| A woman, driving her
vehicle, was pulled over by a few squad
cars, and, when the police came out, they
had their guns drawn. The woman was shocked.
What had she done?
"You were weaving in and out of traffic,"
one officer said, "making obscene gestures
to other drivers and cursing them."
"For that," she replied, "you pull out
your guns?"
"Well," the officer said, "we saw the
bumper sticker, which said you were a
Christian, and we just assumed the car had
been stolen."
This silly story brings out an important
point: Christians, by their very profession,
are held up to a high moral standard. After
all, look at the One whom they profess as
their model, Jesus Christ.
How, then, should Christians live? How
should we act in public and at home? The key
is found in
Galatians 5:22, 23, the subject of this
quarter. "But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
against such there is no law."
We are going to look at this "fruit of
the Spirit"; that is, we are going to look
at what happens to those whose lives are
surrendered to God and who thus allow the
Holy Spirit to work in them. " 'That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit' "
(John
3:6, NKJV). The fruit of the Spirit
is what grows in us when we are born of the
Spirit; it is what happens when we are "born
again."
Notice, Paul says that "The fruit of the
Spirit is . . ." He's talking in the
singular. Paul is not talking about separate
traits that operate independently of one
another but about a single reality. The
fruit of the Spirit is what the Holy Spirit
creates within us; it defines the type of
person we are to become in Jesus.
The fruit of the Spirit is like a
precious jewel with many facets. Each facet
is a characteristic of Jesus and represents
a quality that He wants to produce in our
lives. This is the heart of the matter.
God's purpose is to make us like Jesus, and
He has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us
in order to make that change happen.
You will see as we study these lessons
that the fruit of the Spirit is not a
theory, though we have made it a study. It
is not a lifestyle, though a person who is
cultivating the fruit of the Spirit will not
live as he or she did before. Instead, the
fruit of the Spirit is a change of being.
"Old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new"(2
Cor. 5:17). The fruit of the Spirit
is the "new" in the life of a person who has
passed from death unto life (1
John 3:14) in Christ.
The purpose of this quarter's lessons is
not to focus on how we can become more
patient or more loving or more gentle or
more faithful, but on how we can let the
Holy Spirit make us more like Jesus, who is
patience, love, gentleness, and faithfulness
personified.
You will be challenged to cultivate the
graces of the fruit of the Spirit at all
times, but especially at home. We will see
that the key is surrender, a willingness to
die to self and live for God and for others.
Finally, we will see that all that we do, we
must do under the realization that we are
sinners in need of the covering grace of
Christ, who loves us whether the harvest
seems plentiful or sparse. We must never
forget that the fruit of the Spirit is just
that—the "fruit," the result of salvation,
not the means. The means is always Jesus and
what He has done for us, which we claim by
faith.
Pastor Richard O'Ffill, an author and
speaker, has worked for the church on three
continents, including seven years at the
General Conference headquarters. He now
resides in Orlando, Florida.
Contents: (all
lessons may not be posted)
Giardina Sabbath
School Study Helps
Jerry Giardina of Pecos,
Texas, assisted by his wife, Cheryl,
prepares a series of helps to accompany the
Sabbath School lesson. He includes all
related scripture and most EGW quotations.
Jerry has chosen the "New King James
Version" of the scriptures this quarter. It
is used with permission. The study helps
are linked from each lesson and links to the
whole quarter's Helps are provided here. in
two versions: Wordprocessing as an RTF
file and
HTML (Web Pages).
Last updated on January 1,
2010
Editorial Office: 12501 Old Columbia
Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904.
|
Principal
Contributor
Richard O'Ffill
Editor
Clifford R. Goldstein
goldsteinc@gc.adventist.org
Associate Editor
Soraya L. Homayouni
Publication Managers
Lea Alexander Greve |
Editorial
Assistants
Tresa Beard
Sharon Thomas-Crews
Pacific Press Coordinator
Paul A. Hey
Art Director and Illustrator:
Lars Justinen
Concept Design:
Dever Design |
Copyright ©
2010 by the Office of the Adult Bible Study
Guide, General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventist. All Rights Reserved.
SSNET Web Site
Home
page
Directory of
Sabbath School Bible Study materials
Archive of previous
Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guides
Prepared for the Internet by the
SSNET Web Team.
|
