I've recently been working my way through Samuel Chadwick's The Way to Pentecost. Quite a powerful book. There's a lot I need to think about in there, from the first few sentences on: "...No doctrine of the Christian faith has been so neglected [as the doctrine of the Holy Spirit]. Sermons and hymns are singularly barren on this subject, and the last great book on the Spirit was written in 1674. [Pneumatologia by John Owen]"

I've also run into the issue of the "second work of grace" or "entire sanctification" (not surprising for an unabashedly Methodist writer). It seems like I keep running into this issue in what I've been reading and listening to recently, and I'm going to have to work my way through it at some point. For now, though, I'm content to file it for later.

Today's post is on the fruit of the Spirit. There is such a thing as the Charismatic Church, and thank God that there are people who operate in the gifts of the Spirit (no matter how imperfectly some understand them or how clumsily some explain them). But why don't we have a Karpostic* Church? The gifts are wonderful and a blessing, and I will continue to intercede for God to give us more and more and more of the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit in the Church. But the gifts prove nothing by themselves. The fruit of the Spirit in my life is what glorifies God.

Samuel Chadwick, The Way to Pentecost, Chapter 16: The Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit must not be confused with gifts any more than it must be mistaken for works. Such confusion often leads to doubt and distress. It is not an uncommon thing for earnest workers in the Church to imagine that if they are filled with the Spirit they will be endowed with marvelous and miraculous power for service. Examples have been quoted of wonderful enduement that has turned commonplace men into marvels of power, and they look for like results. Gifts are not fruit. They may exist apart from great spirituality. The Corinthians were rich in gifts and poor in fruit. Our Lord told of some who wrought wonders in His Name, but they were none of His. Fruit is for all; His gifts He gives to each severally as He will. The fruit of the Spirit consists of sanctified dispositions. Gifts are according to the basis of natural endowments; fruit is the perfecting of grace in heart and life. Gifts apart from fruit do not glorify Him. To glory in gifts bringeth a snare, but fruit is sacrificial and sacramental and brings glory to all. It grows by abiding, and is perfected without noise or fuss, without anxiety or care. God glories in Fruit.


* Charismatic comes from χαρισματα, "Gift." The word for fruit is καρπος (transliterated Karpos).