Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 59 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Gal 5:22-23.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 59 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; GAL 5:22-23.

 

Announcements/opening prayer:  

 

 

Principle: The Spirit produces Christian character. Compressed into nine words, the fruit of the Spirit is a condensed description of the life of Christ that the Spirit is to work out in each believer's life.

 

GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy [spiritual basis only], peace [bind together; with God and within], patience [long tempered with people], kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

 

GAL 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

 

"kindness" - crhsto,ths [chrestotes] = benevolence or goodness towards others. It is a heart of agape love towards all others.

 

It's opposites would be vengeance, malice, slander, anger, judging, and contentiousness. We find that the opposites of these nine characteristics are common to fallen man. These are divine, and being from God they are not dependent on people or circumstances.

 

TIT 3:3-5

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us

 

"goodness" - avgaqswsu,nh [agathosune] = a divine moral quality of being and doing good. It is the thinking, speaking, and action of divine righteousness.

 

Only God is good. There are many human forgeries and substitutes, but goodness can only be seen in God and therefore only in His word.

 

2TH 1:11-12

To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

"faithfulness" - pi,stij [pistis] = faithful devotion, trust-worthiness.

 

This is the conviction of faith. A believer is faithful who has a deep seated faith in the principles of God's person and program that he understands. He is not purposing to live his life for sordid self-gain or for any selfish reason, but lives the Christian way of life for Christ's sake. His motivation is pure and his understanding is keen, so that he does the same in adversity and pressure as he does under prosperity and leisure.

 

"gentleness" - prau<tej [prautes] = meekness, grace of the soul that accepts God's dealings as always good and therefore without disputing or resisting it.

 

This would be another word synonymous with "present yourself" when dealing with God and His commands. It also means that the believer possessing this virtue would be gentle with others since he would determine that any dealings with others has been decreed by God and so is accepted as from God.

 

"self-control" - evgkra,teia [egkrateia] = temperance, mastery, possession, or strength over self.

 

1CO 9:25

And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

 

This life fulfills the demands of the Law to walk and live holy. And so against such things there is no law that could call itself superior. These are holiness unto themselves and in their own virtuous, divine character. We are not under a legal system like the Law but we are free to walk in holiness of living through a fountain of grace in following a person's character.

 

GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

 

GAL 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

 

1CO 13:4-8

Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous [gentleness]; love does not brag and is not arrogant [self-control], does not act unbecomingly [goodness]; it does not seek its own [faithfulness], is not provoked [patience], does not take into account a wrong suffered [kindness], does not rejoice in unrighteousness [goodness], but rejoices with the truth [joy]; bears all things [patience], believes all things [gentleness], hopes all things [peace], endures all things [patience]. Love never fails;

 

Love is the bond or the outer garment that holds all the virtues of God together.

 

COL 3:12-14

And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.