The Fruit of the Spirit: Transformation In the Image of Jesus

THE

FRUIT

OF THE

SPIRIT

Transformation in the Image of Jesus

Raymond L. Fox

Copyright © 2017 Raymond L. Fox.

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Rev. date: 3/13/2017

CONTENTS

PREFACE

MAKING DISCIPLES

LIVING IN LOVE

CELEBRATING JOY

PURSUING PEACE

PRACTICING PATIENCE

KINDNESS SHINING IN THE DARKNESS

GOODNESS: LIVING THE BENEFICIAL LIFE

INCREASE OUR FAITH!

GROWING IN GENTLENESS

SELF-CONTROL: POWER FOR A NEW LIFE

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

PREFACE

A mong Christians who regularly read the New Testament and listen to sermons about Christian living, there can be surprisingly little understanding of the precise meaning and practice of those qualities that disciples ought to put on in the image of their Lord. Perhaps we assume we commonly understand terms such as gentleness or self-control and therefore pay little attention to deepening our knowledge, especially in the context of Jesus’ teaching. Maybe we believe that the fruit of the Spirit simply develop in our character by attending worship and surrounding ourselves with other believers without the need for the discipline of practice. In reality, growth in the image of Jesus flows from conscious practice, empowered by the Lord’s Spirit. Conscious practice must be rooted in understanding.

Since transformation in the image of Jesus is the central goal of each disciple, the literature available about the practice of the fruit of the Spirit should be rich and classical. These qualities define disciples of Jesus and provide the reason and motivation for everything we do as we follow him. Nevertheless, the literature dedicated to these character traits is relatively sparse. I hope to add something that will be beneficial for practice.

These chapters on the fruit of the Spirit began as a series of studies I worked through with each person I met who wanted to grow as a disciple. My purpose was to teach Christians to feel secure in examining themselves, imagine and be creative in their practice, and enjoy the excitement of growing as followers of Jesus. I presented these studies in a variety of cultural settings in my own country, in Europe, and in the Spanish-speaking ministry I conduct in Latin America. In my own community, I became involved in juvenile detention facilities and adult jails working as a teacher, counselor, and chaplain. My work focuses especially on young men and their adult counterparts who want to leave street gangs and learn to live a healthy life. Teaching these qualities in such an environment can meet with much skepticism and negativity. But the truth is that when the teachings of Jesus concerning, for instance, peace, patience, self-control, and love are taught in a positive, practical manner, they are powerful to change the most stubborn spirit.

But the teacher is also a student. My experiences in the classroom and in discussions with Christians from different cultures created a dialectic that challenged me to think more deeply, more carefully, and more expansively. I read, thought, listened, went out to practice, and revised my thinking, in a continuous cycle of learning, all the while loving the experience of transformation. Learning and living as a disciple is a very exciting, joyous endeavor. I hope this writing communicates this joy. What you will find in these pages is not definitive because our experience of practice ought always to reveal more creative practice. This, too, is my hope—that your creativity as a disciple to practice the Lord’s teaching will blossom and flourish.

MAKING DISCIPLES

"TEACHING THEM TO OBEY

EVERYTHING I HAVE COMMANDED YOU"

(MATTHEW 28:18–20)

A fter his resurrection Jesus met with his disciples on a mountaintop somewhere in Galilee to explain the work that would forever transform them and the multitudes who would come to follow him. He told them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:18–20). According to the words of Jesus, becoming his disciple includes two steps—one that happens in a moment and another that lasts a lifetime.

The first step, baptism, begins our new life as disciples of Jesus. It is a transforming experience. Just as Jesus, after dying on the cross, was buried in the tomb, we surrender in baptism to put to death the sinful self. We are immersed beneath the water to represent the burial of the person we were before coming to the Lord. Then, as Paul explains in Romans 6:3–4, the baptized believer rises from the water to begin a new life, as a disciple of Jesus. By the grace of God, a believer becomes a new, spiritual creation, with a new, spiritual relationship as a child of God, to live a new, spiritually directed life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. But the new birth is only the beginning.

The second step requires a lifetime of learning and practice, living in close fellowship with Jesus. Jesus told his followers to make disciples by teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. When Jesus gave that instruction to the ones who had accompanied him for three-and-a-half years, those who had listened carefully to his teachings, discussed them, meditated on them, and haltingly began to follow them, what would they have thought about? When Jesus said everything I have commanded, what images would have come to their minds? What were the teachings that they would have remembered at that stage in their lives as his disciples? The Gospels give us the answer.

The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, record four perspectives of the life of Christ from the eyes of the earliest witnesses of Jesus. Jesus had promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit would come to help them remember everything he had taught them. Their words show us what these disciples recalled most about the teachings of Jesus. What images came to their minds? They remembered Jesus’ gentle generosity toward the poor, the sick, the paralyzed, and the spiritually depressed. They recalled his Sermon on the Mount in which he described the sincerity of heart and purity of life his disciples ought to cultivate in his kingdom. They remembered the parables of Jesus that taught the value of a lost soul, the self–deceit of trusting in riches, the power of faith, the meaning of loving one’s neighbor, and the beauty of living in humility. They thought about Jesus, wrapping himself with a towel, taking a basin of water, and washing the disciples’ feet, the Master serving the servants in a visible parable of humility. They recalled teachings about forgiveness, faithfulness, gratitude, sacrificial service, self-discipline, and moral purity. They had witnessed how often and in how many ways Jesus taught people to practice a level of love that asked for nothing in return. Interestingly, we might be surprised by the lack of attention that Jesus himself paid to questions of theology, ritual, and ceremony when he was first training his disciples. During his earthly ministry, he focused on the character of life in his kingdom.

LEARNING TO PRACTICE

This second step in making disciples is a continuous project. One does not learn to love in a moment but through many trials and errors, only after much perseverance and self-discipline. Then after years of loving, there are still new lessons to learn about love. Toward the close of the first century, the apostle John, after having written his gospel account of the life of Christ, returned to the theme of love. He wrote his first letter, 1 John, to Christians to remind them about God’s love for them and their love for one another. These Christians were still learning. As life’s circumstances change, we learn new lessons. Economic or social conditions around us change, either for the better or for the worse, and we learn new truths about compassion and generosity. Life progresses and, as we grow older and more mature, we learn a deeper, more abiding sense of humility. One of the beauties of being a disciple of Jesus is that life is never boring since there are always new challenges that call us to an even higher and holier life.

The second step is also a very practical step. When Jesus told his followers to make disciples, teaching them to obey, the teaching they were to do must have also included the how. Teaching to obey implies teaching people how to obey. Making disciples does not just consist of telling people, You must do this, You need to do that, or You should do this. This language is, unfortunately, often the language of the pulpit. Standing behind a speaker’s stand and telling people what they ought to do may sound powerful in the moment but is not practical in the long run. After listening to such a sermon, people leave the assembly certainly believing they ought to do those things, but, in the back of their minds, the question of how still remains. How do I practice these character qualities? Where do I begin? What exactly do I do? Making disciples involves providing the answers to these questions so that confusion or simple ignorance does not extinguish enthusiasm for the new life in Christ. At the same time, discipleship does not consist of following an endless list of specific, detailed rules concerning how to practice Jesus’ teaching. Instead, the goal is to develop a practical mentality that looks for and creates opportunities to practice. Training to look at the world through the lens of practice takes more than a moment.

The second step of making disciples also happens most dramatically and profoundly during times of testing when challenges call into question how disciples view the practice of Jesus’ teaching. Disciples might have the tendency to place limits on their abilities to practice based on their cultural, social, or even economic perceptions of his teachings. The problem of perceptions caused even the very first disciples to stumble. The earliest Christians, coming from a Jewish background, could easily love and respect their fellow Christians who shared the same antecedents. Later, when these Jewish Christians found themselves in the same congregation, sharing the same spiritual meal with Christians from other cultures, they faced a challenge. Of course, they knew they should love everyone, but the challenge of worshiping together forced them to extend the practical limits of love they had placed on themselves. Now they had to practice love for people whom they had never loved before.

In a similar way, generosity may come easier under certain economic circumstances. From a position of wealth, generosity appears to be natural for some Christians. In reality these Christians may be unconsciously placing limits on their generosity. They convince themselves that they are giving a lot, measured in terms of monetary value, but the amount of actual sacrifice is minimal. They protect themselves with a series of reasons why they cannot be too generous to avoid sacrificing the style of life they are accustomed to living. Jesus, however, measured generosity not by the actual monetary amount given but by the amount of sacrifice involved in the act of giving. The disciples recalled Jesus’ commentary on the poor widow who gave very little—two small copper coins—to the temple treasury in comparison to what the rich gave. But as Jesus watched the people cast their money into the treasury, he commended the widow for her generosity because the small amount she gave represented a tremendous sacrifice.

When disciples place artificial and even unconscious limits on their generosity, they also limit the possibility of deepening their understanding of generosity. Then, at some point in their lives, they may face some new and challenging experience by which they come to understand the profound need of another human being. Helping the person in need would require great sacrifice, but this particular case of suffering, for some reason, breaks through the protective shell that the disciple hides behind to avoid being overly generous. Filled with a new compassion, the disciple acts by faith and gives more than he or she has ever given before. Taking the leap of faith and giving, without regard for the consequences that might result from such generosity, surprises disciples with a sense of freedom, a liberation from selfishness and greed. In such moments disciples of Jesus can advance by great strides in the practice of generosity. In fact, any experience that challenges cultural or social perceptions of the Christian life gives disciples the chance to learn to follow Jesus on a much more profound level. We have to open ourselves up and allow Jesus to question what we believe about the humility, gentleness, compassion, and patience that should define us as disciples.

If discipleship consists of learning to practice the teachings of Jesus about character, learning to practice the character of Jesus consists of discipleship. Discipleship is a relationship between student and teacher. For a Christian, building character is not just about learning to practice certain principles in daily living, as if we can consider those qualities without considering who the teacher is and our relationship to him. These teachings are not principles that can stand alone without Jesus. Jesus gives life to these principles and to his disciples as they struggle to practice them. The moments that challenge false perceptions especially require a living relationship with him.

The practice of forgiveness is a good example. In many situations forgiveness may be a simple matter of easily forgetting what someone has done to offend us. But then there are moments when the offense is especially painful and destructive or other moments when repeated offenses cause us to question the need to forgive. Why should I forgive? Who says I should forgive such things? For the disciple the answer is Jesus. Disciples of Jesus take the leap of faith and extend the limits of character traits such as forgiveness because, instead of relying on their own wisdom, they trust in Jesus as teacher and Lord. They will practice beyond what they could have imagined practicing because Jesus is Lord.

Everyone, believer and non-believer alike, follows some norm or some authority as he or she decides to what extent to practice a particular character quality. Cultural expectations in general or the expectations of social relationships, such as friends or family, give people the confidence to follow accepted norms for such qualities as generosity or forgiveness. When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him, he was asking how Jesus would view the practice of forgiveness in contrast to the generally accepted views about forgiveness in Jewish culture at that time. Jesus answered that one ought to forgive seventy–seven times. If this new and essentially unlimited perspective of forgiveness sounded difficult to follow, Peter would have to trust Jesus’ wisdom, committing himself to follow Jesus as Lord. Through faith in Jesus, Peter would have to surrender himself to the process of transformation, no matter where it took him. Discipleship is a relationship of faith in the wisdom, power, and authority of the teacher.

Making disciples through teaching what Jesus commanded also must begin with the heart. A brilliant thread that courses through all of Jesus’ teaching is the need to start with the heart. Jesus was especially critical of the Jewish religious leaders of the Pharisee sect for their lack of sincere devotion. On the outside they appeared to be devoted, but, on the inside, in their hearts, they were corrupt. Jesus compared them to whitened tombs, clean on the outside but full of dead men’s bones on the inside. Obedience to the teachings of Jesus cannot be routine or robotic, as in simply practicing some external rules for conduct without really changing the attitude of the heart. Imagine practicing humility without a humble heart by just following some rules for humble speech and humble actions. Some salesmen and politicians know how to tilt their heads in just the right way, how to lower the tone of their voices and use gentle language to appear humble, yet in their hearts they are thinking about how to take advantage of their audience. Humility is first an attitude of the heart, and then, starting from the heart, humility changes one’s words and actions.

This principle is also true of other character traits for Christians. The word heart represents our deepest emotions and attitudes. The heart is a good symbol of emotions because one of the first physical feelings that humans experience in response to fear, anxiety, love, anger, or other emotions is a change in the heart’s beating and rhythm. To say that character has to start with the heart means that any attempt to change behavior has to begin with our desires and emotions. What do we really want to be or really want to do? What do we care most about? What will gives us inner peace and contentment? If, for instance, we have a deep desire to be faithful and being faithful gives us a very important feeling of peace, then we will fiercely struggle at being faithful in every relationship and in every work. Change that comes from the heart, motivated by strong emotions, will be consistent from day to day and will persevere. Jesus further taught that change comes from the inside by emphasizing repentance. The word repentance means to change one’s mind. A change of mind must precede a change of life. Practicing the character of Jesus can only come after we change our ways of thinking, desiring with our whole hearts to imitate the Lord. A change of practice, consistently practicing the character qualities of Jesus with full devotion, will then naturally follow our transformed hearts.

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

The Gospels reveal what the earliest disciples most remembered about the teachings of Jesus. These four books take a biographical approach to Jesus’ teaching. For this reason the books are not systematic in their approach to the character qualities that ought to distinguish Christians. For example, there are no chapters or sections dedicated solely to specific character traits like honesty, faithfulness, or generosity. The Gospels treat character traits as they arise in different moments during the teaching that Jesus did while he was physically with his disciples. This approach gives life to his teachings by creating real-life images of humility, compassion, and forgiveness through the conversations Jesus had with a variety of people.

Later, in the letters of the New Testament, writers such as Paul and Peter brought those qualities together by listing them and, in some places, giving a brief explanation of the qualities. The fruit of the Spirit make up one of these lists in Galatians 5:22–23. Paul includes nine qualities: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. These lists serve a great purpose by showing disciples today exactly what the Lord expects of them as his followers. They serve to direct and evaluate one’s growth as a disciple. The followers of Jesus know they are growing and maturing as disciples if they are growing in their abilities to practice these traits.

The apostle Paul compiled other lists of qualities of the new life in Christ in Colossians 3:12–15 and Ephesians 4:20–32. These lists differ in the specific traits that he includes and the style he uses to present them. Likewise, Peter penned another list of Christian virtues in 2 Peter 1:5–8. Jesus himself taught a list of traits commonly known as the beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount, describing life in his kingdom (Matthew 5:3–10). Even when taken together, these lists do not contain all the character qualities that disciples ought to develop as they follow Jesus. These lists are not intended to be exhaustive, nor does one list contain qualities that are somehow more important than the qualities of the other lists. Each list is a sample of character traits meant to show that discipleship is about cultivating character in the imitation of Christ. Paul explains to his readers that the purpose of discipleship, from the moment one leaves the waters of baptism, is to clothe yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:26–27).

The fruit of the Spirit are attributes of our spirits that then manifest themselves in the activities of our physical lives. The level of love that distinguishes Christians has to come from within, from our spirits, where we have experienced the love of God. Joy based on spiritual reasons, peace as inner contentment, and patience in the sense of spiritual endurance are also qualities of our spirits. Kindness originates from a merciful spirit. Goodness is what is, first of all, good for our spirits and our relationships with God. Faith, too, is a quality of our spirits that manifests itself in lives of faithfulness. Gentleness, as well as self-control, has to begin with the inner life instead of being practiced as a mere physical discipline. Each of these qualities, of course, will manifest itself in our physical behaviors: in language, in actions, in the treatment of other people, and in the outward activities of worship to God. However, they must originate as qualities of our spirits. God created us to enjoy spiritual life and these qualities are the result of living a spiritual life in profound fellowship with him.

These nine qualities are fruit of the Spirit because they are the results of keeping in step or walking in harmony with God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:25). We are not alone in our struggle to learn to practice a new way of life. God’s Spirit has made us alive and provides the necessary help we need to grow consistently in these qualities. What does God expect us to do? What will he do for us through his Spirit? After we are born again, becoming spiritually alive through God’s Spirit who lives in us, our responsibility is to yield ourselves to the practice of righteousness by putting off the old person and putting on the new person. Paul summarized the practice of living a transformed life in his Ephesian letter.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22–24).

Paul uses the language of put off and put on to describe our responsibility in the process of spiritual transformation. Putting off the old person means to stop entertaining the corrupt mentality and stop practicing the destructive behavior that we used to pursue habitually. Putting on the new person means to begin to create new habits by cultivating the image of God through practice. Something that the Spirit does not do for us is suddenly and completely fill us with the qualities that we would like to possess in the image of our Father. Growth in these qualities requires the experience of consistent practice. First, practice requires a decision on our part to take what we believe about the teaching of Jesus to the level of daily application. Second, practice requires the creativity to reflect on the teachings of Jesus and imagine increasingly profound ways to practice. Third, practice requires the faith and courage to live by the teaching of Jesus even when we do not see responses that we hope to see in the behavior of others. Patient, consistent practice is our role in transformation.

Although practice is our responsibility, the Spirit does not leave us alone but graciously offers us help. He is the Advocate, called beside us to strengthen our spirits, so that we can consistently practice the character of our Father. The Spirit’s help with our consistency is one way in which he empowers us to live a transformed life. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul reassured the disciples that he was praying for them, asking the Lord to grant them essential strength to practice the transformed life: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:16).

Paul’s words are not poetic imagery or empty assurances. If he was praying for such help, then he must have believed the Father could answer his prayer. The problem every Christian faces is with consistency in the practice of Jesus’ teachings. We face moments of distraction, challenge, or weariness that threaten to slow down or stall our progress. At times we may feel very enthusiastic about learning to love, and, in other moments, we feel tired of constantly serving in love when no one appreciates our sacrifices. We can certainly feel tired of being patient when people around us do not treat us with the same patience. In such moments we need strength in our spirits to practice love or patience consistently, despite what other people do or do not do. We make the decision to practice, but the Spirit of God can strengthen us so that we do not become tired in the practice. Later, in the chapter on self-control, we will discuss the Spirit’s help in more detail.

The purpose of this book is to encourage transformation in the image of Jesus by learning to practice the qualities of his character. Remember, learning to practice these qualities is a lifetime project. Maybe there are people who believe that one evening, before going to bed, they can pray and ask God to make them more loving or more joyful, and then they will wake up in the morning perfectly loving and joyful. Perhaps they think that, during the night, God will grab a vial of love from some shelf in heaven, fill a syringe, and inject them with love so that they arise the next day full of love. In the same way, the reader should not expect to become the perfect disciple suddenly after reading this book. The book serves only to give direction toward understanding and practice. Disciples must pray for help and God will certainly bless them with wisdom and the life experiences necessary to learn to be more loving and joyful. He will bless them with strength in their inner beings. He will give them the joy of his presence as they struggle to learn. But the labor of discipleship is to learn how to practice. In harmony with Jesus’ teaching, two other underlying themes of this book include the need to start with the heart and the value of challenges. Life experiences can challenge disciples to surrender preconceived ideas about these qualities and view them as Jesus did, without self-imposed limits.

With the exception of the chapters on faith and self-control, the chapters devoted to each of the fruit of the Spirit will follow the same overall approach to cultivating these qualities by emphasizing three essential steps: understanding, reflection, and practice. Disciples must first understand the meaning Jesus gave to these qualities in order to break away from preconceived notions about them. Developing these qualities also requires careful reflection about the possibility of practicing them in one’s own life and the challenges one might face in practicing them. The ultimate emphasis in each chapter is on practice, presenting ideas to stimulate the reader to learn to practice each of the fruit of the Spirit. We cannot grow without spiritual practice. Disciples can use the same approach—understanding, reflection, and practice—to work on any of the qualities listed in the various passages of the New Testament.

One of the beauties of the Christian life is the ability to open ourselves up freely to the Lord Jesus so he can transform our hearts and behavior in the imitation of his life. Paul wrote, We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).

LIVING IN LOVE

"TO THEM HE GAVE THE NAME BOANERGES,

WHICH MEANS SONS OF THUNDER"

(MARK 3:17).

F rom son of thunder to living in love—this was the incredible transformation that happened in the life of the apostle John. Jesus gave John and his brother James the name sons of thunder because of the aggressive personalities they had when he first invited them to be his disciples. Then, after many years of following Jesus, learning to think and live in the image of the Father, John wrote, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him (1 John 4:16b-17). Toward the end of his life, when he wrote his biography of the life of Christ, he referred to himself several times in the gospel as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He had come to understand how powerful God’s love is; the love of God had completely changed him. John’s self-description was not arrogant boasting but a humble expression of his gratitude to the Lord, who patiently loved him even while John struggled to learn how to love others.

When Jesus selected John and James to be apostles, they were far from being perfect examples of Jesus’ teaching about love. At one point during their training, they selfishly sought to be prominent above the other apostles in Christ’s kingdom: Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory (Mark 10:37). Then, not too long after Jesus taught them about the unconditional nature of love that should identify his disciples, the vengeful behavior of James and John made obvious the fact that they still had much to learn. When Jesus and his followers approached a Samaritan village on their way to Jerusalem, the Lord sent some of the disciples ahead to prepare for his stay in the village. But the Samaritans, many of whom shared undisguised prejudice against the Jews, refused to receive the disciples since they were on their way to Jerusalem. James and John reacted with an impulsive desire for vengeance. They asked Jesus, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? (Luke 9:54)

When Jesus chose them, they were aggressive, brutish fishermen who understood little about loving others, especially their enemies. Much later, after the death and resurrection of Jesus and after John himself took on the work of teaching and training others to love like Jesus loved, he must have reflected deeply on the patient, gentle love of Jesus. Surely Jesus had loved him unconditionally. Jesus had accepted him. Jesus never gave up on him and graciously forgave John each time he failed. John understood that Jesus died for him and for the whole world so that we could understand the depth of God’s love. John knew that he was someone who had genuinely experienced the Lord’s love. He, above all the other apostles, needed the full extent of Jesus’ love.

To feel loved by the Lord gives us such a wonderfully calm sense of security and an unwavering view of our value as human beings. Without the love of Christ, we could easily become lost in self-doubt and self-condemnation. John discovered, however, that the Lord loves us so completely, not just so we