under our strict control. God and Christ desire that we yield cheerfully to their strict control over us. If we will accept their control over us, and keep strict control over our own personality, our relationships with all things, people, and circumstances will be attended by contentment and enjoyment.
We may observe in the second chapter of the Book of Hebrews that the creation is to be under the rulership of God's sons. God and Christ are in authority over each of the sons of God. Nothing—absolutely nothing—is to come between God and Christ and the sons of God.
Before we became a Christian there were many people and things to which we paid homage. We did not realize that we were in bondage to them, but our ignorance does not alter the fact of our bondage. A substantial part of the redemption that is in Christ consists of the Lord removing from their position of power over us the people and things we idolize. Sometimes the process of removal is painful for a season. The end result of God's dealings with His obedient saints is deliverance and peace for them.
When we have matured in the fruit of self-control we will be able to think and do the things that are God's will for the given occasion. Whatever the will of God in Christ is, that is what we do. No deed, word, motive or imagination proceeds from us without our approval. This is what self-control is.
At present our self-control may rule to a certain extent, but no doubt there still are problem areas. As we press forward in Christ, the Lord uncovers and corrects the areas that still have control over us. It is God's will that we be perfectly free in Him so that we always can choose what is right and be able to follow through with the performance of what is right.
In the seventh chapter of Romans, Paul expresses our frustration when we do the things of which we do not approve, when we have lost control of ourselves.
Included in the plan of redemption is the ability created in us to behave always in a manner of which we—under Christ—approve. Anything other than this indicates there still are areas in our personality in which the fruit of self-control has not come to maturity.
How wonderful to be always in control of one's own conduct! Jesus always was in control of Himself. He never was in bondage to any person, any thing or any situation. He remained the Master. If we will permit Him to do so, He will work that mastery in us. Whether we are eating, playing, working, ministering, or whatever else we may be doing, we are to be in control over our own personality.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. (Proverbs 16:32)
Perfect self-control is not possible apart from Christ. It is the will of God that each member of the Body of Christ come to the place of self-control in Christ.
The Divine salvation produces in us the fruit of the Spirit, which is the nature of Christ. The final result of redemption is our full abiding in the Father and the Son.
In order for the Father and the Son to abide in us the fruit of Spirit must be created in us, and in order for the fruit of the Spirit to be created in us the Father and the Son must abide in us. The more of God we have, the more fruit we bear. The more fruit we bear, the more God enters us and invests Himself in us.
The relationship between the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. The contrast between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit can be studied in I Corinthians, Chapter 13.
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. (I Corinthians 13:8)
"Charity" is the fruit of the Spirit. It is the love of God. Charity cannot be given us as a gift of the Spirit, it is grown in us as the fruit of the Spirit.
Charity is never mentioned in the Scriptures as a gift but it is the first and most important aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. "Love," as well as the remainder of the fruit of the Spirit, never "fails," never comes to an end. It is our permanent possession throughout eternity.
The gifts of tongues, knowledge, prophecy, and the remainder eventually will vanish because they are the means to an end and not the end itself. They are scaffolding.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. (I Corinthians 13:9)
To each member of the Body of Christ is given a ministry and gifts of the Spirit. In order to obtain the full revelation of the Holy Spirit we must have every member of the Body of Christ, for each has a part of the manifestation of the Spirit and he or she is to contribute that part to the development of the Body.
In the case of the fruit of the Spirit, each Christian is to have in himself the complete maturing of each of the nine dimensions of the fruit of the Spirit. We are to possess some of the gifts but all of the fruit.
The ministries and gifts are given in pieces but the fruit is to be perfect and complete. There will be no member of the Body of Christ who eventually is not perfected in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. This fruit is the image of Christ—that to which we have been predestined (Romans 8:29).
The fruit of the Spirit is one whole, and that fruit is Divine love. All nine of the aspects of the fruit of the Spirit are the expression of the love of God that has been created in us.
It is not our love for God, as though we were able to create virtue from our own flesh and soul. It is God's Divine love wrought in us by the operation of the Spirit of God.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. (I Corinthians 13:10)
"That which is perfect" comes. It is not something we do or a place where we go. That which is perfect is the full revelation of Christ in and to the believer. The full revelation will be in the possession of each member of the Body of Christ before God has finished His work under the new covenant (Hebrews 8:11). However, God is not setting a limit on what we can attain now if we will follow on to know the Lord.
When Jesus appears we will come to know Him to such a degree that the gifts of tongues, prophecy, healing, and so forth no longer will be necessary. "We shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2). What need will there be for prophecy when we can talk to the Lord face to face? What need will there be for the gifts of healing when the Healer Himself becomes available to every member of the Body of Christ?
The Day of the fullness is close at hand, and we will come to know Christ perfectly if we will set ourselves to follow on to the perfect Day. As soon as Christ has come to unity and maturity in His Body, the ministries and gifts will pass away. In that day, every member of the Body of Christ, from the least to the greatest, will know the Lord. The feeble will be as David. A "small one" will become a strong nation. The fullness of the Spirit will be our portion and we shall walk as Jesus walked on the earth—not in the partial revelation of gifts but in the full revelation and power of God in Christ.
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. (I Corinthians 13:11)
The ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit are things of childhood when compared with the fruit of the Spirit. When we are young spiritually we need each of the ministries of the Spirit. In fact, the reason for the immaturity of the Christian Church today, and for its divided condition, is that many of the saints are not operating in the realm of gifts and ministries. They are not giving their part to the Body, and they are not receiving all that they need from the Body for their growth in Christ.
However, God has determined that every member of the Body is to come to the "measure of [maturity as measured by] the stature of the fulness of Christ." In the days in which we are living, God is restoring every one of the ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit so that the Body of Christ may come to maturity and unity. As soon as the Body has come to maturity, to the fullness of the stature of Christ, the ministries and gifts no longer will be needed. Ministries and gifts are the means to the end. The end is Divine love, which is the fruit of the Spirit, the image of Christ.
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. (I Corinthians 13:12)
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (I John 4:16)
The reason we make so many mistakes in our ministries and gifts is that we are operating largely in the dark. We behold glimmers of light, and we give expression to that light, assisting our fellow Christians to the best of our ability. When Jesus appears we shall be able to see and understand perfectly.
There will be no more groping and muddling our way through life, speaking and acting with incomplete understanding of what is taking place. We will hold conversations with our Lord just as Moses did. There will be no more yea, yea, or thus saith the Lord. We will know the Lord Jesus, speak to Him, hear what He has to say, ask Him questions.
If we desire to understand His will for us, all we will have to do is ask Him. He will answer us plainly, not in dreams, visions, symbols or promptings from the written Word.
How does such fullness of knowledge come about? How do we partake of the "old corn of the land" instead of this light "manna" that comes today and is no good tomorrow?
The process is as follows: the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit, along with the other aspects of the plan of redemption, produce the fruit of the Spirit in us (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance). The mature development of the fruit of the Spirit is the image of Christ, the image of God to which we have been ordained (Genesis 1:26; Romans 8:29).
As soon as the image of Christ has been created in us, the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit can come and abide in us, and we in them, to a far greater extent than is true of our experience in the present hour.
The coming of the Father and the Son to abide in us (John 14:23) will result in our being in possession of the fullness of the knowledge of God, and the following then will be true of us as it was—and always will be—true of the Lord Jesus:
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. (Isaiah 11:2-5)
The above passage is a description of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is a description also of each saint, each member of the Body of Christ, when the grace of God has brought forth its work in us.
God never will place the Head, Christ, on a body that does not respond perfectly to the Head. God never will present to the Lamb a wife who is not a counterpart, a complement, a helpmate for Him. The Body of Christ will be just as the Head, for the Body is being created on the Substance of the Head—on the body and blood of Christ Himself.
Think about the meaning of the following verses:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be changed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)
There will be no more need of the word of wisdom because every believer will possess the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, just as Jesus did and yet does.
There will be no more need of the gifts of knowledge, of faith, of miracles because the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, will abide on and in each member of the Body of Christ. This will be made possible because the member will have had created in him the fullness of the fruit of the Spirit, the fullness of the image of Christ.
The relationship between the gifts and the fruit of the Holy Spirit can be summarized as follows:
The gifts are part of the means by which the fruit is brought to perfection.
The gifts are given to the Christian in a moment, at the time that he is baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ or at some point after that. The fruit must be grown with patience. The gifts are the temporary means to an end—that the fullness of the image of Christ may be formed in each member of the Body of Christ.
When the Body of Christ comes to the fullness of stature, the complete revelation of the Holy Spirit will abide on each member and the incomplete ministries and gifts will pass away, having accomplished the task of bringing each of God's elect to maturity in Christ.
The negative aspect of redemption. The negative aspect of redemption has to do with the destruction of what is evil in us. It is the removal from us of the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. God is separating the light from the darkness in us. The Light is the Substance of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, the image of Christ. The darkness is the sin and rebellion in us and is the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit.
As soon as we begin to examine the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit we can see that we are in the realm of the adversary. Let us take a look at the negative side of our personality—that which must be destroyed out of us by the Lord.
Love is the first aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. The opposite of love is hate. Hate is foremost among the qualities that characterize the enemy, the adversary. Satan is a murderer. He is the personification of hatred. He has filled the earth with bitterness, malice, backbiting, anger, wrath, evil speaking, competition, violence, gossip, slander, jealousy, envy, and war.
The devil sets person against person, nation against nation. He is the creator of the divisions between the young and the old, between man and wife, between father and son, mother and daughter. He is the accuser, the whisperer, the evil speaker, the author of suspicions. Satan pierces the human mind with jealousy and rage.
The root of murder and all its branches grow in the appetites of the flesh of man, and the flesh of man is set on fire by the fire of Hell. One of the fiercest of the fires burning out of control is the fire of hatred. God is love personified. The adversary is hatred personified.
The negative aspect of redemption is the destruction of hatred out of our personality. The positive aspect of redemption is the creation of Divine love in us and the healing of the damage done to our personality by the hatred that at one time lived in us.
Hatred is more than the absence of love. It is an evil force dwelling in our flesh, being part of the law of sin that abides in our members.
Love is more than the absence of hatred. It is Divine Life that can dwell in us and overcome the hatred to which the flesh is prone.
God is destroying evil out of us and creating good in us. He destroys Satan in us and creates Christ in us. He brings His love to His heavenly Kingdom. Satan and his hatred are cast into the Lake of Fire. God abhors mixtures. He prefers that everything in His creation have integrity in itself. God not only creates Christ in us but also destroys wickedness out of us.
It is not enough to possess Christ, we also must accept the judgment, destruction, and removal of the wickedness that dwells in us. Both works proceed simultaneously—adding the Substance of Christ to us and putting to death the evil.
When our "eye is single" our whole body is full of light. A house divided against itself cannot stand. When there is both good and evil in us we are in conflict. Either good or evil must triumph. We cannot continue for long without a decision. We will come to love the good and reject the evil or we will come to love the evil and reject the good.
We make the decision. If our decision is the correct one (and the Lord will help us if we call on Him), God will fill us with His love and remove the hatred and anger from us.
When we obey the will of the Spirit of God, being obedient to His guidance and walking in His counsel, the love of God grows in us. The love of God is not fleshly love but is of Divine Substance and enters us from above. The quality of God's love is as high above our love as the heavens are high above the earth.
Satan, who desires to be like the Most High, expresses a counterfeit that he terms "love." When combined with the soulish love of people it teaches human beings to ally themselves against God. The soulish, satanic love of people is often mistaken for genuine love, and is preached by humanists everywhere. But one would be safer dwelling with a pride of lions than with humanists filled with their kind of love.
Humanistic "love' is a thinly disguised lust and sometimes leads to immorality and sexual perversion. Humanistic love turns to hatred and rage in a moment of time.
Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone. (II Samuel 13:14,15)
The strength of God's love is as strong as God is strong and is as eternal as God is eternal. Our human love is sentimental and self-centered. God's love is pure, clean, healing, liberating.
When we give way to the will of the adversary, being obedient to his guidance and walking in his paths, the hatred that is from Satan grows in us. This hatred is not restricted to fleshly hatred but is of demonic substance. It originates in the spirits of Hell. The quality of the hatred of the adversary is so violent, so ugly, so void of compassion, that the flesh of man cannot contain it all.
The evil men of history are expressions of this foul hatred, but we have not as yet witnessed the most wicked exhibitions of Hell. The culmination of evil has been reserved for the last days, and we now are entering the end of the present age when we will see the full fury of Hell rage on the earth.
We are wise if we choose quickly whether we wish to have the fruit of the Holy Spirit growing in us or the fruit of the adversary. It is not possible to remain neutral. The night is coming when the individual no longer will be able to choose how he or she behaves. The spirit realm is approaching war. Christ will confront Satan. Each person will be moved by one power or the other.
The opposite of joy is sorrow. Sin appears to be enjoyable for a while but eventually brings sorrow, remorse, and torment. The enjoyment sin brings always is accompanied by remorse, grief, destruction, lawlessness, and every other tormenting factor. The individual walking in sin is a person of sorrow, not of joy. It is only the Christian who possesses joy in the midst of severe problems.
The sinner possesses sorrow while abiding in the land of plenty. There always is fretfulness and misery when one is living in contradiction to the laws of God. That which is pleasurable at first is soon followed by disgust, dissatisfaction, unrest, irritation, problems, grief, and trouble. Those who abide in the palaces of pleasure must obtain their measure of satisfaction from alcohol or from some type of drug or other excess.
The servant of the Lord discovers peace and blessing in unlikely circumstances. His anthem of praise and joy ascends from the prison cell. His chains form a ladder that reaches from earth to Heaven. Surely hatred and misery will follow the sinner all the days of his life but there will be goodness and mercy for those who love the Lord.
The opposite of peace is unrest. How true it is that sin brings unrest! We behold sin being practiced without restraint in the world today. Following that sin always and inevitably, be it the sin of an individual or of a nation, is the wild unrest and confusion that sin creates.
Endless amounts of money, intelligence, and time are being applied today in the search for an end to violence; but everywhere we turn there are new accounts of astonishing crime and viciousness of all kinds. Violence, unrest, and confusion are increasing, and will continue to increase because sin is becoming more virulent and perverse.
The fruit of walking in the appetites of the flesh is a continual state of uproar in spirit, soul, and body. Peace is an exceedingly precious treasure but it is the exclusive property of the Holy Spirit of God. There is no peace for the wicked. The fruit of abiding in the Spirit of God is a deep, imperturbable kind of peace that endures through the most difficult circumstances and holds equally steady during seasons of refreshing.
We are free to choose between the fruit of sin (hatred, grief, and unrest) and the fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy and peace).
The quality of longsuffering characterizes the saint of the Lord The opposite of longsuffering is impatience. Impatience demands that we break every law of God and man until we obtain what we desire and feel we must have. We must have it at once. Such impatience produces every evil work.
Much that truly is worthwhile and good in life requires patience for its accomplishment, attainment, or winning. Trees grow slowly. One of the prime disciplines of Christian discipleship is that of bearing cheerfully throughout seasons of delayed gratification, accepting self-denial, so we may achieve our desires in God's way and in God's time.
The saint goes to his knees in prayer and beseeches God for the needs and desires of his heart and life. These desires are purified, and in God's time the blessing comes—sometimes a thousandfold more glorious than the saint could have asked or thought.
Evil forces are not patient. The murderer who wrenches and rapes his surroundings in the insane passions of his dark lusts never can obtain satisfaction. Each conquest adds to the inferno mounting in him. His impatience and lust never can be satiated and will drive him into Hell, there to torment him throughout eternity.
Gentleness (kindness) is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God. The opposite of kindness is harshness and roughness —the violation of human dignity and the forcing of people and circumstances.
The ways of God are peaceful, full of hope and good will. The ways of sin are rough, brutal, harsh, unkind, creating fear, confusion, worry, and every other wicked attitude and atmosphere. Human beings, and animals also, respond readily to kindness and gentleness. No one enjoys being beaten harshly into performing a task or obeying a command.
The Spirit of God invites us to accept the goodness of God and leads us gently into eternal life. Evil spirits come with deception, driving us with harshness and fear in the path that leads to destruction of spirit, soul, and body.
God is capable of sudden, violent action; but this type of treatment is reserved for His enemies. His manner is that of kindness when he is bringing us along in the program of redemption. Jesus' sheep know His voice. They will not follow the voice of a stranger.
Our part as people of God is to be adults in understanding but children in malice. We are to be gentle to all people, apt to teach, patient. If we behave in this manner, the Holy Spirit will present Christ to our listeners. We must not force anyone to do God's will. We are to invite each person in kindness, and then leave the rest of the task to the Holy Spirit, who is gentle as a dove.
In time past the Christian Church, in certain instances, has attempted to carry out the program of the Kingdom of God by treating people harshly—torturing heretics, strangling them, burning them at the stake. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus torturing a "heretic," a heretic being someone who is confused concerning theology? The Catholic Church has tortured and murdered heretics and, as far as we know, has never repented of its past history of violence.
The Lamb is never harsh with His Bride. Strong Christians are not to be harsh and impatient with weak Christians or with the unsaved. Those who are confused in doctrine or in the ways of the Lord are to be instructed with patience, understanding, and mercy.
There are instances when the saint must be stern. The Holy Spirit will provide the necessary wisdom on such occasions.
The opposite of goodness is badness. The badness of sin is evident, the grasping, murderous, harsh, self-seeking behavior of those who are bound in sin is familiar to us. The bondage of sin teaches its victims to hate, to hold back good, to treat other people with suspicion and contempt, to grasp what is desired without regard for the consequences to others.
We can observe such "badness" in the earth today where some people are starving to death while others are on diets because of overweight and their governments are throwing away food or paying farmers not to grow crops. There can be no justification or excuse possible for such selfishness. It is of sin, as is all the virulent and contagious badness that surrounds us.
The rich man was put in Hell because he was mean to a poor man.
The saint of God may be infected when he comes in contact with the malice and perversity that abound in the world. The malicious evil may pierce the man of God even in the churches and he may be tempted to fight back. The body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ are the only antidote for the poisonous spiritual atmosphere of our times.
When Christ's body and blood dwell in us we possess sufficient virtue to overcome evil with good—the Good of God in Christ. There is no other good powerful enough to counteract the perversity and rebellion around us. It is an evil without precedent in history.
Some are claiming that Satan has come down to the earth. They may be correct. For example, recent newspapers have reported such things as a father attempting to kill his own son for the insurance money. Such deeds go against every human instinct involved in the relationship between father and son.
Apart from the influence of demonic badness a father will give his life for his son, and do it cheerfully. A normal father gives all his strength and wisdom so that his son may be lifted into a stronger position in God than he himself has known.
This type of crime (a father murdering his own son for money) has always been in existence but it is more prevalent now. It is a demonstration of how the spirit of the age grows more wicked each day. In addition we have fathers molesting their own children and thus destroying them psychologically.
Little children are being arrested for murder, in our day, in the United States of America.
At the rate in which "badness" is coming to maturity it is difficult to imagine what we can expect to be true twenty years from now. It should neither surprise nor alarm the saint of God when the world plunges downward into the deepest flames of Hell. Only God can prevent it.
There is one thing of which we can be sure: the fruit of the Holy Spirit is goodness, and the Christian's opportunity and responsibility is to walk each day in the Holy Spirit of God. As he conducts his life in the Spirit he will discover that "badness" is being destroyed from his nature, and in its place is growing generosity, kindness, good will, guilelessness, and gentleness toward all individuals. Such goodness is not of the flesh, it is God's goodness that is created in us by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus exclaimed: "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God" (Matthew 19:17). Only God is good. His Spirit alone causes the Spirit-filled saint to grow increasingly kind and generous of nature while the world is set on fire by malice and greed.
The opposite of faithfulness is treachery. Faithfulness is our testimony concerning God's trustworthiness and integrity. Faithfulness is revealed more by our actions than by our words, although our confession in words is important. The first sin committed by humans was an act of treachery, of not keeping covenant with God.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil was growing in the midst of the Garden of Eden. God had stated: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The adversary came in immediately: "Ye shall not surely die." Here is the challenge to faithfulness—the concept that God is unable or unwilling to do what He says.
Then followed this abominable suggestion: "God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Here is the secondary challenge to faithfulness—the concept that the Lord is attempting to deprive us of something of value.
Two concepts are present when there is an unwillingness to be faithful to God's Word: (1) the belief that God may not perform what He has declared; and (2) we shall be happier if we disobey God because His intention is to harm us and make us miserable.
Adam and Eve knew there is a God. He was their Creator and had spoken to them. (Apparently, God was accustomed to walking in the Garden of Eden—Genesis 3:8). Can you see that it was not God's existence but His trustworthiness and goodness that were being questioned?
The problem of treachery, as opposed to faithfulness, is not limited to belief in whether or not God exists. The fallen angels rebelled in unbelief when they were very well aware that God existed. Only a fool doubts the existence of God; for even though God is invisible we can behold His handiwork all about us. The bodies in space, and space itself, had to originate somewhere. The understanding of this is helpful, but it is possible to know of the existence of God, as do the demons, and still to be doomed to eternal fire, as is also true of the demons.
The question is one of our trust in God's intentions toward us. Will He really perform what He has stated He will do? Is He helping us or hurting us? Can God be trusted? Is He actually a rewarder of those who seek Him with diligence? What is your answer? Is God faithful?
Our answer is revealed more by our actions than by our words. Our faithfulness is portrayed by our response to God's Word.
Adam and Eve revealed their lack of faithfulness toward God's Word by eating the forbidden fruit. By partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were proclaiming: We do not believe that God can or will do what He has promised. We believe that we shall be happier if we decide what is good for us. We shall pursue our own path no matter what God says or does not say. It is perfectly all right to disobey God.
This is what the unbeliever declares by his behavior.
As the fruit of faithfulness grows in us we act more and more in line with the Word of God without too much regard for the apparent results to ourselves. We behave as though every Word of God is unchangeable and will be fulfilled to the least detail. The proclamation of our actions is that each of God's dealing with us will result in our benefit, no matter how painful the operation may be.
The mature fruit of faithfulness does not deviate from God's Word but abides in absolute confidence in God's trustworthiness. The fruit of faithfulness is exemplified in the life of Christ.
The concept that we can be faithful to God's Word and that He will do good to us, that we are not obligated to rob and murder other people like beasts of the jungle in order to survive, is difficult for the unbeliever to accept. The uproar among the nations of the earth today is due to unbelief in the existence and faithfulness of God.
People are attempting to persuade each other that there is no Heaven, no Hell, no Day of Judgment, no eternal glory no eternal punishment; that the Scriptures are the work of the genius of men and therefore are subject to the evaluation and criticism of men.
If some of these unbelievers could find it in their hearts to trust in God's goodness, the demon spirits would howl with rage and then would toil without ceasing until their slaves returned to the insane clutching of things and relationships. These same forces of darkness made certain that Adam and Eve did not continue to walk in fellowship with God!
The Lord Jesus is our example of perfect faithfulness to the Father. We Christians are not always faithful to the Lord although our experiences teach us that God is dependable and that He will bring us into pleasant paths if we will be faithful to His Word.
The cross of Calvary reveals to us that God's thoughts toward us are loving. Our unbelief—that which causes us to act treacherously toward God's Word—must be judged and removed from us. As we confess to God our unbelief and lack of faithfulness He will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then we are to accept the faithfulness and constancy that God gives us and act in this manner.
When we use the measure of faithfulness with which God has blessed us, steadfastly performing His will, especially in seemingly insignificant tasks, God will nourish our faithfulness with His Divine faithfulness and our portion of faithfulness will become stronger. If we diligently seek Him He always will reward our pursuit of Him. If we do not use the faithfulness we already possess, it will not be increased.
If we are sick, or a member of our family is sick, we may not have the faith that God will heal the sickness. We can, however, exercise faithfulness and call for the elders of the church and have the sick one prayed for. By so doing we are demonstrating faithfulness to God's Word.
When God sees that we have been faithful to His Word He may add to us the faith to believe for the answer. We cannot exercise faith we do not possess; we are required only to keep on pressing forward faithfully in obedience to God's Word, as the Holy Spirit directs and enables.
As we gain experience in walking in the Spirit of God we begin to recognize the leading of the Lord. As soon as we are reasonably certain that God has spoken to us, our ever-increasing faithfulness will enable us to trust in and act on the personal revelation of God's will. Successful walking in the present-day voice of the Lord requires experience and practice.
The sons of God are called to be led by the Spirit of God. If we succumb to the wickedness of unbelief and disobedience to God it will destroy our pursuit of Christ, prevent our pleasing God, and insure that we turn back into the wilderness, never to enter the land of promise (Hebrews, Chapter Three).
And, as we stated previously, if we are faithful to God we will be faithful in our obligations toward people. It is utterly impossible to be faithful to God and yet be treacherous toward people.
Integrity includes faithfulness. In the United States we see throughout the land, beginning with the government, a turning away from integrity. The earlier concept that a man’s word was his bond, is scorned. The marriage contract is broken as readily as it is assumed. Treachery, graft, fraud, bribery, lying, deception, are the order of the day. This is the nature of Satan.
The opposite of meekness is arrogance and unteachableness. It is difficult for the Lord to work with the person who is not meek. God has so much to teach, so much to impart. If we rush about in hardness of heart, determined to assert our own will at every point, there is no room in our life for the meek and gentle Jesus. We have all the answers and solutions. We think we do not need the Lord's help.
The meek and quiet soul, on the other hand, is listening continually for the voice of the Holy Spirit of God. The meek are taught by the Lord, therefore they inherit the earth. The brash, unteachable person will not accept the gentle ways of the Lord. He leaves no room for Christ in his inn, so to speak. The world and the flesh are strident, garish, self-seeking. The realm of unclean spirits is a noisy, frenzied environment—raucous, loud, harsh, full of yelling, fighting, quarreling, strife, and debate.
The Spirit of the Lord is quiet, unassuming, seeking the good of others, often slow to act, soft-spoken. There is a willingness to allow others their place and a desire to be constructive and helpful. There is harmony, peace order, understanding, and enough time to think and be sure of what one is doing.
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Thank God that this is so! When the world is filled with meek people it will be a wonderful place in which to live. We shall find rest for our spirits, souls, and bodies.
Temperance is the ninth aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. The opposite of temperance is excess or lack of self-restraint. Self-restraint is another term for self-discipline. God is a disciplined Person and He desires that we be under self-discipline in Christ.
One of the characteristics of the age in which we are living is the teaching and practicing of the concept that discipline is harmful. We witness a thrusting against government, against law, against any rule that prevents people from indulging their lusts and appetites. People are drunk on the pleasures of the world.
There is a tendency to rebel against any person or institution that enforces the law. Whether it is a parent, police officer, schoolteacher or other authority, the belief is that he or she is harming us by not allowing us to follow our impulses. We must be free to do what we desire or we will defy or destroy those who are hindering us.
There is a destructive doctrine that teaches that if a child is disciplined by his parents or teachers he will not learn self-control. Just the opposite is true. The untended child does not grow toward self-control just as an untended garden does not grow orderly rows of flowers.
An untended garden brings forth weeds and the pattern of flowers is disorderly. The untended child grows the weeds of rebellion, despising of authority, arrogance, willfulness, self-centeredness, self-love, self-will, pride, hatred of God, and every other wickedness one can imagine.
God insists on government and authority. God always acts in terms of established authority, discipline, law, control. No part of God's creation is left unsupervised.
The nature of the kingdom of darkness is rejection of law, rejection of discipline, rejection of anyone and anything that attempts to bring about self-control.
Our world today is reflecting an increase in the activities of the hordes of Hell. The demons have but a few days left in which to rampage through the earth. In order to expand the scope of their activities they have suggested subtly, through "educated" people, that the way to lessen crime and the other evils of our age is to provide increased permissiveness for children and to remove the traditional restraints on social behavior. The lessening of controls has just the opposite effect from what is desired, and the children grow toward maturity in chaos of personality.
Those who practice undisciplined social behavior, whether it is in the realm of premarital sexual conduct, perversion, homosexuality, drugs, or violence, end up in hopeless slavery to their own lusts, bringing themselves and their loved ones down into the dark regions of those chained in despair. They become ill physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They pay a fearful price for rejecting the laws of the Holy One of Israel.
One of the methods of science is the manipulation of variables, and careful observation and measurement of the results of such manipulation. An observer can examine the results of our current practice of removing restrictions on behavior. We are endeavoring to solve existing social problems, but the results are a heating up of the social environment rather than a cooling off.
If one removes the pressure cap from the radiator of his automobile engine, the engine will heat up rather than cool off. Children left to themselves "heat up." They become disorderly rather than calm and controlled. On some occasions children do not enjoy the lack of supervision and will ask for adult guidance and control.
Lack of self-control is a curse in the earth today. The rejection of the discipline that is imposed externally by the laws of the land, and also internally by our own conscience, leads us directly into problems. God expects the law to be obeyed, and the judge and the police officer, more often than not, are ministers of God.
If the Christian breaks the law or strikes another person or acts dishonestly, he or she will be arrested. Being a Christian requires self-control in the matter of obeying the law regardless of how the law may inconvenience us or limit our "freedom."
Excess (lack of self-restraint) is evident in many areas of our lives. Eating more than is necessary is a sin against the body and results in health problems. Working too much breaks down the health, and in addition takes away from the time that should be given to waiting on the Lord. Too much entertainment and play make the believer frivolous. We are in a war, and five unguarded minutes are long enough for Satan to lead us into a trap. Getting out of that trap may require five (or twenty-five) years of anguish and diligent prayer.
Self-control is required also in religious duties. The Lord is not pleased with the Christian who sets a regimen for himself that shuts out his family. Time and attention are required in order to raise a family.
If a believer is part of a family it is God's will that sufficient time and attention be given to wholesome family relationships. This is especially true of a father and mother, because if time and attention are not devoted to the needs of the family, family stability will break down. God will not hold the family together while the father and the mother are excessively active in religious work. The children may develop severe problems while the parents are "serving the Lord."
As we learn to walk in the Holy Spirit our whole personality is brought under discipline. God teaches us to behave in prayerful moderation, always being aware of the effects of our actions. One of the best ways of determining whether we actually are being led of the Spirit is to observe the results of what we are doing. If we are being led by the Holy Spirit there will be signs of Christ in our conduct and in the effects of our actions.
We cannot always see and understand everything that God is working in us, but the Lord always remains ready to verify His dealings with unmistakable signs of love, peace, joy, lawfulness, holiness, and the other qualities of the life lived in the Spirit of God.
If it has become necessary to us to force people and situations, to injure our health, to break the law, to yell, bluff, lie, to act defiantly and rashly, we should consider prayerfully what we are doing, for the Holy Spirit does not act in this manner.
Would you like to examine a rogues gallery? Then let us look at the opposites of the fruit of the Spirit and you will gain a glimpse of unregenerate humanity, and of the unseen forces of evil who originated these opposites and who daily feed and strengthen the practicing of them, whether or not the practitioners are Christians: hate, murder, wrath, sectarianism, competition, misery, sorrow, anguish, pain, remorse, grief, torment, confusion, unrest, strife, fighting, uproar, impatience, desperation, explosiveness, turmoil, emotional instability, stealing, harshness, cruelty, bossiness, forcing, driving, rape, rudeness, boisterousness, badness, malice, wickedness, self-seeking, rebellion, stubbornness, craftiness, spitefulness, self-love, high-mindedness, insolence, unbelief, scornfulness, hatred of God, fear, timidity, double-mindedness, insecurity, unteachableness, pride, haughtiness, self-importance, intemperance, grasping, selfishness, self-will, jealousy, greediness, perversion, hoarding, arrogance, drunkenness, treachery, lying, stealing, sorcery, self-pity, self-centeredness, disobedience to parents and authorities.
These rogues are not pretty companions but they are some of the wicked spirits that are prominent in our age. God has stated that those who practice such things are worthy of death (Romans 1:32). Such behaviors characterize Christian people as well as non-Christians because they are our attributes until the work of redemption has been completed in us.
The program of redemption judges and removes these qualities from us and develops their opposites in us. Their opposites are the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thirtyfold fruitbearing.
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matthew 13:19-23)
The "word of the kingdom" is not merely a spoken or written word that comes to the mind and causes understanding in terms of a person's background, as is true of human words. The word of the Kingdom is the Word of God—the Substance of God. God is in His Word. Christ is the Word of God made flesh.
By the term the Word of God, in this instance, we are not referring to the Scriptures. We are speaking of the living Word. The Word of God is alive, carrying Divine Life in itself. It brings understanding as it is taught and imparted by the Spirit of God. The Word of God transforms us by renewing our mind (Romans 12:2), and it comes to us also as the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, entering and re-creating our personality.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
The Word of God does not grow in us in the same way that a new idea "grows" in a person or in a group until the mind is captivated by it. Rather, the Word of God grows in us in an organic sense, bringing forth the image of Christ—the fruit of the Spirit. The Word of God truly is the "Seed" of Divine Substance.
God's Word is creative. A human could declare, Let there be light. Unless he turned on a switch or lighted a candle or lantern, light would not appear. When God commands, Let there be light, or Let there be stars, or Let there be animals and people, these forces, masses, and living creatures appear. We understand, therefore, that there is a difference between the word of man and the Word of God. There is a difference in kind.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus compares the Word of God to seed. All seed comes from living organisms, and each seed contains in itself a code that controls growth so that a living organism in the image of the parent can be produced. There is nothing in nature that more reveals the genius of God than the manner in which a large organism (even a human being!) comes from a small seed.
The living Word of God is much more than the written words of the Scriptures, although the Scriptures are the record that we possess of the words of people who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures are the "more sure word of prophecy" and our infallible guide to faith and conduct. Yet, the living Word of God is much more than Hebrew or Greek or English or German words and sentences written on paper. The Word of God is Christ—He who was with God from the beginning, who is God, by whom all things were made.
When Christians give forth the words of the Scriptures on earth, the Holy Spirit moves in the spirit realm bringing the Word of God in spiritual Substance, provided the Holy Spirit is working together with the Christian ministry. If the ministry is not working in the wisdom and enabling power of the Holy Spirit, the words of the Scriptures do not compose the living Word of God.
The scriptural statements are accurate, interesting, and useful—but this is true of thousands of other books. The Scriptures do not become the Word of God to us until the Holy Spirit breathes life into the statements. The letter of the Scriptures does not bring life in itself, for "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (II Corinthians 3:6)
When the Holy Spirit sows the Word of God, the living Substance of Christ, the Divine Seed falls into the hearts of people. The hearts of people are as several types of "ground." In some instances, as we notice in the parable of the sower, there is momentary growth but no lasting fruit.
The limits on what the Divine Seed can become in the human heart are not placed there by the heart itself. The limits are established by the coding in the Seed. The heart merely is ground—nothing more. If the heart is not sincere or is filled with worldliness, the Seed is not able to bring forth the Goodness that is in it. But the quality of the fruit of the Seed depends only on the quality of the Parent from whom the Seed came, although its growth can be limited by our response.
When the Divine Seed falls into an "honest and good heart," taking root there, Divine Life begins to multiply. If beneficial conditions prevail throughout the period of germination and growth, the mature plant will develop into a son of God, in God's image and of His Substance and Divine Nature. The nine-dimensional fruit of the Spirit is the image of Christ's Divine Nature, and it is the fruit of the Seed described in the parable of the sower.
If we tend to the Seed that has been sown in our heart, the image of God will be brought forth. The Seed will reproduce the Parent, for that is the law that God has established concerning seeds. The Divine Nature of the Parent is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance, in addition to all the other attributes of God.
There is more to the image of God than the nine characteristics mentioned here. For example, under appropriate circumstances God is jealous, wrathful, and exercises vengeance on His adversaries. He roars out of Zion. God, our Father, is clothed with majesty and power. He breathes out fire and destruction, charging on His enemies as a hurricane. He soars in fierce independence in the heavenlies and above the heavenlies and has His way in the storm.
The fury of the gale, the thunder, the lightning, reveal God as much as do the calm and the singing of birds that follow the rain. Because we are God's children, made in His image, we will be able to behave in these ways at some future time.
Such behaviors are "adult" and we may not be mature enough for them. We are far too susceptible to evil for God to allow us to charge about in fury breathing fire on our enemies. We do not trust a child with a large caliber rifle. But the day comes when he is old enough to be trusted with a rifle, and even required to accept it and carry it in defense of his country. So it is true that one day we will judge all sin and destroy it from the earth.
If we are willing for God to have His full way in the development of the Divine Seed that is in us, the result will be a complete maturing of the Divine Life and Character. The Seed comes from God and it is able to bring forth in the image of God.
As the Word of God grows in us our original personality undergoes a transformation. Our old nature is occupied with eating, working, sleeping, playing, and reproducing, because it is of the earth—earthy. The new man being created in us is born of the Divine Seed.
As the new man develops, the old nature is brought into frustration and impotence and our first personality resents this loss of power and liberty. As the new man gains and the old man loses it becomes increasingly clear that this is a battle to the death. When first we become a Christian, the conflict between the old and the new may not be evident to us because the adamic personality may be able to perceive only the benefits to us that flow from accepting Christ.
As the years go by and the Seed comes under the training of the Holy Spirit, our old personality commences to experience loss. Our familiar patterns of acting, speaking, planning, and imagining are challenged, and in many instances our personal liberty must be sacrificed to the current manner in which God is working in and with us. The program becomes so involved that we can understand neither the process nor the goal.
At some point along the way we may decide to bring to a halt the tearing apart of our self by the Spirit of the Lord. This is as far as we desire to go. We have endured all we care to put up with of the seemingly endless dealing, probing, and pruning of the Spirit of God.
Our willingness to stop the program of redemption is the reason why some bring forth thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. The Seed of Christ is capable of bringing forth the whole image of Christ, but the believer may or may not be willing to endure the blows to self that the Divine re-creative process requires.
The title of our book is Three Deaths and Three Resurrections and the content of the book has to do with the three aspects of the plan of redemption. We are explaining redemption as the process of destroying the evil out of us and the creating of the image of Christ in us. The goal of redemption is our complete union with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.
We have applied the term salvation to the first of the three aspects of redemption, sanctification to the second aspect, and conquest to the third. Like every other description or model of the Lord's workings, ours is incomplete. Hopefully it is useful. We are pointing out, in the immediate text, that thirtyfold fruitbearing is related to salvation, the first aspect of redemption.
Every person who is saved has the touch of Christ on his life. It is impossible to be brought into the Kingdom of God, into the area of escape from the destructive wrath of God that will sweep throughout His creation, unless one has been touched by Christ and the mark of Christ has been left on him. We must be "sealed" to the Day of Redemption.
People bring forth the nature of Christ to different degrees, as indicated by the parable of the sower, but every person who will be carried over into the new heaven and earth reign of Christ (and that is what it means to be "saved") must possess at least a "thirtyfold" amount of Christ in his personality. When God passes among His creatures He looks for the image of His beloved Son, and when He does not find that image, judgment will follow (Matthew 22:12).
Thirtyfold fruitbearing has several requirements:
A person must accept the blood of the cross for the atonement for his sins. He must repent, turning away from the world, and be baptized in water (if it is possible), for this is God's commandment.
He must confess Christ before people, stating and truly believing that Christ is his Lord and Savior. He must accept the Spirit's right to dwell and rule in him. He must, by faith, as demonstrated in the Communion service, partake of the body and blood of Christ.
He must cleave to Christ, forsaking all other gods, and must accept in utmost sincerity the fact of his participation in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ His Lord, as portrayed in water baptism.
All persons who bear fruit to the extent mentioned in the preceding three paragraphs will be saved provided they maintain faith in Christ throughout their life on the earth. It is not enough to begin in faith. In order to be saved, one must keep on with that same trust and hope in Christ firmly to the end. "He that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22).
If we maintain throughout our life a firm commitment to the salvation that is in Christ, and a clear testimony to our personal redemption through His blood, obeying the Holy Spirit when He speaks to us, we will be saved.
The thirtyfold level of fruit-bearing represents a grasp on the salvation that is in Christ. Such a grasp will bring the believer through to the new heaven and earth reign of Christ. The individual is saved and possesses a measure of eternal life.
Fruit, more fruit, much fruit.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 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. (John 15:1-5)
In keeping with our concept of three aspects of redemption we shall speak of the bearing of fruit at three levels: (1) fruit; (2) more fruit; and (3) much fruit. The Vine, abiding in the Vine, and being pruned, are concepts stressed in the above passage.
There is only one true Vine, only one true planting of God in the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the true Vine and spiritual Israel is His Body. All other religions are manmade. Christ is God's Son and in Him exclusively resides the Divine blessing.
God the Father is the Vinedresser. God attends to the proper growth and fruitbearing of the Vine.
God is the One who cuts away dead branches and prunes back the living branches. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away."
Abiding in Christ means cleaving to Him each day, setting aside time for prayer, the study of the Scriptures, and assembling with fervent fellow believers wherever possible. It means obeying the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The expression abiding in Christ is not referring to accepting Christ as Savior and then walking in our own path and doing whatever we please. We must sow to the Spirit of God each day of our life, and this is possible only if we take up our cross and follow Him. We must give time and effort on a consistent basis to seeking the Lord's will for us.
If we abide in the Vine, keeping ourselves in His will, we shall begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, faith, meekness, gentleness, will increase. The test of whether we truly are abiding in Christ is the demonstration of the moral image of Christ in our personality. If there is little or no moral image, then there is little or no abiding in Christ. When we do not abide in Him we do not bear fruit.
There are seasons of severe testing and pruning in our Christian discipleship during which it appears we are going backward rather than forward with respect to bearing the fruit of the Spirit. These are exceptional periods. If we truly are abiding in Christ, the nature of Christ finally will be seen in us as the result of our fiery trials. "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20).
We need not strain in order to bear the fruit of the Spirit. It is the fruit of the Spirit. It comes forth naturally when we are living in the Spirit. The Divine fruit appears in its season, breaking through our wicked nature with irresistible force just as a blade of grass will grow through a tiny crack in the rock.
We cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit by the striving of our flesh. The flesh of man brings forth the wicked works of the flesh. The Spirit of God brings forth the righteous and holy works of the Spirit.
. . . every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (John 15:2)
Grape vines will be bulging with fruit one month but in another season will be pruned back nearly to ground level. A vinedresser who knows his business will prune to an extent that an untrained person would consider to be destructive. Yet, skillful pruning results in an abundance of fruit. God prunes us so we may bear more fruit, which is His goal.
Jesus informed us that God will prune every fruitbearing branch. Pruning is death to a part of us. When God goes to work on us with His pruning equipment we do not enjoy the process; but our end is glorious if we do not give up and turn away from the Lord.
We grow along one line for a while, bearing fruit in many directions. Then circumstances occur that cut us back down to the ground. These circumstances are God's pruning tools. We may not recognize this and as a result may begin to fight back. We may blame people and fret over the situations that upset us. If we are abiding in the Holy Spirit we finally will come to see the hand of God behind the trouble.
Sometimes God will prune until all that we have accomplished lies in ruins around us. This is the time to draw near to God and resist the devil. We must learn to be patient in such instances because nothing touches the servant of the Lord apart from God's specific will and directions.
An important first pruning of our life occurs when we receive Christ, when we come to Him in our sins and receive forgiveness through the blood that He shed on the cross of Calvary. God commands us to repent and be baptized. Water baptism symbolizes death to the world, the devil, and our old nature and patterns of behavior.
To repent is to turn around and go in the opposite direction. We were on our way to Hell, being filled with the unclean works of the flesh. When we receive the Lord Jesus Christ we are to come out of the world and confess that we no longer are part of the world, having chosen to become a Christian. We forsake our former works of filthiness, lying, hatred, covetousness, stealing, and begin to demonstrate the righteous ways of the Lord Jesus.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. (John 15:3)
As soon as we accept Christ His Word cuts through the wickedness that is in our life and we begin to lay aside the unclean works of darkness. This is the "appearing of the dry land," the first bearing of the fruit of the Spirit of God.
Whether or not we press forward to the next two levels of "more fruit" and "much fruit" depends on us. If we are willing to put forth the time and effort required for abiding in Christ we will come to another place of pruning that will result in the bearing of more fruit.
If, however, we become careless, do not pray, do not meditate each day in the Scriptures, do not fellowship with fervent believers, do not obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and begin to drift back into our old ways, becoming filled to excess with the pleasures of the present age, we will begin to lose our connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. Soon the signs of withering will appear.
We will become apathetic toward prayer, toward gathering together with the saints, toward seeking the things of the Kingdom of God. The Spirit will warn us; but if we keep on ignoring the reproofs of the Lord, allowing our heart to become hardened, we will be cut out of the Vine by the Father.
If we have come to know the Lord, and then allow ourselves to go back into sin, it may prove to be difficult indeed to regain our joy and fellowship with the Lord. Anyone who has witnessed a person who has known Christ but has fallen and is attempting to get back to the place of joy and victory, will testify that it is a sobering sight to behold. God is not mocked and His Word is eternally true.
God has warned us about the need to remain in the Vine, Christ. If, in spite of all His provisions and entreaties, we keep on ignoring His salvation, there remains only a fearful looking for of the fiery judgment that will destroy the Lord's adversaries.
We are not speaking here of some conscientious believer who has stumbled. Satan often beats such with accusation after accusation. The disciple who has erred can be restored immediately to full and improved fellowship upon the confession and repentance of his sins.
Rather, the problem arises when there is long-term backsliding. It is this condition that brings fiery judgment and the need for tearful, sincere, sometimes anguished, remorse and repentance.
If we have received Christ we have begun to bear fruit. His Word has pruned us already. Now we must prepare our hearts so that the Vinedresser can prune back our works according to His expert knowledge. After He prunes us we shall bear more fruit.
Later, when we are more mature in the Lord, we may endure a more severe pruning. As difficult as that later trial may prove to be, the end result will be much fruit—the fullness of the image of Christ and the abiding in us of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.
The Lord never afflicts us in order to enjoy our distress. All His work in us is for the purpose of bringing us forth in the image of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be changed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:28,29)
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