Basic Elements of Christianity

19(7/12)

In a previous lesson you briefly learned there were fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. We will now take a closer look at both.

We will look at the fruit first before the gifts because Christ said (Jn. 15:8), Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.” Indicated by that verse is the fact that if one who calls himself a Christian but does not bear godly fruit then they are not a disciple of Christ and therefore not a real Christian.

But do not think that once you are truly saved you immediately develop all of the fruits. Keep it very well in mind that God-honoring spiritual fruit is developed over time. However, God-given, God-honoring spiritual fruit is a must. Let us now look at Jn. 15:1-8

The Necessity Of The Fruit Of The Holy Spirit

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

Jesus earlier had said He was the only Way to the Father and that He is the Truth (Jn. 14:6) – not a religion, denomination, fellowship, and so on.

2a Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away:

We are not saved by our works nor do we maintain our salvation by our works. However, if we have Christ within we will learn to produce His works through us (“. . . learn of me . . .”, Mt. 11:29). It is evident that we are spiritually dead if we do not develop the life of Christ (James 2:17, Philippians 2:12-13).

An Example For Spiritual Death

A few years ago we trimmed a bush that was getting too tall. On the day they were cut, the branches looked fine. If a smaller section of this picture had been cropped one could think they were still on the bush.

The next day you could tell the branches were not getting the nutrition they needed.

This is the third day. It is evident they have been cutoff from their life-giving source.

Here is the fourth day. They were unable able to grow and reproduce, and were soon to be trashed.

2b and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Among other things, what is purged from our lives are sinful habits, worldly thinking, lack of love toward God, reliance upon self or others, and much more. Trials (tests) come our way to show us what needs to be corrected, where we should improve, uncorrected weaknesses, and more. How we handle “our free time” will come under consideration. There are many other possibilities, but if we truly love God through Christ we will cooperate with God and even purge ourselves (1 Jn. 3:1-3) as directed by the Holy Spirit and based upon His written Word.

3 Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.

Christ the Word of God, having met the requirements of God's demands for righteousness, makes any sinner clean if they fully trust Him and surrender to Him. They then become a branch of the True Vine.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.

However, as you see, each disciple retains the ability to determine if they remain in the Vine or not. So He admonishes us to remain dwelling in Him. Remaining in Him was discussed in the first lesson, Primary Loyalty. The fruit of the Spirit will develop in us as by faith in love toward Him we do those things. This fruit goes with us into eternity if we remain in Christ.

If we leave Christ we spiritually die. The images to the right show the “progression” to complete death after some stems and branches were removed from their source of life. They looked almost normal on the day they were cut, but a few days later you could easily tell they were dead.

5 I am the vine, you are the branches: He that stays in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

As we remain in Christ we become spiritually stronger and stronger over time. There will be an abundance of spiritual fruit evident to us and to others. If we do not stay in Christ we do not have Eternal Life, therefore we have no blessed eternal reward. An unsaved person can do a lot of “good' things but none of it is completely pleasing to God because the “good” things did not come from His Son, even though they might have been things He would have done.

6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

This certainly points to Hell, and the second death (Rev. 2:11, 20:6 & 14, 21:8).

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.

With this we must also take into consideration 1 Jn. 5:14, And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us.” The context of John 15 would indicate, especially in light of verse 6, that what we ought to be asking for is a desire and willingness to produce godly fruit.

8 Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.

Considering verse 6 again, we should consider being Christ's disciple synonymous with being saved. And, godly fruit is one of the marks of a disciple.

Some Fruits Of The Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine fruits of the Spirit: “. . . love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: . . .”. Here is a brief look at each one.

Love: Remember that most, if not all, of the New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek language has more than one word that may be translated as love. The word used for this gift of the Spirit is agape (ah-gah-pay). Agape does not stem from emotion but is an act of the will {1}. It is unconditional in areas that God commands us to love, like, but certainly not limited to, “husbands love your wives” (Eph. 5:25), “love one another” (within the Body of Christ, Jn. 13:34), “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 19:19), and, yes, even “love your enemies” (Lk. 6:27). Above all, we are to agape God (Mt. 22:37).
We will need to mention agape again in this lesson when we look at the gifts of the Spirit. However, there will be an entire lesson on love in which both agape and the other NT word for love, the verb phileo (fih-lay-o), need to be discussed.

Joy: Joy from the Holy Spirit is godly joy. Godly joy will never rejoice about iniquity (1Co. 13:6). Along with other things, it does not rejoice when our enemies fall (Pro. 24:17). We are to have joy about what God has joy about. Some of those things are the repentance and salvation of a sinner (Luke 15:7 and 10). We are to joyfully serve God (Psa. 100:2). Joy is to be developed despite troubles (James 1:2), including in persecution (Mt. 5:11-12). And, remember, the joy of YHVH (The Existing One) is your strength (Ne. 8:10).

Peace: The true peace of God is not the absence of external disturbances, but an inward trusting calmness and meekness, based upon the written Word of God, the finished work of Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. The foundation of true peace is in having made peace with God through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said (Jn. 14:27), “. . . my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Remember that if we are truly saved Christ will not only be our Savior but He will also be our Lord. He is to rule over us. With this, in Colossians 3:15a we read, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, . . .". James Strong {2} notes the Greek word here for “rule” means to be an umpire, to decide, determine, to direct, and control, rule. If we are truly saved, truly redeemed, Christ within us will rule our hearts {3}.

Longsuffering (Long-suffering): This is godly forbearance, being patient toward others (whether saved or unsaved, Eph. 4:2 and 1Pe. 3:20 respectively), toward ourselves, and toward the workings of God (2Pe. 3:15). It is not to be confused with the term “patience” in some translations when the term “patience” would mean “enduring / endure / endurance,” etc. in regard to external circumstances. Long-suffering does not mean to be tolerant toward sin (See the entire chapter of 1Co. 5).

Gentleness (Kindness): This is godly graciousness, better expressed as “kindness” in English translations {4}. Col. 3:11-13 shows an example of its use, “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you.”

Goodness: This is essentially uprightness of heart and life. As a true disciple of Christ continues to grow in Christ their tendency to sin is overpowered by the life of Christ within them. While we all fall short from time to time we are to refuse to practice sin. As it is written in 1Jn 3:9, “Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Faith (Faithfulness): The Greek word here may be translated “faith” or “faithfulness”, and given the context “faithfulness” is the actual thought. After all, how can someone else know if one really has faith unless there is some type of evidence of it? Foundationally this faithfulness toward God is expressed in loving loyalty, ongoing trust, and obedience to God. The disciple also shows it to the Body of Christ in faithful assembling (when possible), service, and endeavoring to be untainted with sin. A true Christian develops the characteristic of being reliable.

Meekness: Vine {5} has a very good description of this term when it is used in the New Testament. “It is an inwrought grace of the soul; and the exercises of it are first and chiefly towards God. It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting; . . .” In regard to the meekness of Christ he writes, “It must be clearly understood that the meekness manifested by the Lord and commended to the believer is the fruit of power. The common assumption is that when a man is meek it is because he cannot help himself; but the Lord was 'meek' because He had the infinite resources of God at His command.”

Temperance (Self-control): Out of love for God through Christ we are to control ourselves, choosing what God would have us to choose, loving what God loves, and hating what God hates. Additionally, there are the necessary things of human living such as, but not limited to, eating, resting, and the like. Most of us enjoy eating, but the power of God through Christ gives us the ability not to overeat. We might enjoy sports, but we should be more enthused about God and His ways than any human sport or team.

The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit

In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 we read, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these works that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”

“Gifts” in verse 4 is “charismaton” (ka-ris-mah-tone) in the Greek, its singular form would be “karisma”. Brother Hobart Grazier {6}, former Greek professor of Northeast Bible Institute, described it in part as “. . . that bestowment, favor or kindness that comes out of a heart of love and given to an undeserving recipient.” He continued by stressing the point it is not a gift in the sense as if one would give a gift of a pen or watch to a friend, and that the gift becomes the exclusive property of the recipient. I would say it is more in the sense of, in earthly examples, a gifted pianist or painter. However, the charisma is provided by God and are not derived from the individual.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are generally regarded as those spiritual manifestations we read about in verses 8 to 10, beginning with “the word of wisdom” to “the interpretation of tongues”. To learn how they are classified by the Holy Spirit into three groups and to read brother Grazier's explanation of each gift I have incorporated his notes on these matters in this lesson and you may read his notes at "The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit" by Brother Hobart Grazier (clicking this will open another tab or window).

Chapters 12, 13, and 14 of 1 Corinthians can be considered God's manual for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and their operation. The link presented in the previous paragraph is a small portion of brother Grazier's class handout titled “First Corinthians 12 – 14”. Hopefully I will be able to get the rest of his notes online and on software in the future. Regardless, as a disciple you ought to read 1 Cor. 12, 13, and 14, letting the Holy Spirit teach you as you read and meditate on the content.

When you read Grazier's “The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit” you will learn a person can be used in one or more of the gifts in any classification, and also that a person can be used in more than one of the classifications. It is good that each disciple be open to, and be used in, more than one gift of the Holy Spirit. When being used in a gift, it can be said that a disciple has a ministry of a gift or has an office of a gift.

With this we will say two things. First, observation over the years indicates gifts may overlap at times. In other words sometimes there is a fine line between knowledge and wisdom, or miracles and healings. Secondly, though a disciple will have a certain gift this does not mean they will not be used by God in another way. For example, sister “A” might be known to have the gift of interpretation of tongues, but that does not mean she can never be used by God to pray for someone very ill and they immediately recover. However, though she prays for someone ill and they recover, that does not mean she has the gift of healing. Someone with a gift of the Holy Spirit is consistently used in that realm.

Fruits And Gifts

Due to various reasons such as fear of any move of the Holy Spirit, lack of knowledge of the Word of God, indoctrination according to human agenda, and more, in response to such negativity some groups go to the erroneous extreme of emphasizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit over His fruits. Christ made it very clear that some who have performed the miraculous will go to Hell because they did not know Him (Mt. 7:21-23). In John 15:1-8 Jesus emphasized we are to remain in Him and by Him produce fruit, with such fruit being an evidence of discipleship.

In the midst of 1 Cor. 12 to 14 wherein the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the focus of that portion of Holy Scripture is 1 Cor. 13, known as “the love chapter.” As noted above, agape love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and as 1 Cor. 13 points out should be the main temperament on our part in the manifestation of the gifts. Keep in mind, though, just like Jesus, through Him and by His Spirit we can have love and still show godly anger (as when He overturned tables and drove out the money changers).

Part of the intent of 1 Cor. 13 is to instruct us to avoid such things as ungodly jealousy and pride when ministering with others and to others in the Body of Christ. Just before this, in 1 Cor. 12:12-31 Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to let us know that no one, regardless of gift, is less significant in the Body Of Christ (The Church) than anyone else (verses 15 and 16), and that they should not feel they are not part of the Body Of Christ: “If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?”

Paul was also led by the Holy Spirit to let us know that no one in the Body of Christ should think they are more important than anyone else in the Body, and therefore do not need the Body (verses 19-21 of 1Corinthians 12): “And if they were all one member, where were the body? 20 But now are they many members, yet but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”

That is it for now. I am trying to keep things basic. ⌣ So, take a quiz! English only.