Teachings of men, part 13...Fruits of the Spirit

I started this ever growing study on the writings of men (now the teachings of men) because of a couple of encounters I had with people that I'm sure would have claimed to be the elect. I have no way of knowing if they are the elect or not but I do know they did claim to be 'reformed' and 'Calvinists'. I won't rehash all that got me started down this study but suffice it to say that it was these men's clinging to writings of fallen men over Scripture that was at the base of my studies.

I thought I had about reached the conclusion of these studies because, really, how much deeper can I go into this one subject? My husband and I even talked of how we have pretty much covered all there is to cover on this subject. 

Then something new comes to light and the Lord keeps me...us...deep in the throes of this ongoing study. Some days I wish this would all come to its conclusion and other days I don't want to finish it because I am enjoying this deep study. 

And so here I sit now, pondering people as we know them, the early believers, the Apostles, and I can't help thinking that the fruits of the Spirit spoken of in Scripture may be of so much more importance than we might think they are. 

I will come back to those fruits shortly but just now I can't help thinking of Paul's words on the importance of love:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV


But it is the next verse that says so very much:

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. (verses 2-3)

Paul had all these gifts. the ESV version leaves one to look at the verses and see where he may be saying 'if I have' but if we look at earlier versions of the very same verses we see him saying 'though I had':

 Though [a]I speak with the tongues of men and [b]Angels, and have not love, I am as sounding brass, or a [c]tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I had the gift of prophecy, and knew all secrets and all knowledge, yea, if I had all [d]faith, so that I could remove mountains, and had not love, I were nothing.

3 And though I feed the poor with all my goods, and though I give my body, that I be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Geneva Bible 1599.

I'm not quibbling over versions here but it is interesting to point out subtle differences and though the subject I wish to focus on here is the importance of love it is also worth noting that Paul had the gifts of prophecy and he did know secrets and knowledge, he could speak in the tongues of angels and still he said that those things were all nothing if he did not have love. 

What does that say for the importance of love? Paul gives it more importance than prophecy and the gifts he was given to be an Apostle.

How many people professing to belong to Christ, no matter their doctrines or theology, have you encountered that appeared to lack love? How many have argued their point, sticking to their men's teachings or their own opinions, or even to Scripture, without showing the least sign of love for the person they talked to? 

I am very guilty of losing perspective sometimes when I write. It's not always easy to remember that whether I am writing a letter, with pen and paper, to a relative or  whether I write comments on my blog, emails to friends, or even posts for my blog, that somewhere out there on the other side of my writing is a person that will read what I write, a person with thoughts and feelings. 

My grandmother used to say 'you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar'. 

When writing something out we lose all the subtle nuances that come with the spoken word. We can't gauge the tone of someones voice or their body language when what they say comes through written words and we cannot see the person writing it. 

Even at that, sometimes I lose that same perspective in the spoken word. I tend toward bluntness and I much appreciate truth being spoken by others over any hint of subterfuge in my interactions with them. The trouble with that is that I all too often fail to recall that telling something as I see it does not always come across to the other person in the same way I meant it to. 

And so love must prevail. 

Because the greatest gift of all is love.

In my online encounters with people that claim to be the elect I have found many of them to hold so strongly to their ideas that they are right that they often fail to hold onto love. Personally, I would rather join to groups of arminians professing Christ than I had groups of people so certain that they are right, puffed up in their own ideals, that they toss love right out the window in favor of their own opinions. Be that in person or online. 

At least the Arminians welcome you with love.

I could easier sit in their pews than I could join into conversations with 'calvinists', 'reformed', or the 'elect' that are puffed up on their own arrogance and hold so tight to their doctrines and their own ideas of what is right that they show no love for others.

And in so doing they show no signs of the fruits of the Spirit.

I can't help feeling that if I had to have one of these men over me, if they were to be tasked with the overseeing of my soul, if they were to be put in the place of the elders we see in Scripture, that I would choose the loving Arminian and their erroneous doctrine than I would the puffed up elect so sure that their way, their opinion, is right that they set out to stomp on anyone that dares to dispute them.

At least the Arminians in their misguided doctrines show, for the most part, fruits of the Spirit. When they instruct you in Scripture they do so out of sincerity and a deep desire to help you gain salvation. They cry with you over the lost condition of ones soul and they rejoice at every soul they believe to be saved. I have not seen that to be the case with some people that are certain they are of the elect. Quite the opposite actually. I have seen a definite lack of love and fruits of the Spirit in some though they claim to be the very elect of God.

It was encounters with people that fit that very description that got me started studying and writing what has become a very long and in depth Scriptural study, with my husband sharing in the study, helping me, leading me, and generally being as deeply involved in this as I have been although it has been my fingers on the computer keys writing out each post. As I write this now I think of the encounters I have had with others, those that passed in love and those that have not.

I have talked with Arminians, listened to their tales of 'church' and their 'preacher'. I have talked with those in the 'calvinist' or 'reformed' doctrine, those that held to the conviction that they were of the elect.

And I think of the fruits of the Spirit, the very signs that we are told 'you will know them by their fruit'.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

Scripture tells us that an elect of Christ will have the fruits of the Spirit and that they will grow in those fruits. Anyone that claims to be a child of Christ yet they come across as lacking in the Spirit whether that is done in person or through something they wrote needs to carefully evaluate themselves because the only thing others can see in them, the only proof, if you will, that a person professing Christ is genuine is what others see on the outside. 

Rarely will those others have such close encounters with another's life that they can see the big picture. In Biblical times people lived and worked in close quarters, neighbors were friends or family, often both, they may have been your coworker, your fellow shopper at the market. You may have shared land for crops or a kitchen garden. You might have watched each others children, talked together, cried together. 

These people often lived in close proximity to each other. Enemies in those days probably knew more about each other than we often know about our own relatives today. 

Whether we live in close proximity, seeing each other's lives day in and day out, or whether we have only a handful of encounters with another through the internet or a single meeting with them in town, love should be the guiding light in us and they should be able to see the fruits of the Spirit in us even if their only encounter with us in their entire life lasts mere seconds. 

Paul says that if we do not have love, no matter what other gifts we have, than we are nothing.

Love is our beacon in the night. It is our only testimony. No matter what our words say...our actions (or the tone those words take) are the outward show of our inward being. 

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45 ESV

What happens when the mouth speaks two different things? What happens when Truth and anger spew forth from the same mouth? 

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,[a]and set on fire by hell.[b] 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers,[c] these things ought not to be so.11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:6-18 ESV

Those last verses, starting at 16, ought to make us all question ourselves, even test ourselves...

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. 

Do we speak out of jealousy and selfish ambition? If so there will be disorder where we are concerned. Or do we speak out of a pure desire to share the Lord's words? If so than we should be peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 

Have I ever spoken out of jealousy and selfish ambition? Yes. Definitely. I am only human. I fail daily. That same section of James 3 tells us: 

...we all stumble in many ways. (Verse 2)

I stumble in so many ways I should not be able to pick myself up. I stumble but I try. I write for my own learning, for my own edification, because I am somehow, through the Lord's doing, able to take the Scripture studies my husband and I have and pull them together, putting his words and my thoughts together, in such a way that what I write makes sense of all our studying and talking and we are both edified by my writings. I do not desire to teach others, though I may share my writings with some from time to time, but to edify my husband and myself. 

I do not write out of jealousy or selfish ambition, nor do I write out of a desire to teach anyone but out of the desire to share my faith and my thoughts, to open my mind, my heart, my very soul to my husband. 

Does that motive come through in every word I write? Does it go further and show in every word I speak, in everything I do...can love be seen in me in all that I do, in every encounter I have? I am sure it cannot because I am a fallen woman living in a fallen world. I seek no excuse for any failure I have only beg the forgiveness of those I have failed and ask them only that they overlook my failings and that they see my attempts to point to Christ in all that I do. 

Do I have love? Can it be seen in my life? In my writings? In my encounters with others? 

Am I "peaceable"? I try to be. Am I "gentle"? I try to be. I know I fail here because my human nature is to be blunt and bluntness and gentleness are in opposition to one another. Am I "open to reason"? I sure hope so. I am always ready and willing to be corrected through Scripture and will admit when wrong if Scripture shows me to be so. Am I "full of mercy and good fruits"? Again, I try to be. Can others see mercy in me? I do not know. Can they see the fruits of the Spirit in me...But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control...I sure hope so. I try. I see a big difference in myself now and what I was before I was regenerate. Back then I lacked quite a few of those fruits. Even relatives often tell me how different I am now from what I used to be. I pray that means the Lord has given me His salvation and that His fruits are seen in me. Am I "impartial and sincere"? I speak only out of truth, never out of malice or lies, never out of a need to sway anyone toward anything but with the underlying understanding, in myself and to others, that I stand for Christ and therefore for the things written in His word, for His teachings, for His standards. 

I go through all of that only because it is good for one to test oneself against the Scriptures, to take a deep, hard look at ourselves. I do not mind in the least laying my heart and soul bare here for anyone that should ever read it to see. This is me. This is what I am. Who I am. What I stand for. Do I speak in love? Do I act in love? Do I show the fruits of the Spirit? 

I cannot say what others see in me, only what I see in myself. In Scripture I am told to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. I pray that others see love in me, that they see a contrite heart when I fail, that they see that I am not speaking out of selfish ambition but out of love for Christ. 

Those are my only motives, my only reasons. Yet, what of my encounters with others, with the 'calvinists', the 'reformed', the 'elect', those that I have come up against when the things they have said held to their own ideas and the heroes they hold in their hearts, elevating these men (or their own opinions) above Scripture? What did they see in me? 

And what of the people we encounter that can speak true Scripture, can understand it, but do not have love in their interactions with others? What if we can speak Truth and share it with others? What if we understand all of Scripture? Is that proof that we are children of Christ, the elect? 

The ability to see Truth in Scripture does not seem to belong only to the elect. Many Bible Scholars translate Scripture yet no small number of them do not hold to a faith in Christ. I have seen this ability with my own eyes, though not with a Bible Scholar. 

I have a relative that denies God and is a self professing Pagan. I once handed this relative my Bible, open to Ephesians 1, and asked them to read it and tell me what they got from it. This relative did what I asked and once they finished reading proceeded to tell me about predestination. 

This was a TOTAL unbeliever. This person could write wonderful articles on Truth in Scripture. If this person were a 'preacher' they could preach sermons on Truth that would make the elect believe they were learning from one of their own. 

Even Satan can quote Scripture. That does not make him one of the elect. 

My point here is that the ability to write a convincing article or to give a good sermon, or even to share the very heart of Scripture does not make one an elect child of Christ. If even Satan quotes Scripture...what measuring stick does that leave us? 

The only one we have. We must look for the fruits of the Spirit, though there is no denying that there are some nonbelievers that appear to have these same fruits. Still, those fruits are our only way of gauging anyone. 'You will know them by their fruits'.  And the greatest of these is...what?

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

The greatest is love.

1 John 13 shows us how important this love is:

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In those verses Christ himself tells us that loving one another is a very commandment. That commandment came straight from the mouth of Christ. 

But so did the teachings of Paul. Later in the same chapter of John we read:

“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Christ is speaking of the Holy Spirit and the giving of the Scriptures. He told the disciples that He still had many things to say to them but they were not ready to hear them yet. He said, "when the Spirit of Truth comes...whatever he hears he will speak...he will glorify me...he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 

All of those things were declared through the Apostles, through the giving of the Scriptures and in those Scriptures we get the fruits of the Spirit and we are told the greatest gift is love. Not only that but Christ himself gave love as a commandment. 

What then are we to assume when we have an encounter with someone professing Christ, or worse, claiming to be the elect, but this person shows no love for others? What are we to assume, to base our conclusions about this person on? 

 I cannot know the condition of anyone's soul. I cannot know their salvation. They may be regenerate or they may not be. I do not know. All I have to base my opinions on is what little of them I see in my encounters with them. And even that shows me only that snippet in time. Someone I believe to be regenerate may not be, someone I think is reprobate may be granted salvation in the very next moment. I am not the Lord. I am not omniscient. I can only make observations based on what I see in another person. 

Scripture shows us that a profession of faith in Christ does not guarantee one's salvation. The thief on the cross was granted salvation, told 'this very day you will be with Me', while the pharisees were called 'white washed tombs' and 'brood of vipers'. We see time and again that there were apostates in Scripture. Paul speaks of men that fell away from him and he handed them over to Satan. 

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 ESV

How then can we, mere humans, mere mortals, fallen in mind and soul, living in a fallen world, know who are of the elect and who are not? 

Does a profession of faith make someone one of the elect? Does it save? 

If so than my pagan relative is headed to heaven because this person professed a belief in Christ as a child. I can also take heart that my relative that lived life professing Christ is in heaven with Him despite the fact that this person took their own life. And what of the Atheist that I know well, the one that denies both God and Christ but said 'the prayer' as a child, showing all manner of fruit of the Spirit until they denounced it all? 

Does a profession make a person one of the elect? Does knowing Scripture make one a child of Christ? Does writing articles about the Truth of Scripture make someone one of the elect? 

Christ Himself tells us:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23 ESV

If Christ gives us an example of those that profess Him, even doing many works in His name, that are to be turned away...how are we to know who is of the elect? 

We are told in Scripture: 

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV

And:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, Phillipians 2:12 ESV

We are even told to test ourselves and to work our our own salvation. How then, in light of the above Scriptures, are we to know the condition of another person's soul? 

All we have is what we see before us and we are told 'you will know them by their fruits'. So what happens when those fruits are missing in someone that claims to be of the elect? What are we to think then? Who do we trust? The person professing to be of the elect yet showing no fruit, no love... or Scripture?