Transformed to Glory

"When 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" (1 Corinthians 13:11).

There is growth in the Christian life. The final end of that growth comes when we are face to face with God and are transformed fully into glory. As Paul writes, “Now 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” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

One of the problems we run into all the time in the evangelical Christian world is the attitude that says, “I don’t want to learn theology. I don’t need to study. I just want to preserve my childlike faith. I want to keep it simple.” This is not an expression of Christian maturity.

Childish behavior is totally appropriate for children. If, for instance, a small child has an imaginary friend, that does not concern us. If an adult has an imaginary friend, however, we should be very much concerned. Now, the Bible does indeed call us to be like children in one sense. We are to have a childlike spirit of trust and confidence in our heavenly Father. But there is a great difference between being childlike and being childish. Our Father desires for us to grow in our knowledge and obedience to Him. He wants us to mature.

It takes time for fruit to come to fullness. This is true in the realm of persons and of spiritual growth as well. Today it seems as if everyone wants to short-cut this process. We want “five easy lessons to be an effective Christian.” This is simply not possible.

For fruit to mature, it has to be nurtured. There is no substitute for the classical biblical way of Christian maturity. It is through gradual growth, nurtured in the context of active participation in the sacraments and community of the church, through study of the Word, and by means of prayer, obedience, and service.

Each aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is nurtured through personal relationships. If you are to be transformed by this fruit, it is vital for you to have small group interaction and accountability with fellow believers. Because Christian character does not develop in a void, take the initiative to become involved in a regular small group fellowship.

Meekness and Self-Control

"Now Moses was a very humble [meek] man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth"

(Numbers 12:3).

When we think of Moses we don’t think of a person who was meek, at least not in the modern sense of meekness. There was nothing weak about Moses. He exhibited extraordinary leadership and strength. There was one man, though, who was even meeker than Moses, and that was Jesus Himself. Remember that He said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble [meek and lowly] in heart” (Matthew 11:29). Yet consider how Jesus dealt with the Pharisees. There was certainly nothing weak about it! On another occasion, Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Here we see an association of meekness with leadership. What is this meekness, that it is so powerful? One alternative translation for meekness is “gentleness.” It requires great strength to be gentle.

Gentleness is the opposite of abrasiveness, and it flows from that kind of confident strength that is the opposite of arrogance. The man who is secure in his love for God does not need to intimidate but can be kind and meek in his leadership roles.

The man who is meek before God and has that inner strength that enables him to be gentle before men will not be a violent man. This quietness of spirit will enable him to be temperate. A self-controlled or temperate person is not given to binges of excess but lives within restraints.

Thus, the long-term benefit of the fruit of the Spirit is stability. Honoring God through love for Him causes us to rejoice in Christ’s victory, and that provides us with inner peace. Such peace enables us to endure hard times with patience, and this works a spirit of kindness into our personalities. As this happens, our lives become more beautiful in the sense that goodness is beautiful, and we become more faithful and trustworthy. All this inner strength provides stability for our lives.

Who do you know who best evidences the characteristics described today? If possible contact that person this week. Thank them for being a model of meekness and/or self-control to you.

Goodness and Faith

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness knowledge" (2 Peter 1:5).

It is sometimes baffling to us that fallen man does nothing that is truly good. In our eyes it actually seems that many unbelievers often do good, even surpassing Christians in their good works.

To evaluate goodness, however, we have to apply God’s standard: Good works are not simply outward conformity to His law, but also an inward disposition of faithfulness to Him. A good work, in biblical terms, must be motivated by a desire to please God. The Christian is indeed capable of goodness because he has been given a new possibility of desiring to please God.

One aspect of goodness that is often overlooked is seen in Genesis 1, where we repeatedly read that God saw what He had made, and it was good. Goodness is closely associated with order and beauty. As we grow in grace, we should grow in our appreciation of beauty and in our ability to do and make beautiful things, to God’s glory.

What is faith? Biblically speaking, faith is not just believing that God exists. Faith is trusting God. If we really trust God, we will take Him at His Word. We will believe Him when He tells us not to do certain things because those things will harm us.

When grace takes root in our souls and we grow in the fruit of the Spirit, we have an increased capacity to believe God. And that belief has a direct impact on our ability to struggle with sin. In particular, our faithfulness to God makes us more faithful in our relationships with other people. As patience produces kindness, so kindness produces orderly goodness in our lives. And that orderliness makes us more stable and trustworthy.

Meditate again on the order and progression of the fruit of the Spirit. Can you explain how love leads to joy, loving joy to peace, loving joyous peace to patience, etc? Jot down the order on a slip of paper and look at it during the day. Remind yourself of this progression of growth and ask God each time to bring it to pass in your life.

Patience and Kindness

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22–23).

There is one fruit of the Spirit, with many sides or dimensions. The first facet of this fruit that Paul mentions is love, and if we meditate on the list that follows, we can see that in one sense each virtue produces the next. Loving loyalty to God produces joy at God’s victory. This enables us to live at peace with other people, because we know how things will turn out in the end. Such peacefulness enables us to be patient.

Patience is also translated “long-suffering.” It has to do with our ability as Christians to endure with other people for the long haul. Our love for others is not just for a season, but carries through “for better and for worse, in sickness and in health.” It is this kind of patient long-suffering that works in us the virtue of true kindness.

The opposite of patient love is a spirit of resentment or revenge. Long-suffering bears the evils inflicted on us by others. It overcomes the natural inclination to retaliate. Vengeance in the sense of justice and vindication is not evil, because after all: “It is Mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. The same verse, however, tells us that we are not to take our own revenge (Romans 12:19). We are to be patient and wait upon the Lord.

A kind person does not have a short fuse. He does not have a chip on his shoulder. He does not get mad at little things. First Peter 4:8 says that love covers a multitude of sins, which means that the opposite of kindness is pettiness. Gross sins must be dealt with, but kindness overlooks little faults. Obviously such kindness comes from patience, not from wearing rose-colored glasses. We become kind when we realize that we are the objects of God’s kindness. God has been long-suffering and kind to us, and for that reason we are to be patient and forebearing with others.

We sometimes joke that someone is on a person’s blacklist. Perhaps you know someone whose lack of patience and kindness leads them to “keep score” in their relationships. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Evaluate your relationships. Discard any records you may be keeping on friends and family.

True Joy and Peace

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

As we continue with our study in the fruit of the Spirit, we move from love to the next two aspects of His fruit: joy and peace. What is Christian joy? John Calvin, who is so often thought of as stern and harsh, said that this joy is a “disposition toward cheerfulness.” Calvin preferred the term hilarity. Joy of the Spirit is a hilarious frame of mind, according to Calvin.

This joyfulness is based on the Christian’s awareness of victory. It is because Jesus has overcome the world that we can rejoice. This is a deep-rooted sense of joy and peace, not a superficial “happy face.” Sometimes Christians put on an artificial front of happiness that is really very offensive and results in our being thought of as “plastic Christians.” True cheerfulness goes deep. It is the celebration of the Bride before her Bridegroom.

As we read that the Spirit gives us peace, we probably quickly think of some kind of inner tranquility or peace of mind. The biblical concept is much broader. The Old Testament Hebrew word is shalom, which first of all means an interlude of safety from the ravages of warfare. The insecurity that comes from war made its mark on these people, and they looked for the day when the swords would be beaten into plowshares.

The Old Testament concept of peace does not stop here, but ascends into a theological vision. It is a vision of a new relationship between God and man, and between man and man: a relationship of friendship. Because of sin, we are estranged from God, but in Christ we have peace with God. And this leads us to what Paul means here: The fruit of peace with God is peace with others. The Christian lives at peace as much as possible with all mankind.

Too often we desire to be the recipients of joy and peace. We wait for it to come to us through other people and circumstances. However, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” suggesting we should initiate peace. Today and through this weekend anticipate how you can actively bring peace and joy to a situation, relationship or task.

The Indwelling Power

"And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Follow the way of love" (1 Corinthians 13:13; 14:1).

The Spirit of God gives both gifts and fruit to the people of God. Every Christian has a gift from the Spirit, and all Christians are to bear the fruit of the Spirit. It is important that we keep both of these things in mind. Today there is more emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit, perhaps because these have been neglected by earlier generations, and perhaps also because the gifts of the Spirit have to do with talents and power and tend to be more glamorous.

We don’t want any kind of imbalance, but we have to say that if there is an accent in the Bible, it is on the fruit. This is because it is possible for the gifts of the Spirit to be given to unbelievers. Judas apparently could do the same works as the other apostles. In the Old Testament, the prophet Balaam, though an evil man, gave true prophecy (Numbers 22–24). Normally, of course, the gifts of the Spirit are given to believers, but as Paul says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Thus, we need to be concerned with the ethical fruit of the Spirit more than with His gifts.

Paul continues, “If 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. If I give all I possess to the poor [the gift of giving] and surrender my body to the flames [the gift of martyrdom], but have not love, I gain nothing.” This is a very strong statement.

Remember that Paul writes this as part of a larger discussion of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12–14). He says that the manifestation of the gifts, apart from the fruit, adds up to nothing. Thus, the most foundational part of the Christian life is the presence of love in the heart, the fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). Read this list and examine yourself. Choose one fruit and focus your attention and prayer upon it through the rest of the week. Ask God to cultivate an abundant harvest of it in your life.