In week one of our series, we looked at God’s command for us to be continually filled with his life-giving, mission-empowering Spirit. Then, last week, we learned that the primary way that we experience the Spirit of God is through Spiritual gifts, which enable us to work out his sovereign and gracious purposes in the world. This week, we will be exploring the “fruit of the Spirit,” which have also been called the “graces” of the Christian life, since this “fruit” is a consequence of God’s grace at work in and through us, and represents the character we as Christians should seek. Andrew Murray describes the complementary nature between the gifts and the fruit (or “graces”) when he says that, “The graces of the Spirit are to make a man free from self; the gifts of the Spirit are to fit a man for work.” 

The words themselves give us insight into how they operate in our lives. “Gifts”are given to us by God and can be immediately put into use, but “fruit” takes time to ripen and mature. These qualities and character traits (these “fruits” of the Holy Spirit) grow and ripen over time in those who surrender to the Spirit’s transformational work in them as they engage with the Spirit in the spiritual disciplines that God outlines for us in his word (things like silence, solitude, prayer, meditation on scripture, etc.). And, as an aside, this ever-growing character allows us to more faithfully steward the power God gives us in and through his gifts. 

So, how does this process of daily transformation into the likeness of Christ work? Well, there is a part that God plays and there is a part that we must play. 

Our scripture passages for today tell us much about what God does in this process. We see that he has made us partakers of his divine nature by purchasing us with the blood of Jesus, who died in our place, thus breaking the power of sin in us, that the world still lives under! We also see that he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and he has also given us promises that we cling to, as we trust him to help us (by his Spirit) do what is impossible for us to do without him.

Our part is both a passive one, as we depend on him and trust in him as described above, yielding to his commands and will; and an active one, in which we strive to obey him and take steps that will increase our sanctification. As noted above, Peter tells us that we are to “make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” And so, whereas, yes, he empowers us and is with us in this work, we do also have to work (or “make every effort”) at it! And we are even given the promise that, as we practice these qualities, we will never fall!

This week we will look at some of the individual fruits of the Spirit and we will learn how to become successful gardeners of our souls, diligently cultivating the fruit of the character of Christ in our lives!