22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5: 22-23 NKJV)
The fruit of the Spirit is the outcome of being led by the Holy Spirit through a believer’s walk with God. Reaching out to and spending time with God on a daily basis through prayer and reading the Bible will keep a believer’s entire being close to God. It is not that a believer wants to do God’s will for fear of messing up or being sent to hell, but, it is, instead, a believer who delights in a relationship with God will want to do God’s will because the believer loves God.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” (John 15:1 NKJV)
Jesus said He is the true vine and the Father is the vinedresser, or husbandman. Throughout the Old Testament there are many accounts of God doing what is necessary to prune the vine, which is His Jewish Church. Jesus, being 100% God and 100% Jewish man is telling His apostles that Jesus is the true vine of God’s Jewish Church, meaning all branches of the vine, from His birth onward, are dependent on Jesus, or Christianity, to produce fruit. What fruit? The fruit of the Spirit.
Jesus, the true vine, and the Father, the vinedresser, or the One who cuts off the fruitless branches of the vine and prunes the branches bearing fruit so those branches bear more fruit, are in unity with the Holy Spirit, who is the unseen inner workings of the whole God, of which all persons of the Trinity work together to build His Church, and have been as far back as we know, back to Genesis 1:1, where, in the beginning God, or Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. Elohim is the root of the vine.
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2 NKJV)
Jesus said every branch that is in Jesus, or His Church, that does not bear fruit, the Father takes away, but every branch that bears fruit, the Father prunes so that branch bears more fruit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit can only appear through those branches of Christianity that are led by the Holy Spirit.
Those who are Christians, but are led by the world, are the branches that will be cut off from the vine that is Jesus’ Church. These branches follow heresies, or false doctrines, and are not true believers. True believers are branches of the vine that are led by the Holy Spirit and are by no means perfect, but are taught by the Father, through the Holy Spirit, how to produce fruit. These lessons can many times be painful and many times be joyous, but each lesson is designed to teach believers dependency on God is a necessity to bear fruit because fruit on a branch only appears through the vine and abundance of fruit by the care of the vinedresser.
If you are a Christian and you realize you have been being led by the world and have been practicing things God says is evil, you have not been cut off the vine yet. As long as you are alive you can repent, turn back to God and be led by the Holy Spirit. God, in His grace, just like in the time of Noah, is giving the world time to repent and not suffer His coming judgements.
If you have never been a Christian, but feel Jesus pulling at your heart, you can be grafted into the vine and begin your branch to bear fruit. You do not have to be perfect to have a relationship with God. Jesus takes you as you are and you will be cleansed through your walk with God.
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. (Matthew 13:10-13 NKJV)
In a broad sense, Jesus is talking about understanding His gospel. This understanding begins when a person hears His gospel, believes and accepts Jesus as a personal savior. Through reading the Bible and spending time in a relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit reveals hidden mysteries to a person that those who are not led by the Holy Spirit will not understand. A saint, or true believer, will see the fruit of the Spirit manifest, more abundantly over time, but, those branches of the vine who do not bear fruit, will have what little understanding began to grow taken away by the cares of the world. Those who have never believed will eventually become completely worldly over time as the person is led by the world, but, there is no one God cannot save. Many believers were once worldly.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV)
Love, when a person begins to love God the person begins to become a believer. A believer will have compassion for all people, no matter what another person believes or does. A believer genuinely wants to help others and will do God’s will whenever the believer is led by the Holy Spirit to do God’s will. A person who is a Christian, yet talks evil of, for example, Jews, or any other group of people, is not a believer, but is instead a branch of the vine which bears no fruit of love.
Hatred in a person’s heart that manifests itself for all to see is evidence of the flesh, or being led by the world, and is enmity with God; evidence the person does not love God. Believers point out false doctrines and evil all the time, but those persons who attack the sinner and not the sin are not believers.
Joy is a truth about Jesus felt by a person at true repentance. Joy is an overwhelming feeling of freedom when a person, in humility, comes to Jesus in belief of who Jesus is, asks for forgiveness, is truly sorry and wants to change his or her ways and begin a renewing of the mind, which is a change of heart. A person who has repented is joyous at having found favor in the eyes of God, having been grafted into the vine as a branch.
If you are a Christian and think you have been cut off the vine, think again, because you may just be being pruned by the Father. Repent, change your ways, be led by the Holy Spirit and feel that joy again you once knew. Maybe you are a Christian who has been in a church that focuses more on works than a relationship with Jesus. Maybe you have never felt this joy. Tell Jesus you want to have a personal relationship with Him and begin being led by the Spirit.
The more a person reads the Bible and has communication with God, the more joy a person feels in their relationship, not just with God, but with all whom the person has a relationship with in this world.
Peace with God is a peace that surpasses all understanding of those who are led by the world. Attacks come from all directions of life, but a person who is led by the Holy Spirit will have calm in the middle of every storm. Outbursts of wrath can easily manifest for all to see when a person has no inner peace. Daily communication with God is necessary to sustain inner peace.
Starting to not communicate with God just one day can lead to weeks of ignoring God. God is who believers lean on in times of trouble. God is where our strength comes from and is a truth about Jesus that is sometimes ignored when a believer begins to stray. There are many things those who are led by the world will say can help a person relieve stress or find peace, but, all except Jesus will lead a person to wanting more, falling harder, being consumed by the world.
Long-suffering is a fruit of inner peace, namely patience. Without inner peace a person cannot have patience. Long-suffering is the patience of the saints. When others, who are led by the world, attack those who are led by the Holy Spirit through acts like lawsuits, bullying and even martyrdom, a believer who has inner peace knows Jesus has already defeated evil at the cross and what evil is happening is only temporary.
No matter what, a believer should never give in to evil that is attempting to overcome good because evil is already defeated and Jesus knows where a person’s eternal soul will live. Some places in the world are already testing a believer’s long-suffering with martyrdom. In America, it is being tested with lawsuits by those who are led by the world, attempting to make those who are led by the Holy Spirit seem like criminals who commit hate crimes.
American lawsuits are just a preamble to the soon coming judgements of God. These methods will be used in the future to enforce strict law, which, in the future, will destroy many of those currently led by the world who think they are now free. There will be no escaping the swords God will place in the hands of evil men.
This current “freedom” is temporary, but eternity is forever. Repent and turn from your worldly ways, seek Jesus, be led by the Holy Spirit and LIVE! If not, in the future, the world will think it angered God and will enforce strict laws where breaking just one of the soon coming strict laws will result in death by beheading. Be free from the coming time of temptation. The Lord preserves the faithful.
Kindness, or gentleness, is the way in which a believer treats others. A believer is not prone to looking down on people. Condescending talk is not part of a believer’s communication with others because a believer knows God is not condescending toward us, even though He has every right to judge us right now.
Jesus said, in John 12:47, “And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” A believer strives to be the reflection of Jesus to others, ever gentle, ever kind, showing compassion and patience to all people, even those who do not know or understand the truth about Jesus. Goodness is a believer’s desire to do good to others. No matter what a person is or does, a believer will want to do good to all people of the world.
Faithfulness is, first of all, faithful to Jesus and His word, which, in turn, makes a believer faithful to all the believer is connected to; family, friends and neighbors. A believer is faithful to the believer’s word and can be trusted. A believer keeps promises.
Gentleness, or meekness, is humility, being humble before God, which causes humility to manifest in the believer before the eyes of the world. Jesus shows believers how to be humble. A person may have many talents and may be able to do many things, but a person who thinks the person is responsible for the person’s abilities will be consumed by the world and will be made to live with the wild beasts, not knowing the person’s true wealth, just like king Nebuchadnezzar was made to live with the wild donkeys.
Self-control, or temperance, is a fruit of the Spirit that is most useful in today’s world. If a person is led by the world, a stop at the corner mart after work for alcohol is no big deal, a stop at a friend’s house around the corner for some drug is normal and not being able to resist the person who longs for casual sex is also normal.
Those led by the world will say, “Go ahead, indulge, YOLO!” You Only Live Once is true if a person is led by the world because those who die not written in the Book of Life will live once and die twice, though they will be eternal. Hell is real and Heaven is real. Where a person spends eternity defines a person’s eternal life or eternal death.
A branch of the vine who bears no fruit, or a Christian who is led by the world and is not led by the Holy Spirit, could have the same fate as a person whose seed never grew, which is an unbeliever. Eternal separation from God is not nothingness, it is everything opposite the fruit of the Spirit. Repentance is always an option. Exercise your option.
Against such there is no law means against such fruit of the Spirit, there is no law condemning a believer because the believer is righteous in the eyes of God.
Gill said it best when he wrote: Against such there is no law; meaning, against such fruits, graces, and good things; these being perfectly agreeable to the law of God, which is holy, just, and good, and spiritual; and are so far from being forbidden by it, that they are highly esteemed and approved of by it: or against persons that are possessed of such fruits; for these appear to be in the spirit, and to be led by the Spirit; and therefore are not under the law, and have nothing to fear from it, as a terrifying, accusing, cursing, and condemning law. The works of the flesh, and they that are of the flesh, are such that come under the notice and lash of the law; and not the fruits of the Spirit, and they that are after the Spirit, as such are who partake of his fruit.
