As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, the ekklesia flows out of the inward parts of God. It is a divine organism.
It’s not a tradition or a custom. She (and the New Testament describers her as a “she”) is a civilization born out of the unction of the Holy Spirit. Certainly, her members are human and fallen, but she’s divine as well.
This brings us to the subject of fruit. Primarily, “the fruit of the Spirit” as mentioned in Galatians 5.
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
For decades, preachers have been trying to persuade you and me to bear this kind of fruit. But the presupposition behind that persuasion is that we bear the fruit of the Spirit by effort.
If you aren’t being patient, kind, gentle, self controlled, etc. you’re just not trying hard enough (so the thinking goes).
But this isn’t the way that a tree bears fruit. Every tree on the planet is a study in survival. A tree bears fruit out of the over abundance of life.
Every cell and fiber is saturated with life, and it must find a way to get rid of it or else it will drown in its own life.
Thus it produces pods on its tips and on the ends of its branches. Fruit is dropped to the earth due to the excess of life that’s contained in the tree.
The fruit of the Spirit, then, is the result and the expression of divine life. I’ve never seen a tree bear fruit by grunting, straining, or striving. The fruit emerges naturally out of life.
In the same way, when you learn how to touch, encounter, and draw on the life of Christ – which indwells every genuine believer – on a regular basis, the natural result is fruit.
And if you have the privilege of gathering with other believers who are learning to draw from that same life, the excess is the fruit of God’s nature.
In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is just another way of saying the nature of divine life – which is what the New Testament calls “love.”
Compare 1 Corinthians 13 with the description of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, and you’ll see the striking parallels. Notice also that it’s the fruit (singular) of the Spirit, not fruits (plural).
The fruit is love, which is the nature of divine life. And when you are walking in love, you are gentle, you are kind, you have self-control, you are patient, etc. These attributes are all manifestations of love – i.e., the nature of God’s life.
This is why learning to live by the Lord’s indwelling life is the central thing you and I should be focused on in this life.
And whenever a body of believers is touching that life together, the results are incredible. Christ is seen and experienced through His body.
At the same time, if that same body of believers stops having fellowship with that life, then it will begin to chase other things (even good and spiritual things), but things others than Christ Himself. And it will fall apart.
The key is to stay focused on the life, which produces the fruit.
This is interesting — the distinction between producing fruit by effort and having it be produced as the natural overflow of being connected to God — it reminds me of the difference between my two experiences of childbirth. In my first, the doctor was like, “YOU HAVE TO JUST DIG DEEP DOWN INSIDE YOU AND FIND THE STRENGTH BEYOND YOUR OWN NATURAL ABILITY” and he would yell at me whenever air escaped my lips as I was pushing because he said that energy from my breath needed be directed to my pushing muscles. When I told my second person, a midwife, about this, and how I was scared about having the ability to push, she was like, that’s not what we recommend. We are just going to keep you comfortable until your body decides it’s ready and then your body will take over and just do it. And that really was what happened. It was like all of a sudden, I knew and it just happened. The difference was amazing.
Amy, girl, what an excellent personal way to relate to Frank’s message. I’ll bet it makes it even more real for you.
Beautifully said. Staying connected to Him produces the fruit. So true. Love this article.
Makes me understand that once we start trying to manifest those fruits of the Spirit by our own means and efforts, it becomes no longer a fruit of the Spirit but of the flesh and thus its corrupted in the end and leads to corruption. It becomes a counterfeit. For so long I think I have been bound with a yoke I cannot carry and more and more I have understood what is the yoke of Christ for us and it is lighter, much lighter as we come to understand that our main efforts should be focused on actively letting go instead of actively holding on.
“A tree bears fruit out of the over abundance of life.” That brought tears. So much sweet God here, in the over abundance…branch to the Vine, the rest-giving yoke, abiding in His love…bearing fruit out of this matrix.
Beautiful truth, thank you.
Been down in the dumps for two weeks….this message awakened my spirit…Wow….Awesome….
Frank … I can’t be positive, but I think this is my favorite of your blog posts! In the past; for reasons that I won’t go into here; I had found myself in a place where my ‘fruit’ was disappearing, to the point that I ended up in a very depressed state. I had even started counseling with a Christian counselor, where week after week the tears never stopped flowing … UNTIL I refound Grace. In one moment the tears stopped. My counselor was actually shocked; which has caused me to wonder if she fully understands Grace. And the ‘fruit’ … once I took my eyes off of all that wasn’t there anymore … and only focused on my beloved Jesus … the much missed FRUIT returned on its own! Thanks for writing this blog!!
Understand where you are coming from…Was in the same mindset as you, minus the counselor…We have an unlimited love from our Savior and Lord…Oh, God is good…Hope
He is SO good! Those who don’t want Him do not understand what they are missing!
Such a beautiful picture… I have seen more change in me from spending time with him than trying in my own effort, Thank you!
“And whenever a body of believers is touching that life together, the results are incredible. Christ is seen and experienced through His body. At the same time, if that same body of believers stops having fellowship with that life, then it will begin to chase other things (even good and spiritual things), but things others than Christ Himself. And it will fall apart.”
What you said at the end there about a group falling apart is one of the most important things I’ve ever heard. I’ve seen it happen too.
Thank you. I needed to read this today.
Maggie
What a great article. I completely agree!
This is so awesome!
What a great word! Without Jesus Christ, we cannot bear any fruit.
Frank, great blog, when I teach on Fruits of the Spirit this is exactly the focus I have taken for some time…. I have never seen an apple tree quaking and shaking to push out apples as fruit. It is a natural result of a healthy tree that is properly planted, properly watered and fed and properly tended and pruned. Got to stop teaching that this fruit is our work. Where this hit me strongest was the realization that self control was not something I could conjur up by good behaviour or force but would be a manifestation of God’s Spirit in me through a loving, connected obedience to His Love
John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Instead of focusing on trying to bear fruit, our focus should be on abiding in Christ. When we do that fruit will happen naturally.
Paul, wow. That is so profound. Frank thank’s for the article.
Excellent! Love is not a decision; love is the Fruit. Love is not a thing; love is a Person.