Sermon Tone Analysis

Our State of Theology – 9i(8)k

Fruit of the Holy Spirit, Overview

Galatians 5:22–23 (NKJV)

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law.

The singular fruit, as compared with the plural works, suggests that the effect of the Spirit’s inworking is one harmonious whole, while carnality tends to multitudinousness, distraction, chaos.

There are no true virtues and good affections without the grace of regeneration.

Galatians 5:22- 23 is a portrait of Christ.

Love

Love = ἀγάπη agapē = It is the love that God is, produced in the heart of the yielded believer by the Holy Spirit, its chief ingredient, self-sacrifice for the benefit of the one loved.

(Wuest)

Agape became the distinctive word for the highest love in Jewish and then Christian circles, beginning about 250 BC in the Septuagint.

Agape was used for God’s love for man and the responsive human love for God.

Philia, means friendship, and eros, the love that desires something considered worthwhile.

Eros is all take; philia give-and-take; agape all give.”

1 Corinthians 13:1–8a (NIV84)

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails.

There are 15 elements of love described in vss.

4-7.

Most English translations depict each trait as an adjective; the Greek forms of all these descriptions are verbs.

Love is a verb.

They do not focus on what love is so much as on what love does and does not do.

Agapē love is active, not abstract or passive.

Agapē love does not simply feel patient; it practices patience.

Agapē love does not simply have kind feelings; it does kind things.

Agapē love does not simply recognize the truth; it rejoices in the truth.

Love is fully love only when it acts.

1 John 3:16–18 (NIV84)

16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

(by vss.

17-18)

17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Joy

Joy = χαρά chara = the experience of gladness.

Some, wrongly identifying joy as a purely human emotion.

Can people be commanded to produce an emotion?

Joy is not a feeling; it is the deep-down confidence that God is in control of everything for the believer’s good and His (God’s) own glory, and thus all is well no matter what the circumstances.

Shunammite woman who went to Elisha after her child died, stated to her husband and Gehazi, “It is well.”

(2 Kings 4:8-37)

For the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame (Hebrews 12:2).

Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV84)

10Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared.

This day is sacred to our Lord.

Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The vast congregation before the water gate, under the teaching of Ezra, were awakened and cut to the heart; they felt the edge of the law of God like a sword opening up their hearts, tearing, cutting, and killing.

Now that they were penitent and sincerely turned to their God, they were told to rejoice.

David Jeremiah: Joy isn’t necessarily happiness.

Happiness has to do with happenings.

And all of us face days when we feel some stress from the happenings of life—perhaps even great stress.

But joy…That’s something different, friend.

That has to do with your relationship with Jesus Christ.

It’s centered in Him! It’s centered in the One who does not change and cannot change.

Strength = מָעוֹז (mā·ʿôz): mountain stronghold, place of refuge; fortress.

Protection, formally, place of refuge, i.e., the means of being safe in a situation of danger as a figurative extension of a fortress.

This joy is a fortress for the Christian in a fallen world.

The great joy of the Lord is a powerful fortress.

The joy of the Lord is our stronghold.

Proverbs 17:22 (HCSB)

22A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Medicine = גֵּהָה (gēhâ) a cure, healing.

Joy is like medicine—it heals and strengthens.

Joy gives you the spiritual fortitude to press on to obtain the prize: salvation in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV84) 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2 (NIV84) 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Peace

Peace = εἰρήνη eirēnē = harmony in personal relationships peace, harmony.

a state of freedom from anxiety and inner turmoil—‘peace, freedom from worry.’

Colossians 3:15 (AMP)

15And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live].

And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].

Peace is often mistaken as being a doormat.

The peace of Christ has dominion and authority to rule that lets the believer know when they are in the will of God and when they are not.

“What is peace?”

A little boy answered, “Peace is when you feel all smooth inside.”

Rule = Brabruō (βραβρυω), an athletic term, “be umpire.”

Lightfoot says: “Wherever there is a conflict of motives or impulses or reasons, the peace of Christ must step in and decide which is to prevail.”

Vincent comments: “Literally, be umpire.

To factor decisively; to be the factor determining an outcome (as if arbitrating).

To control the activity of someone, based presumably upon correct judgment and decision—‘to control.’

This is what the peace of Christ does.

The peace of Christ tells you that you are on safe ground with God’s approval and blessing; the absence of the peace of God will let you know that what you are doing or about to do is unsafe and does not have God’s approval and blessing.

Let the peace of Christ rule (determine every decision and action in our lives).

In deciding on any course of action, let that be chosen which does not ruffle the peace within you.

Allow the peace of Christ be in control and be “the decisive factor.”

We are to submit ourselves to the rulership of the peace of Christ.

There are two aspects of peace: It is a gift from Christ (“of Christ” means both that it is his peace and that he is its source), but the believers must still submit to and work at it.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts”—to surrender to the lordship of Christ and to the peace that accompanies it.

Colossians 3:16–17 (AMP)

16Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts.