Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:23-24 “Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
Goodness
One of the fruits of the Spirit is goodness. Goodness is mentioned in 1 Peter 2, where the epistle of Paul highlights that we need to be kind to the enemies that persecute us, especially towards the unbelievers. This teaching is emphasized in the New Testament.
Charity – Love in Action
This is a fruit very important to God, and for our Christian maturity. According to 1 Corinthians 13, this is the most important quality a Christian has to have.
Faith
Another fruit that we can reap is faith, which is the most important thing that will pull us through some of the most challenging problems in life. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Without faith, we literally cannot survive. By having faith, it means that we dedicate ourselves to fully trusting in God, His will, His plans for us, completely surrendering ourselves to Him, that He will take care of all our problems. On the contrary, without faith, we are most likely to rely on our flesh to solve problems, compromise, or worse, yield to temptation and sin against God.
Meekness
It also means humility, an important attribute to help us grow spiritually and survive in this world. It is the complete opposite of pride. Sometimes when we achieve a certain result or accomplishment in life, we tend to forget how important it is to live with meekness.
There are many preachers who look meek, but it’s false humility. We tend to be consumed by our pridefulness. Being genuinely meek and spiritual is to know that we are not good enough, to humble ourselves enough to take criticism, and to show meekness purely from the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In that way, only God can use us as His vessels to work for Him.
Temperance
Temperance is one of the hardest fruits to achieve because we have to fight against our flesh constantly.
How often do we find ourselves having difficulty with self-control?
If we truly want to earn the hardest crown in heaven, the incorruptible crown as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 9:25, temperance will help us earn this crown.
1 Corinthians 9:25 “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
How are we keeping up with living a sanctified life, and controlling our flesh? It takes constant training and stretching our limits.
Galatians 5:24 is important for those of us who confuse emotions with the Holy Spirit. If we preach more vigorously intending to stir up emotions, thinking that’s spiritual, we are wrong. If we cry more at the altar, that’s sometimes out of our flesh too.
Being emotional does not necessarily translate to being spiritual; that can be a fleshly thing. Anything that triggers fleshly affection and lust in us, we know that is not pleasing to God. The following verse says that we should crucify our flesh on the cross. That means we are to walk in the Spirit with God. Parents, it is okay to take away the garbage music, video games. The flesh should be crucified.
Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”