BibleVersity

"But the fruit of the Spirit is . . . patience . . ." - Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)      "Don't pray for patience." I have heard that expression many times throughout the years. "If you pray for patience, God will give you something to develop patience within you." So, many believers through the years have forgone asking God for patience, thinking that will somehow bring His wrath on their lives like Job encountered. Can we dismiss this argument? All of us need patience.      Patience is fourth in the list, and is the first that appears to be directed outwardly toward those around us. The Greek word paints an interesting picture for us, " A person who has power to avenge himself, yet restrains from the exercise of this power."** We have all "lost our patience" when working on some task. However, patience is not related to task, jobs, or things; self-control might be more appropriately used. Patience is related to people. (Now yo...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is . . . peace . . ." - Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)      "No God, No peace. Know God, Know peace!" Perhaps you have seen that phrase on a t-shirt, billboard, or bumper sticker. Personally, it is one of my favorites. The word "peace" is defined in a number of ways: a s tate of tranquility or quiet, f reedom from  disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions, h armony in personal relations, or a s tate or period of mutual concord between governments. These are all modern dictionary definitions. However, in Galatians though, the context is something different than a modern dictionary can (or will) address, for Biblical peace addresses our spiritual status between ourselves and the LORD.  The word “peace” in the Bible (NT), from the Greek word (eireinei), refers to a mental attitude of tranquility based on a relationship with God in the Christian way of life.”**  Peace is the third in the Galatians list, and the fi...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is . . . joy . . ." - Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)       Happiness and joy are not the same. I realize that any good thesaurus will list these as synonyms for each other, but they are different. According to one Biblical language resource, joy (Greek chara)  means "exultation, exuberant joy, good cheer, mirth, gladness of heart," and is "related to grace, as if joy is a direct result of God’s grace.”*  Happiness is an emotion. And, like other emotions, it can come and go in a whim. Joy, however,  is a spiritual state of being within the heart and spirit of believers. A believer can have joy even in the midst of great hardship, because the joy is a result of God's presence. If joy is a "fruit" or a byproduct of God's presence within is, then it stands to reason that as long as He is present in our lives, then joy is present also. Happiness is dependent upon circumstances, but joy is dependent upon the LORD. The LORD...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love . . ." - Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)    It is no coincidence that Paul begins this list we know as "the fruit of the Spirit" with love (agape). Love is the beginning, the middle, and the ending of this thing called faith. Our God is not merely a loving God, but love is His very essence, His nature (1 Jn. 4:7-8).   Love is the very reason God looked down on fallen humanity and provided a way for forgiveness, restoration, and salvation (Jn. 3:16) . Furthermore, among the endearing religious qualities of faith, hope, and love, it is love which is the greatest (1 Cor. 13:13). In addition, it is this quality if agape love which proves to the world that we are believers and disciples of Jesus (Jn. 13:34-35) . Finally, the greatest task that we can attempt, in honor of what Jesus did for us, is to emulate His life by laying down our lives for others (1 Jn. 3:16) .    Scholars have told us that the term agape does not...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is...." - Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)    I began a new series yesterday morning with the above mentioned title. For the next few weeks we will be looking at Spiritual fruitfulness according to Paul's listing in Galatians. However, we did not look at any among the itemized list yesterday. We began by looking establishing a simple fact of Scripture: God wants His people to be fruitful, or productive, in our life of faith. One major point that we drove home yesterday is the fact that bearing fruit is conditional. By conditional, I mean that we are going to bear fruit, either of the Spirit or of the flesh. The kind of fruit we bear is conditional upon the environment we establish for our lives. If we choose to make the things of God (Scripture, prayer, worship, communion with other believers) a priority, then we will bear Spiritual fruit. If we neglect those things then we will ultimately bear carnal fruit.    The reason I am informing you of...