God's Work In Christians

God's primary work in Christian is two-fold; to enable us to be like Jesus Christ and to maintain unity in the Body of Christ - His Church.

According to the Gospel, John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ had two different ministries which were complement to each other. John came with the message that God can deal with your past, whereas Jesus came with the message that God can deal with your future.

The fact is that every single thing an unbeliever said or done or felt is recorded in him - becomes a part of him. Not one of us can cut this link with the past. Our present action is controlled by our past decision. But God at His mercy performs a miracle of forgiveness so that we can arise, go forth and follow Christ. God deals with our past through the ministry of John and we are cut off from it by washing it away - so that our pasts will no longer going to control our present and our future. That is good news and this good news is called repentance.

But John could not deal with your future. That was why he said, "I indeed baptized you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16, NKJV).

We, not only need pardon for the past, we need power for the future as well. Therefore if ever I want to be a truly fruitful Christian then it will be God who has to do it in me. I will not be able to manage it myself. His Holy Spirit is given to us precisely for this purpose.

The Gifts and the Fruit

The two things that the Holy Spirit gives to help us to be Christians are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. We will not be fully matured Christians until we have both. The Gifts are given so that we can do what Jesus did; the Fruit is given so that we may be what Jesus was - this is good new.

We do not go out and try to do our best or try to be like Jesus. His standard is so high that He said, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48, NKJV).

Similarities and differences

1. Both the Gifts and the Fruit are supernatural social gifts primarily given to help us to relate to other people. They are not private things for me alone but for us.

2. All the Gifts are given to me to pass on to the Body of Christ. All the different flavors of the Fruit are given to me to relate properly to others, to God and to myself.

3. Both can be imitated both by men and by Satan. But discernment will tell you where it is the real things.

4. Gifts are more spectacular and more difficult to handle. Therefore there are more teaching in the Scripture on how to handle Gifts. You can't handle the Gifts without the Fruit. There is no teaching or guidance in the Scripture on how to handle the Fruit for obvious reasons. When you grow the Fruit you can handle it yourself. The last flavor of the Fruit is self-control - "Against such there is no law".

5. Gifts tend to be outward things - they show outwardly, they can be seen and heard. But Fruit is inward.

6. Gifts appear suddenly, they can be given suddenly or even in a flash. Fruit appears gradually, it grows gradually.

7. Gifts are temporary things but Fruit is permanent. A person can lose his Gifts. Samson lost his Gifts because of his pride and disobedience to God.

8. Gifts usually appear early in the Christian life but Fruit appears later.

9. Gifts can be given to very immature Christians, even to carnal and unholy Christians. Fruit is for matured Christians - it takes time to grow and to mature (ripe).

10. Gifts are many, Fruit is one. God's plan is to have the Gifts spread out in the Local Church so that one person has one Gift and another another person has another. But the flavors of the Fruit can't be divided - you either have all the flavors or none at all.

11. There is a difference between the Fruit and the apparent virtues in ungodly or unsaved people. But you'll never find all the nine flavors or virtues of the Fruit in unbelievers.

The Fruit of the Holy Spirit

This message concerns only the Fruit because there is very little teaching on the Fruit. On the other hand you'll be able to find a lot of teaching on Gifts elsewhere. Anyway, God willing, I'll deal with the Gifts in a later message.

The nine flavors of the Fruit are listed by Paul, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22, 23, NKJV).

The first three flavors primarily relate us to God are - love, joy and peace.

The next three relate us to other people are - longsuffering, kindness and goodness.

The last three help us to relate to ourselves are - faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Let us consider briefly one by one:

1. love - or loving care. Love has been so abused because the English language is limited and inadequate to describe the different types of love. The Greek has four ways of saying love. Love as a Fruit in Greek means loving care.

When you have loving care for someone this is what you'll say, "I care for you so deeply that I always seek your best good what ever it costs me".

We do not find this kind of love very frequently in a world that doesn't know God!

2. Joy - or deep happiness. Joy is so deep that no one or any circumstance can take it from you. Happiness comes to an end because it usually founded on people and people can be taken away from us.

3. Peace - or deep serenity (in harmony with God). When your body is in harmony you have physical health; when your mind is in harmony you are free from worry; when your spirit is in harmony you are forgiven by God - you are saved from sin.

4. Longsuffering - or endless patience. A longsuffering person is a slow tempered person. This does not mean that this person never gets angry. Jesus was angry sometimes. But He has been described by the psalmist:

"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy" (Ps. 145:8).

5. Kindness - or practical kindness. A person with kindness has a deep feeling for people. He is a mellow and gracious person.

6. Goodness - or all-round generosity. A person with goodness has a generous heart, a generous mind and a generous hand - so that when he sees a need he wants to go and meet that need.

7. Faithfulness - or steady reliability. He is a person who will always be there without your asking. He is a committed person. He is someone you can always depend on.

8. Gentleness - or gentle humility. A person with gentleness has meekness of the best kind - not weak or mild meekness but tamed and positive meekness.

9. Self-control - or firmed self-control. He is a person who can always say no to himself. He will not be tempted in all circumstances.

All the above flavors are of one Fruit. It is important to note that while describing the various flavors of the Fruit we are actually painting a precise picture of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Fruit of the Spirit is a perfect picture of God and His Christ.

Human virtue and temperament

God created each one of us with different human virtue and temperament. Every fallen human being has his unique God given human virtue and temperament. Only believers in Christ can grow the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Human virtue says I'll make my New Year resolution, I'm going to be a more loving person next year; I'll be more joyful and caring. These are piecemeal virtues. You'll find you can manage some virtues better because of your temperament type. But the Fruit of the Spirit provides you with all these virtues in one go, eventhough it comes gradually.

Because every one of us is born with some human virtue, you can see some good in everyone although everyone has his own strengths and weaknesses. But what you can't see is an all round character. What you can't see is virtues in balanced. What you can't see is Christ-likeness that only the Spirit of Christ can give. Take for example, love (as defined by the Scripture), is the one thing you can't find in human virtue and temperament. That was why when Jesus came He said we must love the Lord our God and love our neighbors (Matt. 22:37 - 40) - He emphasized love as a Fruit.

Problems in marriage

What will happen if we fail to grow Fruit or grow Fruit at a different rate? Problem arises because we have different human virtue and temperament and this strains our relationship with other people.

Therefore every marriage between two people is incompatible simply because every marriage is between different temperaments - either similar or of the opposite. They need adjustment because there are gaps in their virtues and temperaments. If the gaps coincide then that marriage needs help.

Problems in the Local Church

The Local Church is like a gigantic marriage between a whole lot of people. Can you imagine keeping 500 people together in loving relationship when virtues and temperaments are different?

Possible solutions

1. You can hold the Church together by keeping people separated - by not getting them too close together. Don't let them get involved with one another - just offer one another social lip service. Many Churches, especially the mega-churches are doing exactly that.

2. You can develop cliques within the local fellowship so that those who can get on stay with their group. This can work when that clique centers on a leader of a particular temperament. Then you get into the same kind of situation of the Corinthian Church - "I am of Paul; I am of Apolos" (1 Cor. 3:4).

Obviously the above are not real solutions. Unless the Fruit of the Spirit grows in everyone you'll have people (including pastors and leaders) hop from a local church to another local church - when relationship becomes too difficult to bear.

The Fruit of the Spirit is a vital necessity in a Local Church, so vital that we can't fulfill God's will without it. God's will is not we should try to find our temperamental home. God's will is that we all attain to the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephe. 4:13)! Unity comes naturally when everyone is growing the Fruit. Then we can get along fine no matter what our temperament and human virtue have been before we are saved.

Spiritual conditions for growing the Fruit of the Spirit

1. Abide in Christ

It is one thing to start with Christ and another to continue with Him. You can't continue with Him unless you also abide in Him.

Jesus said, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me" (John 15:4, NKJV).

All of us tend to be like the people we associate with or live with. Abiding in Christ means living (maintaining a personal relationship) with Him all the time. If you do, without you realizing it you begin to grow Fruit. Not only all of us in the Local Church must abide in Christ (the Head) we also must abide in the Body (our fellow believers in Christ).

2. Walk in the Spirit

Paul said, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).

Walking in the spirit means every single step that I take is in total response to the Holy Spirit. There is no short cut in growing the Fruit of the Spirit. Attending Christian conferences or conventions will not help us to grow Fruit. The only thing we might gain is knowledge - and knowledge puffs up according to the Scripture (1 Cor. 8:1).

Whether our old temperament likes it or not we have to go wherever the Spirit leads. We can fill up the gaps in our old temperament by walking in the Spirit.