The term the Fruit of the Spirit sums up nine attributes of a Christian life listed in Gal 5: 22, 23. When we accept Jesus Christ as our savior (from penalty and slavery of sins) and Lord, we are born again in Spirit and the Holy Spirit indwells us. Though we are born again and have a new life in Christ, we still carry the carnal sinful nature in us. Presence of sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, etc. in our life, would mean that we are still being led by our sinful nature. The Christian life is often the battle between the old sinful nature and the new nature given by Christ. Our flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit.
The Spirit of God works in us, enabling us to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, gradually, when we yield ourselves completely to be led by him. It is essential to note that the Holy Spirit indwelling us, will not be controlling or leading us, unless we keep our lusts and our self under control by our consistent conscious efforts with the help of God, while obeying the leading of Holy Spirit, step by step, daily.
The spirit led life will be evident in our daily living and the fruit of the Spirit led life is marked by the presence of
Love – loving God and loving others;
Joy – the inner happiness given by God;
Peace - the inner calmness given by God;
Patience – tolerating problems or suffering without becoming annoyed;
Kindness – helping others without expectation;
Goodness - the external working of kindness;
Faithfulness – Being reliable and truthful;
Gentleness – Displaying Christ’s meekness, keeping power under control;
Self-control – Mastering self.
SELF CONTROL
David was called as a man after God’s own heart but in 2 Sam 11:27, we read about him as “The Lord considered what David had done to be evil.” This refers to the cost David had to pay for his failure in controlling lust. Lust is a huge problem in our world and society and is probably the greatest contributor to the destruction of relationships.
Like gravitational force, the lust inside us experience pull
by the attractions of the world. The things we see, hear, smell, touch,
taste has the potential to trigger the lust in us. We call this as
temptation. Temptations can be material temptation - the lust for things,
personal temptation - the lust for status or special recognition, sensual
temptation – the lust for another person. In 1 John 2:14, we read
that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life comes from the world, diminishing the love of God in us. James
1:14 says each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their
own evil desire and enticed. The lust may be a sinful desire, a
desire to take revenge, a desire to control others or some legitimate ones like
the desire to be loved, desire to be valued, etc.
We allow lust because we choose to do so, by being attracted by the pleasures
it offers. We entertain lust out of curiosity. What started as experimental
slowly takes control of our life. We allow lust because it is enjoyable. Lust
affects us emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Satan is tempter. He is in the business of sowing doubts or seducing suggestions that will keep us away from God, driving us into temptation and deception. When the attractions of the world capture our attention, Lust is aroused. When we do not control the lust, it will end up taking the position of controlling us. Soon it will influence our habit and our behavior.
Exercising control over lust is self-control. In Proverbs
25:28, we are told that a man without self-control is like a city broken
into and left without walls. In 1 Cor 9:25-27, Paul says that
Christians need to exercise self-control like the athletes. Col 3:5 talks
about putting lust to death, meaning deactivating the lust. Self control
means the ability to control one’s emotions and behavior in the face of
temptations and impulses.
Temptation is not sin. It will become sin when we fall in temptation. God
allows temptations to make us spiritually stronger. Root grows stronger
when wind blows against the tree. Every time we overcome a temptation, we
develop self-control and it strengthens our spiritual life. Exercising
self control over lust is essential for our spiritual growth.
In order to develop self control, we need to realize that we are victims of
lust and need change. We must accept our fault. When our lust is
triggered, the quickest way to neutralize it is to think something else. Identifying
the typical pattern of temptation and taking steps to avoid such tempting
things, places and persons will help. When we fail in temptation, it is
important not to give up in our struggle against lust. We need to
depend on God for the strength to overcome lust. Being led by the indwelling
Holy Spirit produces self control in us.
PATIENCE
Heb. 12:1 says that let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. It suggests that patience is required for victorious Christian living.
Every day, we meet so many situations, issues and problems, testing our patience. We have everything instantly; we are not willing to wait the slightest amount of time. We come across different kinds of delays and circumstances that cause us to lose our patience. We’ve become too used to immediate results. When we do not get things instantly, we lose patience. We are in a society that is in hurry for everything. Our world and society do not seem to encourage patience. Considering the circumstances we live in, cultivating patience would need us to swim against the stream.
The word “Patience” is noun – it refers to our nature, our Character, our level of endurance. Patience would refer to the forbearance under suffering and endurance in the face of adversity. Our level of patience is measured by how well we behave when we undergo frustration, irritation and mental agony.
It’s not easy to exercise patience. It goes against human nature. It’s contrary to our culture. But when we endure hardships patiently, we can receive the God intended blessings in our life. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years to receive the promise of God. Joseph waited 13 years to reach God intended Palace from pit. Job was a wealthy man. He lost his crops, property, cattle, servants and his children. He waited patiently for the fulfillment of the plan of God in his life.
We suffer when we are impatient. Esau lost his birth right because of impatience. Israelites ended up committing idolatry when they lost patience to wait for Moses. Moses lost the entry to Promised Land because of impatience. Saul lost his kingship because of impatience. The road of impatience always leads to spiritual disaster.
Scripture tells us that patience emerges out of trials. The by-product of delays and trials is patience, the very thing we need. Patience is necessary for our Spiritual Maturity. While encountering problems, if we get impatient, we make mistakes and some of them will be very costly. So it is essential to exercise patience in problems. Proverbs 14:29 says, “A person of great understanding is patient, but a short temper is the height of stupidity.” When we allow our emotions to get out of control, we make bad choices. We also have to exercise patience with people. Ephesians 4:2 says, “Be humble and gentle in every way. Be patient with each other.”
To improve patience, we have to put some conscious efforts consistently. When situations trigger our impatience, it is better to avoid taking hasty decisions. Over expectations spoil our patience. We expect the environment and the people to conform to our expectations. Keeping our expectation in realistic level promote patience. Rom 15:5 says that God is the source of patience. So praying for patience would help to improve our patience. Gal 5:22 says that patience is fruit of spirit led life. So yielding ourselves to be led by Holy Spirit develops patience in us. May God enable us to cultivate patience on daily basis.
LOVE VS LUST
Lust would mean strong desire of the flesh and fleshly mind. Lust entices us with promises of feeling great with lasting pleasure. Lust will leave us unsatisfied and will push us to greater highs through crossing our personal and society moral boundaries. Uncontrolled lust will lead us on a path to self-destruction. Lust has many destructive effects. The most serious effect is that lust corrupts our ability to love God.
Apostle John explained that lust is a way of loving the world. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world. 1 John 2:16.
Lust is a sin, which builds a spiritual barrier. In gratifying our sinful nature, we turn from what God has planned for us and we seek fulfillment in the wrong place, finding spiritual emptiness. Like in the case of David, Lust will infect, corrupt and kill us gradually.
Love is intense feeling of affection and care towards other person. Our life will show if we have love. Faithfulness, Integrity, willing to help and sacrifice, etc. is symptoms of love. Joy is love’s music, Peace is love’s agreement, Longsuffering is love’s endurance, Kindness is love’s service, Goodness is love’s deportment and faithfulness is love’s measure. We are born alone and die alone but love brings relationships and friendships in between in our life.
D.L. Moody said faith makes all things possible and love makes all things easy.. Augustine clarified that Love has the hands to help others, the feet to hasten to the poor and needy, the eyes to see misery and want, the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. “You can always give without loving but you can never love without giving” so said Amy Carmichael.
Love is a verb - it is what you do more than what you say or what you think. Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth (1Jh 3:18).
