This
outline is in 4 parts. Part 1 explains what the fruits of the spirit are and
where they originate. Part 2 sheds light on who bears the fruits of the spirit,
and teaches on how to manifest them. Part 3 concludes the teaching on how to
manifest the fruits of the spirit; and Part 4 teaches us the benefits of bearing
good fruits; the consequences of not producing fruit, and the consequences of
producing bad fruit.
All
Bible study class teachers and cell leaders are to ensure that the members have
their Bibles; all the Scriptures in the outline are read during the meeting;
and the members look into their Bibles while the Scriptures are read. In
addition, as clearly stated by our Man of God, emphasize the importance of
having a personal Bible and using it. Also encourage your members to have
Bibles in their mobile devices; let them know that no phone is worth carrying, if it
cannot take a Bible. Having your Bible in your phone means you can take your
Bible with you, everywhere you go.
TABLE OF CONTENT
- The
Fruit of the Spirit Part 1………………………… 3
- The
Fruit of the Spirit Part 2………………………… 7
- The
Fruit of the Spirit Part 3………………………… 10
- The
Fruit of the Spirit Part 4………………………… 13
- Conclusion…………………………………………….
16
- Lessons…………………………………………………16
THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT (PART 1) –
Introduction:
Explaining the Terms
In Scriptures,
you’ll observe that the word fruit and fruits are used interchangeably in
referring to the fruits of the spirit. They can both infer a plurality, so we
can say: the fruits of the spirit or the fruit of the spirit. Fruit can be used
in singular term, as in ‘water’, irrespective of the quantity.
Now
there are several expressions used in describing the fruits of the spirit, and
they are:
- Fruits
(Matthew
3:8; Matthew 7:16)
- Good
fruits (James 3:17)
- Fruits
of righteousness (Philippians 1:11)
- Works
or deeds (Ephesians 5:11; Titus 3:14)
Works
or deeds sometimes apply to different things, so we must be careful to study
the context in which the words are used to note the differences.
In Matthew 7: 15
20 (Read full text in class), Jesus explained that false prophets can be
identified by their fruits. Verse 20 says: ‘Wherefore by their fruits ye
shall know them’
Mathew 12:33:
‘Either
make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his
fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit’
Luke 6: 43 –
45:
‘ For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree
bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns
men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man
out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an
evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is
evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh’
From the
scriptures, we can see that you can’t have a good tree producing corrupt fruit,
neither can you have a corrupt tree producing good fruit. Every man has a
treasure in him; you either have a treasure of good or a treasure of evil. You
should not accommodate any evil treasure but rather, you should multiply your
good treasure. Multiplying your good treasure is done through the Word of God,
as the Word makes deposits into your spirit.
What are the fruits
of the spirit?
Galatians 5: 22 – 23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
against such there is no law.
Ephesians 5: 8
10: ‘For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of
the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is
acceptable unto the Lord.
The nine (9)
listed fruits in Galatians 5: 22, are fruits of the spirit; however, there are
other fruits. From the scripture in Ephesians 5: 8 – 9, we are taught that the
fruits of the spirit are encapsulated in goodness, righteousness and truth.
Goodness, righteousness and truth are therefore fruits of the spirit.
Philippians 1: 11: ‘Being filled with the fruits of
righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God’
James 3: 17 - 18: But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in
peace of them that make peace. God's
wisdom is full of good fruits. Therefore, if God has made you wise, His wisdom
will come with good fruits.
Where
do the fruits of the spirit originate?
John 15: 1 - 5: ‘I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me
that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he
purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,
except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do
nothing.
The fruits of
the spirit originate from Jesus Christ; that is, we get them from Jesus. Though the branches bear the fruits, they
actually originate from the vine.
Philippians 1: 11: Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the
glory and praise of God.
In Colossians 1: 4-6, we are taught
that the gospel brings forth fruit and the gospel is the good news of Jesus
Christ; the Word of Christ.
The fruits of the spirit therefore originate
from the Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, through His Word. Therefore, if you
want to bring forth fruit, you need to follow the Words of Jesus in John 15: 4,
where He instructs that we abide in the vine:
John 15: 4-5: ‘...Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the
vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Jesus abides in us through His Word
and the fruits originate from Him.
THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT (PART 2) –
In this
section, we’ll examine the following:
- Who
bears the fruits of the spirit; and,
- How
to manifest the fruits of the spirit
Who bears the fruits of the spirit?
The word spirit in Galatians 5:22 “...But the fruit
of the Spirit is...” has a capital “S”, thus many Christians
assume it refers to the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy spirit does not
bear fruit.
It is erroneously thought to be so because
the word ‘Spirit’, and also ‘spirit’ with a small letter “s”, came from the
same Greek word “pneuma”. However in this context it refers to the
fruit of your recreated human spirit, the fruit of the Christian.
Jesus said “I am the vine. Ye are the
branches...” (John 15:5). And we know that the fruits of a tree are seen on
the branches; therefore the Christian is the one that bears the fruits.
The capacity to produce the fruits of
the spirit has been given to those who are born again. Isaiah 61:3 says, ‘To
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,
that he might be glorified’ We are tress of righteousness, so we
produce fruits of righteousness, and all of these are in our spirits.
Don’t let the devil deceive you into
wondering if you have the capacity to produce the fruits of the spirit. Don’t
find yourself wondering if you can ever be gentle, meek or patient. The
question to answer is: Have you received Christ? If you have, it means that you
already have the fruit of the spirit and what is important is to keep sowing
the seed of God’s Word into your heart. You
are a tree of righteousness and you can multiply the good treasure in your
heart through the Word of God. Keep sowing the Word seed into your heart and it
would produce the desired result.
You may not
see the result of fruit bearing immediately. You will have to be patient
because you’ll be tried and tempted, so that you bring forth fruit with
patience (Luke 8: 11,15).
How to manifest the
fruits of the spirit
Ephesians 5: 9-11:
(For the fruit of the
spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is
acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them.
In Ephesians
5:11, we see a negation of the fruit of the spirit; the unfruitful works of
darkness. Unfruitful works of darkness are works that do not produce good
fruits / fruits of righteousness. By saying ‘...have no fellowship with
unfruitful works of darkness, the scriptures admonish us not to participate in
works that don’t produce fruits of the spirit, but to reprove them.
In our lives
and relationship with others, we shouldn’t manifest the fruits of darkness
because we are trees of righteousness. For example, a brother should not go to
another brother to deceive him and steal money from him. The Bible says if you
love, you will not steal; you can’t love your brother and steal from him. Doing
that will mean that you're manifesting works of darkness.
1 John 3: 14:
”We
know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He
that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” Here, John is not referring to someone who
isn’t saved; this scripture refers to someone that remains /abides in darkness;
one who hasn’t come out of darkness though life has been given to him. Such a
person remains under the control of spiritual death. An illustration is having
the prison doors opened to someone who is in prison, yet he still abides there,
inspite of the fact that the doors have been opened. He remains/ settles in the
prison.
In listing the
fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, we notice that the list starts with
love as the number one product of the human spirit. The first fruit that is
manifested in the recreated human spirit is love; it controls our conduct, our
life and lifestyle, our thoughts and speech.
The scripture
doesn’t say that if you don’t love your brother, it means you hate him. It says
if you don’t love your brother you remain in death; you are walking in the
domain of death and are under the control and jurisdiction of death. This means
that the spirit of death controls your life and the devil is running your life.
1 John 3: 15
addresses the issue of hate: ‘Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:
and
you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.’
Hate is a
verb, which means that it is something a person does. Unlike the man who
doesn’t love, the man who hates is not just abiding in death, he has spiritual
death in him. Any Christian who finds himself walking in hatred must quickly
repent because hatred is one of the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:20). If a
Christian walks in the flesh, he can find himself hating without realizing that
he is manifesting the works of darkness. As you grow in your Christian life,
understand that you are not supposed to hate anybody.
- THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (PART 3) –
This is the
second part of the discussion: How to manifest the fruits of the spirit.
How to manifest the
fruits of the spirit
The fruits of the
spirit are manifested through corresponding actions:
“My little Children, let us not love in word,
neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1
John 3:18). This shows clearly that we manifest these fruits through our
actions.
James also tells us that faith without
corresponding actions is dead (James 2: 14-17.
Matthew
3: 8: ’Bring forth fruit that is consistent with repentance…’
Luke 3: 8: ‘Bring
forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance,...’
Other scriptural
references are: James 2: 26, Titus 3: 8, Titus 3: 14, Acts 26: 19 – 20.
From the
scriptures, we can see clearly that God demands fruit from us; He doesn’t want
us walking around doing nothing. If you don’t have a job, then make one because
God condemns unfruitful lives.
John 15: 8: ‘Herein
is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.'
John 15:16: ‘‘Ye have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and
bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall
ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.'
God is not suggesting that we bear fruit, He is asking for it.
He wants us to produce results (fruits). If you live the life that God gave you
to live, you'll have all the results that the Word of God says.
As explained in part 1, the fruit of the spirit means the fruit
of righteousness. They are the fruits of love, which are the works of love;
deposits that we have from God in our spirits. We express the fruit of the
spirit based on the workings of the Spirit of God in us. For example, we carry
out acts of kindness, not because we’re trying to be kind, but because the
kindness of Christ is in us; it is the love of Christ functioning in us. In
soul winning for example, there’s the need and motivation of love that causes
us to share the Word; that's also the fruit of the spirit working.
Some people bring forth fruit unto death:
Romans 7: 5 – 6: 'For
when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from
the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness
of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.'
Hebrews 6: 1: 'Therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith
toward God'.
Hebrews 9: 14: ‘ How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God?’
In Romans 7: 5, the Apostle Paul said they brought forth fruit
unto death and in Hebrews 6: 1, he talks about ‘dead works’, which means works
that lead to spiritual death.
The blood of Christ can purge your conscience from works of
death so that you can serve the living God; this means, so you can bring forth
fruit unto God. Now that we are in Christ Jesus, God demands that we bring
forth fruit unto him. Romans 7: 4: ‘ Wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye
should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God.
- THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (PART 4) –
God demands fruits from every Christian as
seen in Mathew 3:8. He expects us to do works meet for repentance (Acts 26:20).
As a child of God you are to maintain good works (Titus 3:14); that is, your
life should be in accordance to the gospel; and this is revealed through producing
good fruits.
The benefits of bearing good fruits are:
- The Father purgeth
you to produce even more fruits (John 15:2).
- The Father is
glorified when you bear much fruit (John 15:8).
- Whatsoever you ask
the father will be granted unto you (John 15:16).
- You will
consistently walk in the blessing and in the anointing of the Spirit (Hebrews
1:9).
Consequences of not producing fruit:
John 15: 2: ‘Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that
beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.'
The scripture says, '...every branch that beareth not fruit, he
taketh away...' Don’t stay idle, producing no fruit. You cannot be neutral; you
must produce fruit unto God.
Ephesians 5:9-10: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness
and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord’. This
means doing things that are consistent with goodness, righteousness and truth. You
therefore cannot be idle, doing nothing. There must be good works coming out of
your spirit because God has put that deposit in you.
Philippians 1: 11: 'Being filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God'.
God takes away every branch that does not bear fruit.
Consequences of producing bad fruit:
Matthew 7: 19: ‘Every
tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire’
Matthew 3: 10: ‘And
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire’
Luke 3: 9: ‘ And now also the
axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire'
Hebrews 6: 8: ‘But
that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing;
whose end is to be burned.'
Revelation 21: 10,11,27: ‘10And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11Having the glory of
God: and her light was like unto a jasper stone, clear as crystal;… 27 And
there shall no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s
book of life.’
You can see that the consequences of producing bad fruits are
very severe. From the parable in Luke 13: 6 – 9, we can see that God comes
looking for fruit in our lives. When the Master comes looking at your life,
what will He find? From the parable, the Master gave them an opportunity to
straighten up and produce fruit.
For example, there are some Christians who have never won a soul
to Christ. You must not be like that. You must bring others to the Lord; it’s part
of what we produce from our spirits, as we’re motivated by the love of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5: 14 - 15:
‘For
the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for
all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should
not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again’
Every one of us must be passionate and be soul winners. We must
produce fruit unto God; it’s compulsory, required and desirable.
At different times, God reviews our lives and looks at the
fruits we’ve been producing. As the life of Christ is awesomely revealed
through us, God’s Word goes forth and we find that there are more blessings in our
lives because the Lord prunes fruitful branches to make them more fruitful. He
takes away the wrong things in our lives, and cuts out those things that aren't
necessary to make sure we can produce more fruits. He wants us to bear more
fruits and keep producing fruits until it’s much fruit. He says 'Herein
is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples' (John
15: 8).
Our goal therefore, should not just be to produce fruit, but to
produce much fruit.
CONCLUSION
The fruits of the spirit are not mere attitudes to guide human
behavior; they are God’s design for the formation of spiritual character; the whole
personality of our being and who we are. The Bible says 'by their fruits you
shall know them'; so you cannot separate one's attitude from his character. All that God has put in us is to produce a character.
He wants to produce the character of Christ in us. For example, you shouldn't
just be humble in a certain situation; God wants humility to become your
character, just like being bold and walking in righteousness should become part
of your character.
Our dream for evangelism, soul winning, our partnership in the
gospel, helping others, making sure that the work of the ministry goes forward,
and interceding for others, is all part of our Christian character; the
formation of the spiritual man.
Jesus was a soul winner, Jesus was humble and good; He was a
healer, an intercessor and He walked in power, and in glory. Jesus Christ was
and still is an awesome and extraordinary character, and as He is, so are we in
this world (1 John 4: 17).
Lessons
learned from “the fruits of the Spirit”
- Every
tree is known by its fruits.
- The
fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22 refer to the fruit of the recreated
human spirit.
- The
fruit of the Spirit is also the fruit of Righteousness.
- We
are trees of Righteousness; hence we are to produce good fruits.
- Every
Christian should bear good fruits.
- Love
is the number one product of your spirit.
- We
manifest the fruits of the Spirit by “corresponding actions”.
- Anyone
that does not bear fruit will be taken away from the vine.
- One
of the consequences of a Christian producing bad fruit is that he will be cast
into the fire.
- He that does not love his brother abides in
death: In the jurisdiction, dominion and control of death.
Questions:
- Who
bears the fruits of the spirit?
Answer: The Christian
- The
Father is glorified when we bear good fruits, True or False?
Answer: True
- How
does a Christian manifest the fruit of the Spirit?
Answer: Through corresponding actions
- To
bear much fruit you must abide in the Vine? True or False?
Answer: True
- The
