Put On Christ

Part 3

So How can we

‘Put on Christ ?’

1 Corinthians 2:19

But we have the mind of Christ and hold the thoughts of His heart.

When we receive Jesus and ask Him to be our Savior, this is the beginning of our spiritual journey. The Holy Spirit comes to reside in our spirit. We now have a seed of the Fruit of the Spirit in us. We now have a responsibility of developing the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.

We Have To Develop ‘The Fruit of the Holy Spirit. ‘

The above scripture says that we have the mind of Christ. But in reality when we believe and receive Jesus as our Savior we receive a seed of the ‘Fruit of the Spirit ‘. Our thinking and behavior are exactly the same as it was before asking Jesus to be our Savior. We have to develop the fruit of the Spirit in our souls.

The Fruit of the Spirit

What is the Fruit of the Spirit?

It is the nine Christlike attributes of Jesus. When the nine attributes come together in a Christians life, he has ‘Put on Christ. ‘ This life will be led by the Holy Spirit.

As we grow and develop spiritually, we start to behave in a different way in all situations. We live a godly life led by the Holy Spirit. The opposite of a godly life that displays the Fruit of the Spirit, is an ungodly life operating in the works of the flesh. In the last lesson I spoke about our flesh; our friends in Pakistan shared that when the teaching was translated in their Urdu language it changed the meaning of our flesh. Our flesh as scripture indicates is our old nature before our rebirth and mind renewal. It does NOT mean ‘meat.’ It has nothing to do with not eating meat. This misses the whole point of the need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Jesus is our example.

Jesus is our example of how to live as a Christian. He displayed the Fruit of the Spirit in His daily life. In our lives, when the nine attributes of the fruit of the Spirit come together, we then are displaying a complete picture of the character of Christ. We have ‘put on Christ. ‘

Galatians 5: 22-23

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

LOVE is mentioned first.

There are different kinds of love mentioned in the Bible. The Greek word for God’s sacrificial love is agape. The other loves mentioned are; eros is romantic love; phileo is friendship love; storge is family love. God loves us so much that He gave His only Son for us. Let us love others this way !

SELF-CONTROL is mentioned last.

Self-control is the active effort we put forth to resist going back to something we know we shouldn’t do. It frees us to follow and obey God’s instructions. It is self discipline over our life. God gave us freewill to do what we want. Let’s do what God has for us. It will be good!

KEY

Love and self-control are key. If we have love and self-control, the other fruits will easily develop. We will be more peaceful, patient, kind and gentle. We need agape love, which is the love God showed when He allowed His Son to die for our sins. When we have developed this ‘love’, we will be more forgiving and patient with people.

Self-control is much easier when we have ‘agape’ love. We don’t see the wrong in others anymore, we see the Christ in them.

Let’s Make A Decision To Bear Fruit!

If our hearts are fixed on Jesus and we are filling our minds with His word, we will bear fruit. Obedience to what the Lord is telling us to do is a must.

The Result

We will have put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our attitudes and behavior will line up with His. The Holy Spirit will have a freedom to work through us to reach a lost and dying world.

In closing dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, let us go forth in unity to reach the world for Jesus!

May the Lord bless you and keep you protected. May He provide for your needs. May He annoint your words to reach the lost.

Bless you dear ones. Pastor Barbara. 3/23