The fruit of the Spirit is...patience...

Patience: n.

1. Tolerant and even-tempered perseverance.
2. The capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations, etc.*

Are these words that describe you, soldier? They describe one of the components of the fruit of the Spirit. Notice that the fruit of the Spirit includes patience; but notice further that implicit in the above definition is the fact that, just because one is a Christ follower, he is not exempt from "enduring pain, [and] trying situations." Consider Hosea, called by God not only to be a prophet (Hosea 1:1), but also to marry a prostitute! (Hosea 1:2) Do you think that would require "tolerant and even-tempered perseverance?"

Wouldn't it be wonderful if becoming a Christian meant that you would never have any trouble again? That is, unfortunately, not the case. Instead, God has made another provision: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus certainly did not lack for pain and trying situations; but He did have the Holy Spirit. (Luke 4:1)

James writes,

"² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." (James 1:2-4)

Apparently, God has a reason for allowing us to get into situations which require "the capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations, etc." They test our faith and produce patience. Remember, Lieutenant, God's mission is not to make you happy, but to make you holy. Consider Job. He lost his fortune, his family, his home, his health. His response?

"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.(Job 1:21-22)

By contrast Job's wife quickly lost patience with her circumstances:

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
¹⁰ But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (Job 2:9-10)

Why was Job blessed with patience, whereas his wife was not? Notice that Job's focus is on God: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." His wife on the other hand was focused on the circumstances. When she saw her husband covered with boils and scraping his skin with a potsherd for relief, she told him to "Curse God and die."

The Holy Spirit is the source of patience. (Galatians 5:22-23) Paul wrote to the Galatians: "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:17-19) He also wrote to the Ephesians:

...be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20, emphasis added)

This is a pretty succinct description of being filled with or walking in the Spirit. What is the essence of what Paul is saying here? Singing hymns, speaking psalms, making melodies to God in our hearts, and giving thanks in the name of Jesus IS walking in the spirit.

So, it appears that patience is a natural outcome of walking in the Spirit, which is merely this: focus on Jesus and not on this world. Impatience, by contrast is the result of walking in the flesh, as Job's wife did. When we focus on the "pain and trying circumstances," we inevitably become fearful, frustrated and impatient. When we focus on Jesus, who is bigger than our circumstances, the indwelling Holy Spirit bears fruit in our lives, including patience.

In a previous post, I wrote about the fact that the battlefield on which our spiritual warfare is conducted is in the human mind. Putting on the full armor of God, (Ephesians 6:11) is a matter of walking in the Spirit, or focusing our minds on Jesus. Satan would like nothing better than to have you lose your patience. If you have lost your patience, it is likely that you are not walking in the Spirit. And that is when you are most vulnerable to Satan's attacks.

Remember, sailor, you are not fighting this war for victory; you are fighting this war from victory. Satan is already defeated, but he would like nothing better than to have you forget that and go down with him. So, put on the full armor of God...and have patience. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Still not sure?

Soldier, do you harbor just a little doubt that we are engaged in spiritual warfare against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil? Read Chuck Colson's Breakpoint for December 17, 2010.

As the Islamic jihadists are emboldened by the fact that western governments, which for the most part suffer from a lack of any coherent world view, stand paralyzed by the curse of political correctness, Christians around the world bear the brunt of their fury. Mr. Colson applauds the New York Times for reporting about persecution of one of the world's oldest communities of Christians. That persecution, if not sanctioned by the Iraqi government, is at the very least ignored by that same government; a government that was formed after a bitterly fought constitutional convention, during which the term "religious freedom" was bandied about, but never truly embraced.

In Iraq, the spiritual warfare has already become temporal warfare, as Christians die or flee for their lives before their neighbors who have been recruited and deluded by Satan. Likewise, in China, citizens who embrace Christ must live in fear of and hide from their own government. Increasingly, the U.S. government, bowing to small minority groups, is systematically stripping its citizens (and especially Christians) of the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. How should a Christian soldier respond? In previous posts I have remarked about the need to be in intimate communication with the Commander in Chief, i.e., Jesus Christ, through prayer and the word of God.

Then we need to take the CIC's message to a world enslaved by fuzzy thinking; a world that has embraced moral relativism, political correctness and the satanic lie that there is no absolute truth. Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) That is not a statement of wishful thinking. It is the truth. Jesus is the absolute truth. He has left us a written record of His truth, in which for thousands of years men have found unshakable precepts for living in harmony with God and His creation.

As soldiers in the army of the Lord, we are called to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20) We must, therefore, go winsomely, and clad with the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:14-17) into our communities, into our workplaces, into our schools, into our public squares and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Are you girded up, soldier? For'ard, harch!

The fruit if the Spirit is...peace...

I have posted a couple of times on the fruit of the Spirit here and here. Today, I want to address the third component of the fruit of the Spirit, peace.

Peace, according to Dictionary.com, is defined as: "...cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension. Freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, an obsession, etc.; tranquillity; serenity." Of course, we also talk about peace as the absence of wars or hostilities among nations. More in line with our present discussion is this definition: "...a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations...."

During the Advent season, we are annually reminded:

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
' Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!'^c]">" (Luke 2:13-14)

It is likely that the Jews of His time believed this pronouncement to mean that Jesus came to end wars and international hostilities and the oppression of Israel by Rome. But His mission was far bigger than that. Let us go back to Genesis 3. Remember when Adam sinned; the event we commonly refer to as the Fall of man?

What was God's reaction to this original sin? To the serpent He said:

"...I will put enmity
Between you and the woman..."

To the woman He said:
“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”
¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.

¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.

¹⁹ In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

This passage certainly doesn't sound like the peace talks. God was furious. Adam and Eve had had an idyllic existence in the garden; tending the plants, eating the fruits they produced, unaware of the existence of evil, without rules and regulations, except one:

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

This one rule was all that God had asked them to obey, and they failed to do so. Wouldn't you have been furious in God's place? It was such a little rule to have to obey. The consequence for disobedience couldn't have been more clearly stated: "you shall surely die." God was furious about the disobedience, which was sin, but I believe He was heartbroken as well, because the idyllic existence of those He had created in His very image and the intimate relationship He had had with them were shattered. For God is a holy God and can have nothing to do with sin. And now the man and the woman were tainted with sin and separated from God.

OK, Corporal, what does all of this have to do with peace? Well, after the Fall, there was little "mutual harmony...in personal relations" between God and men. That is, there has been little "peace" in their relations. But the heavenly host, on that first Christmas, brought glad tidings of great joy, singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

This was not a proclamation that there would be peace among men, but that there would be peace between God and men, and God was demonstrating His good will toward men. How so? The Messiah was come to ransom the captives (not of Rome but of Satan), seek and save the lost (spiritually), to give sight to the blind (to the physically blind, yes, but more importantly to the spiritually blind), to heal the brokenhearted:

Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” (Luke 4:18-19)

That first Christmas, God offered an olive branch to man, made in His own image, when man as a race was mired in sin and death. Jesus was that olive branch, come to make peace. In His own ingenious way, He came as the most vulnerable of creatures, a human baby, in the most humble of circumstances, a stable full of animals, and was lain in a manger in lieu of a bed, because His unwed teenage mother had nothing more for Him. As the Apostle Paul would later write:

"...being in very nature God, [He]
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature^b]"> of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself..." (Philippians 2:6-8)

Now, of course, the baby had a few years of growing and ministry to go through, before He was fully prepared to deliver on the promise of peace. But when the time had fully come, He humbled himself again by voluntarily subjecting Himself to the humiliation of mockery, flogging, trial in a couple of kangaroo courts, and perhaps, the most cruel, painful form of execution ever devised by the depraved mind of man.

Why? Why did He do that? Remember what was blocking the possibility of peace between God and man? That's right, sin. Sin had always been atoned for by the shedding of blood, but the blood of animals was never enough to wash away the sin of a man. Only the blood of a perfect man could settle the debt once, for all. When Christ, on the cross, uttered the words, "It is finished," and yielded up His spirit, He was talking about the mission for which He came: "on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

The Lord Jesus taught us many things during his time walking among us on earth. He told Nicodemus: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) Remember God's promise in Genesis 2:17, "you will surely die"? Now He is offering eternal life, for the small price of believing in His Son and surrendering to His will. I don't know about you, commander, but that gives me a great deal of peace.

He told John the Beloved Apostle, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man opens the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20) I believe you will find it difficult to give an example where two people share a meal in an atmosphere of hostility. Breaking bread together is a universal gesture of good will.

And on Pentecost, "[the believers] were all filled with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:4) Jesus had ascended to the Father, but true to His word, He sent "another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17) This is the same Spirit to whom we refer, when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is...peace.... If you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (which you are, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and surrendered your will to Him), you cannot escape "...the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, [which] will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7) It is the peace that can only come from Jesus' having bridged the chasm between you and God that was created by your sin. The sacrifice that God made by sending His only begotten Son to die in your place gives you access directly to God the Father in prayer and to that other Helper, who lives with you always in love, joy, peace....

May you know that peace of God that surpasses understanding as you contemplate, during this Christmas season, the miracle of Immanuel, God with us; "the Word [Who] became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14), so that "as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name..." (John 1:12)

Peace, soldier...and Merry Christmas!