Should I have All the Fruits of the Spirit?

God is glorified when we Christians bear fruit.  Our “fruit”, according to John 15, cannot happen unless we abide in Jesus.  He uses a brilliant analogy of Himself being the vine with all the nutrients, and we are the branch…basically a conduit transferring nutrients to the fruit.  A branch cannot produce fruit by itself, it needs the vine.  More on that term “abiding” here.

But, what’s the “fruit” Jesus is referring to?  Jesus tells us some and leaves some for us to determine in the context of the John 15 passage, where we find fruit to be:

-Loving Jesus and keeping His words and doing His commands (John 14:23).

-Letting the Holy Spirit help you (John 14:26). 

-Peace from Jesus (John 14:27).

-Answered prayers and desires (John 15:7 & 16). 

-You glorify God (John 15:8). 

-You have Jesus’ joy, and your joy will be full (John 15:11).

-You love one another (John 15:12).

-You bear witness of Jesus (John 15:27).

Now, some of those are straight forward, some are rather vague, but practical examples are not really given, don’t you agree?  That’s probably intentional because the fruit you produce shouldn’t be something you robotically do, or have to do to be a Christian.  The fruit you produce should come from how you live, and what you do as a product of your character…hopefully the character of Jesus the Holy Spirit in you produces!

One fruit mentioned by Jesus is to glorify God.  I immediately think of 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whatever you do…do all to the glory of God.” Bearing fruit because you are connected to Jesus is partially individualistic.  How God “wired” you with your talents, your desires, the fruits of the Holy Spirit in you, and the spiritual gifts He as given you enables you to bear YOUR fruit, YOUR way.  You sort of get to choose your fruit! (Along the guidelines of, and being fueled by being connected to Jesus)

Speaking of the “fruit of the Spirit” from Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”  I think YOUR fruit must have those built-in, which come from the power of the Holy Spirit in you…through you.

Can you have all of those?   At first you probably would say no, some are very difficult. However, they are actually linked together and the wording of the passage insinuates all of them (again, because of the power of the Holy Spirit whose character produces ALL of them).  Newer Christians may have just a few, but as you mature, I think you eventually DO have them all.  Here’s another reason I say that:  

Paul begins and ends this Galatians 5 passage (verse 16 and 25) with the key to having all of these: “walk in the Spirit”.   The word “walk” is a different original Greek word in verse 16 than it is in verse 25, however.  To not bore you with word study I’ll cut to the chase, I believe the point the Holy Spirit through Paul is making is “walk” is a command and means a continuous habitual effort to orderly march along a path that leads to a destination.  Keep walking and maturing as a Christian, eventually, you will have all of those Galatians 5:22-23 fruits of the spirit.

Couple that with the John 15 passage, where Jesus starts out saying being connected to Him you will bear fruit, then He says you will bear more fruit, and ends saying you will bear much fruit.  See the progression and increase there?

I believe Christians, abiding in Jesus, will grow and mature to where/when they have ALL of the fruits of the Spirit, and the older they get, the more fruit they will produce.  Which increasingly glorifies Him!

So keep at it, you will bear much fruit if you walk connected to Jesus.