CHAPTER 7: SPIRITUAL FRUITS AND GIFTS
In this chapter, we will continue to discuss other important aspects of spiritual life:
• Spiritual Fruits
• Spiritual Gifts
Presentation
Spiritual fruits and gifts are two most popular topics with any study of the Bible. Due to the nature of this writing, we can’t develop a detailed theme here. We will only outline some key points and passages in order to give an overview of these.
Spiritual Fruits
In last chapter, we mentioned spiritual growth and maturity as the process and end of the spiritual life God gives to us.
Just like a tree, it takes time for it to develop from being merely a seed into a full-grown tree and bear fruits. But to a farmer, the most pleasant moment of his labor is the moment he sees the many fruits he can harvest from the tree.
Paul mentioned nine spiritual fruits in his letter to the Galatians:
Gal 5:22-23 [NIV]
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
It is very easy to see that these fruits are all characteristics of a person, describing the quality of His personality.
Evidently God is interested in who we are in Him, more than what we can do for Him. Paul mentions here in contrast is a life under the law, or one that try to fulfill the righteous requirements of God by one’s flesh, rather than to live by the Spirit and allow God works out His life in us through our faith and obedience by the Holy Spirit.
Living in the Kingdom is to bear Spiritual Fruits
Mt 6:33 [NIV]
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Here mentioned the Kingdom is our spiritual Life in and of God the Father, which is vested in His reality, a Kingdom of life, power, glory, order and majesty. As we grow and partake His divine nature, we will be more and more like Him, who is love, peace, righteousness, joy, justice, mercy, goodness, etc…
Paul mentioned this in the Book of Romans:
Rom. 14:17 [NIV]
17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
Evidently, life in the Kingdom of God is not about external achievements for God, rather the inner life in Him, which is to bear spiritual fruits.
Abiding in Him
How to have fruits? Jesus teaches us about this very clearly: abide in Him. Let’s take a look.
John 15:1-8 [NIV]
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Let’s offer some key observations of this very important passage relating to our spiritual life. We are indeed the work of the co-laboring of all the godheads.
• God the Father is the gardener or the vinedresser. This means He holds the standard to judge the fruits being good or bad. He will prune the vine so that what left will bear fruit.
• Jesus Christ is the vine. He is the source of all nourishment and only through abiding in the vine can any branch bear fruit.
• We as the branches are given life so that we bear much fruit. We can only do so if we remain in the vine. This is our life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
How to abide in Him then? He gives clear instruction in the following discourse:
John 15:9-17 [NIV]
9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
Remain in His love and love one another, this will show unto the world that we are His disciples. How liberating and illuminating to see that He is not keen to have us to perform miracles and signs, which is more related to the working out of our gifts by the Holy Spirit, rather to have His heart of love in us and extend that love to others, esp. those within His Family. Envision this for a moment, it portraits a fundamentally different picture of how we are to relate to one another and live together as the people of God.
Spiritual Gifts
But in order for us to grow, the Lord not only gives each believer the Gift of Holy Spirit to our person, He also blesses us with gifts of the Holy Spirit to ourselves and other members of His Body, the church, or His family. And He requires that these be exercised out of love unto one another, so that our life can be merged into the work or business of our Heavenly Father as an extension of His life to others. To touch the bedrock of this, which is very needed for us to excise spiritual discernment, whether we are to offer our spiritual gifts in service for others or receive the work of them for our own wellbeing in the Lord, would naturally led us to ask whether one doing this possessing of a heart of love or not. The Lord has one standard for this love to be expressed: this love is to be founded upon the reality that one has indeed laid down his life for others. Self-indulgence and complacency is to be rid of when we are to be of services in terms of excising our spiritual gifts. Sadly, this often isn’t the case within the Body of Christ today.
Now, in the Body of Christ, He gives diverse gifts to different members of the Body to help each other to grow. Let’s take a look at these gifts.
1 Cor 12:4-11 [NIV]
4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
All gifts are for service. That is to serve the body so that each member can grow, as a result, the whole body will grow.
1 Co 12:27-31 [NIV]
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
Now, here Paul offers a further list of spiritual gifts. It is a list of a sequential order. Part of it is because there are greater gifts such as apostolic and prophetic gifts, but mostly is because this is how a local church grew under his ministry. He came to a place, preached the Gospel, then, the prophets, like Barnabas, would co-labor with him to lay down the spiritual foundation in the lives of the believers and set in order of the local church as a genuine family of God’s people, able to live together in love, faith and freedom by the Holy Spirit. As others members of the church were baptized in the Holy Spirit, their gifts would be stirred up and utilized in the Body. This is a very common thing, not a scarce commodity as we commonly witness in many of today’s so-call churches or fellowships.
Just like with our natural life, we enjoy various talents and gifts, some we develop very well in life, some we don’t necessary have the chance to do so. For example, I may be a very gifted person with music, but without the proper training and education, my talent will not have the opportunity to be developed into excellence. Even if I did, I will still have to decide how I should use it. Should I use it just to gain money and fame? To just entertain people? Or to help others? These aspects of having a gift are not confined by the gift itself, rather by the purpose and value that it is used for. At this is decided by my heart attitude and desire, whether or not I have the good, even the best of others in sight when pursuing the course of using my gifts.
It is the same with our spiritual gifts. For us, spiritual gift, as implied by its name, is a thing given to us by God, for us to steward it and develop it for the benefit of His Kingdom, to serve Him and His people. That is why Paul here continues to speak of a more excellent way.
The more excellent way is love.
[
u]1 Cor 13:1-14:1 [NIV]
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.
Now, to sum up, we will look at a passage that states clearly how gifts serves the growth of the body, the end of which is to bear spiritual fruits.
Eph 4:7-16 [NIV]
7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”
9(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Scriptures
Spiritual Fruits
Is 11:1-3 [NIV]
1A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—
3and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
Gal 6:7-10 [NIV]
7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
James 3:17-18 [NIV]
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
Psm 1:1-3 [NIV]
1Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
Spiritual Gifts
Rom 12:3-8 [NIV]
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
1 Tim 4:14-15 [NIV]
14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.
2 Tim 1:6-7 [NIV]
6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
Questions for Reviews
• What is common with all spiritual fruit? Can you give a list of them?
• What do you think of the relationship between spiritual growth and spiritual fruits?
• How do we grow in our spiritual life in term of bearing fruits?
• What is spiritual gift, can you give a list of them?
• What do you think of the Spiritual gifts in terms of serving the Body of Christ?
Questions for Meditation and Application
• What do you think of the relationship between spiritual fruit and spiritual gifts?
• What do you think the role of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in the maturing of your spiritual life?
• Make a list of the most valuable spiritual fruits to you. Why?
• Make a list of the most valuable natural gifts you have. What do you think you can do them?
• Make a list of the most valuable spiritual gifts you have. What do you think you can do with them?
