The Fruit of the Spirit in Friendship

We read in Eph. 5:8-9: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth)."

We read further in Gal. 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."

When I read and reread these verses, I noticed that "fruit" is written in the singular, and I could not imagine what it should look like. Probably something similar to an orange, where there are many segments in one fruit, and each segment is a special substance. I always wanted to be a fruitful Christian. In communication with people I tried to produce this fruit, but it was unclear to me how this is done. And then I abandoned these efforts and began to simply live. An orange tree does not need to try to prove something to someone. It simply bears oranges because it is an orange tree. The peculiarity of the fruit of the Spirit is that it ripens on a tree under the common name "Love." This is one of the names of God, and without Him we can do nothing.

Once my wife asked me in winter to bring her branches from some tree. I did not understand what she wanted to do with this. She put these branches in water and after some time fresh green leaves appeared on them, and then flowers. It was so joyful to have a spring mood in winter. And then these branches withered even though we often changed the water for them. I so hoped that the flowers would ripen and begin to transform into fruit. After this I cut branches with fruit ovaries and observed whether they could bear fruit in a vase. But everything ended with them withering and giving no fruit.

I also noticed that the fruit of each plant ripens at a certain time. Not earlier and not later.

Love for one another is a tree in God's garden, which is grafted to one common Root named Jesus, from Whom the plant takes all its juices to develop properly. Living in Christ, we simply find each other and decide to give each other love, grafting our relationship to the True Vine. In Jesus there is a lot of juice that nourishes us with its life-giving power and brings into our mutual love a special taste and interesting experiences. My friend and I do not plan to bring anything into this world, but time passes, and we notice that an interesting fruit grows on the branches of our friendship tree, and then much fruit. And it is so fragrant and tasty! We look and marvel. It seems we are not trying to produce something, but simply love each other from a pure heart and ask the Lord to bless these relationships, and then rejoice that we exist for each other, and that there is peace and harmony between us. We are in no hurry in our love and friendship and are set to carry it through all our life, taking it with us into Eternity. For such a long period special longsuffering is needed, and it exists, and we do not even worry that we will need to be friends for a very long time and love each other.

In our relationship there is also mutual kindness. From morning to evening we think of how to please each other, so that everyone feels very good from this. To do good to the one you love is not difficult at all, or rather, it is impossible not to do it.

Mercy has so permeated our hearts in our friendship that we are ready to live with this in our love, and we are also ready to share this with all who wish. How else? How not to show mercy to the one you love? Love covers everything and finds its justification for everything that can happen.

We believe that Jesus blesses us in our relationships, because we dedicated ourselves to Him, asked about this, and see how He answers and nourishes us with His life-giving juices. We believe that having begun this good work in us, the Lord will perfect it until the day of His Coming. And even during the greatest trials and the greatest tribulation we will continue to love each other and develop our relationships, if circumstances do not separate us. And in Eternity no one will prevent us from continuing to build our love and friendship further.

In our friendship there is also meekness in relationships. We so tenderly and carefully study each other in search of treasures of the soul that we are afraid to touch those places where there are injuries from past battles. Our meekness in love helps us to be restrained and delicate, not to go where it is not allowed, and not to raise in communication what causes pain and causes harm. We patiently wait for permission to receive each other and sincerely rejoice that we always turn out to be needed and desired for each other. Meekness helps to show restraint in many matters and to be lenient toward each other's mistakes, covering everything with mutual forgiveness and love.

In our friendship there is also self-control from everything that can harm our relationships or destroy them, but at the same time moderate use of those qualities of the soul that we abundantly share with each other. We respect the freedom of choice and expression of will of our friend and do not insist on doing good to each other against our wishes. Respect for each other is always present in our relationships, and we value this very much.

The righteousness of Jesus covers our relationships and makes them pure and perfect. At first we were afraid to tell each other about our love, but then we saw that God does not forbid doing this, and we began to practice this manner of speech. And you know, it turns out to express love not only in deeds and motives, but also in words. And all this brings mutual joy and warms our hearts. The righteousness of Christ makes our relationships holy and right. We always compare ourselves with Him and ask: "Lord, is this right, is this possible, is this decent?" God's law determines the boundaries of our happiness, within which we can calmly develop.

And when we in love and truth bear much fruit, then we are not under law, but under grace. The Lord keeps us from all evil and protects our relationships from various temptations and attacks from outside.

The Holy Spirit produces in us those very necessary transformations when we make the decision to love each other and build our further life on this foundation, and we invite Christ into these relationships. We do not make efforts to bear the fruit of the Spirit, but simply love each other in simplicity of heart and have fellowship with each other. And then we see how such beautiful clusters have grown on the branches of our union, which are pleasant not only to us, but also to all our friends and acquaintances. And they themselves guess that we are disciples of Jesus, because we have love among ourselves.

Our friendship has a prophetic foundation and originates from God's commandment, and then is offered by Christ in the message to Laodicea as gold refined by fire, as a means to emerge from the lukewarm state and enrich one's life with new experiences and abundance of fruit.

We do not know how to love each other and do not know how to be friends correctly, but once having embarked on this path, we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us this science and produce in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

1. Please read: Ps. 1:1-3; Rom. 6:22; Phil. 2:13; Matt. 5:3-12; Eph. 4:23-25; 1 Pet. 1:22; Gal. 6:9-10; Prov. 17:17; 23:23; 25:15; 27:9; John 13:34-35; 15:1-9,26; 16:13; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:22; 1 Thess. 4:9 in light of this topic.

2. What did you understand from this topic?

3. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind?

4. Do you understand the expression "fruit of the Spirit"? What is it?

5. Is the formation of my character only my life task, or does Someone else participate in this process?

6. Do you think there is something in love for one another that is built by God?

7. How do I determine whether my friend and I love each other?

8. Can I by my desire and effort produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

9. To love one another—is this knowledge and skill necessary to seek and develop, or does it come by itself as I grow in faith?

10. Does God's plan for the last time include my love for a friend? If yes, where is it written about?

11. What does mutual love do with people? What does it prepare them for?

12. But can it be that I will strive all my life for love with a friend, but will never experience this joy?

13. Do you have such a friend with whom you love each other and see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your relationship?

14. If I have the fruit of the Spirit in other types of ministry, do I need to love someone else?

15. Do you know how to love your friend?