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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
You want to be checking yourself to see if you are walking in God's ways. How do I do that? A great way to do that is to see whether or not you have fruit, and what your tree is actually producing?
A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit Luke 6:43-45(KJV)
“For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Imagine looking out into your yard to see the most amazing tree. Beautiful and glorious to look at. It is a pear tree. It will yield the most succulent, juicy pears. Nothing like you have ever seen. The problem is that you need to feed your family from this tree and as you look at the tree you notice that it only bore 1 pear. 1 pear to feed your entire family! The most delicious pear you have ever eaten. Now you need to share that with your family.
A great place to start is to measure your heart by the fruit it is producing. Are you producing many fruits of the spirit or are those fruits you are bearing rotten and inedible. You need to be looking at the motives and intentions of your heart. We will start with the fruit of Love.
First we want to examine our lives, our thoughts and motives, our actions and intentions to see if our life is bearing the fruit of love?
The bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (KJV)
Charity (love) suffereth long, and is kind; charity (love) envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.Charity(love)never faileth.
Now let us look at what that scripture means if you break it down.
Do you Suffereth long; to be of long spirit; not to lose heart, preserves patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles. Bearing offense and injury of others. To be mild and slow in avenging, slow to anger and slow to punish.
Are you kind?;To show one's self mild, to be kind and use kindness. Act benevolently
Do you envieth not?; To burn with zeal. To be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger.
Do you vaunteth yourself?; To boast one's self, to display, employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling (Praise enthusiastically) one's self excessively. Strongs (middle voice)
Are you puffed up?;To make natural, pass into nature, puff up and make PROUD? To bear one's self loftily. Proud.
Do you behave unseemingly?; to act unbecomingly
Do you seek to have your own way?;
Are you easily provoked?; To make sharp, sharpen, to stimulate, spur on, urge. To irritate, provoke, arouse or anger, to scorn or despise. Make angry or exasperate. To burn with anger.
Do you think evil things?; Think; to reckon, count or compute, count over. To take into account or make account of. To weigh the reasons, to deliberate. To consider.
Evil; of a bad nature, not such as it ought to be. Of a mode of thinking, feeling and acting. Base, wrong, wicked, troublesome, injurious, pernicious destructive and baneful.
Do you rejoice in Iniquity?; Iniquity is injustice, unrighteousness of heart and life. A deed violating law and justice. To act unrighteous.
Keep in mind that if you behave unseemingly around your buddies and then Godly around your Christian friends at church, you are still behaving unseemingly. If you are patient with your coworkers and out of control with your children. You do not carry the fruit of patience.
If you can honestly say, " I posses and exhibit the fruit of love" then great. Otherwise you can use God's example of what love is and start asking Him to produce this fruit in your life. You can repent and ask God to start working in that area and rest assured our loving, gracious, full of mercy Father will be more than happy. That is after you come in true remorse and repentance letting him know how truly sorry you are for not walking in His ways. God already knows your heart and whether you mean what you say or not. Once true repentance takes place you will being to see true change. You will begin to see Christ formed in you in these areas.
Keep in mind that any time we produced fruit, it is not for our benefit, but for the Father's Glory and Honor. Isaiah 43:7 “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” (KJV)
Jeremiah 9:23-24
“Thus says the LORD:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD. ” (NKJV)
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