Sermon Tone Analysis

After nine weeks of going through each example of spiritual fruit we read about in Galatians 5, I thought it would be good to bring it all back together into some kind of spiritual fruit salad.

The past several weeks have focused on the way spiritual fruit shows up in our lives as followers of Jesus.

But today I want us to take the next step and consider how spiritual fruit provides a diagnostic framework to give our lives focus, clarity, and direction.

Look at the way the apostle Paul does this in his letter to the Colossians.

It is not uncommon at all for the apostle Paul to make these lists in his letters.

We could find examples in just about all of his New Testament writings in which he lays out vices and virtues.

For those who read the Bible often, a passage like this from the writing of Paul does not surprise us.

In fact, maybe we pass over these lists so quickly because we might think we’ve seen this all before.

Yup, I’ve heard it: get rid of anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language.

Yup, I’ve heard it: clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience.

Let’s work through this passage as a wrap-up to our Fruit of the Spirit series and pay attention to three features we see here about spiritual fruit in general: that it is an ongoing process, that it provides immediate practical implications, and that it gives us a diagnostic framework for identifying the activity of the Holy Spirit.

I know over the past nine weeks we have looked individually at each ingredient of spiritual fruit as its own quality.

Today we are working with the combined collection of all those qualities joined together—something of a fruit salad.

The Ongoing Process of Spiritual Fruit

The first feature we note about spiritual fruit from this passage is that it is an ongoing process.

The taking off of the old self and the putting on of the new self is presented as completed action; that part is already done.

When Jesus gave himself on the cross to take away the guilt of our sins, our old self was put to death along with the death of Jesus.

When Jesus rose from the tomb and gained the victory of new life, our new self was made possible by Jesus uniting his new resurrection life to us.

Those things have already been done, and they have already been done through Jesus.

the new self is continually in the process of being renewed in the image of God

light bulb dimmers

But look at how verse 10 ends.

The new self which we have been given in Christ is a life that is continually in the process of being renewed in the image of God.

There may be some instances when we only see a glimpse of spiritual fruit, but there may be opportunities over time for those expressions of spiritual fruit to grow and become some significant.

Like all of you, the rooms in my house all have lights so that people can see in the house after the sun goes down.

Many of those rooms have light switches which simply turn the light on or off.

Those lights are either on at full wattage and brightness, or they are completely dark with no voltage at all.

Maybe sometimes we look for spiritual fruit to work this way.

It is either there or it is not; it is either on at full brightness or it is off in complete darkness.

There are other rooms in my house that have dimmer switches for the lights.

In those rooms, there is an option for the light to be on, but barely.

Some of those lights are connected to the internet in my house so that they can be programmed on a timer.

In the morning when it is time to wake up, there are certain lights that are programmed to turn on at a certain time of the morning.

But they don’t just all flip on to compete brightness in the morning.

Those lights are programmed to slowly fade on with a soft glow, gradually becoming more and more brighter.

spiritual fruit continually grows as we are being renewed

This is how Paul describes the presence of spiritual fruit in the lives of those who are being made alive in Christ.

The seeds of that spiritual fruit which have been planted in us gradually become brighter and brighter as we are continually renewed into the image of God.

So, on the one hand, it is okay if you are newer to the Christian faith and your life does not always beam radiantly with things like compassion and gentleness and kindness.

But, on the other hand, those are qualities that should at least be growing and moving forward to become brighter and brighter.

It is a process that should always be at work within the lives of those who follow Jesus as savior and lord.

The Immediate Practical Action of Spiritual Fruit

The second feature we note in this passage is the immediate practical implication of spiritual fruit.

Just look at the way Paul directs all of these qualities to be evident in the way we express them towards one another.

Look at how this spiritual fruit shows up as practical implication.

Verse 9 — “do not lie to each other.”

Verse 13 — “forgive one another.”

verse 9 — “do not lie to each other”

verse 13 — “forgive one another”

Here is what I am getting at.

Spiritual fruit has little value in and of itself.

There is no value in having the fruit of compassion unless it shows up as forgiving one another.

There is no value in having the fruit of self-control unless it shows up as restraint from lying to each other.

Over these past weeks we have been defining spiritual fruit as virtuous qualities and character traits; but those things only count when they translate into real life action.

I may be a person who feels a sense of compassion for the poor; but if I never do anything to actually help the poor, then my compassion is rather useless.

spiritual fruit has an automatic outcome — action expressed towards one another

Paul is telling us that these things ought to naturally go hand-in-hand.

And I do mean naturally, not forced.

The life of Christian spiritual fruit, then, is not a moralistic checklist of ethical behavior chores.

Rather, it is the natural outcome—the automatic byproduct—of a life that is being continually renewed into the image of our creator.

The Diagnostic Framework of Spiritual Fruit

Now then, let’s keep those two features in mind—that spiritual fruit is an ongoing process and that spiritual fruit shows up in immediate practical real-life action.

For the rest of our time here today I want to turn our attention to something different.

Let’s focus on the way in which spiritual fruit provides us with a diagnostic framework.

This is going to take a little explanation because those are big words that might sound a little confusing.

So, let’s talk first about what a diagnostic framework even is, then we can talk about the way spiritual fruit fits into this.

diagnosis — a critical analysis of the nature of something

act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of something through evaluation, examination, and review of data

Perhaps we most often associate the term ‘diagnosis’ with the medical field—whether is is mental health or physical health.

When people experience an ailment of some kind and have symptoms they know are not right, they seek the advice of doctor or psychiatrist.

After examining the symptoms, the doctor or psychiatrist provides a diagnosis—an explanation of what they think the issues are which cause the symptoms we see.

And from the diagnosis we hope to gain a path of action forward—we know what needs to be done in light of the diagnosis we have received.

spiritual fruit provides a framework to spiritually diagnose the world around us

Here is where I want us to take this whole series about spiritual fruit into a new direction.

You see, perhaps up to this point we have been thinking about spiritual fruit in terms of personal application.

How can I be a person who bears spiritual fruit in my life?

Or maybe we have been thinking about spiritual fruit in terms of community.

How can I be a person who helps others bear spiritual fruit in their life?

But after all these weeks digging in a focusing on the nature of spiritual fruit and how to recognize it, I want us to consider this feature of spiritual fruit: that it provides for us a framework which helps us spiritually diagnose the world around us.

we have been equipped by God’s word with the knowledge to diagnose what is spiritually wrong with the world around us

When my body is physically sick, I go to a medical doctor because the doctor has studied human biology and has been equipped with the knowledge to diagnose what is physically wrong.

You and I have been equipped by God’s word with the knowledge to diagnose what is spiritually wrong with the world around us.

The world is spiritually sick—that’s what sin does to us and to our world; it leaves us in spiritual sickness.

The word of God helps us diagnose the symptoms of that spiritual sickness.

It gives us a framework though which to analyze the spiritual condition of the world around us.

Jesus says it like this.

embrace expressions of spiritual fruit in our world, so that it may flourish and thrive

Once my medical doctor provides a physical diagnosis, there is a course of action which can bring about healing and physical health.

Similarly, once you and I give the time and attention to spiritually diagnose the world about us, there is a course of action which can bring bring about healing and spiritual health.

It is the fruit of the spirit we see in scripture which gives us this framework to spiritually diagnose the world around us.

That is what I mean by spiritual fruit as a diagnostic framework.

Wherever, then, we see examples of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in our world around us, we ought to embrace these things so that it may flourish and thrive all the more.

where the Spirit is bearing fruit in the world around us, we should be there too

Sometimes this is easy.

Think of the various places in which we partner right out of this church.

We partner with Kid’s Food Basket, and with Backpack Buddies, and with Love Your Neighbor Life Skills Program, and with World Renew.

We don’t do these things because we have some sort of obligation to check these activities off on bingo card of moral piety.

We do these things because we see that there are places which bear spiritual fruit.

We use a diagnostic framework of looking at the world around us and figuring out where it is we see expressions of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control, and we say let’s embrace that, let’s be a part of that.

Because where the spirit is bearing fruit in the world around us, we should be there too.