The Fruit of the Spirit is… Temperance

Temperance, in modern language, means moderation.  It basically carries the idea of strength – to be strong.  Most translations say “self-control.”  Now upon seeing the word “self” the thought comes to my mind, “Oh, no!  Not self!  Die to self, live for Christ.”  When my pastor preached on this topic, he stressed the point that [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Meekness

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 Meekness is mildness, humility.  This humility comes from an attitude of gratitude toward God for all He has done and promised to do.  My pastor was just preaching on humility Sunday, and he talked about how we all want to be humble, right? [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Faith (Faithfulness)

“Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:2 (NKJV) “Faith and Faithfulness are inter-dependent.  Faith is total dependence on God. Faithfulness is our being dependable to God and man.”  This is the quality of fidelity (loyalty), reliability.  Faithfulness has become a rare characteristic in our era (Ps. 12:1-2, Prov. [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Goodness

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Luke 6:35 (ESV) This quality is very similar to the “gentleness” we talked about yesterday.  My pastor [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Gentleness (Kindness)

(As perhaps you’ve noticed, this series comes from the KJV. I realize that in other translations, “gentleness” comes later on in the listing.  We will discuss that under the title of “meekness” when we come to it later this week.) The term “gentleman” is a good starting point for defining “gentleness.”  It is interpreted “kindness” [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Patience (Longsuffering)

“…Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  James 1:3-4 Because God has been teaching me patience for more than a year now, I thought this post would be easy to write.  Here is Rebecca, humbled again.  Even [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Peace

     “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27 (NKJV) Peace – “A condition of freedom from disturbance, whether outwardly or inwardly.”  Most people think of peace as “the [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Joy

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”  Philippians 4:4 (NKJV) First of all, we must make the distinction between joy and happiness.  They are NOT the same thing!  Happiness depends on what’s happening around us.  Joy depends on what God is doing inside of us.  Think about it, Paul would have been [...]

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The Fruit of the Spirit is… Love

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:35 (ESV) First of all, let’s attempt to define love from this perspective.  Love is listed first in the listing of the fruit of the Spirit.  This is no accident, for we learn in 1 Corinthians [...]

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What is fruit?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness (kindness), goodness, faith (faithfulness), meekness (gentleness), temperance (self-control): against such there is no law.”  Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV/NKJV) There is so much to be drawn out of these verses and the surrounding passage that we could probably spend months of daily posts discussing it.  [...]

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