The Fruit of the Holy Spirit - What is faithfulness?

Faithfulness may be the meaning of the next fruit, which tells of one who can be trusted — who is faithful in all his ways; or it may have the meaning of one who rests entirely in God, knowing that certainly God is working all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). Or it may be simply the faith that every Christian has in Christ for his salvation. Perhaps all these meanings are included, for surely each one is a fruit of the Spirit.

If we turn to Galatians 5:22, we find the first fruit of the Spirit is love. All the other fruits grow out of that one. If that is lacking, the rest are only like artificial fruit tied on a tree - it never grew there. Where there is love there is no effort. The next on the list is joy. Our joy will ever be in proportion to our love. This is an unfailing principle. And so it is with the next, peace. If, in all we do and say and think, we are actuated by love, we shall enjoy a peace which nothing can disturb. This does not imply a servile agreement with everybody and everything; love may sometimes have to stand almost alone, because there is so little of it in the world; but should this trying position be experienced, the mind will be in perfect peace, if only love is allowed to govern. And this will bring in, too, next long-suffering. Love will often be misunderstood. Men, and even Christians, are so accustomed to be directed by motives of self-interest and personal advantage, they misinterpret and misjudge the disinterestedness of love. And so there is need of long-suffering. This will lead to gentleness. If we confound gentleness with weakness we make a serious mistake. The great need of the hour is Christians who are gentle. It is love, and not social status, makes the true gentle man. It has been said of one of low degree that he was qualified to enter any society, and the reason was very simple - he loved everything, and "love doth not behave itself unseemly." "Goodness": love always seeks the welfare, and not the harm, of others. "Faith": love believeth all things. And then follow "meekness, temperance," and the apostle adds, "Against such there is no law." You cannot put love under law; it is its own law. It worketh no ill, only good. And "love is of God."

Then we have, on the other side, "the fruit of the Spirit is love." He begins with love — that which is of God, and flows directly from God, and which is the knowledge of God's character more than any other thing. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." Such are the first and weightiest effects produced by God's love. Then he gets down to what would more particularly deal with one another: "meekness, temperance," because these suppose the bridle put upon the evil nature — the self-control which the Holy Ghost works in the soul for the Lord's sake, as evidently being set in this world to be an epistle of Christ, so that we should not give a false character to Him whose name we bear. But all these are the fruits of the Spirit; and he adds, "against such there is no law." When did law ever produce these? So the law will never condemn those who walk in these things; as he says to the Roman saints, Romans 13, speaking of governors and rulers, "Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to thee for good." So here, "against such there is no law." If you are producing these fruits of the Spirit, there is no condemnation against them.

aman, πιστός. This word in both the O.T. and the N.T. is from the same root as 'faith.' It is being true to oneself, to one's nature, to any promise given, and to any trust committed. It is in various connections often applied to God Himself. Deut. 7:9; Isa. 49:7; 1 Cor. 1:9 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Tim. 2:13; Heb. 10:23; 1 Peter 4:19; 1 John 1:9. The Lord Jesus also is faithful. He is 'a faithful high priest' and 'a faithful and true witness.' 2 Thess. 3:3; Heb. 2:17; Rev. 1:5; Rev. 3:14; Rev. 19:11. The commandments and testimonies of God are called faithful. Ps. 119:86, 138. The words of the gospel are also faithful: the promises attached thereto will unquestionably be fulfilled. 1 Tim. 1:15; 1 Tim. 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:11; Titus 3:8; Rev. 21:5. Christians are exhorted to be faithful as stewards to any trust committed to them, and faithful as witnesses to an absent Lord. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Rev. 2:10.

These words in the N.T. are not confined to trustworthiness, as the words are now commonly understood; but extend to any honourable conduct. Luke 8:15; Rom. 12:17; 2 Cor. 8:21; 2 Cor. 13:7; Phil. 4:8; 1 Tim. 2:2; Heb. 13:18; 1 Peter 2:12.

Finally, "faithfulness, gentleness, self control." These three are personal to ourselves. Do you have faith? "Have it to yourself before God" (Rom.14:22). We must neither act on the faith of another, nor press another to act on our faith, though we may give him the Word of God to encourage him to act on his own faith. Gentleness (or meekness) is that quality that simply submits to personal humiliation, if need be, without demanding our personal "rights" as we see them. Self-control is a great inner conquest, as Proverbs 16:32 reminds us: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." In contrast, "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls" (Prov.25:28). "Against such there is no law." They are the spontaneous fruit of the Spirit, operating unquenched and ungrieved in our lives. Law neither produces or prohibits them.

(Vv. 21-23.) If walking in the Spirit, we shall not only be preserved from "the works of the flesh," but we shall bring forth "the fruit of the Spirit." The flesh has its "works," but produces no fruit for God. The Spirit produces both good works and fruit; though, in this passage, the Apostle speaks not of works, but of the beautiful Christian character from which all true work will flow. We are not all gifted, or called to be teachers and preachers, or to undertake great works. But "the fruit of the Spirit" is possible to all from the youngest to the oldest saint, and sets forth the essential condition for all true service.

What then is the spiritual significance of fruit? May we not say that fruit is the expression of Christ in the believer? We read in Galatians 5:22-23, that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control." What is this however, but a beautiful description of Christ as He passed through this world in humiliation? Hence if such fruit is seen in believers, it will result in the reproduction of Christ in His people. Christ personally has gone from this scene, but it is God's intention that Christ characteristically should still be seen in those that are Christ's. Christ in Person has gone to the Father's house, Christ in character is continued in His people on earth.

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, &c. … Remark that the first of these fruits are love, joy, peace. The Spirit will surely produce those practical fruits which manifest the life of Christ in the sight of men, but the inward fruits, the fruits Godward, come first, the condition of soul needful for producing the others.

Notice the contrast between the "works" and the "fruit." It is easy to understand the "works." The earth is filled with the noise of them. Their confusion and disruption are visible on every side. "Fruit," on the other hand, is of silent growth, even in nature. In summer time, amidst the orchards no one is driven to distraction by the noise of maturing fruit. The wonder of its growth takes place without a sound. So it is with the fruit of the Spirit. It is "fruit" you notice, not "fruits;" and this, because these lovely moral features are conceived of as a bunch; nine in number but all proceeding from one stem — the Spirit of God.