Fruit of the Spirit — William MacDonald

The Supernatural Fruit of the Spirit

Has been sharing with us, among some other things, concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And I'd like to just continue along that theme a little by turning to Galatians chapter 5 and reading with you verses 22 and 23.

Galatians chapter 5 and verses 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. When the Spirit of God speaks here of the fruit of the Spirit, he's speaking of something that is supernatural, and when we read this list of virtues of the Christian life, we must be careful to realize that these have nothing to do, absolutely nothing to do, with similar traits that the world may know about.

You say, oh, my neighbor down the street belongs to the Mafia, and he loves his children. Forget it. That has nothing to do with this whatever. The fruit that's mentioned here is absolutely supernatural.

An unsaved person cannot do any of the things that are found in this list. He can't love in the way it's meant here. He can't have joy. He can't have peace. He can't exhibit longsuffering. No way, because these are supernatural.

The unsaved person is absolutely, it's foreign to him. Not only that, you and I who are believers in the Lord Jesus, we cannot produce any of these things by our own effort. They're only produced by the Spirit of God through us.

But I think it's only fair to add, although God wants to make me holy, although he wants to see this Christian character in my life, he'll never do it without my cooperation. In life, there is a curious mingling of the divine and the human.

Only God can make me holy, but I'll tell you, he wants my participation, too. And the will of God is that your life and my life should crackle with the supernatural. God wants you and me to be radioactive with the Holy Spirit.

He wants us to live an otherworldly life, so that when people come in contact with us, they'll know there's something different about us. Now, is that true of us? Like in our community? I suppose in every community there are all kinds of little battles, you know, fights going on.

Is that right? Am I a part of them, or do I arise above flesh and blood so that I have nothing to do with them at all? When my angels battle with Mrs. Bratislava's brats down the street, and she comes and tells me off in a few well-chosen words, how do I react?

In kind? Tips a cat? Or do I turn around and show some kindness and courtesy to her? That's really what we're speaking about here in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. Another worldly, supernatural type of behavior that labels itself as clearly the work of the Spirit of God.

Divine Love for Enemies

So, when we come to this first word, love, oh, it's so confusing, isn't it? The way that word's used today. Let's be very clear, this is not the love that's associated with passion. It's not the love even of friendship.

It's not the love of affection, but it's a divine love, the type of love that God has shown to us, and which He wants to see shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who indwells us. It's a love that's impartial, unselfish, that seeks the good of all.

It's a love that goes out not only to the handsome, but to the homely as well. It's a love not only to one's friends, but to one's foes. That's what makes it distinctly supernatural. Jesus said, if you love those who love you, what thanks have ye?

Do not even the heathen the same? And, of course, the answer is yes. It doesn't take divine life to love those who love you, does it? But it does take divine life to love those who've wronged you, to love those who have hurt you, to love those who are out to get you.

One of my favorite illustrations of this kind of love concerns our dear brother, Dr. McCulley. Years ago, when we were at Emmaus Bible School, he and I were praying together there in Oak Park. We were praying about some of the situations at the school, and as we were there on our knees in a little apartment, his mind went back to Ecuador, and he prayed.

He said, and Lord, let me live long enough to see those fellows saved who killed our boys, that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them, because they love my Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is love.

Dear friend, that love isn't natural, it's supernatural. And I'll tell you, that prayer was heard in highest heaven, and God allowed him to live long enough to see those fellows saved, and he went down and did throw his arms around them and tell them he loved them, because they loved the Savior.

I often think of that fellow, Mitsuo Toshida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, radioed back triumphantly the tremendous success of his mission. I was absolutely jubilant and ecstatic with what had been done.

And then, as you know, the tide of war turned, and the United States rose once again, and this dear fellow was infuriated by the end of the war, and he dedicated the rest of his life to the task of bringing the United States before an international tribunal to try the United States for atrocities perpetrated on prisoners of war.

And he gave himself to that task. Well, in the United States there was a Christian lady, and her parents had been killed at that time in the Philippines. They were missionaries in the Philippines, and they had been killed, and God gave that woman a tremendous love for the Japanese people.

And she determined to give herself to visiting the Japanese prisoners of war in this country, and she did. She went to the camps, she went to the prisons, and she visited them. She told them about the Savior, and she brought New Testaments to them, and shared these New Testaments with them with love.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. She really loved those people. In a sense, they had killed her parents, and sometimes they used to say to her, why do you do this? Naturally speaking, you're supposed to be our enemy.

Why do you come and show this love and affection to us? And she would say, it's because of the prayer my parents prayed before they died. She never told them what the prayer was. And so, after the war, Mitsuo Fushida started his interrogations of these prisoners, and over and over again this story would come up of a Christian lady in the United States who visited the prison.

Not so much atrocities, the very opposite. How she would visit them, and share the gospel with them, and give them New Testaments, and how oftentimes she spoke of the prayer her parents prayed before they died.

And this was very unsettling for Mr. Fushida, very unsettling. It wasn't at all the type of information he wanted to get. And after a while, in a very strange way, a copy of the New Testament came into his hands.

And he read the book of Matthew, and he was fascinated. He went on to the book of Mark, and he was just captivated. Couldn't let go. And he was reading the book of Luke, and the Spirit of God flashed into his heart.

He came to those words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And then he knew the prayer that those missionaries had prayed in the Philippines before they were killed. And he turned over his life to the Lord Jesus, and Mitsuo Fushida spent the rest of his life traveling throughout the world, telling men and women the good news of reconciliation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

What had done it? What did it? I'll tell you what did it. The fruit of the Spirit in a woman's life in this country. He was reached by that love which went out to those people. This love is sacrificial.

It's absolutely unconditional. It seeks nothing in return. Absolutely pure, unlike most of the love of this world. Absolutely pure, free from any impatience, envy, pride, vindictiveness, or spite. The greatest virtue of the Christian life, and without it, all our noblest endeavors are in vain.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. But that isn't all it says. It says the fruit of the Spirit is joy. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ in simple trusting faith, we find what Peter spoke of as joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Joy That Survives Suffering

And once again, we want to emphasize that the joy that is spoken of here is something the world doesn't know anything about. It doesn't know anything about it. We've used the word in the world. The world uses the word, but it's not the same thing.

The world's joy is closely linked to circumstances. The joy which is of the fruit of the Spirit is independent of circumstances. Anyone can rejoice when everything is going his way, but this joy springs from our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, and it's absolutely independent of earthly circumstances.

And, really, for a Christian to be permanently robbed of his joy, you'd have to take Christ off his throne. It's really right to say, the source of all my singing is high in heaven above. That's right.

My joy has a wonderful foundation there at the right hand of God, and I'll tell you, the scaffolding can be falling down all around us, and we can still have our joy. I think we'll see that as we go along.

It springs from our relationship to the Lord Jesus and his precious promises. Now, an interesting thing about this joy, the fruit of the Spirit, is that it can coexist with suffering. That's strange, isn't it?

Can you be joyful in suffering? Yes, this is the fruit of the Spirit. Turn to Colossians chapter one, please. Colossians chapter one and verse 11. Colossians 111. It says, "...strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.".

Amazing, isn't it? Patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. And then if you'll turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter one and verse six, you find this strange combination of words. It says, "...and ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.".

Christian joy can coexist with suffering, and suffering saints have testified down through the centuries of the church's history that He giveth thongs in the night. Any of you who do hospital visitation or a home visitation know how very true this is.

Joy can coexist with sorrow. That's a strange thing, isn't it? Joy that is the fruit of the Spirit can, you can have it at the same time you have sorrow. You can be standing by the grave of a loved one, and there's sorrow there, and there's joy too, to know that he's been forever released from sin and sickness and sorrow and suffering and death, and he's gone in to see the King in his beauty.

And, of course, there is the severing of tender earthly ties, and there is the pain and sorrow connected with it, but the joy is there just the same. But joy, the joy which is the fruit of the Spirit, cannot coexist with sin.

That's distinctive, isn't it? It cannot coexist with sin. When we sin, we lose our song. Years ago, I knew a young fellow who started to indulge doubt concerning the word of God, and he came to me one day, and he said, I've lost my song.

That's right. You can't have sin and have joy at the same time. I'm glad to say he got his song back when he put his mind under the word of God and not above it. But our song is gone until we confess and forsake that sin.

The Lord Jesus taught his disciples when they were persecuted and reviled and cast out to rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great was their reward in heaven. And that's exactly what they did. We turn over to the book of Acts, and we read that they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for his namesake.

There it is again. Rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer. As you and I, I know, have read the testimonies of people who were standing up there before the stones were flying, and they reached up and found blood from their face, and a great surge of Christian joy flooded through their souls to think that they had been counted worthy to suffer so for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fruit of the Spirit is joy, supernatural joy. I say anybody can rejoice when circumstances are good, but Christian joy rejoices when circumstances are at their worst. And I think one of the loveliest expressions of that in the Bible is found back in the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament.

The book of Habakkuk, and chapter 3, verses 17 and 18. Habakkuk, chapter 3, verses 17 and 18, says, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat.

The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stall. Well, you could hardly have a worse situation than that. He's really painting a bleak picture, and yet after he gets through all that, he says, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Peace in God's Sovereign Care

Wonderful, isn't it? The fruit of the Spirit is joy, but not only so, the fruit of the Spirit is peace, and once again we have to think of this in a supernatural way. Now, we know that as soon as we're justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know that. We know that we have peace of conscience because we know the sin question has been dealt with, that our sins have been put behind God's back, and that he'll remember them no more. But God wants us to have the peace of God ruling in our hearts.

He wants us to have the peace of Christ umpiring in our hearts. What do we mean by this? Well, we mean the serenity and the tranquility that come from knowing that our times are in God's hands, and that nothing can happen to us apart from his pervasive will.

Sometimes I don't think we realize what a wonderful thing it is to be a child of God, to know that we're the apple of his eye, that he holds us in the palms of his hands, and our names are inscribed upon his heart, and it matters to him about us, and whatever comes to our lives comes as a result of infinite love, wisdom, and power.

And when I appropriate that by faith, I have the peace of God in my heart. So, it means I can remain calm when I have a tire blow out on the freeway. It means I really don't have to lose my cool when traffic keeps me from meeting that plane on time.

It means that even in a car crash, I can know his peace, or when grief ignites on the kitchen range. It was peace, this peace that enabled Peter to sleep in jail. There were some other people that weren't sleeping at the time.

It was this peace that enabled Stephen to pray for his guilty murderers, and this was the peace that enabled Paul to take over in that shipwreck. Imagine the prisoner giving orders to the crew and the captain.

That's about the way it was. This is that supernatural work of the Spirit of God in our lives, that when our plane flies into clear air turbulence, and is being thrown around like a feather in a gale, when it drops 3 ,000 feet at one time, and the wing tip of the plane flexes 13 feet, and everybody in the plane is screaming and trying to get the Swiss steak and gravy and peas off their clothes.

It's the peace that's the fruit of the Spirit that enables the child of God to commit his soul to the Lord, and to rest in him. It's something you can't anticipate beforehand, but it's very real when it happens.

Or, it's the peace when I go into the doctor's office and he says to me, I'm very sorry to tell you that it's malignant, and I'm able to say, it's perfectly all right, doctor. I know the Lord. For me, it'll be absent from the body and at home with the Lord.

We had a sister in our assembly just recently. That's exactly what happened, except that the doctor said to her, I'm sorry to tell you, but your heart condition is much worse than I had anticipated. And she said, doctor, perfectly all right.

I know the Lord, and it'll be eternal glory for me. And he got very nervous and changed the subject. That's why we sing, and I'm sure that strikes a lovely response in ours. Peace, perfect peace. I don't know if you've ever noticed, that first line is a question all the way down at him.

Peace, perfect peace in this dark world of sin. That's the way it was written, question mark. Peace, perfect peace by thronging duty pressed, question mark. Peace, perfect peace with sorrows raging round, question mark.

With loved ones far away, our future all unknown, Jesus we know, and he is on the throne. The fruit of the Spirit is peace. And not only so, it says the fruit of the Spirit is long-suffering, long-suffering.

Long-Suffering Under Human Aggravation

My, this speaks to my heart. Terrible to have a short fuse, isn't it? This is the opposite of that. Long-suffering is that which bears up patiently and triumphantly under the aggravations of life. It can refer to the circumstances of life, but more often it refers to people, the aggravations that people bring to you.

If you want to think of long-suffering, think of our God, and think of how long-suffering he is to the human race. I tell you, we live across the bay from San Francisco, and I want to tell you, San Francisco is sin city, and I often think in moods when I'm as carnal as a goat, if I were God, I'd just wipe the thing right into the Pacific Ocean.

Is that bad, you know? God isn't like that. God isn't like that. God is long-suffering, and He looks down and sees this terrible jungle of sin, and still He's not willing that any should perish. He wants all men to come to Him, and He wants His long-suffering to be reproduced in you and in me as well.

He doesn't want me to be quick-tempered. He doesn't want me to fly off the handle or to try to get even with people. He doesn't want me to display the impetuousness of the world, but He wants me to display a kind of conquering patience.

I've really been moved to read the writings of Corrie Ten Boom and their experiences in the concentration camps. She, her sister, her father taken off to concentration camp, and how, of course, her father and sister eventually died there.

But, oftentimes, when she and her sister would be talking together, Betsy would say to her, Corrie, we've got to do something about these people. After we get out of here, we've got to do something to help these people, and Corrie, of course, kept thinking of the poor people who were suffering with her.

That wasn't what Betsy was thinking about. She was thinking about those who were perpetrating all these atrocities on them. She was, Betsy was thinking, Corrie, when we get out of here, we've got to do something to help these people find the way of love, and Corrie wrote this, and I think it's beautiful.

She said, and I wondered, not for the first time, what sort of a person she was, this sister of mine. What kind of road she followed while I trudged beside her on the all-too-solid earth? What was it?

The fruit of the spirit is long-suffering, and I might just say, too, that the road Betsy followed was the road of long-suffering that Corrie followed, too, although she disclaimed it in her own humble way.

If you haven't read those books, you really should. You should see the grace of the Lord Jesus coming out in human lives like that, see the fruit of the spirit being developed under those circumstances.

Kindness That Seeks Nothing in Return

And then our verse goes on to say that the fruit of the spirit is not only long-suffering, the fruit of the spirit is kindness. The King James Version says gentleness, but almost all modern versions say kindness.

Kindness describes the gentle, gracious, generous disposition that results in the doing of favors, the showing of mercies, and the bestowing of benefits on others. Kindness is gracious, not harsh, sympathetic, not indifferent, helpful, not uninvolved.

It's considerate, compassionate, and charitable. Now, there is a natural kindness in this world. You meet people of the world, and you say, my, isn't he kind? My, isn't she kind? A natural kindness, but this is supernatural.

It goes above and beyond all man's natural kindness, and, for instance, it lends hoping for nothing in return. What is natural? Household financial lends hoping for something in return. That's the natural, right?

This kindness shows hospitality to those who can't repay, and it rewards every insult with a kindness. Years ago, there was a Christian fellow in a university, and in that section there was a young fellow who had become an alcoholic, and he became so repulsive and vile as an alcoholic that even his worldly friends gave up on him.

And, finally, he was just tossed out of his quarters where he was living. They didn't want him there anymore, and the Christian fellow heard about it, and he went to him, and he said to him, I understand that you're out of your quarters, and he said, yeah, that was right.

He said, well, I have an empty room in mine. He said, if you'd like to come and stay there, you may. And so, that alcoholic moved in with the Christian fellow. Now, that Christian fellow oftentimes used to have to clean up for him after he was sick, used to have to undress him and bathe him, practically put him to bed, and this went on week after week.

Christian fellow with the servant heart of the Lord Jesus showing kindness to a repulsive fellow like that. And, finally, it got to this alcoholic, and one day he said in irritation to the Christian, he said, look here, what are you doing all this for?

What are you after? And the Christian said, I'm after your soul, and he got it. You see, if the fruit of the Spirit is reproduced in our lives, it really produces results, it really does. I love to tell the story of dear Dr. Ironside.

Ken mentioned his lovely books out on the book table. Dr. Ironside was in a house, and he had accumulated a lot of junk in the basement. That's in the days when you used to call the junk men, and he'd sell all the old papers and magazines and metal and all the rest.

And so, dear Dr. Ironside called the Jewish junk dealer, and when he came, Dr. Ironside, he had a bit of mischief about him, too, you know, and he started to haggle with this man, telling him what wonderful junk it was, you know, and how much money it was worth.

But the other man had different ideas. His philosophy was you can beat an egg, but you can't beat a Jew. And so, you know who won. You know who won. And so, he was triumphantly carrying out the papers and the rags and the metal and all the rest of it.

He was going out with the last armload of it to the truck. Dr. Ironside called him back and said, oh, he said, come back here. There's something I forgot. And the poor fellow, he thought Dr. Ironside was going to go back on his hard-fought battle, you know.

And Dr. Ironside reached in his pocket and took out 50 cents and handed it to him. He said, here's something I'd like to give you in the name of the Lord Jesus. And the Jewish junk dealer went away shaking his head and saying, nobody ever gave me anything in the name of Jesus before.

The fruit of the Spirit is kindness. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful when the Spirit of God makes us innovative like that, and we show Christ to people? All that Jewish man ever associated with Christians was persecution.

He said, nobody ever gave me anything in the name of Jesus before. The fruit of the Spirit is kindness. Then it says the fruit of the Spirit is goodness, and goodness here means excellence. It means somebody has described it as virtue equipped at every point.

Goodness means that the person is kind, he's virtuous, and he's righteous in every area of life. It's the opposite of badness. If you want to know what a good man is in this sense, think about a bad man.

Is a bad man deceitful, perhaps immoral, treacherous, unjust, cruel, selfish, hateful, covetous, perhaps intemperate as well? But the good man exists truth, and righteousness, and honesty, and every other desirable trait.

I think Paul helps us in understanding goodness. He says for a righteous man, one would scarcely dare to die, yet for adventure, for a good man, one would die. For a righteous man, you wouldn't. That righteous man, he pays a hundred cents on the dollar, you know, he's honest in that sense, but he lacks the milk of human affection, you know.

He's not loving, and he's not lovable. He's absolutely straight, straight as a ruler, but the good man combines all that straightness. He's affectionate and lovable as well, and we see it, of course, in the life of our Lord, in a superlative sense, the goodness.

It's a terrible illustration to use sometimes, I think, but it's supposed to be true. Murdoch Campbell, in one of his books on the Psalms, tells of a highland minister who had a wife who seemed called to make life miserable for him, and one day he was sitting by the fire there in the manse, and she came in, and she grabbed the Bible out of his hand and tossed it into the fire, and he looked up at her, and he said, I don't think I ever sat by a warmer fire, and you know, that broke her, and became a lily, and his Jezebel became a Lydia.

You see, it's when we fight back, yes, it's when we act in the flesh that we lose the battle, but if somehow or other we just turn over the reins to the Holy Spirit, let us let him reproduce these things in our lives, my, what a difference it would make, and what an impact upon the world.

Faithfulness in Every Responsibility

The fruit of the Spirit is faith, and I think almost all translators here agree that the word is really faithfulness, and it doesn't mean saving faith. All Christians have saving faith, but this means faithfulness.

It's fidelity and dependability in dealings with God and with one another. Someone has said that faithfulness is being true to oneself, to one's nature, to any promise given, to any trust committed. We have a saying, that man's word is as good as his bond.

That means that if a man says it, you can depend upon it, he's absolutely true to his word. The faithful man keeps appointments on time, he pays his bills on schedule, he attends the meetings regularly, he performs the duties assigned to him without having to be checked up on all the time, constantly reminded.

This man is true to his marriage vows, and he's faithful, unfailing in the discharge of his family responsibilities. The faithful man, according to the scriptures, the man who is true to his word even if it's going to cost him something.

He doesn't cancel one supper engagement for another when the diet might be better, and the second one, the menu. He doesn't renege on a work assignment when the opportunity comes to go off to the lake.

He sells the house at the agreed price, even if later he could have got ten thousand dollars more for it. And, of course, the ultimate in faithfulness is being willing to die rather than renounce the Lord.

I think that we don't read enough of the stories of the Christian martyrs. If we read more of them, we'd find what faithfulness really is. King demanded that a Christian recant his testimony of faithfulness and loyalty to the Lord, and the Christian said, the heart thought it, the mouth spoke it, the hand subscribed it, and if need be, by God's grace, the blood will feel it.

That's faithfulness. Pauli Karp was taken and threatened to be burned at the stake, and he was told that he could have his life if he would just recant, and he said, these 86 years have I served my Lord.

He never did me any harm, and I cannot deny my Lord and Master now. The promise is given in Revelation, Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. So, it's a time when Michael Faraday gave a marvelous scientific demonstration in England.

The Prince of Wales was there, and the demonstration was so marvelous that the crowd rose in one great ovation to him, and afterwards the Prince of Wales proposed a motion of congratulation, and the thing was put to a vote, and a resolution was carried, and everybody waited for Michael Faraday to come forward.

You know, he had slipped out and gone off to the meeting where he attended every week to attend the prayer meeting. Faithfulness to the prayer meeting. The fruit of the Spirit is meekness, and all the commentators will tell you that they have a hard time defining this word, meekness.

Meekness as Strength Under God's Hand

When we think of meekness, we think of Caspar Milktoast, the comic strip character who is the essence of timidity and weakness, but meekness here comes from supernatural strength, and I would suggest to you that the real meaning of the word meekness is brokenness.

It refers to a believer's loving submission to all God's dealings in his life, and it refers to his meek receiving of the blows of life from other men as well. He's self-effacing, this man, not self-asserting.

When he makes a mistake, he's quick to apologize and ask for forgiveness. Once again, if I could just refer to Dr. Ironside. You know, a lot of people tried to pick arguments with him over non-consequential matters, and sometimes Dr. Ironside would say to him, to the men, when one of us, when we get to heaven, one of us is going to be wrong, and perhaps it'll be me.

You know you can't argue with a man like that. He's meek, he's broken, you know, and God wants us to be broken. And finally, the fruit of the Spirit is temperance, and this means self-control, not just with regard to alcoholic beverages, but in every area of life.

Self-Control Through the Spirit

By the power of the Spirit of God, the Christian is called upon to exercise self-control, self-control in his plot life, in his appetite, in his speech, in his sex life, in his temper, and every other power that God has given to him.

Paul spoke of this a lot. He spoke of the Christian athlete, the Christian soldier, the need for discipline in the Christian life. I often hear Christians complaining that they can't kick a certain habit, you know, they just buckle under this habit.

When you say you can't kick it, you're saying the Spirit of God isn't powerful enough to enable you to kick it. I have unsaved friends that have kicked habits, pretty strong habits, too. They didn't have the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.

No Christian can honestly say that, because the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And so, here we have it. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Against such there is no law. May the Lord send us forth with a real desire to no longer judge ourselves by how we stack up with those in our community, or at work, or at school, but how we really compare with these fruits of the Spirit as they're revealed in the Word.