Young Adults' Group

The Fruits Of The Spirit

by Pastor Mark
October 28, 2021

An enlightening time

The last two months of studying about the fruits of the Spirit has been an enlightening experience. Previously, when I considered the fruits of the Spirit, the focus would be more about ourselves. The challenge would be to cultivate the different fruits and to be fruitful. But through Pastor Charles’ insightful messages each Sunday, we have learnt how to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit with the right focus. It begins with God Himself rather than us.

1. Divine attributes

Each fruit of the Spirit is seen as a divine attribute of God. Our focus should begin with Him and His character. For instance, as we learn to love one another, our focus first should be on God’s love for us, “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) There is so much that we can discover about God. The word “attribute” can be used only to describe God rather than us as He displays all these qualities consistently while we are truly inconsistent in reflecting these fruits in our life. Each attribute of God is also most profound to understand and we stand in awe of Him. Let us always begin with understanding these wonderful attributes of God.

2. Depth of insight

As we studied each fruit of the Spirit, we learnt about how deep each fruit is. For instance, the fruit of goodness (agathosune) is not something that comes from within us. There is nothing good in us. Our goodness is nothing apart from the Lord (Ps 16:2). The Lord has to fill us with His goodness for us to cultivate the fruit of goodness. It is something far rarer than we care to admit. Paul gave a commendation for the brethren in Rome that they were “full of goodness” (Rom 15:14). As they were filled with knowledge and truth, they grew in the goodness of God until they were full of His goodness. Let us seek to also grow in the goodness of the Lord in our lives. Let us deepen our understanding of the attributes of God.

3. Connection

Each fruit of the Spirit is also connected to each other (Gal 5:22,23). They are different yet related, being within a cluster. For instance, in cultivating longsuffering, we need to have love, joy and peace. These first three fruits are seen as personal fruits and are things that we can have within us. Longsuffering is interpersonal. Having the first three fruits would help us to cultivate the fruit of longsuffering. We also learnt that beneath kindness is goodness. When we are full of goodness, let us be challenged to show kindness to others. Let us appreciate the need to cultivate these fruits not only individually but also as a cluster.

4. The calling to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit

Through the Spirit of God, let us be challenged to cultivate these fruits. For instance, Paul provided for us different motivations to cultivate the fruit of gentleness. One motivation is that we should walk worthy of our calling (Eph 4:1). Our calling is to show gentleness in our life, work and ministry. Pastor gave us a good application as to how we can cultivate gentleness at the workplace. He spoke about avoiding the common pursuit of being competitive that many have grown up with. Instead, the challenge is to be competent in our work, in what we are doing rather than being competitive and aggressive. Our focus should be to walk worthy of the Lord’s calling, to be gentle towards those around us. Let us be challenged to find the motivation and encouragement to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit in all areas of our life.

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