The Christian’s goal is to become perfect: ripe, mature, sweet, juicy and nutritious! Matthew 5:48 says, “[Become] ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
God created a variety of fruit for us to enjoy in the natural world: apples, oranges, bananas, pears, figs, cherries—the list goes on and on, and we don’t even know them all! Since the physical world is a type of the spiritual (Romans 1:20), it follows that God intends for us to produce a similar variety of spiritual fruit.
God created a variety of fruit for us to enjoy in the natural world: apples, oranges, bananas, pears, figs, cherries—the list goes on and on, and we don’t even know them all! Since the physical world is a type of the spiritual (Romans 1:20), it follows that God intends for us to produce a similar variety of spiritual fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23 describe nine of these main spiritual fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. The number 9 is used 49 times in Scripture. That frequency (7 times 7) symbolizes divine completion or finality. When we are tuned in to God’s wavelength and we act on the influence of His Spirit, these fruits will be evidenced in our habits, reactions and patterns of conduct that characterize our lives. They will be part of our every thought and action, causing us to become more like God.
The word perfect used in Matthew 5:48 is teleios, which means “to become mature, whole, complete or entire—fully developed … completeness of Christian character.” In some places the Greek word translated perfect even means “ripe” (e.g. Luke 8:14). Becoming perfect—mature, whole and complete—is a lifelong process. It may take years from the moment we are begotten until we are fully mature and ready to be born into the Family of Almighty God! (Proverbs 4:18).
The important thing is that we must “ripen” day by day. Our fruits of righteousness are not just one-time acts. The fruits of God’s Spirit are expressed again and again in our daily lives until we actually take on God’s likeness. As we continue to allow God’s Spirit to motivate our behavior, we will take on, little by little, “the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).
True righteousness is not achieved quickly. It involves intense effort over a long time. Some show only the appearance of a tree, but they don’t bear healthy, abundant fruit. Others produce blossoms and buds, but through neglect allow the flow of the Holy Spirit to stop. Any fruit they had produced up to that point withers and eventually drops off.
Still others let the cares of this world or persecution drain off their spiritual strength so that they become unproductive and fruitless. Christ warned about that. He even used one occasion to curse a barren fig tree, which shocked His disciples (Matthew 21:19-20).
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