The fruit of the Spirit . . . Faith

Odd that I would be blogging about faithfulness, after having interrupted our study, but as any good saint will know: life doesn't always follow our plan. The Greek word that we find here is pistis (pis-tis). As used here, pistis carries the meaning of fidelity, although most of the time it means a conviction or doctrine. These are two branches of the same tree. Our faithfulness or the sincerity of our faith is demonstrated to all in our adherence to the teachings that we have received. Faithfulness is an easy concept to grasp, but not always easy to carry out.

Think about this, Satan always loves to plant doubt in the mind of a believer. Don't you think that Paul had occasion to doubt, when the very fact that he was faithful to his calling led him to prison? How do you prove that you are a good Christian, when by the world's standard you are in chains because you are not a good citizen? You see, anybody can be faithful as long as it is potlucks and chicken dinners. But, how many will be faithful when doing so comes with a set of shackles? That is the glaring difference between the saints of old and those who use the name Christian today. In short, their belief affected their lives. So, you may clap your hands and sing "Give me that old time religion," but let me tell you: that old time religion was made of sterner stuff than we know.

Christians and churches have been hoodwinked into believing that their highest calling is to produce model citizens. All but one of the disciples bled and died, and the one died of old age, after suffering greatly, and they all did so for bearing the name and testimony of Christ. Our highest calling is to faithfully bear the name and testimony of Jesus Christ. He changed my life, and that is why I am telling you this now.

The fruit of the Spirit . . . Goodness

Agathosune (a-ga-thoo-sune-ay), beneficence, as used here referred to as goodness, but the English word includes several pleasing qualities whereas the Greek refers to one particular quality. There is more activity in agathosune than chrastotais. Agathosune does not spare sharpness and rebuke to cause good in others.* Not quite what I expected to find when I came to this word, but there it is. The fact is, there is a trap that many of us fall into as ministers, we somehow come to believe that all that we say has to be pleasing to the hearer. After all, if you don't please the audience, who will listen? This seems logical, but the idea is inherently flawed.

It is worse than telling them nothing at all. You see, the flaw is that you lull people to sleep, when you need to be waking them to the fact that sin is plaguing their live, and destroying them from the inside out. In our supposed kindness, we do more harm than good. Nobody quiets an alarm by wrapping it in blankets, so that when it goes off it is more pleasant to the ears. It is an alarm! It is supposed to hurt your ears, so that you know that you are in danger. That's why firehouses have clanging bells and not chimes; it is an alarm calling them to take action.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Being sharp and rebuking a friend or loved one isn't an easy thing to do. And, it doesn't follow that there needs to be a raising of voices, but there must be a clear presenting of the truth. Because when you present the truth to someone that they are living in sin, they then have the option of repenting from their sin. But if you applaud them for missing the mark, what good have you done them?

This isn't just for ministers, mind you. It is for all of the household of faith. If we need to rebuke, then we need to; and we are doing no good by sitting on our hands and hoping that things will work themselves out. The Bible tells us that if your brother offends you, then go to him and get things right. If our brother offends us, and we don't go to him at all, it frankly says that we don't care. You see, the fact that we go to that brother with words that are neither easy to say or to hear, is the proof that we do care. We say hard things out of love, so that the ones we love can have a closer relationship with God and with us.

* Taken from "The Complete Word Study Dictionary."

The fruit of the Spirit . . . Kindness

Kindness, another abstract, something that you know very well, and have too much difficulty describing. Chrastotais (kray-stot-ays), in Greek, can also be translated gentleness. And something that we are way to short on as a people is gentleness. In other words, you don't have to smack someone around to make a point. Amiable, a marked absence of harshness, in the way that we deal with others. Harsh, I find, is an easy reputation to get, and extremely difficult to shed. The exercising of kindness, is the idea of governing our responses in consideration of the feeling of others.

Is it not the gentleness of children that so deeply wins our hearts affection for them? Didn't our Lord say that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these? There is a sweetness in the way that they interact with us. There is a gentleness about them. So tiny, yet their influence as powerful as an ocean wave. In consideration of this, is it any wonder that we are sometimes ineffective in our ministering to others, when we bulldoze the shack that they are living in, and then tell them to build a proper house? Have we forgotten kindness, gentleness? God helping us we can get them back, and again be an effective witness for Him. God bless you all.

The fruit of the Spirit . . . Patience

Now we come to patience, the King James Version renders it longsuffering. The Greek word is makrothumia (mac-row-thume-ee-a), which is a derivative of makrothumos (mac-row-thume-oss), which is the combining of the Greek words makros (mac-ross) and thumos (thume-oss). Makros means long, and thumos means anger or wrath. So, hopefully, you can see how we get to the term longsuffering. Now to the meaning of the derived makrothumia, it means forbearance, or the quality of a person who is able to avenge himself yet refrains from doing so. So, there's your Greek lesson for today.

So how do we apply all of that to the fruit of the Spirit? To honestly describe it I must put it this way: I have been the beneficiary of the makrothumia of a great many of my instructors, especially in seminary. For those of you who don't know, learning is sometimes an ugly process. Better teachers understand that not all students start from the same place. While you may immediately recognize a child as a prodigy; they may first have to be taught that they can, before they begin turning out work congruous with their talent. It is through the forbearance of good teachers, that I learned to teach; through the forbearance of good Christians, that I learned to grow; and it is through the forbearance of my God and my friends, that I learn to become a better man. Thank you and God bless you all.