I have spent quite a lot of time over the last few years teaching and talking about how we, as followers of Christ, can “produce fruit”. For example, Jesus told the Pharisees and Sadducees that they must produce fruit in keeping with repentance. In our context, very frequently, given that we are often teaching about making disciples, we focus on multiplying disciples as a definition of producing fruit. And I think that is an accurate representation of what several of the scriptures intended, but it isn’t necessarily complete as we think about what it means to produce fruit.
We see at least one other type of fruit noted within the New Testament. The fruit of the Holy Spirit.
I see this as an extremely important topic because there is one way, and really only one way, that we can know that we are in Christ and have been saved: If we have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God himself, living within us, then we have been saved. We cannot know it because of something that we have done or because of something someone else has told us. When we are saved, God seals his promise to us and within us and identifies us as his own by placing his Holy Spirit within us.
An obvious question, as a result of understanding this, should then come up: How do I know that I have the Holy Spirit?
There may be a few different ways that we can know this, and the answer may depend upon the theology of the person that you are asking. However, my intent is to make my answer to this question as simple as possible by way of using an analogy to understand the answer to this question.
Let’s assume that you are looking at a tree, and you think that it might be an apple tree, but you aren’t sure. How would you know for sure if this tree is an apple tree?
Aside from checking its DNA or knowing some of its other characteristics, what would be the most obvious way to know that this tree is an apple tree?
We would know that it is an apple tree based on the fruit that it produces.
Does it produce apples? Then yes, it is an apple tree.
Yes, I understand that answer seems pretty simple, and you might even say simplistic, but it is an easy answer and the easiest way to know if this tree is an apple tree.
In a similar way, Paul has written to the Galatian church and explained to them that they have been set free in Christ. In Christ, they are free from the ties to the Law and from the shackles of sin and death. Instead, through their faith in Christ, they can know God. They will be God’s people under the new covenant that God made with his people through the blood of Christ.
And as they place their faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that it will save them also and they will be able to know God through him, then God will mark them with the Holy Spirit.
Yet Paul takes some additional next steps as well to explain how they, the Galatians and each of who read this letter, can know that they have the Holy Spirit, that they are “walking” by the Spirit. He explains to the Galatians that they will produce the fruit of the Spirit. Instead of indulging the desires of their flesh, they ill produce the fruit of the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
When we understand that the fruit of the Holy Spirit includes these things, we can begin to ask ourselves:
Do I have the Holy Spirit living within me? Am I walking by the Holy Spirit? To answer these questions, and to feel like we have come to the right answer instead of simply answering the question in the way that we would hope the answer to be, we can ask even further some additional, simple questions:
Did I just answer my friend and his questions or criticisms in love?
Do I feel joy as I go throughout my day?
Am I treating my wife, or my kids, with patience or kindness?
Am I exercising self-control in this difficult situation?
If the answer to those questions is Yes, then as a believer in Christ, you are walking in step with the Holy Spirit. You are producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If you are not, if you answer No to those questions, then it is probably time to go back to Square One, back to the beginning, and repent. Repent of the things that you are doing wrong. Repent of the things that are preventing you from producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. God offers grace and mercy and loves you, but he wants you to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit, so you must walk in step with the Spirit that he has given you.
Another way that we can think about this is from a negative point of view. Even before pointing out the fruit of the Spirit, Paul says that the ways in which we indulge our flesh, instead of producing the fruit of the Spirit, are obvious:
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21
Paul groups these “acts of the flesh” into various categories:
Sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery – These are pretty easy to point out as acts of the flesh. These are the things that are easily and often shamed within our societies. Sexual sins where, instead of using our bodies in the way that God intended, we use them to simply gratify ourselves.
Idolatry and witchcraft – Once again, these are pretty easy to understand as acts of the flesh. Idolatry and witchcraft place other spirits or other gods before the one true God, the only God. Instead of worshiping God, we are calling upon other gods or invoking other spirits to serve us.
Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy – Now we are diving more deeply into the everyday lives of many people, even today. Are you taking part in arguments and cause discord? Are you angry? Are you jealous or envious? Do you cause or take part in dissension? Do groups or factions – us vs. them – spring up around you, or do you take part in them?
Drunkenness, orgies, and the like – Again, these are some of the sins that seem to be fairly easy to understand as not belonging to the life of a follower of Christ.
My point is that we should think carefully about the fruit that we are producing. If we say that we are followers of Jesus, and God has placed his Spirit within us, then he has called us to freedom. But our freedom is so that we can produce the fruit of the Spirit. And when we produce the fruit of the Spirit, we are also fulfilling all of the commandments that God has given. We can know that we are walking by the Spirit by the fruit that we are producing.