Which fruit looks more appealing to you in a supermarket? Good fruit, right?
Unfortunately, no one can produce good spiritual fruit on their own. The good fruit of the Holy Spirit that we celebrate at Pentecost is found in a believer’s life. If you do not know the fruit of the Spirit, no worries; we will take this journey together. The apostle Paul lists nine of them:
‘But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance [patience], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’
(Galatians 5:22–23)
It is an impressive list, isn’t it? If you were expecting a fresh fruit salad, then you might be a little disappointed at first. But in the end who can argue against a little more love or joy or kindness in our world?
The ‘good fruit’ given at Pentecost through the coming of the Holy Spirit are the spiritual markers that every believer should display in some way as evidence of the change that the Holy Spirit is working in them. The writer Paul’s intent here was to remind the believers in the church in Galatia that when the Spirit is at work in work in their lives, it will be evident.
That’s not to say that we never struggle in any of these ways; that’s just not reality, is it? The good Lord knows that we struggle in more than a few of these ways on a daily basis. But we can also know that he is continuing a work in us each day.
The point is to do a little bit of self-examination. Are you bearing good fruit? Is your life evidence of the Pentecost power working within you? The fruit is the overflow of the Spirit working in our life. It is evidence of a life devoted to God, and it is integral to our relationships with the people in our lives.
Let us encourage each other so we can become good at is this. Seeing the ‘good fruit’ in each other and encouraging will help us all grow good fruit. It works. We can see it all around us if we try.
For example: (Feel free to personalise to your situation)
- Faithfulness in leaders and neighbours who visit or drop off food to a lonely neighbour.
- Kindness as people ring up a neighbour whose family member is in hospital, checking to see all is OK.
- Patience as a leader leads a small group discussion with someone who always tends to dominate the conversation.
- Self-control from a church leader with a persistent group of young people disrupting the youth club.
- Gentleness while visiting a man bereaved of his wife and whose grandchildren hold him close.
This is the kind of refreshing talk that propels us forward, calling out the ‘good fruit’ in each other.
The story of Pentecost can come across as something of a movie, big on special effects. Suddenly, there is a noise like the wind that fills the house where the disciples are hiding, and the Holy appears to them like tongues of fire which rest on each of them. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples then run out into the streets and begin preaching.
We’re not likely to see a tongue of flame over anyone’s head nowadays. But if we can be the very best ‘good fruit’ in our communities and if we are living as Jesus taught, then we can love and be joyful, we can be peaceful and patient, we should be kind and generous, and we can aspire to be faithful, gentle and show self-control.
