Thursday, August 30, 2012

Ephesians 5:9


Copyright Ó 2012 J. Neely
Ephesians 5:9

9 (For [gar] the fruit [karpos] of the Spirit [pneuma] is in [en] all [pas] goodness [agathosune] and [kai] righteousness [dikaiosune] and [kai] truth; [aletheia]) KJV-Interlinear

9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),  NASB

Light is the subject, and fruit its production.

Fruit is the result of a productive plant.  A productive plant is valuable.  An unproductive plant is worthless.

The result of light, which we studied yesterday, is production.  But not just any production, and certainly not the productin from the energy of ones self, but the production of the Spirit.

There are two spirits in view here.  First there is the Holy Spirit, who is God, and who promotes and maintains the spiritual life.  And then there is the human spirit, which we receive at the point of salvation, and through which our spiritual life functions. The word, ‘pneuma,’ refers to the inhale and exhale function of breathing and thus the repetitive and ongoing process of living and learning the spiritual life.

When you confess your sins, God places you into fellowship.  When in fellowship God the Holy Spirit controls your life and makes your spiritual life function properly.  When out of fellowship, that mechanism does not function and you are doing nothing more than imitating the unbeliever in their pattern of life.

Also, when in fellowship, all doctrine funnels through your human spirit, and then into the soul. Your human spirit combined with the Holy Spirit, act as a filter, making truth real and sifting out the false information that you are exposed to in life.

And so as you learn and grow, you begin to function in your spiritual life and that leads to your production.

  

First we have good, ‘agathosune,’ which is the disposition that leads to good works, virtue, beneficence or generosity.  This is the state or pattern or attitude and not the actual deed or effort.

Then there is righteousness, ‘dikaiosune,’ which is rectitude or morality, integrity, perfection or the state of it, and this is the order as opposed to disorder, justice or fairness as opposed to unfairness, rendering all that is due to God to God, and none to man.

And then there is truth, ‘aletheia,’ which is correctly rendered truth, excluding all that is false, all that is deceitful, all that would lead one astray and away from truth.

Therefore first we have light, which is from the source of God, which we receive through the source of the gospel and doctrine, which are made discernible through a functional Holy Spirit and filtered through the human spirit into our soul, thus resulting in good, or better stated the pattern of a mental attitude of good.

This is the attitude that seeks to learn, seeks to be responsible, seeks to comply with Gods mandates, because we understand that it is this pursuit, that will lead us to a phenomenal life forever and ever.

All these are connected in righteousness (Gods perfection through faith in salvation, and fellowship in confession) and truth which is doctrine, the learning of which is required in order to function properly in your spiritual life.

  

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