“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22-23 TPT.
Ages ago, I watched a TV show called “Limitless,” it was about an ordinary guy who took some new drug or other, and suddenly he was using all of his brain instead of 10% of it. My thought was: ‘I hope this never happens! Sadly most of us are already driven around day after day, by performance!” However, that show proved to me that people long to be bigger and more useful than they are, but self-effort provides us with a relentless boss. Performance is a sterile tree, it produces nothing sweet, tasty or lasting, except a whole lot of angst, and indignation. It is so easy to think to ourselves: ‘I’ve worked hard on that, where’s the fruit from it?”
The Holy Spirit on the other hand, is a brilliant gardener, He cuts off unproductive attitudes and actions. Plus He helps us when we allow Him to lead, and He produces all that spiritual stuff listed above, in us. Sometimes I think we miss the meaning of what the Lord is saying because the language is so foreign to us in today’s world. I think we can easily get stuck on ‘near enough is good enough’ – and that won’t last!
The Holy Spirit produces this fruit within us. Who does it? HE does. The things most of us produce in a lifetime, aren’t worth all the effort to keep it, realistically speaking. Where I live, even our house isn’t much of an inheritance after the government sends it’s locusts in. As you get older you start to think about leaving behind a lasting inheritance, not money, or things, but a spiritual inheritance.
That’s what that long list of people who were in Jesus’ lineage in Matthew and Luke is all about. I call them the “begat” people. They had kids who had kids, who had kids etc… you get it. There were generations of them and their forbears were important to them. Genealogy was a big deal, stuff was passed on down through the family, because recording stuff the way we do was not available, and not as useful as Great Grandma Mary’s antique dining room table!
This is where bearing fruit comes in – a solid strong tree will produce good fruit. Actually, if there is no fruit, the tree it is called a barren tree. Jesus talks about that in Luke 13:6-9. “And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
A tree’s purpose is to bear fruit. Plain and simple. However I love the way the gardener pleads on behalf of a mere tree to give it another chance. This man will have invested time and energy in that fig tree, with fertilising, watering it, and giving it a whole lot of care when it was just a sapling. This parable reminds me of the tender care the Holy Spirit gives each one of us. Nurturing, correcting, leading us, pruning us and guiding us – all that with the promise of His good fruit appearing and coming into fruition in our lives.
My point is this: do we have any fruit on the ‘tree’ of our lives? Have we matured enough in the things of the kingdom of heaven to grow any fruit? Fruit benefits other people not the tree. So if we have fruit, is that fruit better tasting, longer lasting and more evident than it has been in previous years?That’s a good question to ask the Lord – “are YOU happy with the production of the fruit of Your Spirit in my life?” We can’t afford to forget that the gardener has been giving our tree His own attention, watching over it. He knows us well enough to ask for a further chance and a bit of time and help so we can grow up into what we were planted for.
Let’s not be fooled, we will do many things for Jesus’ sake in our spiritual lifetime, but the fruit of the Spirit is proof of His work in us. Our work for the Lord’s kingdom won’t produce anything edible if all we do is work for Him in this natural world. We need His spiritual fruit in our lives. It’s the fruit that other people need to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” All the talk in the world cannot produce God’s fruit. All talk does is put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere! We need to submit to His ways so the Lord Himself can produce the kind of fruit in our lives that people only dream about.
Let’s remember that “…divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit …” is what that fruit looks like. That kind of fruit is limitless, a healthy fruit-laden tree is a wonderful legacy for anyone. Bye. 👋
