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BUT THE FRUIT
OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS,
FAITHFULNESS: O de karpos tou pneumatos estin (3SPAI) agape, chara,
eirene, makrothumia, chrestotes, agathosune, pistis: (Gal 5:16,
18; Ps 1:3; 92:14; Ho 14:8; Mt 12:33; Lk 8:14,15; 13:9; John 15:2,5,16;
Ro 6:22; 7:4; Ep 5:9; Php 1:11; Col 1:10 ) (Love - Gal 5:13; Ro 5:2, 3,
4, 5; 12:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; 15:3; 1Co 13:4, 5, 6, 7;
Ep 4:23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; 5:1,2; Php 4:4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9; Col 3:12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 17; 1Th 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10;
5:10-22; Titus 2:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; James 3:17,18;
1Peter 1:8,22; 2Pe 1:5, 6, 7, 8; 1John 4:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16 ) (Goodness - Ro 15:14 ) (Faith - 1Co 13:7,13; 2Th 3:2; 1Ti 3:11;
4:12; 1Pe 5:12)
Note:
Hold mouse pointer over underlined links for pop up of Scripture (which
stays open and can be copied).
S Lewis Johnson writes the following summation of Galatians
5:22, 23, which he classifies as the evidence of the leading of the
Spirit (Gal 5:24)...
The evidence of the leading of the Spirit
lies in a cluster of nine virtues that make up "the fruit of the
Spirit." This fruit is the product of the life of the Spirit in the
believer. It is characterized by several interesting features.
First of all, in the fruit of the Spirit
there is unity. We notice that the word, "fruit," is in the singular
number. There is only one fruit of the Spirit, but it contains nine
virtues. If one of the virtues is missing, then we do not have the fruit
of the Spirit. The Spirit's product is like a watermelon with nine
flavors! Many commentators have suggested that the nine virtues
illustrate the full-orbed, symmetrical character of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is His life that the Spirit produces in the believer.
Second, the fruit of the Spirit possesses a
notable' harmony, the first triad of virtues being inward in nature, the
second, outward, and the third upward.
Third, there is a necessity that believers
have the fruit of the Spirit. The lack of the virtues indicates sin
against the Holy Spirit who is engaged in producing the virtues in the
lives of the saints.
Finally, in the concluding words of Galatians 5:23 there is an important
point made by Paul. The Law of Moses finds no flaw in the fruit of the
Spirit. The flesh may imitate, or counterfeit, certain of the virtues,
but it can never produce them. The Spirit alone can do that, and the
result satisfies all the demands of the moral law in the believer's
life. It is sometimes forgotten that life by the Spirit is not a lower
standard than life by the moral law, or the Ten Commandments. It is, if
anything a higher standard. Arthur Way has caught that in his rendering
of Galatians 5:18 "But if you definitely surrender yourselves to the
Spirit's guidance, you are then not under the law, but ON A HIGHER
PLANE."
Wuest
explains the context writing
that...
These verses continue the exhortation
of Paul to the Galatians, not to make their liberty from the law a base
of operations from which to serve the flesh, but rather to live their
Christian lives motivated by divine love. As the repulsiveness of the
works of the flesh would deter the Galatians from yielding to the evil
nature, so the attractiveness of the fruit of the Spirit would influence
them to yield themselves to the Spirit.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
But (1161) (de)
marks the contrast of the fruit of the Spirit with the rotten
deeds of the
flesh
Paul had just described
writing that...
the deeds (works) of the
flesh
are (present
tense =
continually) evident (readily known, clearly visible) which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality... (Galatians
5:19)
Deeds represent the
natural effect of self effort or fleshly effort (flesh
- the evil disposition dominating unbelievers and still present in
believers), in contrast to
fruit which represents the
supernatural produce of God's Spirit.
Lightfoot
comments that...
The Apostle had before mentioned the
works of the flesh; he here speaks of the fruit of the Spirit. This
change of terms is significant. The flesh is a rank weed which produces
no fruit properly so called (comp Eph 5:9
[note]; Eph 5:11
[note], Ro 6:21
[note - where "benefit" = karpos = "fruit"); and St Paul’s language here
recalls the contrast of the fig and vine with the thorn and the thistle
in the parable,
Matthew 7:16 [note]
(St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians)
The fruit of
the Spirit - Not the fruit of believers per se but the fruit which
the Holy Spirit produces in and through the lives of believers as they
walk in His grace and power. And His fruit is always the outward
manifestation of the yielded believer's inner life.
As Spurgeon
says...
Brethren, the Spirit of God is not
barren: if He be in you He must and will inevitably produce His own
legitimate fruit.
“Old leaves, if they remain upon the
trees through the autumn and the winter, fall off in the spring.” We
have seen a hedge all thick with dry leaves throughout the winter, and
neither frost nor wind has removed the withered foliage, but the spring
has soon made a clearance. The new life dislodges the old, pushing it
away as unsuitable to it. So our old corruptions are best removed by the
growth of new graces. “Old things are passed away; behold, all things
are become new.” It is as the new life buds and opens that the old
worn-out things of our former state are compelled to quit their hold of
us, Our wisdom lies in living near to God, that by the power of His Holy
Spirit all our graces may be vigorous, and may exercise a sin-expelling
power over our lives: the new leaves of grace pushing off our old sere
affections and habits of sin.
Wiersbe
notes that...
The contrast between works and fruit
is important. A machine in a factory works, and turns out a product, but
it could never manufacture fruit. Fruit must grow out of life, and, in
the case of the believer, it is the life of the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). When
you think of “works” you think of effort, labor, strain, and toil; when
you think of “fruit” you think of beauty, quietness, the unfolding of
life. The flesh produces “dead works” (Heb. 9:14), but the Spirit
produces living fruit. And this fruit has in it the seed for still more
fruit (Gen. 1:11). Love begets more love! Joy helps to produce more joy!
Jesus is concerned that we produce “fruit... more fruit... much fruit”
(John 15:2, 5), because this is the way we glorify Him. The old nature
cannot produce fruit; only the new nature can do that. (Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor
or
Logos)
Eadie adds
that in regard to the fruit...
Its origin is “the Spirit;” not man's
spirit, or the new and better mode of thinking and feeling to which men
are formed by the Holy Spirit (Brown), but the Holy Spirit Himself, the
Author of all spiritual good. Those who are led by the Spirit not only
do not do the works of the flesh, but they bring forth the fruit of the
Spirit.
(Eadie,
John: Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians)
The fruit -
Not fruits plural but fruit singular (in Greek). One fruit
manifest by 9 spiritual attitudes. Fruit in the singular also
underscores the unity of the 9 spiritual attitudes, and emphasizes that
all work together to produce a Christ like believer, our Lord Jesus
Christ being the perfect manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit. Paul
does not say fruits, as though portions of fruit might be present
in the believer and other portions might not. Instead, the sense of
wholeness and unity in will be manifest in the one born of God. By contrast the deeds of the flesh are plural,
and they hardly represent unity, nor do they produce unity but only
produce strife between men.
UBS Handbook
makes an important distinction writing that...
Paul talks elsewhere of the gifts
of the Spirit (1 Cor 12.1-11). These should not be confused with the
fruit of the Spirit. The gifts are functions and
capacities which are given to various people to enable them to serve the
Christian community. Obviously, then, all Christians would not share the
same gifts. However, the fruit which Paul talks about here is
found in its entirety in every believer whose life is led by the Spirit
of God. (The
United Bible Societies' New Testament Handbook Series
or
Logos)
As Wiersbe
says...
It is unfortunate that an overemphasis on gifts has led some Christians
to neglect the graces of the Spirit. Building Christian character must
take precedence over displaying special abilities. (Ibid)
And so even as the
flesh
of unbelievers will always
produce deeds of the flesh, so too believers now indwelt by the
Spirit will always produce some good fruit. It is not unexpected that
one aspect of the 9 fold fruit might be better developed than others,
but the point is that all are present in every believer. Our Lord's
desire for each believer is to produce a "bumper crop" as He explained
to His disciples...
By this is My Father glorified, that
you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. (John 15:8)
(Clearly fruit in this context refers not just to the fruit of
the Spirit but to all over aspects of spiritual fruit such as converts,
etc).
The amount of
fruit bore by believers is dependent on one's willingness to
abide in Jesus for as He said...
I am the vine, you are the branches;
he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart
from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
In Galatians 5
abiding translates to yielding to and living by or walking by the
Spirit (see Gal 5:25) as opposed to the flesh.
McGee quips
that...
Our problem is that we offer
ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, but when the altar gets hot, we
crawl off. We are to abide in Christ if we are to produce fruit.
Paul is stating the principle of
fruit-bearing so that we can understand it. The fruit is produced by
yielding—by yielding to the sweet influences that are about us. I am not
talking about the world and neither is Paul. We are to yield to the Holy
Spirit who indwells us. The Holy Spirit wants to produce fruit—it is
called the fruit of the Spirit. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
Wiersbe
reminds us that...
Life, not law, changes behavior; and
as you yield to the Spirit, Christ’s life is manifest in the fruit of
the Spirit. (Wiersbe,
W: With the Word: Chapter-by-Chapter Bible Handbook. Nelson
or
Logos)
Martin Luther
comments that...
The Apostle says not, the works of
the Spirit, as he said the works of the flesh, but he adorns these
Christian virtues with a more honorable name, calling them the fruit of
the Spirit. For they bring with them most excellent fruits and maximum
usefulness, for they that have them give glory to God, and with the same
do allure and provoke others to embrace the doctrine and faith of
Christ. (Commentary on Galatians)
Richards
asks...
Have you ever noticed that along the
banks of a stream the vegetation is always abundant and luxurious? This
is what the Bible says about us. As the Holy Spirit flows freely in our
lives, a rich and beautiful character grows. We are filled with love,
with joy, with peace. In every relationship we exhibit that patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that mark
us as God’s own. There is no way, however much we plow and harrow, or
cultivate and hoe our character, to produce this crop by ourselves. This
crop is produced only by God the Holy Spirit, and only in those who live
by Him (Richards, L.. The 365 Day Devotional Commentary)
I like the way
Phil Newton introduces Galatians 5:22-24 with a question...
Have you ever walked through a
garbage dump? I'm sure that none of us desire to take a casual stroll
through mounds of garbage. But you almost get the feeling that you are
doing this when you read through the list of "deeds of the flesh" which
Paul identifies in our context. I have noticed that in our day of
environmental concerns companies which deal with garbage have changed
the explanation of their work to "waste management." They try to
beautify their grounds surrounding garbage landfills. But whatever they
do, they still have garbage. You still see it and smell it.
Such is the case with the
flesh.
The unregenerate nature of man produces its characteristic deeds. An
unbeliever can attempt to cover the "garbage" of sin in his life. He can
give his actions new, improved names. But garbage is still garbage. Not
so with the believer!
The contrast between the flesh and the Spirit are most evident when we
observe what each produces. Neutrality does not exist between them.
Those who remain in the flesh, i.e., the unregenerate condition, will
generate the evidence of a life dominated by sin. In distinction, those
who are in Christ will manifest the evidence of His character by the
indwelling Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is not an option for a
Christian but the necessary evidence that a person is truly a Christian.
Here we see the character of Christ being demonstrated through those
whom He redeems.
As C.R. Vaughan put it,
The presence of these [i.e., the
fruit of the Spirit] affections and qualities in the mind is proof of
the saving energy of the Holy Ghost in regenerating the human soul; the
absence of them proves the want of it....The prevalence of these
qualities, clear and unquestionable in the consciousness, leaves the
question of regeneration settled beyond a doubt [The Gifts of the Holy
Spirit, 193-194].
At the heart of our assurance as a
Christian is the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
It's absence should tell us immediately that the Holy Spirit has never
applied His regenerating power to our lives, so that we remain lost in
sin and under the judgment of God.
Is the fruit of the Spirit being
manifest in your life? Let
us consider together the evidence of true conversion in the fruit of the
Spirit.
There is a big difference between the
"gifts of the Spirit" and "the fruit of the Spirit." The gifts are for
the purpose of ministry in the church, while the fruit of the Spirit
helps us to have assurance and to give power to our Christian witness.
Gifts may vary from one believer to another, while the fruit of the
Spirit manifests itself in solidarity within every believer. Gifts as
acts of service can be imitated, while the fruit of the Spirit as
character cannot.
The premise which Paul builds in this portion of Galatians is that in
the same way the unregenerate nature produces "deeds of the flesh" the
regenerated nature will be a well-spring of "the fruit of the Spirit."
The Holy Spirit cannot indwell a life without evidence of His holy
presence and influence. He permeates the whole of the believer's
character. He changes him at the root of his nature so that a "moral
energy" as it were, works the holy character of Jesus Christ in and
through the believer [Vaughan, 194]. The fruit of the Spirit is not a
choice we make, but an inevitable manifestation in those who are truly
born of God. (Galatians
5:22-24 True Conversion: The Fruit of the Spirit)
Maclaren
adds that Paul describes...
not the fruits, as we might
more naturally have expected, and as the phrase is most often quoted;
all this rich variety of graces, of conduct and character, is thought of
as one. The individual members are not isolated graces, but all
connected, springing from one root and constituting an organic whole.
There is further to be noted that the
Apostle designates the results of the Spirit as fruit, in strong and
intentional contrast with the results of the flesh, the grim catalogue
of which precedes the radiant list in our text. The works of the
flesh have no such unity, and are not worthy of being called fruit.
They are not what a man ought to bring forth, and when the great
Husbandman comes, He finds no fruit there, however full of activity the
life has been.
We have then here an ideal of the
noblest Christian character, and a distinct and profound teaching as
to how to attain it. I venture to take the whole of this list for my
text, because the very beauty of each element in it depends on its being
but part of a whole, and because there are important lessons to be
gathered from the grouping. (Galatians
5:22-23 The Fruit of the Spirit)
In Ephesians Paul mentions 4
components of the fruit of the Spirit with the result being
unity...
I, therefore, the prisoner of the
Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which
you have been called (cf walking in the Spirit, Galatians 5:16), 2 with
all humility and gentleness, with patience (fruit of the
Spirit in Galatians 5:22), showing forbearance to one another in love,
3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace (another fruit of the Spirit). (See notes
Ephesians 4:1;
4:2;
4:3)
C Norman Bartlett comments on
Paul's use of fruit in the singular writing that...
The use of the singular "fruit"
instead of the plural "fruits" is instructive. It suggests the common
root and interdependence of these several spiritual graces mentioned.
They can be produced only in a life that is rooted in the Spirit; they
cannot be hung outwardly upon a life like the toys and ornaments on a
Christmas tree. Fruitage in the Spirit requires rootage in the Spirit.
As it has been well put,
Christian character is Christ's
excellency reproduced by the Spirit in a renewed life.
To bring forth the fruit of the
Spirit is not only the Christian's happy privilege; it is his bound duty
as well. In a soul born of the Spirit there is to be fruit borne in the
Spirit. The fact that we could do nothing to earn our salvation is by no
means to be interpreted as implying that, having been saved by grace, we
can do nothing to show our gratitude for the salvation we have received.
Dare we be unmindful of the words of our Saviour to the effect that our
heavenly Father is glorified when we bring forth much fruit: "Herein is
my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my
disciples" (John 15:8)?
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948)
Fruit (2590)(karpos)
can be used in its literal sense
to refer to fruit, produce or offspring, which describes that which is
produced by the inherent energy of a living organism.
When used
figuratively karpos describes
the consequence of physical,
mental, or spiritual action. In the NT the figurative
use predominates (especially in the Gospels) where
human actions and words are viewed as fruit growing out of a
person's essential being or character. This is also the way Paul uses
karpos in the present passage, as an expression for desirable,
righteous qualities in one’s life, the fruit of the Spirit.
The concept of
fruit is a frequent subject in both the Old Testament (106 mentions) and
the New Testament (some 70 mentions). It is notable that spiritual fruit
in the OT like in the NT was the product of God not man's efforts. For
example in Hosea Jehovah asked Israel (Ephraim)...
what more have I to do with idols? It
is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; from
Me comes your fruit (Hosea 14:8)
Scripture describes 3 general kinds of spiritual fruit...
1)
Spiritual attitude fruit
- As described here in
Galatians 5:22-23.
Every believer manifests all the aspects of this fruit to some
degree, although often one or several traits will be predominant. This
spiritual attitude fruit precedes spiritual action fruit described
below. If the spiritual attitudes are present, the fruit of good deeds
will invariably follow.
2)
Spiritual action fruit
- Col 1:10
(note)
In Colossians Paul describes believers filled with or controlled by the
knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and
thereby walking worthy of the Lord, pleasing him and bearing fruit
in every good work. Note that "spiritual action" fruit is preceded
by the "spiritual attitude" fruit Paul describes in this section of
Galatians.
See other "spiritual action fruit" -
Ro 6:22- note,
Phil 4:16, 17-note;
Heb 13:5-note
(fruit of lips that give thanks to
God)
3) New converts -
1Co 16:15
;
Ro 16:15-note
(where convert is literally "first
fruit")
Larry
Richards summarizes the Biblical concept of spiritual
fruit writing that...
Fruitfulness is a consistent
concept in the OT and the NT. The fruit God seeks in human beings
is expressed in righteous and loving acts that bring peace and harmony
to the individual and to society. But that fruit is foreign to
sinful human nature. Energized by sinful passions, fallen humanity acts
in ways that harm and bring dissension. God's solution is found in a
personal relationship with Jesus and in the supernatural working of
God's Spirit within the believer. As we live in intimate, obedient
relationship with Jesus, God's Spirit energizes us as we produce the
peaceable fruit of a righteousness that can come only from the
Lord. (Richards,
L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency)
W. E
Vine says that karpos is used in Galatians 5:22...
in a
derived sense, of the result, in the spiritual and moral sphere, of
the energy of the Holy Spirit operating in those who through faith are
brought into living union with Christ (see John 15:4, 5). Fruit is
thus the outward expression of power working inwardly, and so in itself
beyond observation, the character of the fruit giving evidence of the
character of the power that produces it, (Mt 7:16, 17, 18, 19, 20-note.
As lust (see
epithumia) manifests itself in works, the restless and disorderly
activities of the
flesh, or principle of evil, in man, so the Spirit
manifests His presence in His peaceable (Heb 12:11 -
note,
and orderly fruit. In this connection fruit presents an advance
upon works. (deeds) Works gives prominence to the notion
of activity; fruit directs attention to the power that works
within.
Fruit is...the manifestation
of the character of Christ in the lives of believers in consequence of
his ministry of the Word among them, Ro 1:13
(note);
and of the care of the believers for the poor, for this is the fruit, or
outward expression, of love, attesting its reality, Ro 15:28
(note);
and of the care of laborers in the gospel, for this is the fruit, or
outward expression, of thankfulness to God for spiritual blessings
enjoyed, attesting its reality, Php 4:17
(note).
The singular form, fruit, is
used here in Galatians 5 perhaps to suggest the unity and harmony of the character of
the Lord Jesus which is to be reproduced in the believer by the power of
the Holy Spirit, in contrast with the discordant and often mutually
antagonistic “works of the flesh.” In Christ actually, and in the
Christian potentially, the fruit of the Spirit is harmonious, the
various elements being mutually consistent, and each encouraging and
enhancing the rest in happy coordination and cooperation in that “new
man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of
truth,” (Eph 4:2-note.
(Vine,
W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
)
As
noted spiritual fruit is a clear
marker of spiritual life, a sure proof that one has experienced
genuine conversion. A profession of faith in Christ cannot
produce holy fruit. Only a genuine possession of the life of Christ can
produce supernatural fruit. Let's look at a few texts that corroborate
this basic and vitally important spiritual principle.
Wiersbe
notes that...
It is possible for the old nature to
counterfeit some of the fruit of the Spirit, but the flesh can never
produce the fruit of the Spirit. One difference is this: when the Spirit
produces fruit, God gets the glory and the Christian is not conscious of
his spirituality; but when the flesh is at work, the person is inwardly
proud of himself and is pleased when others compliment him. The work of
the Spirit is to make us more like Christ for His glory, not for the
praise of men. (Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor
or
Logos)
In Matthew 3:8 John the
Baptist is addressing the "religious" professors, the Pharisees and
Sadducees who were seeking "baptism". John in the context of discussing
how to escape the "wrath to come" declared to these hypocritical
religious leaders...
Matthew 3:8 Therefore
bring
forth (aorist
imperative =
command with a sense of urgency = do this now!) fruit in keeping with
(or "worthy of" - see
axios) repentance (see in depth study
of
metanoia)".
Young's Literal
renders
Matthew 3:8
"bear, therefore, fruits worthy of
the reformation"
John rebuked the religious
"generation of vipers" calling for repentance and insisting that any
inner change produce fruit (e.g., love, joy, peace, patience,
etc) as evidence of the reality of that change. John demanded proof from
these men of the new life before he administered baptism to them. The
point is that spiritual fruit is not the change of heart itself, but the
acts which result from a new spiritually circumcised heart (see notes on
spiritual circumcision - Col 2:11-note).
It was a bold deed for John thus to challenge as unworthy the very ones
who posed as lights and leaders of the Jewish people.
J. R. Miller wrote that
genuine repentance
amounts to nothing whatever if it
produces only a few tears, a spasm of regret, a little fright. We must
leave the sins we repent of and walk in the new, clean ways of holiness.
J Vernon McGee agrees
commenting that...
There must be evidence of this new
life. You can’t just go through the act of baptism. There must be fruit
in your life. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
John MacArthur adds that...
Repentance itself is not a work, but
works are its inevitable fruit. Repentance and faith are inextricably
linked in Scripture. Repentance means turning from one’s sin, and faith
is turning to God (cf. 1Th 1:9-note).
They are like opposite sides of the same coin. That is why both are
linked to conversion (Mark 1:15; Acts 3:19; 20:21). Note that the works
John demanded to see were “fruits” of repentance. (MacArthur,
J.: The MacArthur Study Bible Nashville: Word
or
Logos)
Henry Morris explained that...
John's baptism was conditioned on
repentance--that is, a genuine change of mind and attitude toward God.
It symbolized a washing away of fleshly sins, as well as a new life
following death to the old life. Peter's exhortation after Pentecost was
very similar (Acts 2:38). In both cases, true repentance, as well as
faith in God and His promises, are assumed as conditions for forgiveness
of sins. Without these, baptism is meaningless. (Morris,
Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing)
Vance Havner rightly declared
that...
Repentance is almost a lost note in
our preaching and experience and the lack of it is filling our churches
with baptized sinners who have never felt the guilt of sin or the need
of a Savior...We are trying to get young people to say, ‘Here am I’
before they have ever said, ‘Woe is me!’ ” (Amen!)
The
Presbyterian shorter catechism
says
Repentance is a saving grace whereby
a sinner out a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of
God in Christ doth with faith and hatred turn from it to God with full
purpose of an endeavor after new obedience.
In the closing words of the Sermon on
the Mount, the Lord Jesus spoke these sobering words regarding
spiritual fruit...
Matthew 7:16-20 “You will
know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn
bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears
good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good
tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good
fruit.19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut
down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their
fruits." (See notes on
Matthew 7:16;
17;
18;
19;
20)
Adam Clarke comments that
Both flesh-the sinful dispositions of
the human heart and spirit-the changed or purified state of the soul, by
the grace and Spirit of God, are represented by the apostle as trees,
one yielding good the other bad fruit; the productions of each being
according to the nature of the tree, as the tree is according to the
nature of the seed from which it sprung. The bad seed produced a bad
tree, yielding all manner of bad fruit; the good seed produced a good
tree, bringing forth fruits of the most excellent kind. The tree of the
flesh, with all its bad fruits, we have already seen; the tree of the
Spirit, with its good fruits, we shall now see.
Jesus explained to his audience that true inner
character (and evidence of a new heart, a spiritually circumcised heart)
is recognized by a person's good fruit or conversely bad fruits (the
only possible product of an unregenerate
heart). When a tree is rotten it naturally produces
rotten fruit. But when the indwelling Spirit of God begins to
express His mighty power in the inner being of believers, good, God
glorifying things
begin to happen. The nature of God Himself begins to manifest Himself in
our lives and the result is the fruit of the Spirit.
John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit
(karpos) He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit
(karpos), He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit....4 “Abide in Me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit (karpos) of itself
unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in
him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing....8 “My
Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit (karpos),
and so prove to be My disciples....16 “You did not choose Me but I chose
you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit (karpos),
and that your fruit (karpos) would remain, so that whatever you
ask of the Father in My name He may give to you."
Jesus takes the image of the vine, with God as gardener, from Isaiah. We
believers are carefully tended by the Father, pruned and cared for that
we may "bear much fruit." Fruitfulness is possible, he said, if we
remain in Him and His words remain in us. The point Jesus is making is that
fruitfulness is rooted in our personal relationship with Him, and our
personal relationship with Him is maintained by living His words: "If
you obey My commands you will remain in My love" -- John 15:10. God
has chosen us. It is His intention that we be fruitful. It is for this
reason that He has given us the most intimate of relationships and
Jesus' own words to guide us, and it is our responsibility to walk in
close fellowship with our Lord.
The fruit of the Spirit
is
- Notice that the verb "is"
is in the
present tense, indicating that
this process of fruit bearing is continuous. As a Paul explained to the
Philippians...
He who began a good work in you will
perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (see note
Philippians 1:6)
As Boice says "These are the qualities of the life that has been
claimed by Jesus Christ and is Spirit-led."
Natural fruit needs to be cultivated
and so does spiritual fruit which needs to be watered and fed the Word
in the soil and atmosphere of the Spirit. And so Paul is very practical
explaining that...
If we live by the Spirit let us also
walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25)
Here are some other translations of
that verse...
If we live by the Spirit, let us also
behave in accordance with the Spirit. (NET)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us
keep in step with the Spirit. (NIV) (Comment: Don't run ahead and don't
lag behind. Stay in the Word, obey the Word, confess and repent of sins
quickly).
If we are living now by the Holy
Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our
lives. (NLT)
The Spirit has given us life; he must
also control our lives. (TEV)
If we are living by the Spirit's
power, let our conduct also be governed by the Spirit's power.
(Weymouth)
Newton comments that the
fruit of the Spirit...
distinguishes the person who makes a
profession of faith, acts excited about the Lord for a few weeks or
months, then fades away. One of our Lord's parables clearly explains
this.
"And the one on whom seed was sown on
the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word, and immediately
receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only
temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the
word, immediately he falls away" (Matthew 13:20-21).
There may be a sense of joy but it is
temporary. There may be a love for others but it is temporary. It is in
the demands of life, with all of its harshness and difficulties, that
you see the true evidence of the character of Christ in someone's life.
The Christian is not like an "annual" plant which produces fruit for a
while, then forever fades away. He has the spirit of a perennial, so
that year after year, the same radiant fruit comes forth from his life.
Bearing fruit is natural for fruit
trees. They need not strain to produce fruit. You never find a grove of
apple or peach trees attending conferences on bearing fruit. Nor do you
find fruit trees manipulating one another with brow-beating words in
attempts to convince a tree to produce fruit. The most natural thing in
the world is for a fruit tree to bear its own fruit.
Hear the word of the Lord: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace...." The prepositional phrase demonstrates the origin of the
character of Christ in the life of the believer, the Holy Spirit. Such
character is born through the regenerating and indwelling power of the
Spirit in the life of the believer. In regeneration the Holy Spirit
changes the nature of the sinner so that his new desire and passion is
for Christ, rather than for sin. Why must he be regenerated? Vaughan
explains, "No stream can of itself ascend higher than its source; no
nature can transcend itself in the manifestation of its energies, and if
man is really dead in trespasses and sins, he can put forth no energy
containing in it the element of real holiness, or true spiritual life"
[175]. A person who merely 'makes a decision for Christ' but has not
been regenerated by the Holy Spirit will find himself living in
frustration while trying to produce a character which is not of his
nature. Jesus told Nicodemus that "Unless a man is born again he cannot
enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The idea of "enter" means to
experience or to see firsthand. Jesus explains that to be "born again"
is to be born of the Holy Spirit (John 3:6). Apart from such a radical
work of the Holy Spirit a sinner will never believe the gospel and
repent of his sins. He will never experience the saving work of Christ
personally. How can we describe the Spirit's work of regeneration so
that the new believer begins to give evidence of a totally different
character of soul and life?
It is a profound and radical change in the whole existing moral nature
of the man. It makes him a new creature in Christ; it renews his nature;
it re-colors his character; it transforms his will; it re-moulds his
whole system of thinking, feeling, and acting. It gives him new objects
to live for; new rules to live by; new principles to impel to action;
and new sensibilities to success or failure in the progress and
development of that new life [Vaughan, 188].
The new nature by the Spirit is unlike the old nature of the flesh. That
is Paul's whole premise in this portion of Galatians. What the Holy
Spirit does is to so change a sinner's nature that the most natural
fruit of this person's life is the character of Christ. Is this true of
you?
What is the fruit if it is not the
character of Jesus Christ being manifested in the life of those whom He
has redeemed? Think of each aspect of the Spirit's fruit and you will
see something of Jesus Christ. Who has loved as has our Lord? Who has
manifested joy supremely as Jesus Christ, "who for the joy set before
Him, endured the cross, despising its shame" (Hebrews 12:2). Who has
walked with perfect peace as our Lord or demonstrated such depths of
patience?
What is the Godhead doing in everyone saved by grace? Our Triune God is
reproducing the same character which Christ naturally manifested in this
world by giving us a new nature through the Holy Spirit's work. We see
this so clearly in Paul's explanation of the dimensions of God's saving
work in Romans 8:29, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to
become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the
first-born among many brethren." By the birthing power of the Spirit and
the ongoing work of sanctification, the life of the believer is
continually "conformed to the image" of Jesus Christ. Such conforming
manifests the fruit of the Spirit, the character of Christ.
Let's take a brief look at each aspect of this fruit, so that we might
note its evidence in our lives to the glory of God and pray for ongoing
perfection of its characteristics. (Galatians
5:22-24 True Conversion: The Fruit of the Spirit)
Ray Pritchard rightly reminds
us that...
When the Holy Spirit has free reign
in our hearts, these graces are the supernatural result of his work in
us.
Traditionally, these nine character
qualities have been divided into three triads.
First, there are three
qualities that join us to God: love, joy and peace.
Love speaks of a kind
affection that reaches out to another person without regard to anything
that might be received in return.
Joy is godly optimism even in
trying circumstances.
Peace is godly contentment in
spite of our circumstances. In the deepest sense, these graces come from
God and lead us back to him.
The second triad of qualities reaches out to those around us:
patience, kindness and goodness.
Patience might be better
translated by the traditional phrase “longsuffering.” It speaks of
courageous endurance over time in difficult circumstances.
Kindness refers to a gracious
disposition toward others.
Goodness is love in action.
The third triad includes three qualities that describe our inner
character: faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Faithfulness means something
like “dependability.” The person with this quality keeps his word, his
promises, and his vows.
Gentleness is often translated
“meekness,” which doesn’t mean “weakness” but rather “my power under
God’s control.” It’s the ability to respond with kindness under
provocation when you are sorely tempted to blow your top.
Self-control is “my desires
under God’s control.” It especially speaks to those moments of
temptation when we want to go somewhere or do something or try something
or look at something that we know would not be good for us. It speaks
also of the times when we break a relationship that we know is not
leading us where God wants us to go.
I find it helpful to compare the “works” of the flesh with the “fruit”
of the Spirit. Clearly, there is a huge difference in the two
categories—not just in their result but in their origin. Fruit comes
from life and life comes from the Holy Spirit. The “fruit” of the Spirit
is only possible as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
To say it another way, we produce the “works of the flesh,” but the
“fruit of the Spirit” is produced in us by the Holy Spirit as we
cooperate day by day with him.
As we consider these two ways of life, it helps to remember that flesh
produces only sin; it cannot manufacture a changed life. If we want the
“fruit of the Spirit,” we can have it, but we must apply to God for it.
That is, we must seek it, ask for it, and yield ourselves to God that we
might have it. Left to ourselves, we will produce the “works of the
flesh.” Only when God enters our lives will we discover the “fruit of
the Spirit.”
De Haan (Studies in Galatians.
Kregel Publications. p 167) like many commentators divides the fruit
into 3 triads...
1. Personal fruit—love, joy,
peace. These have to do with our own subjective personal life.
2. Outreaching fruit to others—longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness. This is our attitude in grace toward others.
3. Up-reaching fruit—toward
God. They are faith, meekness, temperance.
Nine parts of one fruit, all supplied
by the Spirit. It covers our complete responsibility toward God, our
fellow man, and others. It covers the whole ground of the law:
1. Duty toward God.
2. Duty toward others.
3. Duty toward self.
Richison writes that
production of these 9 qualities entails...
complete submission to the
work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. There are nine divine grapes
hanging together in one cluster that come from the Spirit filled life.
Romans and Galatians are parallel
books but with different emphases. Romans is the work of the Son of God
for us and Galatians is the work of the Spirit of God
in us. After God places enormous credit of His own
righteousness to our account, He then piles further blessing on our
souls by giving us operating assets to live the Christian life day by
day.
Sin “works” in our sin capacity but fruit comes from the Spirit. He
produces the fruit, not us. Fruit comes from the root; qualities
of the Spirit come from the Holy Spirit. It is the product of divine
energy, the living Holy Spirit. This is a power that comes from
within...The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration and comes to
indwell each believer at the point of salvation. Then the Spirit goes to
work immediately changing the believer. Before Pentecost, the Holy
Spirit did not permanently indwell each believer. He worked around them
but not in them. Since Pentecost, we have a close, intimate relationship
to the Holy Spirit.
The moment we yield ourselves to the Spirit of God, this triggers a
process of dynamic Christian living. By this, the Spirit progressively
molds us into the image of Christ and, in turn, reproduces the
character of Christ in us – the fruit of the Spirit. The
purpose of sanctification is that we might become more accurate
representatives of His character. God will finish this work when we meet
Him face to face (glorification).
The Christian who walks in the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit.
The flesh demands certain activity but the fruit of the Spirit naturally
produces the character of Christ. The flesh is self-assertive and
self-indulgent but the fruit of the Spirit reaches out to others. The
one is human manipulation but the other is divine production.
The Holy Spirit does not produce some of the fruit of the Spirit in
isolation from others. We cannot separate them for our convenience. We
cannot isolate one characteristic from another. The Holy Spirit does not
first produce love in us and then begins to work on joy at some later
point. If that were the case, none of us would live long enough to
finish the list!
Wiersbe emphasizes that the
fruit of the Spirit has a purpose...
We must remember that this fruit
is produced to be eaten, not to be admired and put on display. People
around us are starving for love, joy, peace, and all the other
graces of the Spirit. When they find them in our lives, they know that
we have something they lack. We do not bear fruit for our own
consumption; we bear fruit that others might be fed and helped, and that
Christ might be glorified. The flesh may manufacture “results” that
bring praise to us, but the flesh cannot bear fruit that brings glory to
God. It takes patience, an atmosphere of the Spirit, walking in the
light, the seed of the Word of God, and a sincere desire to honor
Christ. In short, the secret is the Holy Spirit. He alone can give
us that “fifth freedom”—freedom from sin and self. He enables us to
fulfill the law of love, to overcome the flesh, and to bear fruit. (Ibid)
Spurgeon writes that...
The great artist has sketched fruit
which never grows in the gardens of earth till they are planted by the
Lord from heaven. Oh, that every one of us might have a vineyard in his
bosom, and yield abundance of that love which is “the fruit of the
Spirit.” (The
First Fruit of the Spirit)
LOVE
As Weymouth
renders it...
The Spirit, on the other hand, brings
a harvest of love
Paul has already alluded to
the supremacy of love...
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one
word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
(Galatians 5:14)
1 Corinthians he describes love
as the supreme virtue writing that..
now abide faith, hope, love, these
three; but the greatest of these is love. (1Cor 13:13)
As someone has written love is
the fountainhead and well spring of all other virtues -- Joy is love
exulting. Peace is love resting. Patience is love enduring (eg, see note
). Kindness is
love with bowed head. Goodness is love in action. Faithfulness is love
confiding. Gentleness is love in refinement Self-Control is love
obeying.
Love is that virtue which gives
energy to faith itself according to Galatians 5:6 where Paul writes
that...
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Spurgeon comments that...
Perhaps “love” is put first not
only because it is a right royal virtue, nearest skin to the divine
perfection, but because it is a comprehensive grace, and contains all
the refit. All the commandments are fulfilled in one word, and that word
is “love”; and all the fruits of the Spirit are contained in that one
most sweet, most blessed, most heavenly, most God-like grace of love.
See that ye abound in love to the great Father and all his family, for
if you fail in the first point how can you succeed in the second? Above
all things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. (
The Fruit of the Spirit: Joy - Pdf)
Eadie writes that...
The first of the graces is agape
—“love”—the root of all the other graces,— greater than faith and hope,
for “God is Love;” love to God and all that bears his image, being the
essence of the first and second tables of the law,—all the other graces
being at length absorbed by it as the flower is lost in the fruit. 1
Cor. 13; Ro 12:9.
(Eadie,
John: Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians)
Lightfoot wrote that...
The fabric is built up, story upon
story. Love is the foundation, joy the superstructure, peace the crown
of all.
C Norman Bartlett rightly says
that...
The love of GOD cannot but evoke an
answering love for Him from the heart of the believer. "We love him
because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). This love has been shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Needless to say, this
love of God is bound to overflow in love for our fellow Christians:
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth
not God; for God is love" (1 John 4:7, 8)
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948)
Martin Luther comments that...
It might have been enough to have
said “love,” and no more; for love extends itself into all the fruits of
the Spirit. And in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul attributes to love all the
fruits which are done in the Spirit, when he says: “Love is patient,
courteous,” etc. Notwithstanding, he would set it here by itself among
the rest of the fruits of the Spirit, and in the first place, thereby to
admonish the Christians that before all things they should love one
another, giving honor one to another through love, every man esteeming
better of another than of himself, because they have Christ and the Holy
Ghost dwelling in them... (Commentary on Galatians)
William Kelly observes
that Paul...
begins with love—that which is of
God, and flows directly from God, and which is the knowledge of God’s
character more than any other thing. (Kelly, W. Lectures On The Epistle
Of Paul The Apostle To The Galatians. page 153)
Spurgeon wrote of the "voice
of love"...
Oh! there is a voice in love; it
speaks a language which is its own; it has an idiom and a brogue which
none can mimic; wisdom cannot imitate it; oratory cannot attain unto it;
it is love alone which can reach the mourning heart; love is the only
handkerchief which can wipe the mourner’s tears away. And is not the
Holy Ghost a loving Comforter? Dost thou know, O saint, how much the
Holy Spirit loves thee? Canst thou measure the love of the Spirit? Dost
thou know how great is the affection of His soul towards thee? Go,
measure heaven with thy span; go, weigh the mountains in scales; go,
take the ocean’s water, and tell each drop; go, count the sand upon the
sea’s wide shore; and when thou hast accomplished this, thou may’st tell
how much He loveth thee! He has loved thee long, He has loved thee well;
He loved thee ever, and He still shall love thee; surely He is the
person to comfort thee, because He loves.
Love (noun) (26)
(agape) is unconditional, sacrificial
love which is ultimately reflects the very essence of God Himself as John
explains writing that...
The one who does not love does not
know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8)
And we have come to know and have
believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who
abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16)
See related resource by A W Pink -
The Scriptures and Love
Agape love is the unconditional
sacrificial love that God not only is , but that God
shows and that God commands of believers as seen
in these passages...
We know love by this, that
He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother
in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God
abide in him? (1 John 3:16-17)
This is My commandment, that you
love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love
has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
(John 15:12-13)
For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
(see note
Romans 5:8)
And so God commands agape love in believers, and what He
commands, He always enables Paul explaining that...
the love of God has been
poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to
us. (See note
Romans 5:5)
To summarize, agape is the love God is, God
demonstrates, God commands and God provides.
Here in Galatians agape is the love He produces as fruit by His
Spirit in the heart of a surrendered saint.
James
Montgomery Boice adds that this...
Divine love is unmerited (Ro 5:8
[note]), great
(Ep 2:4-[note]),
transforming (Romans
5:5 [note]), and
unchangeable (Ro 8:35, 36, 37, 38, 39 -see notes
Ro 8:35;
36;
37;
38;
39).
It is this love that sent Christ to die for sinful men and that
perseveres with men in spite of their willfulness and love of sin. Now
because the Spirit of Christ (who is characterized by love) is living
within the Christian, the believer is to show love both to other
Christians and to the world. By this, men are to know that Christians
are indeed Christ's disciples John 13:35). (Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament.
Zondervan Publishing) Agape love
seeks the benefit of the one who is loved, is a love which means death to
self and defeat for sin since the essence of sin is self-will and
self-gratification, is a love activated by personal choice of our will
(working out our salvation in fear and trembling - Phil 2:12, 13 -note) not based on our
feelings toward the object of our love and is a love manifested by
specific actions (see below)
not just to fellow believers but to all men everywhere.
One of the best
practical definitions of agape love is Paul's famous passage in
1 Corinthians 13. When you compare this list with the fruit of
the Spirit, you observe that a number of the nine fold aspects of the
fruit of the Spirit compose part of the "definition" of agape love,
another reason it is at the head of the list...
Love is patient, love is kind, and is
not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not
act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not
take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in
unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love
never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away;
if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be
done away. (See notes
1Corinthians 13:4;
13:5;
13:6;
13:7;
13:8)
Agape love is a love of choice,
a
love of serving with humility, the highest kind of love, the noblest
kind of devotion, a love of the will (intentional, a conscious choice)
and not a love motivated by the recipient's superficial appearance, by emotional attraction, or
by sentimental relationship. Agape is not based on pleasant
emotions or good feelings that might result from physical attraction
or a familial bond. Agape chooses as an act of self-sacrifice to
serve the recipient. From all of the descriptions of agape love,
it is clear that genuine agape love is a sure mark of salvation.
Agape love does not depend on
the world’s criteria for love, such as attractiveness, emotions, or
sentimentality. Believers can easily fall into the trap of blindly
following the world’s demand that a lover feel positive toward
the beloved. This is not agape love, but is a love based on
impulse. Impulsive love characterizes the spouse who announces to
the other spouse that they are planning to divorce their mate. Why? They
reason “I can’t help it. I fell in love with another person!” Christians
must understand that this type of impulsive love is completely contrary
to God’s decisive love, which is decisive because He is in
control and has a purpose in mind.
Newton writes that agape
is not however without emotion but is love which...
fills the bosom with such an attitude
and desire for the good of others that it propels its carrier into acts
of selfless service for others without strings attached. It is never
prompted by the thought of some reciprocation. It is an
attitude
which leads to action. Love puts others before itself, not as a means to
draw attention to oneself, but for the sheer delight of manifesting
devotion to Christ by serving others as Christ did. Love is the opposite
of selfishness and self-centeredness. Does this quality show itself in
your life?
Agape does not condone or
gloss over sin in the one loved but actively, purposely seeks the
welfare of the one loved. Philadelphia "love" springs from
personal warmth and affection and God teaches it (1Th
4:9).
John MacArthur has numerous excellent comments regarding agape
love...
(Agape) Love is an attitude of selflessness. Biblical
agapē love is a matter of the will and not a matter of feeling or
emotion, though deep feelings and emotions almost always accompany love.
God’s loving the world was not a matter simply of feeling; it resulted
in His sending His only Son to redeem the world (Jn
3:16). Love is self-less giving, always
self-less and always giving. It is the very nature and substance of love
to deny self and to give to others...We can only have such love when
Christ is free to work His own love through us. We cannot fulfill any of
Christ’s commands without Christ Himself, least of all His command to
love. We can only love as Christ loves when He has free reign in our
hearts...When the Spirit empowers our lives and Christ is obeyed as the
Lord of our hearts, our sins and weaknesses are dealt with and we find
ourselves wanting to serve others, wanting to sacrifice for them and
serve them—because Christ’s loving nature has truly become our own.
Loving is the supernatural attitude of the Christian, because love is
the nature of Christ. When a Christian does not love he has to do so
intentionally and with effort—just as he must do to hold his breath. To
become habitually unloving he must habitually resist Christ as the Lord
of his heart. To continue the analogy to breathing, when Christ has his
proper place in our hearts, we do not have to be told to love—just as we
do not have to be told to breathe. Eventually it must happen, because
loving is as natural to the spiritual person as breathing is to the
natural person. Though it is unnatural for the Christian to be unloving,
it is still possible to be disobedient in regard to love. Just as loving
is determined by the will and not by circumstances or other people, so
is not loving. If a husband fails in his love for his wife, or she for
him, it is never because of the other person, regardless of what the
other person may have done. You do not fall either into or out of
agape love, because it is controlled by the will. Romantic
love can be beautiful and meaningful, and we find many favorable
accounts of it in Scripture. But it is agape love that God
commands husbands and wives to have for each other (Eph. 5:25, 28,
33; Titus 2:4)—the love that each person controls by his own act of
will. Strained relations between husbands and wives, between fellow
workers, between brothers and sisters, or between any others is never a
matter of incompatibility or personality conflict but is always a matter
of sin...Loving others is an act of obedience, and not loving them is an
act of disobedience.
(MacArthur,
J: Ephesians. 1986. Chicago: Moody Press)
The absence of (agape)
love is the presence of sin. The absence of love has nothing at all
to do with what is happening to us, but everything to do with what is
happening in us. Sin and love are enemies, because sin and God are
enemies. They cannot coexist. Where one is, the other is not. The
loveless life is the ungodly life; and the godly life is the serving,
caring, tenderhearted, affectionate, self–giving, self–sacrificing life
of Christ’s love working through the believer. (Ibid)
Agape love centers on
the needs and welfare of the one loved and will pay whatever personal
price is necessary to meet those needs and foster that welfare." (MacArthur,
J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press;
MacArthur, J: Romans 9-16. Chicago:
Moody Press)
Agape is the love that
gives. There’s no taking involved. It is completely
unselfish. It seeks the highest good for another no matter what the
cost, demonstrated supremely by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf." (MacArthur,
J. Saved Without A Doubt. Wheaton, Ill.: May, 2006. Victor Books)
Giving of oneself to others is the epitome of agapē love.
Biblical love is not a pleasant emotion or good feeling about someone,
but the giving of oneself for his welfare (cf. 1John 3:16). Divine
love is unconditional love, love that depends entirely on the one who
loves and not on the merit, attractiveness, or response of the one
loved. Christ did not simply have a deep feeling and emotional concern
for mankind. Nor did He sacrifice Himself for us because we were
deserving. God’s love, and all love that is like His, loves for the sake
of giving, not getting With conditional love, if the conditions are not
met there is no obligation to love. If we do not get, we do not give.
But God’s makes no conditions for His love to us and commands that we
love others without conditions. There is no way to earn God’s love or to
deserve it by reason of human goodness.
Romantic, emotional love between
husband and wife ebbs and flows, and sometimes disappears altogether.
But loss of romantic love is never an appropriate excuse for dissolving
a marriage, because the love that God specifically commands husbands to
have for their wives is agapē love (Eph. 5:25; 3:19;
cf. Titus 2:4; etc.)—love like His own undeserved love for us, love
that is based on willful choice in behalf of the one loved, regardless
of emotions, attraction, or deserving. Romantic love enhances and
beautifies the relationship between husband and wife, but the binding
force of a Christian marriage is God’s own kind of love, the love that
loves because it is the divine nature to love. It is the love of giving,
not of getting; and even when it ceases to get, it continues to give.
Where there is the sacrificial love of willful choice, there is also
likely to be the love of intimacy, feeling, and friendship (philia)...Those
who are given God’s nature through Jesus Christ are commanded to love as
God loves. In Christ, it is now our nature to love just as it is God’s
nature to love—because His nature is now our nature. For a Christian not
to love is for him to live against his own nature as well as against
God’s. Lovelessness is therefore more than a failure or shortcoming. It
is sin, willful disobedience of God’s command and disregard of His
example." (MacArthur,
J: Ephesians. 1986. Chicago: Moody Press)
Agape is impossible for
unconverted to manifest and is impossible even for a believer to
demonstrate it in his or her own strength. It can only be exhibited by
the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. A believer has this love
(divine nature) within (Col 1:27-note)
and it is progressively manifest more and more as fruit by the Holy
Spirit (Gal 5:22) as we obey God's truth.
Spurgeon writes that the labors of love are light...
It is of the utmost importance to keep up our interest in the holy work
in which we are engaged, for the moment our interest flags, the work
will become wearisome. Humboldt says that the copper-coloured native of
Central America, far more accustomed than the European traveller to the
burning heat of the climate, yet complains more when upon a journey,
because he is stimulated by no interest. The same Indian who would
complain, when in botanizing he was loaded with a box full of plants,
would row his canoe fourteen or fifteen hours together against the
current without a murmur, because he wished to return to his family.
Labours of love are light. Routine is a bad master. Love much, and you
can do much. Impossibilities disappear when zeal is fervent.
Love's perfect expression on earth is
the Lord Jesus Christ and He defines this sacrificial love for He
left heaven, came to earth, took on a human form, was spit on and
mocked, was crowned with a crown of thorns, nailed to a cross, abused,
and had a spear thrust into His side. He loved the church enough to die
for her. That's sacrificial love.
H W Beecher wrote that love...
is the heat of the universe.
Philosophers tell us that without heat the universe would die. And love
in the moral universe is what heat is in the natural world. It is the
great germinating power. It
is
the ripening influence. It is the power by which all things are brought
steadily up from lower to higher forms.
Donald W. Burdick gives the
following excellent summary of agape love:
It is
spontaneous. There was nothing of value in the persons loved that
called forth such sacrificial love. God of His own free will set His
love on us in spite of our enmity and sin. [Agape] is love
that is initiated by the lover because he wills to love, not because
of the value or lovableness of the person loved. [Agape] is
self-giving. and is not interested in what it can gain, but in what
it can give. It is not bent on satisfying the lover, but on helping the
one loved whatever the cost. [Agape] is active and is not mere
sentiment cherished in the heart. Nor is it mere words however eloquent.
It does involve feeling and may express itself in words, but it is
primarily an attitude toward another that moves the will to act in
helping to meet the need of the one loved." (Burdick, D W: The Letters
of John the Apostle (Chicago: Moody, 1985, page 351)
In summary, as Barclay once wrote
agape is unconquerable benevolence for nothing the other
person can do will make us seek anything but their highest good and to
never feel bitterness or desire for revenge. Though the one loved might
even injure or insult us, agape will never feel anything but
kindness towards him. Agape
takes a slap in the face and still gives even as Jesus did on the Cross saying
"Father
forgive them." Christian love is the
ability to retain unconquerable goodwill to the unlovely and the
unlovable, towards those who do not love us, and even towards those whom
we do not like. Agape is the badge of discipleship and the
landmark of heaven for
By this all will know that you
are my disciples,
if you have love (agape) one for another. (Jn
13:35).
May your life be plastered with
this
fruit of the Spirit!
A life well lived is a more effective witness than words well said.
Benjamin Franklin learned that plaster sown in the fields would make
things grow. He told his neighbors, but they did not believe him and
they argued with him trying to prove that plaster could be of no use at
all to grass or grain. After a little while he allowed the matter to
drop and said no more about it. But he went into the field early the
next spring and sowed some grain. Close by the
path, where men would walk, he traced some letters with his finger and
put plaster into them and then sowed his seed in the field. After a week
or two the seed sprang up. His neighbors, as they passed that way, were
very much surprised to see, in brighter green than all the rest of the
field, the writing in large letters, "This has been plastered." Benjamin
Franklin did not need to argue with his neighbors any more about the
benefit of plaster for the fields. For as the season went on and the
grain grew, these bright green letters just rose up above all the rest
until they were a kind of relief-plate in the field -- "This has been
plastered."
JOY
Related Resources on Joy:
Nehemiah 8:10 The Joy of the Lord - F B Meyer
Nehemiah 8:10 Secret of Joy - F B Meyer
Nehemiah 8:10 Our Daily Homily - F B Meyer
Nehemiah 8:10 The Joy of the Lord - G Campbell
Morgan
The Scriptures and Joy by A W Pink
Sermon by John Piper on Joy...
I Will Go to God, My Exceeding Joy
Sermons by C H Spurgeon related to Joy...
Psalm 5:11 Joy, Joy Forever (recommended
- others are also but I have not read them entirely!)
(Psalms 5:11 But let all those that put their trust in Thee
rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because Thou defendest
them: let them also that love Thy Name be joyful in Thee.)
Nehemiah 8:10, 12:43 The Joy of the
Lord - Sermon
Nehemiah 8:10, 12:43 The Joy of the
Lord - Sermon Notes
Psalm 9:14 Joy in Salvation
Psalm 119:111 The Believer's Heritage of Joy
Psalm 149:2 Jubilee Joy - Or, Believers Joyful in
Their King
Psalm 149:2 Our King, Our Joy
Psalm 45:7 The Oil of Gladness
Isaiah 9:3 Harvest Joy (or Joy in Harvest)
Isaiah 44:23 Joy of Redemption
Luke 10:21,22 The Joy of Jesus
Luke 21:28-31 Joyful Anticipation of the Second
Advent
Luke 24:41-45 Joy Hindering Faith
John 16:22 Joy in Place of Sorrow
Romans 15:13 Joy and Peace in Believing
Galatians 5:22 The Fruit of the Spirit: Joy
Philippians 4:4 Joy, A Duty
1 John 1:4 How to Become Full of Joy
(also
on Mp3!)
Spurgeon introduces his sermon on joy commenting that...
As
for joy, if it be not the first product of the Spirit of God, it
is next to the first, and we may be sure that the order in which it is
placed by the inspired apostle is meant to
be instructive. The
fruit of the Spirit is love first, as comprehensive of the rest;
then joy arising out of it. It is remarkable that joy
should take so eminent a place; it attaineth unto the first three, and
is but one place lower than the first. Look at it in its high position,
and if yon have missed it, or if you have depreciated it, revise your
judgment, and endeavor with all your heart to attain to it, for depend
upon it this fruit of the Spirit is of the utmost value...and it
is brought forth in believers not alike in all, but to all believers
there is a measure of joy. (The
Fruit of the Spirit: Joy - Pdf)
Joy (5479)
(chara
and rejoice)
is a feeling of inner
gladness, delight or rejoicing. Joy for the Christian is marked by
celebration and expectation of God’s ultimate victory over the powers of
sin and darkness.
Biblical joy has a spiritual
basis for as Scripture explains
this joy...
...is
joy in the Holy Spirit
for the kingdom of
God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in
the Holy Spirit. (see note
Romans 14:17)
...is the
joy of faith
And convinced
of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your
progress and joy in the faith (see note
Philippians 1:25)
...is the
joy of the Spirit
became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much
tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, (see note
1Thessalonians 1:6)
(The believer's joy is supernatural fruit of the
Spirit, independent of circumstances such as much tribulation.)
...is
joy in the Lord
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in
the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is
a safeguard for you. (see
note
Philippians 3:1)
...is the welcome which
will be addressed to faithful servants
His master said to him, 'Well
done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I
will put you in charge of
many things, enter into the joy of your master (lord = kurios).' (see Mt
25:21, also Mt 25:23)
In contrast, in secular
works, joy is defined as the emotion evoked by well-being,
success and/or good fortune or by the prospect of
possessing what one desires. The world's definition of joy is
virtually synonymous with the definition of happiness, for
both of these "emotions" are dependent on what "happens".
Spurgeon notes...
That
word “joyful” is a very sweet and clear one. “Happiness” is a very
dainty word, but yet it is somewhat insecure because it begins with a
“hap,” and seems to depend on a chance which may happen to the soul.
We say “happy-go-lucky,” and that is very much the world’s happiness,
it is a kind of thing that may hap and may not hap; but there is no hap
in the fruit of the Spirit which is joy. When we are joyful or full of
joy, and that of the best kind, we are favored indeed. No man taketh
this joy from us, and a stranger intermeddleth not with it; it is a
celestial fruit, and earth cannot produce its like. (The
Fruit of the Spirit: Joy - Pdf)
McGee observes that...
The
world has what they call the “happy hour” in cocktail parlors all across
our land. People don’t look too happy when they go in, and they sure
don’t look happy when they come out! They are a bunch of sots, if you
please. That’s not joy. (Ibid)
Supernatural joy is independent of what happens
for Jesus Himself promised His disciples...
These things I have spoken to you,
that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full
(complete and overflowing). (John
15:11)
Certainly there is
joy in human life, such as joy when one experiences a victory
(" We will sing for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God
we will set up our banners. May the LORD fulfill all your petitions."
Psalm 20:5
Spurgeon's comment)
or reaps a bountiful harvest (see Isaiah 9:3), but more often the
Bible speaks of joy in a spiritual sense. For example, Nehemiah declared
to the down in the mouth (not very filled with joy) Jews that "The
joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah
8:10).
Similarly, David pleaded with God to “restore to me the joy of Thy
salvation” (Psalm 51:12
Spurgeon's Comment).
It is not surprising that joy and rejoicing are found most frequently in
the Psalms (about 80 references) and the Gospels (about 40 references).
C. S. Lewis
got a bit closer to the Biblical meaning when he called joy an
“unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other
satisfaction.” That statement is a bit obtuse but Lewis then goes on to
add that joy "must be sharply distinguished both from happiness and
from pleasure". Ultimately Lewis' experienced joy when he discovered
that Jesus was the wellspring of all joy.
Joy is
godly optimism even in trying circumstances whereas peace is
godly contentment in spite of our circumstances.
Joy then is
the deep-down sense of well-being that abides in the heart of the person
who knows all is well between himself and the Lord. It is not an
experience that comes from favorable circumstances but even occurs when
those circumstances are the most painful and severe as Jesus taught His
disciples declaring...
Truly, truly, I say to you, that you
will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will be turned to joy. 21 "Whenever a woman is in
travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives
birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy
that a child has been born into the world. 22 "Therefore you too now
have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice,
and no one takes your joy away from you. (John 16:20-22)
Emotional
fluctuations cannot disturb this Source of joy. Note Paul’s statement of
this confidence (see note
Philippians 3:20).
In the epistle to the Philippians joy
is like a golden thread Paul
interweaves throughout this epistle
(Click
for all 12v with "joy")
As Bengel says “The whole letter is ‘I
rejoice,’ and ‘Rejoice!’”
Spurgeon comments on
Christians as joyful and beneficiaries of joy...
There is a room in Rome that is
filled with the busts of the emperors. I have looked at their heads;
they look like a collection of prize-fighters and murderers. Brutal
passions and cruel thoughts deprived the lords of Rome of all chance of
joy. Turn now to the poor hunted Christians, and read the inscriptions
left by them in the catacombs; they are so calm and peaceful that they
say instinctively, “A joyous people were went to gather here.”
Benefits of joy: “Why
should Christians be such a happy people? Why, it is good in all ways.
It is good for our God; it gives Him honour among the sons of men when
we are glad. It is good for us; it makes us strong. “The joy of the Lord
is your strength.” It is good for the ungodly; for when they see
Christians glad, they long to be believers themselves. It is good for
our fellow Christians; it comforts them and tends to cheer them.
Whereas, if we look gloomy we shall spread the disease, and others will
be wretched and gloomy too. For all these reasons, and for many more
that can be given, it is a good and pleasant thing that a believer
should delight himself in God.
C Norman Bartlett rightly says that...
Joy is more intense than happiness and is not, like it, dependent upon
outward circumstances or happenings. The difference may be illustrated
by a river that flows steadily and continuously onward as compared with
the transient hillside torrents produced by cloudbursts. There is no joy
to compare with that which flows from a deep, rich and sweet communion
with Jesus Christ. (C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948)
Martin Luther comments
that joy...
is the voice of the bridegroom
and of the bride, that is to say, sweet cogitations of Christ, wholesome
exhortations, pleasant songs or psalms, praises and thanksgiving,
whereby the godly do instruct, stir up, and refresh one another.
Therefore, God loves not heaviness of spirit; He hates comfortless
doctrine, heavy and sorrowful cogitations, and loves cheerful hearts.
For therefore has He sent His Son, not to oppress us with heaviness and
sorrow, but to cheer up our souls in Him. For this cause the prophets,
the Apostles, and Christ Himself exhort us, yes, they command us to
rejoice and be glad: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee” (Zechariah
9:9). And in the Psalms it is often said: “Be joyful in the Lord.” Paul
says: “Rejoice in the Lord always.” And Christ says: “Rejoice because
your names are written in heaven.” Where this joy of the Spirit is,
there the heart inwardly rejoices through faith in Christ, with full
assurance that He is our Savior and our Bishop, and outwardly it
expresses this joy with words and gestures. Also, the faithful rejoice
when they see that the gospel spreads abroad, that many are won to the
faith, and that the kingdom of Christ is enlarged. (Commentary on
Galatians)
Eadie writes that...
Joy is based on the
possession of present good, and here means that spiritual gladness which
acceptance with God and change of heart produce. For it is conscious
elevation of character, the cessation of the conflict in its earlier
stage (v. 16, 17), the opening up of a new world, and the hope of final
perfection and victory. It is opposed to dullness, despondency,
indifference, and all the distractions and remorses which are wrought by
the works of the flesh.
This joy is the spring of
energy, and praise wells out of the joyful heart. Where the heart is
gladness, the instinctive dialect is song. May not the joy of
restoration at least equal the joy of continuous innocence?
It is therefore here not merely nor prominently Mitfreude , joy in the
happiness of others (Grotius, Zachariae, Stolz, Koppe, Borger, Winer,
Usteri, Hofmann), nor joy as opposed to moroseness (Calvin, Michaelis),
though these aspects or manifestations are not excluded. (Eadie,
John: Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians)
The Christian life is to be a life of
joy.
It is founded on faith in Jesus, whose life on earth began as "good news
of great joy for all people" (Luke 2:10). The theme of joy
is underscored by the 59 uses of joy and the 74 uses of
rejoice in the New Testament (as noted above most are in the
Gospels) always to signify a feeling of happiness that is based on
spiritual realities.
Joy is God’s gift to
believers. Paul speaks of more than just a mood. This is a deep
confidence that was rooted in God’s sovereign control of the universe,
His on unchanging divine promises and eternal spiritual realities
including the assurance of ultimate victory for those in Christ.
Joy
is a part of God’s own
nature and Spirit that He manifests in His children.
Joy is the inevitable overflow
of receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and of the believer’s knowing His
continuing presence and having a sense of well being experienced by one
who knows all is well between himself and the Lord (1Peter 1:8-note).
Joy not only does not come
from favorable human circumstances but is sometimes greatest when those
circumstances are the most painful and severe.
God’s joy is full, complete in
every way. Nothing human or circumstantial can add to it or detract from
it. But it is not fulfilled in a believer’s life except through reliance
on and obedience to the Lord.
Although joy is a gift of God
through His Spirit to those who belong to Christ, it is also commanded
of them “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” Paul
commands (Phil 4:4-note
cf Phil 3:1-note).
Because joy comes as a fruit of the Spirit, the command is not for
believers to manufacture or try to imitate joy but to delight in
and cultivate the
blessed seed of joy they already possess (Ro 14:17-note;
Phil 4:4-note).
The command is to gratefully accept and revel in this great blessing
they already possess.
Spurgeon writes that...
Gloomy Christians, who do not resist despondency and strive against it,
but who go about as if midnight had taken up its abode in their eyes,
and an everlasting frost had settled
on
their souls, are not obeying the commands of God. The command to rejoice
is as undoubted a precept of God as to love the Lord with all your
heart. The vows of God are upon you, O believer, and they bind you to be
joyful.
Joy in God is suitable to our
condition!
“Why should the children of a king
Go mourningly all their days?”
Matthew Henry defines
joy
as
cheerfulness in conversation with our
friends, or rather a constant delight in God
Donald Campbell former
President of Dallas Theological Seminary says
Joy (chara) is a deep and abiding
inner rejoicing which was promised to those who abide in Christ (Jn
15:11). It does not
depend on circumstances because it rests in God’s sovereign control of
all things (cf. note
Romans 8:28)
William MacDonald says
Joy is contentment and satisfaction
with God and with His dealings. Christ displayed it in John 4:34
Adam Clarke defines joy as
"The exultation that arises from a
sense of God’s mercy communicated to the soul in the pardon of its
iniquities, and the prospect of that eternal glory of which it has the
foretaste in the pardon of sin."
Beet defines joy as
triumphant overflow of Christian
gladness.
Barclay adds that...
It is not the joy that comes from
earthly things, still less from triumphing over someone else in
competition. It is a joy whose foundation is God.
Joy
is the byproduct of obedience. (Source Unknown) (Ed note: Nothing like
unconfessed sin to steal your joy!)
Those that look to be happy must first look to be holy. (Richard Sibbes)
As
someone has calculated,
it takes 72 muscles to frown—only 14
to smile!
God is not otherwise to be enjoyed than as He is obeyed. (John
Howe)
Haydn, the great musician, was once asked why his church music
was so cheerful, and he replied:
When I think upon God, my heart is so
full of joy
that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen, and since God
has given me a cheerful heart it will be pardoned me that I serve Him
with a cheerful spirit.
Spurgeon addresses the reason
you as a believer may not be experiencing the joy of the Lord...
I must notice, in the fourth place, that This Fruit Of The Spirit
May Be Choked In Its Growth. Some of you may have muttered while I have
been speaking of this joy, “I do not know much about it.” Perhaps not,
friend — shall I tell you why?
Some people are too full of the joy of the world, the joy of
getting on in business, the joy of a numerous family, the joy of health,
the joy of wealth, the joy of human love, or the joy which comes of the
pride of life.
These joys may be your idols, any you know the joy of the Lord
will not stand side by side with an idolatrous delight in the things of
this world. See to that. Dagon must fall if the ark of the Lord is
present: the world must lose its charms if you are to joy in Christ
Jesus.
Our joy is sadly diminished by our unbelief. If ye will not
believe neither shall ye be established. Ignorance will do the same to a
very large extent. Many a Christian has a thousand reasons for joy which
he knows nothing of. Study the Word and ask for the teaching of the
Spirit of God that you may understand it; so shall you discover wells of
delight.
Joy is diminished, also, by walking at a distance from God. If
you get away from the fire you will grow cold: the warmest place is
right in front of it, and the warmest place for a believing heart is
close to Christ in daily fellowship with him.
It may be that sin indulged is spoiling our joy. “This little
hand of mine,” as Mr. Whitfield once said, “can cover up the sun as
far as my eyes are concerned.” You have only to lift a naughty,
rebellions hand, and you can shut out the light of God himself: any
known sin will do it.
Trifling with sin will prove a kill-joy to the heart.
...Thus have I shown how the growth of joy can be checked. I pray you do
not allow such an evil thing to be wrought in your heart. (
The Fruit of the Spirit: Joy - Pdf)
Men have pursued joy in every avenue
imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not.
Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found:
•
Not in Unbelief — Voltaire was
an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: “I wish I had never
been born...(and at his death cried out desperately) I am abandoned by
God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me
six month's life. Then I shall go to hell; and you will go with me. O
Christ! O Jesus Christ!”
•
Not in Pleasure — Lord Byron
lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: “The worm, the canker,
and grief are mine alone.”
•
Not in Money — Jay Gould, the
American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: “I
suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.”
•
Not in Position and Fame —
Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: “Youth
is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
•
Not in Military Glory —
Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done
so, he wept in his tent, before he said, “There are no more worlds to
conquer.”
•
Where then is real
joy found?
— the answer is simple, in Christ alone. (The Bible Friend, Turning
Point, May, 1993)
As a third-century man was
anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend:
It’s a bad world, an incredibly bad
world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people
who have learned a great secret. They have found a
joy
which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life.
They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of
their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the
Christians—and I am one of them.
The eternal effect of a Christian
filled with the Joy of
the Lord:
Many years ago when the great
missionary
Adoniram Judson was home on furlough,
he passed through the city of Stonington, Connecticut. A young boy
playing about the wharves at the time of Judson’s arrival was struck by
the man’s appearance. Never before had he seen such a light on any human
face. He ran up the street to a minister to ask if he knew who the
stranger was. The minister hurried back with him, but became so absorbed
in conversation with Judson that he forgot all about the impatient
youngster standing near him. Many years afterward that boy—who could
never get away from the influence of that wonderful face—became the
famous preacher Henry Clay Trumbull. In a book of memoirs he penned a
chapter entitled: “What a Boy Saw in the Face of Adoniram Judson.” That
lighted countenance had changed his life. Even as flowers thrive when
they bend to the light, so shining, radiant faces come to those who
constantly turn toward Christ!
PEACE
Peace (1515)
(eirene
from verb eiro = to join or bind together that which has
been separated) literally pictures the binding or joining together again
of that which had been separated or divided and thus setting at one
again, a meaning convey by the common expression of one “having it all
together”. It follows that peace is the opposite of division or
dissension. Peace as a state of concord and harmony is the opposite of
war. Peace was used as a greeting or farewell corresponding to the
Hebrew word shalom - "peace to you". Eirene can convey
the sense of an inner rest, well being and harmony. The ultimate peace
is the state of reconciliation with God, effected by placing one's faith
in the gospel. In eschatology, peace is prophesied to be an essential
characteristic of the Messianic kingdom (Acts 10:36).
As believers we now have peace with God because of
justification by faith (see note ). That is not the peace Paul is
referring to as the fruit of the Spirit. This peace is the peace
of God in our heart as we walk in the Spirit and as Wuest says
is a "tranquility of mind based on the consciousness of a right relation
to God."
Peace
is a condition of freedom from disturbance, whether outwardly, as of a
nation from war or enemies or inwardly, as in the current context,
within the soul. Peace
implies health, well-being, and prosperity.
When the Spirit bears the fruit of peace in
a believer, it brings an inner tranquility of soul and spirit even in
the midst of adversity. Jesus addressing His disciples just before He
went to the Cross promised...
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not
as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled,
nor let it be fearful. (John
14:27)
These things (see John
14-16) I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have
peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I
have overcome the world. (Jn
16:33) (Comment: Peace that Jesus gives is not the
absence of trouble, but is rather the confidence that He is with
us in and through the fiery furnace of trouble - cp Daniel 3:24-25)
This peace which our Lord gives
transcends human understanding, as Paul explains in his exhortation
to...
Be anxious
(present
imperative
with a negative = stop having this
attitude of worry)
for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests
be made known (present
imperative
= continually) to God and the peace of God, which surpasses
all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus (see notes
Philippians 4:6;
4:7)
An interesting side note is that the Greek
word eirene is the root the English
word serene which conveys the idea of that which is clear and free of storms
or unpleasant change, stressing an unclouded and lofty tranquility!
I rest
beneath the Almighty's shade,
My griefs expire, my troubles cease;
Thou, Lord, on whom my soul is stayed,
Wilt keep me still in perfect peace.
---Charles Wesley.
The
picture of eirene is reflected in our modern expression "having
it all together." Everything is in place and as it ought to be. When
things are disjointed, there is lack of harmony and well being. When
they are joined together, there is both. Thus Hamlet cried,
The times are out of joint. O, cursed
spite that I was ever born to set them right.
Peace
is defined by Cremer as
"a state of untroubled, undisturbed
well being.”
Peace
contrasts with strife and thus denotes the absence or end of strife.
Peace is not the absence of danger but in the presence of God.
Eirene includes both the concept of an agreement, pact, treaty or
bond and of an attitude of rest or security.
Webster
defines peace
as a state of tranquility or quiet, freedom from disquieting or
oppressive thoughts or emotions, harmony in personal relations, a pact
or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in
a state of enmity, state of repose in contrast with or following strife
or turmoil.
Peace
in the Hebrew mindset (especially as implied in the Hebrew word
shalom -
click
discussion of "Jehovah Shalom" the LORD our Peace) implies health,
wholeness, soundness, welfare, health, well-being, prosperity and peace
as opposed to war. For example in the Greek translation of the
Hebrew (Septuagint = Lxx) of (2Ki 5:22) the phrase "All is well (shalom)" is translated
by eirene. In (Judges 18:15-note)
we have the phrase "asked him of his welfare (shalom)" where "welfare"
is translated by eirene.
Eirene is used in the famous Aaronic blessing
Jehovah lift up His countenance on
you, and give you peace (shalom > eirene in Lxx). (Nu
6:26) (Comment: In a sense, Gal 5:22 is the New
Testament answer to that prayer.)
Peace
floods the soul when Christ rules the heart.
In his
first epistle Peter prayed for his his afflicted readers...
May grace and peace be yours
in fullest measure (be abounding, be multiplied, be increased greatly in
extent). (see note
1 Peter 1:2)
Peter is asking God to "multiply"
the subjective, internal sense of calm and serenity, the
peace of God. As believer's yield more and more to the control of the
Spirit, His peace will be multiplied in answer to this prayer.
Wuest
agrees explaining that the peace Peter prays for is what Wuest
refers to as...
sanctifying peace, that state
of untroubled, undisturbed tranquility and well being produced in the
heart of the yielded saint by the Holy Spirit (Galatians
5:22). We have this peace to the extent that we are yielded
to the Spirit and are intelligently conscious of and dependent upon His
ministry for us. (Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
Objectively saints in Christ Jesus are at peace with God (see
note
Romans 5:1).
The war between the believer and God is over and the peace treaty was
"signed" in blood, the precious blood of Christ. Because of this great
transaction, believers can be at rest and secure in experience or
practice as well as in position. Speaking of the experiential peace now
available to all believers, Paul writes
And the peace of God, which
surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus. (see note
Philippians 4:7)
Paul
prays for experiential peace (peace of sanctification,
sanctifying peace, peace of God on a moment by moment basis, ultimately
the fruit of the Spirit) for the
saints at Rome, asking
the God of hope (to) fill you with
all joy and peace in believing (i.e., peace experienced in the
sphere of habitually believing and which [enabled by the Spirit] is
demonstrated in one's obedient thoughts, words, and deeds), that you may
abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (see note
Romans 15:13)
Paul
intercedes on behalf of the believers at Thessalonica to experience
the fruit of the Spirit's peace associated with sanctification (peace of
God)...
Now may the Lord of peace
Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The
Lord [be] with you all!" (2Thes
3:16) (Comment: Have you ever prayed Pauline prayers
like those above for other believers? If not why not? Remember that Paul
never prayed for physical needs for believers but for the deeper needs
of the soul and spirit. The church must return to these types of prayers
and can do so in full confidence that God is "obligated" to answer them
according to His good and acceptable and perfect will. Pray this prayer
for your pastor, your elders, your church members, your family. It will
take about 5 seconds to pray it each day for the next year or less than
30 minutes for the entire year! And of course pray it in faith with a
pure heart and clean hands and not as a rote, mechanical act. God will
answer it although you may not always see His answers. Walk by faith,
not sight!)
To
reiterate, the
peace Paul is praying for and which is manifest as part of the fruit of
the Spirit is not that peace which results from cessation of
tribulations and distresses, but is the supernatural calmness of heart
which is
independent of circumstances, in part because it arises out of a belief that the
sovereign God is with you and in control of the circumstances.
John
Macarthur adds that
At the individual level this
(experiential) peace, unknown to the unsaved, secures composure in
difficult trouble (cf Jn 14:1), dissolves fear (Phil 4:7-note)
and rules in the hearts of God’s people to maintain harmony (Col 3:15-note).
(MacArthur,
J.: The MacArthur Study Bible Nashville: Word Pub)
Barclay explains that eirene or peace
in contemporary colloquial
Greek...had two interesting usages. It was used of the serenity which a
county enjoyed under the just and beneficent government of a good
emperor; and it was used of the good order of a town or village.
Villages had an official who was called the superintendent of the
village’s eirene, the keeper of the public peace. Usually
in the New Testament eirene stands for the Hebrew shalom
and means not just freedom from trouble but everything that makes for a
man’s highest good. It is interesting to note that Chara (Grace) and
Eirene (Peace ~ "Irene") both became very common Christian names in the
Church." (Barclay,
W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster
Press)
Spurgeon writes the following
on peace...
Peace in poverty — I have seen the Christian man in the depths of
poverty, when he lived from hand to mouth, and scarcely knew where he
should find the next meal, still with his mind unruffled, calm, and
quiet. If he had been as rich as an Indian prince, yet could he not have
had less care. If he had been told that his bread should always come to
his door, and the stream which ran hard by should never dry; if he had
been quite sure that ravens would bring him bread and meat in the
morning, and again in the evening — he would not have been one whit more
calm. There is his neighbour on the other side of the street not half so
poor, but wearied from morning till night, bringing himself to the grave
with anxiety.
Armour of peace — He that hath peace with God, is armed cap-a-pi:
he is covered from head to foot in a panoply. The arrow may fly against
it, but cannot pierce it; for peace with God is a mail so strong, that
the broadsword of Satan himself may be broken in twain ere it can pierce
the flesh. Oh, take care that you are at peace with God; for if you are
not, you ride forth to to-morrow’s fight unarmed, naked; and God help
the man who is unarmed when he has to fight with hell and earth.
C Norman Bartlett rightly
writes that...
We cannot have the peace of God until
we have made our peace with God through Him who is our peace (Ephesians
2:14). But being reconciled, we have the peace which passeth all
understanding (Philippians 4:7). If we abide in Jesus as we ought, there
is in our souls a calmness that no outward hostility can upset: "Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he
trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3). For the Christian surrounded by foes
there is ever open a secret passage to the heart of GOD.
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948) Ray
Ortlund encourages us to
Set no limits where God himself sets
no limits. It is not possible to have too much grace and peace. We have
not exhausted the possibilities. Most of us don’t even think in terms of
the possibilities of what God can do for us. But the Word of God greets
us here with this open-ended encouragement: “Grace and peace be yours in
abundance! May they be multiplied to you!”
An Illustration of Peace
- Jim
Walton was translating the NT for the Muinane people of La Sabana in the
jungles of Colombia. But he was having trouble with the word peace.
During this time, Fernando, the village chief, was promised a 20-minute
plane ride to a location that would have taken him 3 days to travel by
walking. The plane was delayed in arriving at La Sabana, so Fernando
departed on foot. When the plane finally came, a runner took off to
bring Fernando back. But by the time he had returned, the plane had
left. Fernando was livid because of the mix-up. He went to Jim and
launched into an angry tirade. Fortunately, Walton had taped the chief's
diatribe. When he later translated it, he discovered that the chief kept
repeating the phrase, "I don't have one heart." Jim asked other
villagers what having "one heart" meant, and he found that it was
like saying, "There is nothing between you and the other person."
That, Walton realized, was just what he needed to translate the word
peace. To have peace with God means that there
is nothing--no sin, no guilt, no condemnation--that separates us. And
that peace with God is possible only through Christ (see
note
Romans 5:1).
Do you have "one heart" with God today? Do you have peace
with God and the peace of God? If you are a
believer, you have peace with God but you may not be
experiencing the peace of God. Dear believing reader, may
His grace and peace be yours in fullest measure. Amen.
PATIENCE
Patience
(3115)(makrothumia
from makros = long, distant,
far off, large + thumos = temper, passion, emotion or
thumoomai = to be furious or burn with intense anger) is literally
long-temper (as opposed to "short tempered),
a long holding out of the mind before
it gives room to action or passion. It describes a state of emotional
calm or quietness in the face of provocation, misfortune or unfavorable
circumstances.
Makrothumia - 14x in 14v - Rom
2:4; 9:22; 2 Cor 6:6; Gal 5:22; Eph 4:2; Col 1:11; 3:12; 1 Tim 1:16; 2
Tim 3:10; 4:2; Heb 6:12; Jas 5:10; 1 Pet 3:20; 2 Pet 3:15
When a believer is walking in the
Spirit and not fulfilling the desires of the flesh, he or she is
empowered with an inner supernatural steadfastness even in the face of
provocation. This long fuse is a Christ like attitude for
as Peter reminded his readers our Lord Jesus Christ in spite of...
being reviled, ...did not revile in
return; while suffering, ...uttered no threats, but kept entrusting
Himself to Him Who judges righteously (1Pe 2:23-note)
Comment: The Spirit will enable us to walk in His steps! We
cannot manifest this attitude in our own strength but in submission and
yieldedness to His Spirit!
Makrothumia is the capacity to
be wronged and not retaliate. It enables us to bear injury without at
once avenging ourselves. It is the ability to hold one's feeling in
restraint or bear up under the oversights and wrongs afflicted by others
without retaliating. It is manifest by the quality of forbearance under
provocation. It is used of God's patience toward sinful men (Ro 2:4-note)
and of the attitude which Christians are to display.
Patience is the spirit which never
gives up for it endures to the end even in times of adversity,
exhibiting self-restraint such that it does not hastily retaliate a
wrong.
Vine says makrothumia is the
opposite of anger. It follows that a lack of patience often leads to
wrath or revenge.
Makrothumia
is often used in the OT to translate the Hebrew phrase ('erekh 'appayim)
which is literally “long of nose” (or “breathing”), and, as anger
was indicated by rapid, violent breathing through the nostrils, “long
of anger,” or “slow to anger.” This Hebrew phrase ('erekh 'appayim)
and the LXX translation as makrothumia (and the cognates
makrothumos, makrothumeo) is included in the catalog of His attributes
that runs through the OT like a refrain, a God "slow
to
anger"
(Click
14 occurrences of this phrase in the OT).
J Vernon McGee writes that
makrothumia...
"...means “long-burning”—it
burns a long time. We shouldn’t have a short fuse with our friends and
Christian brethren. We shouldn’t make snap judgments." (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Evans writes that
makrothumia...
could be translated “large
emotions,” signifying wells of endurance that will not dry up, no matter
how much is drawn from them. The Christian with this patience will have
refreshing water to sustain continual effectiveness even in the face of
unrelenting pressures. Those with such patience and faith are those who
receive or “inherit the promises.” (Briscoe,
D. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. The Preacher's Commentary Series, New
Testament. 2003; Thomas Nelson)
Calvin said makrothumia
refers to that quality of mind that disposes us
“to take everything in good part and
not to be easily offended.”
Larry Richards writes that...
The NT contains many
exhortations to be patient. But just what is patience? The Greek word
group (makrothumeo/makrothumia) focuses our attention on restraint: that
capacity for self-control despite circumstances that might arouse the
passions or cause agitation....This is not so much a trait as a way of
life. We keep on loving or forgiving despite provocation, as illustrated
in Jesus' pointed stories in Mt 18." (Richards,
L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency)
C Norman Bartlett rightly says
that...
Irrigations of Grace
Wash Away The
Irritations of Life
There are men and women who masticate
their dislikes thoroughly, make all-day suckers of their wrongs, and
magnify every little pin-prick into a sword thrust. The temperament
manifested in such conduct and attitudes is far removed from the
longsuffering included in this cluster of spiritual graces so highly
commended in Scripture. Irrigations of grace wash away the irritations
of life as of negligible consequence. In passing, we might observe that
there is not infrequently a vital connection between the enduring of
injuries from the world and the bestowing of benefits on the world -
like destructive floods disclosing to view rich veins of gold.
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948)
William
Barclay has a lengthy
discussion explaining that makrothumia...
"...
as the Greeks used it, usually meant patience with people. It is the
ability not to lose patience when people are foolish, not to grow
irritable when they seem unteachable. It is the ability to accept the
folly, the perversity, the blindness, the ingratitude of men and still
to remain gracious, and still to toil on...
This word has two main
directions of meaning.
(a) It describes the
spirit which will never give in and which, because it endures to the
end, will reap the reward. Its meaning can best be seen from the fact
that a Jewish writer used it to describe what he called “the Roman
persistency which would never make peace under defeat.” In their great
days the Romans were unconquerable; they might lose a battle, they might
even lose a campaign, but they could not conceive of losing a war. In
the greatest disaster it never occurred to them to admit defeat.
Christian patience is the spirit which never admits defeat, which will
not be broken by any misfortune or suffering, by any disappointment or
discouragement, but which persists to the end.
(b) But makrothumia
has an even more characteristic meaning than that. It is the
characteristic Greek word for patience with men.
Chrysostom defined it as the
spirit which has the power to take revenge but never does so.
Lightfoot defined it as the
spirit which refuses to retaliate.
To take a very imperfect
analogy—it is often possible to see a puppy and a very large dog
together. The puppy yaps at the big dog, worries him, bites him, and all
the time the big dog, who could annihilate the puppy with one snap of
his teeth, bears the puppy’s impertinence with a forbearing dignity.
Makrothumia is the spirit
which bears insult and injury without bitterness and without complaint.
It is the spirit which can suffer unpleasant people with graciousness
and fools without irritation.
The most illuminating thing
about it is that it is commonly used in the New Testament of the
attitude of God towards men (Ro
2:4-note;
Ro 9:22-note;
1Ti 1:16; 1Pe
3:20-note).
If God had been a man, he would have wiped out this world long ago; but
he has that patience which bears with all our sinning and will not cast
us off. In our dealings with our fellow men we must reproduce this
loving, forbearing, forgiving, patient attitude of God towards
ourselves. Paul asks the impenitent sinner if he despises the patience
of God (Ro 2:4-note).
Paul speaks of the perfect patience of Jesus to him (1Ti 1:16).
Peter speaks of God’s patience waiting in the days of Noah (1Pe 3:20-note).
He says that the forbearance of our Lord is our salvation (2Pe 3:15-note).
If God had been a man, he would long since in sheer irritation have
wiped the world out for its disobedience. The Christian must have the
patience towards his fellow men which God has shown to him." (Barclay,
W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster
Press)
In another note Barclay writes
that makrothumia is
"the ability to bear with them
even when they are wrong, even when they are cruel and insulting. It is
a great word. The writer of First Maccabees (8:4) says that it was by
makrothumia that the Romans became masters of the world, and by
that he means the Roman persistence which would never make peace with an
enemy even in defeat, a kind of conquering patience. Patience is the
quality of a man who may lose a battle but who will never admit defeat
in a campaign" (Barclay,
W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster
Press)
The Christian is to count the
longsuffering of God toward evil and injustice not as slackness, but as
evidence of His grace toward evildoers in granting them time for
repentance and salvation (2Peter 3:9-note).
As His children, Christians are to allow the Holy Spirit to manifest
this family characteristic in them as well (see note
Romans 12:19-21).
Boles writes that
makrothumia...
"refers to what
we might call “staying power,” to endure hard events and obnoxious
people. While the word was not frequently used in classical literature,
it has a rich history in the LXX. “A man’s wisdom gives him patience”
(Pr 19:11), with which he can calm a quarrel (Pr 15:18) or persuade a
ruler (Pr 25:15). More importantly, patience makes a man like God, who is
“righteous and strong and long-tempered” (Ps 7:12, LXX). One of the
great truths about God is that he is “slow to anger” (makrothumos),
repeated by Moses (Exod 34:6), David (Ps 103:8), Joel (Joel 2:13), Jonah
(Jonah 4:2), Nahum (Nah 1:3), and Nehemiah (Neh 9:17)...Patience is the even temper
that comes from a big heart. It is not the “grit your teeth” kind of
angry endurance; it is loving tolerance in spite of people’s weakness
and failure. Love is patient (1Cor 13:4) and so must Christians be (Ep
4:2-note)...the
same divine quality that allows God to be patient with sinners (2Pet
3:9) enables the Christian to endure the exasperating behavior of
others. Perhaps the best way for us to “lengthen” the fuse on our
tempers is to remember how much God has had to overlook and forgive in
our own lives." (Boles, K. L.
Galatians & Ephesians. The College Press NIV commentary Joplin, Mo.:
College Press)
Makrothumia is patience in
face of injustice and unpleasant circumstances without complaint or
irritation. The short-tempered person speaks and acts impulsively and
lacks self-control. When a person is longsuffering, he can put up with
provoking people or circumstances without retaliating. It is good to be
able to get angry, for this is a sign of holy character. But it is wrong
to get angry quickly at the wrong things and for the wrong reasons.
It is the attitude
which endures another's exasperating conduct without flying off the
handle. It is a negative term. It is holding back, restraining yourself
from becoming upset or speaking sharply or shrilly to somebody be they
your mate, your child, or whoever...despite their conduct you find
difficult and exasperating.
Makrothumia always
has to do with our reaction not to circumstances but to people that God
allows (or sends) into our life! Because of the new nature you can be
longsuffering with those with whom you otherwise could not be. What was
heretofore IMPOSSIBLE is now ''HIM POSSIBLE''! Hallelujah!
Remember though it is a product of prayer (Col 1:11-note)
George
writes that makrothumia...
"...is the ability to put up with
other people even when that is not an easy thing to do. Patience in
this sense, of course, is preeminently a characteristic of God, who is
“long-suffering” with his rebellious creatures. He is the loving Lord
who in the face of obstinate infidelity and repeated rejection still
says of his people, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you
over, Israel?” (Hos 11:8). Paul’s point is clear: if God has been so
long-suffering with us, should we not display this same grace in our
relationships with one another? This quality should characterize the
life of every believer, but it has a special relevance for those who are
called to teach and preach the Word of God. As Paul instructed Timothy,
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct,
rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2Ti
4:2-note)." (George, T. The New American Commentary. Page 402. Nashville:
Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Longsuffering
characterizes all labor that has love for its motive...
Love is patient (verb form =
makrothumeo), love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and
is not arrogant (see note
1Corinthians 13:4)
Vine writes
that...
If forbearance denotes delay in
executing judgment, long-suffering denotes the particular disposition
which delays it." (Vine,
W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
)
Kindness
Kindness
(KJV = gentleness)
(5544)
(chrestotes
from adjective
chrestos
=
useful, profitable in turn from chraomai = to furnish what is
needed in turn from chráo = lend, furnish as a loan) is a
gracious attitude, and thus describes the quality of being helpful and
beneficial.
Kindness is an attribute of
God (Ro 2:4-note
being a good example) and a godly trait which the Spirit produces in the
surrendered saint (contrast the unregenerate sinner - Ro 3:12-note
"no one who shows kindness (chrestotes)" NET) who as Trench says
has this beautiful grace "pervading and penetrating their
whole nature, mellowing all which would have been harsh and austere (and
producing)...a goodness which has no edge, no
sharpness in it." (Trench,
R. C. Synonyms of the New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers. 2000)
Paul writes to the Colossian saints
regarding their new "Christ-like" garment, commanding them as
those who have been chosen of God,
holy and beloved (powerful "motivating" truths) (to),
put on
(aorist
imperative) a heart of compassion, kindness
(chrestotes), humility, gentleness and patience. (Col 3:12-note)
Comment: Indeed is not the essence of this new garment indicative
of a saint who is surrendered, Spirit filled and fruit bearing?
Chrestotes - 10x in 10v - Ro 2:4; Ro 3:12; 11:22; 2Cor 6:6;
Gal 5:22; Ep 2:7; Col 3:12; Titus 3:4. NAS = good(1), kindness(9).
Eadie writes that...
The meaning is kindness—gentleness, affability,
the benign heart and the soft answer, “the gentleness
of Christ;” or a serene, loving, and sympathizing temper, the fruit of
that Spirit who descended in the form of a dove upon our great Exemplar,
and abode upon Him.
(Eadie,
John: Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians)
Barnes writes that chrestotes...
is
opposed to a harsh, crabbed, crooked temper. It is a disposition to be
pleased; it is mildness of temper, calmness of spirit, an unruffled
disposition, and a disposition to treat all with urbanity and
politeness. This is one of the regular effects of the Spirit's
operations on the heart. Religion (Ed note: The indwelling
Holy Spirit) makes no one crabbed, and morose, and sour. It (He)
sweetens the temper; corrects an irritable disposition; makes the heart
kind; disposes us to make all around us as happy as possible. This is
true politeness: a kind of politeness which can far better be learned in
the school of Christ than in that of Chesterfield; by the study of the
New Testament than under the direction of the dancing-master. (Galatians
5)
Jesus taught that we are to
"love (our) enemies, and do good and
lend, expecting nothing in return and (our) reward will be great, and
(we) will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind
(adjective
chrestos) to ungrateful and evil men." (Lk
6:35)
Kindness reflects the
tender concern of God, providing for helpless, hapless man what he never
could have provided for himself. This is the "starting point" for our
salvation. Expositors calls it God's "pitying kindness that
prompts Him to bestow forgiveness and blessings".
John MacArthur writes that
kindness (chrestotes)
connotes genuine goodness and
generosity of heart. Our salvation from sin and lostness and death
issued wholly from God’s kindness, His loving, benevolent, and entirely
gracious concern to draw us to Himself and redeem us from sin forever.
James
Montgomery Boice adds that kindness...
is the divine kindness out of
which God acts toward men. It is what the OT means when it declares that
"God is good," as it so frequently does. The Christian is to show
kindness by behaving toward others as God has behaved toward him. "(Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament.
Zondervan Publishing)
C Norman Bartlett says that
kindness (gentleness)...
is the spontaneous overflow of love
in the heart. It is the spirit that would rather be hurt by others than
hurt others. Would that more of us were as tenderhearted as we are
thin-skinned, as impulsive in kindness as explosive in anger. We need to
cultivate resourcefulness in kindliness, to gain proficiency in the
artistry of applying Christian love to the hearts and lives of those
with whom we come in contact in the multitudinous activities and
relationships of life.
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948) Chrestotes is used in the
Greek translation of the
Septuagint (LXX)
15 times, as in the prayer of David in which he asks God to
not remember the sins of my youth or
my transgressions; according to Thy lovingkindness remember Thou me, for
Thy goodness’ (Lxx = chrestotes - kindness) sake, O Lord. Good
(adjective
chrestos
- kind) and upright is the Lord; therefore He
instructs sinners in the way. (Ps 25:7, 8)
In other words David bases his
appeal on God's attribute of kindness for he recognizes that it
is God's kindness that leads sinners to repentance ("instructs
sinners in the way.")
Kindness reflects
benevolence in action, kindliness which disposes one to do good but not
a goodness qualitatively but a goodness in action and expressed in deed.
Kindness is that temper or disposition which delights in
contributing to the happiness of others, which is exercised cheerfully
in gratifying their wishes and which supplies their wants or alleviates
their distresses. Kindness is not just a sweet disposition but is
a serving trait.
Jesus used the adjectival form (chrestos)
in His famous invitation to "all who are weary and heavy laden" to come
to Him, take His yoke and learn from Him, for His
yoke is easy (chrestos) and
(His) load is light." (Mt 11:28, 29, 30)
Jesus' yoke is pleasant,
beneficial, useful, and causes no discomfort.
Paul asks the
question
"do you think lightly of the riches
of His kindness (chrestotes) and forbearance and patience, not
knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" (Ro 2:4-note)
God's kindness does not
excuse men of their sin but convicts them of sin and leads them to
repentance. In the next chapter of Romans Paul uses chrestotes to
contrast the attitude and action of sinful men writing
"all have turned aside. Together they
have become useless. There is none who does good (chrestotes).
There is not even one." (Ro 3:12-note)
And yet when men become
beneficiaries of God's kindness and repent and believe, they are
new creatures in Christ, now fitted to shine forth
the fruit of the Spirit...love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness (chrestotes), goodness, faithfulness.
(Gal 5:22)
Paul in his famous definition of
love writes that
love is patient, love is kind
(chresteuomai
- the related verb)
(1Cor 13:4-note)
Peter writes that believers
have tasted the kindness
(adjective
chrestos) of the Lord. (1Pe
2:3-note)
And in another reflection of God's
amazing grace, Paul records
that in the ages to come He (will)
show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness (chrestotes)
toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ep 2:7-note)
God's kindness initiated
our salvation. His kindness continues throughout eternity!
Simply unfathomable! Even a glimpse of the true meaning of God's
kindness is something that ought to cause us to drop to our knees in
grateful adoration as expressed by Isaac Watts in the hymn below...
WHAT SHALL
I RENDER TO MY GOD
Click to play
What shall I render
to my God
For all His kindness
shown?
My feet shall visit Thine abode,
My songs address Thy throne.
The Tyndale Bible Dictionary
summarizes kindness as that
state of being that includes the
attributes of loving affection, sympathy, friendliness, patience,
pleasantness, gentleness, and goodness. Kindness is a quality
shown in the way a person speaks and acts. It is more volitional than
emotional.
(Elwell,
W. A., & Comfort, P. W. Tyndale Bible Dictionary. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale
House Publishers)
One of the most beautiful
illustrations of this volitional aspect of human kindness is King
David’s treatment of Mephibosheth (2Sa 9:1ff). Scripture records David's question -- "Is there yet
anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake?" David’s desire was to show “the kindness of God”
to King Saul’s family because of his covenant with Saul’s son, Jonathan.
The young man chosen was Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, who "was lame in
both feet." (2Sa 9:13) If David had acted according to justice, he would have
condemned Mephibosheth who belonged to a condemned family. But David
acted on the basis of kindness, seeking out Mephibosheth,
assuring him he had no need to fear, inviting him to live in the king's
palace as family and to eat at the king’s table. This is but a veiled
picture of the infinite kindness of God! Indeed every believer
has experienced even greater kindness, for we are now children of the
King and shall revel in His majestic presence forever! What kindness!
Goodness
Goodness (19)(agathosune
[word study]
from
agathos =benevolent,
profitable, benefiting others) describes active goodness, virtue,
excellence or beneficence. It is high moral character reflected in to
being good in both nature and effectiveness.
Agathosune - 4x in 4v - Rom 15:14; Gal 5:22; Eph 5:9; 2 Thess
1:11
Agathosune finds
its fullest and highest expression in that which is willingly and
sacrificially done for others. It is moral and spiritual excellence
manifested in active kindness.
Agathosune describes a positive
moral quality characterized especially by interest in the welfare of
others. Agathosune refers to active goodness as an energetic
principle. It is the generosity which springs from the heart that is
kind and will always take care to obtain for others that which is useful
or beneficial.
Thayer says that agathosune is found only in
Biblical and ecclesiastical writings.
Wuest
writes that agathosune refers...
to that quality in a man who is ruled
by and aims at what is good, namely, the quality of moral worth. (Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
Agathosune
is a fruit of the Spirit and a fruit of the Light. Agathosune is
moral goodness found only in believers and only as the result of the
working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who submit to His
divine will and power.
Paul prayed for this fruit of goodness to
be manifest in the lives of the believers at Thessalonica (2Th 1:11) and was
convinced it was being manifest in the lives of the saints (the body of
Christ) at Rome (Ro 15:14-note). Paul had heard about their goodness, implying
that the way they lived and interacted with others gave proof of their
possession of the Spirit and His fruit.
C Norman Bartlett writes that
The real meaning of this word is
generosity in things material and things spiritual. Niggardliness
impoverishes while liberality enriches the soul; or, as Scripture puts
it, "The liberal soul shall be made fat." In the realm of the spirit we
lose what we keep and keep what we lose for JESUS' sake (Mt 16:25).
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948) Barclay
writes that agathosune
is a peculiarly Bible word and does
not occur in secular Greek). It is the widest word for goodness; it is
defined as “virtue equipped at every point.” What is the difference?
Agathosune might, and could, rebuke and discipline; chrestotes
can only help. Trench says that Jesus showed agathosune when he
cleansed the Temple and drove out those who were making it a bazaar; but
he showed chrestotes when he was kind to the sinning woman who anointed
his feet. The Christian needs that goodness which at one and the same
time can be kind and strong. (Barclay,
W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster
Press)
Romans 15:14 (see note)
And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you
yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and
able also to admonish one another.
Ephesians 5:9 (note) (for the fruit
of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and
truth),
2 Thessalonians 1:11 To this
end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of
your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work
of faith with power
Faithfulness
Faithfulness is rendered...
Good faith (Weymouth)
Trustfulness (NJB)
Faith
(BBE, KJV)
Faithfulness
(4102)
(pistis)
as used in Scripture usually refers to one's belief or faith in God,
in His Son, in His Gospel by which one is saved through grace (Ep 2:8,
9-note).
In the present context pistis takes on a different meaning,
instead referring to
that virtue which makes a person one on whom others can rely
(dependability). This fruit in man is predicated on the truth about God
- His faithfulness. So when a believer manifests this trait in
interpersonal relationships, he or she is becoming a "partaker of the
divine nature" (2Pe 1:4-note),
acting in godliness or "God-likeness". Even as a child exhibits family
resemblances, loyalty, trustworthiness and fidelity in a believer
presents to others an accurate (Spirit empowered) manifestation of the
unseen God (cp Mt 5:16-note).
In a word this component of the fruit of the Spirit describes one's
trustworthiness, loyalty, reliability, adherence, constancy,
dependability, devotedness. Another synonym is the word fidelity
(from Latin fides = faith, fidere = to trust) is strict, careful,
continuing and exact observance of duty, or performance of obligations.
The person with this quality keeps his word, his
promises, and his vows. This sense is conveyed in Titus 2 where Paul
is speaking of believing slaves as...
not
pilfering, but showing all good faith (Titus 2:10KJV = fidelity)
that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
(Titus 2:10-note)
Jesus castigated the Pharisees for their lack
of this attribute...
Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and
cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law:
justice and mercy and faithfulness (pistis); but these are the
things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Mt 23:23)
W E Vine...
In the
majority of its frequent occurrences earlier in this Epistle pistis
signifies the abandonment of oneself, insofar as hope of salvation
through merit or works is concerned, and the casting of oneself
therefore solely upon God in Christ, as in Gal 2:16, e.g. But neither
this meaning, nor the less common one of Gal 1:23 (where it = “what is
believed”) seems to suit the context here. Faith, in the sense of
confidence in God for salvation, would necessarily come at the head of
such a list as this if it were to appear at all. Pistis is, however,
sometimes = “faithfulness,” as here rendered; see Romans 3:3 (of God),
and Matthew 23:23; Titus 2:10 (of man). There is also a third idea which
pistis may express, that of trustfulness, the habit of mind which does
not doubt that God is working all things together for good with those
who love Him, Romans 8:28, that seeks to realize the truth of the
apostle’s word concerning love that it “believeth all things,”
1Corinthians 13:7. Suspicion of God, whether of His love or of His
wisdom (few doubt His power), is a work of the flesh, and so is
suspicion of those around us; it darkens and embitters the soul, hinders
efficiency in service, and makes fellowship impossible. The choice lies
between the second and third of these meanings, and on the whole the
last is perhaps more likely to be the intention of the apostle.
(Vine,
W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
Witherington
In a
list such as this pistis in all likelihood does not refer to
faith, but rather to faithfulness, and so it is once again an attribute
of God (Ro 3:3-note)
now predicated of the believer. More importantly for our discussion,
Paul sees it as the paradigmatic term to describe the self-giving action
of Christ, in particular referring to his voluntary surrender to death
on the cross in obedience to God’s will and plan. The faithfulness of
Christ is to be likewise mirrored by Christians. This term in Greek
literature refers to trustworthiness, a person who acts in good faith,
and it is perhaps likely that the Gentile Galatians would hear some of
these sorts of overtones here, especially in view of the two terms which
follow this one and conclude the list. As Betz says, faithfulness,
gentleness or mildness, and self-control were three famous virtues in
Hellenistic ethics. (Grace in Galatia : A Commentary on St. Paul's
Letter to the Galatians. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co)
Wuest agrees that in Galatians
5:22
pistis...
does
not refer here to faith exercised by the saint, but to faithfulness and
fidelity as produced in the life of the yielded Christian by the Holy
Spirit.
Morris...
The ability to serve God faithfully
through the years and through the temptations of life is not something
we achieve by heroic virtue. It comes from the Spirit.
Charles
Ellicott...
trustfulness (Conybeare), faith in God’s promises and mercies and loving
trust towards men; comp. 1Co 13:7-note ,
all faith (pisteuo - believing), where, like makrothumia and chrestotes
(1Co 13:4), it stands as one of the characteristics of agape (Ellicott,
C. J. St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians)
Hendricksen...
Faithfulness to God and to his will is, accordingly, the virtue which,
in all probability, Paul is here commending as a gift of the Spirit.
This, however, does not exclude but includes loyalty toward men. (New
Testament commentary: Exposition of Galatians. Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House)
Hansen...
Faithfulness is the quality of keeping commitments in relationships. The
Galatians had proved to be fickle in their attitude toward Paul
(4:13–16). Only the Spirit can produce the quality of loyalty no matter
the cost. (Galatians. The IVP New Testament commentary series Downers
Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press)
Eadie...
“faith”
(“faythfulnes,” Tyndale, Cranmer)—not simply faith in God in the
theological sense (Jerome, Theophylact),—that being implied, as the
Spirit dwells only in those who have faith,—nor merely fidelity or good
faith (Meyer), nor veracity (Winer); but trust generally, trustfulness
toward God and towards man. Confidence in God, in all His promises, and
under all His dispensations; and a spirit of unsuspicious and generous
confidence towards men,—not moved by doubts and jealousies, nor
conjuring up possible causes of distrust, and treasuring up sad lessons
from previous instances of broken plight. 1Co 13:7.
Barclay...
Fidelity; this word (pistis) is common in secular Greek for
trustworthiness. It is the characteristic of the man who is reliable.
Barnes...
The
word here may be used in the sense of fidelity, and may denote that the
Christian will be a faithful man-a man faithful to his word and
promises; a man who can be trusted or confided in. It is probable that
the word is used in this sense because the object of the apostle is not
to speak of the feelings which we have towards God, so much as to
illustrate the influences of the Spirit in directing and controlling our
feelings towards men. True religion makes a man faithful. The Christian
is faithful as a man; faithful as a neighbour, friend, father, husband,
son. He is faithful to his contracts; faithful to his promises. No man
can be a Christian who is not thus faithful; and all pretensions to
being under the influences of the Spirit, when such fidelity does not
exist, are deceitful and vain.
Adam Clarke...
Faith—here used for fidelity—punctuality in performing promises,
conscientious carefulness in preserving what is committed to our trust,
in restoring it to its proper owner, in transacting the business
confided to us, neither betraying the secret of our friend, nor
disappointing the confidence of our employer.
J. B.
Lightfoot discusses the concept of faith in his commentary on
Galatians. He notes that in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the definition of
the word for faith
hovers between two meanings:
trustfulness, the frame of mind which relies on another; and
trustworthiness, the frame of mind which can be relied upon....pistis
seems not to be used here (Galatians 5:22) in its theological sense
‘belief in God.’ Its position points rather to the passive meaning of
faith, ‘trustworthiness, fidelity, honesty,’ as in Mt. 23:23, Titus
2:10-note;
comp. Ro 3:3
(note).
C Norman Bartlett says that
here Paul refers to...
Faith which can also be seen
as faithfulness. Probably capable of a double meaning, of trustfulness
and trustworthiness. The one who is led by the SPIRIT has an unswerving
confidence in GOD and reliance upon His words of promise; at the same
time he manifests dependability in the discharge of the responsibilities
which the LORD sees fit to lay upon him. Having faith in GOD involves
keeping faith with GOD. We trust Him. How far can He trust us?
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948)
Utley...
Pistis
is used in its Old Testament sense of loyalty and trustworthiness. It
was usually used of God (cf. Ro 3:3-note).
Here it describes the believer’s new relationship with people,
especially believers. (Paul's First Letters: Galatians and 1 & 2
Thessalonians)
Of the 243 uses of pistis in the NT only a
small percent are used with the sense of trustworthiness or
faithfulness. On the other hand there are a number of uses of
pistis
in
Septuagint (LXX)
with the meaning of trustworthiness or
faithfulness as exemplified in the following passages...
Deuteronomy 32:20 "Then He said, 'I will hide My face from them, I
will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation,
Sons in whom is no faithfulness (Hebrew = emuwn = faithfulness;
Lxx = pistis)
1
Samuel 26:23 "And the LORD will repay each man for his righteousness
and his faithfulness (Hebrew = emuwnah = fidelity; Lxx = pistis);
for the LORD delivered you into my hand today, but I refused to stretch
out my hand against the LORD's anointed.
2
Kings 12:15 Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the
men into whose hand they gave the money to pay to those who did the
work, for they dealt faithfully (Hebrew = emuwnah = fidelity; Lxx
= pistis).
2
Kings 22:7 "Only no accounting shall be made with them for the money
delivered into their hands, for they deal faithfully (Hebrew =
emuwnah = fidelity; Lxx = pistis)."
Proverbs 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those
who deal faithfully (Hebrew = emuwnah = fidelity;
Lxx = pistis) are His delight.
When missionary
John Paton
was translating the Scripture for
the South Sea islanders, he was unable to find a word in their
vocabulary for the concept of believing, trusting, or having faith. He
had no idea how he would convey that to them. One day while he was in
his hut translating, a native came running up the stairs into Paton's
study and flopped in a chair, exhausted. He said to Paton,
It's so good to rest my whole weight
in this chair.
John Paton
had his word: Faith is resting your whole weight on God. That
word went into the translation of their New Testament and helped bring
that civilization of natives to Christ. Believing is putting your whole
weight on God. If God said it, then it's true, and we're to believe it.
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