Unbelievers have
little concern for what the
Christian believes-thy are far
more interested in the fruitage
of his faith. Does your faith
make you easy to get along with?
Generously dispositioned?
Selflessly concerned for others?
Does your love for Jesus keep you
good-natured? Sweet-tempered?
Cheerful? Said the Master;
“By this shall all men know
that ye are my disciples, if ye
love one to another.” John
13:35.
At another time
Christ declared of those who
professed to be religious,
“By their fruits ye shall
know them” Matthew 7:20. Not
by certain signs or
manifestations are Christ’s
followers to be known, but by
their fruits. Christ warned His
followers to beware of false
prophets, false tongues, false
healings, and false signs,
because Satan can easily
counterfeit. God earnestly warns
us to beware of Satan’s
masquerades: “The Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some shall depart
from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines
of devils; speaking lies in
hypocrisy; having their
conscience seared with a hot
iron.” 1 Timothy 4:1,2.
God has indeed
given various gifts or
manifestations of the Spirit, but
He has made it clear that these
are to be tested; they are not to
be themselves the test. Christ
made the fruits of the Spirit the
all-important test. The fruit we
bear tells the world whether we
have enthroned the carnal nature
in our hearts or the Spirit of
Christ, whether we have allowed
ourselves to be controlled by an
unholy spirit or by the Holy
Spirit.
To say that one is
controlled by the Holy Spirit is
not to say that there is no more
conflict with sin. Galatians 5:17
describes the conflict that will
exist as long as we are mortal:
“The flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh: and these are
contrary the one to the
other.” The world may not be
able to see the struggle going on
in the heart, but the world can
see who is winning the battle by
the way we behave. The Christian
may fall occasionally, but he
regrets his un-Christ like acts
and endeavors to overcome.
The fruit of the
Spirit, according to Galatians
5:22,23 is “love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance.” The Holy Spirit
blesses us with all these
attributes. Love heads the list.
At creation God endowed man with
His own love; but when Adam
sinned, his capacities to love
became limited-he could not love
God with all his heart or his
neighbor as himself. Those who
are born of the Spirit experience
that original love, a love beyond
anything that the unconverted
soul could know-God’s kind
of love.
We naturally love
those who love us, but Jesus told
His disciples to love those who
did not love them. (Matthew
5:44-48.) True love, He said,
would go even so far as to die
for a friend. (John 15:13.)
Christ had this kind of love and
more, for “while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for
us.” (Romans 5:8.)
The followers of
Jesus must love with a more than
natural love, for Jesus commanded
them to love “as I have
loved you. (John 13:34.)
How can a man ever
hope to have a love that human
beings do not naturally possess?
The Bible provides an answer:
“The love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto
us.” Romans 5:5. God
manifests His love to us by the
Holy Spirit, which testifies of
Christ; and as we behold His
love, we are changed. The Holy
Spirit gives us the very same
kind of love that dwells in the
heart of God. However, it is ours
only as we use it.
We cannot grasp
the full meaning of the love of
God or agape love. The apostle
Paul after exhausting the heights
and depths, the lengths and
breadths, of language, exclaimed
that the love of Christ
“passeth knowledge.”
(Ephesians 3:16-19.) We do not
have to understand God’s
love to accept it and appreciate
it. The heart can accept what the
mind cannot comprehend.
Every Christian
can know the love of God, and in
his daily life reveal that love.
His life may become a sermon for
all to see. All of the fruits of
the Spirit are to be beautifully
blended in the lives of
Christians. Their lives will not
attract attention to themselves,
but will ever point to Jesus.
“There is no
fear in love, but perfect love
casteth out fear.” 1 John
4:18. Those who are responsive to
the love of the Spirit will
“love in the Spirit.”
(Colossians 1:8.) The “love
of the Spirit” contagiously
inspires courage. Many a person
has been lifted above his doubts
and fears by the “spirit
… of love (2 Timothy 1:7)
revealed in the unselfish acts of
another’s life.
