FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Tuesday, July 23, 20131Thessalonians [GW] 5:16-22 … Don't put out the Spirit's fire. Don't despise what God has revealed. Instead, test everything. Hold on to what is good. Keep away from every kind of evil. [Also note examples of in Revelation 2:29 thru 3:1-22, a passage beginning and ending with “Let the person who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches."]
James [GW]
1:22-25 Do what God's word says. Don't merely listen to it, or you will fool
yourselves. 23 If someone listens to God's word but doesn't do what it says, he
is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, 24 studies his features,
goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 However, the person
who continues to study God's perfect teachings that make people free and who
remains committed to them will be blessed. People like that don't merely listen
and forget; they actually do what God's teachings say.
The fruit
of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith,
meekness, self-control; those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with
its passions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
proving what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather we are to reprove them. (Galatians
5:22-25; Ephesians 5:9-11. I encourage you to read all in context.)
That which
is not according to God’s Word is not good but is contrary to all goodness.
Not living
in provision that God has revealed to us in Holy Scripture suppresses the fruit
of His Comforter, brings loneliness with its companion fear.
Without the
Word-centered devotional life of reading, study, prayerful thought time, and
seeking application in all facets of life, with implementation of His love regardless
of our feelings, is to dwell apart from our John 1:12 kinfolk. Devoid of holy
exercise (1Tim.4:7-9) we will not, nor will others by extension, enjoy familial
fruit of the Spirit. (1Cor.7:14; Heb.4:12)
Let us not
hinder the Spirit of God is by seeking fulfillment in joining associations,
societies, guilds, fraternities, clans, tribes, ethnic group, teams, troupes,
troop, faction, gangs, support groups, corporations, charitable organizations,
ministries, religions, churches, marriage, having children . . . in the hope to fill a basic need to belong;
all of which can never fully sate our hunger to actually belong for there is
only one family that can do so.
“I belong
to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me” is an absolute purchase specification for
believers. (Rom.5:8-11) Fruitful familial fellowship is not so, for it depends
on devotion in manner; instance and event. Let us beware looking to God for
heaven but to the world for fraternity; for in doing so we compromise our John
1:12 childhood.
Join, yes,
but as service extension of our identity in God’s family, “[Living] decent
lives among unbelievers. Then, although they ridicule you as if you were doing
wrong while they are watching you do good things, they will praise God on the
day he comes to help you.” (GW 1Pet.2:12)
EBB4
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