Whose Fruit?

In this course, we are studying the fruit of the Spirit. We are not studying the fruit of hard-working, rule-keeping, especially dedicated Christians.

Instead, we are responding to God's commitment to us.

Grace is unusual. God's grace is both the foundation of unconditional acceptance—and a prompt to change.

The pastor Tim Keller explains it like this, "God sees us as we are, loves us as we are, and accepts us as we are. But by His grace, He does not leave us as we are."

Because God is gracious, we are forgiven for the ways we have not represented Christ online.

And because God is gracious, we want everything about us, including our online activity, to glorify our Creator and Savior.

The biblical scholar Carl Keil explains that, in the Scriptures, "Purity of the lips involves or presupposes the purification of the heart." Here's the implication: If we want our words to be pure, then we first need God's Spirit to purify and transform our hearts.

But often, I don't feel that my heart is pure. I can feel guilty of the sins I've committed or ashamed of the ways I haven't honored God. So before we think about what we want to say online, it is wise for us to consider how God purifies our hearts.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.