Fruit of the Spirit (3): Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control

The sermon opens by distinguishing between spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. The pastor emphasizes that problems in the church and broken marriages do not stem from a lack of gifts, but from the absence of the fruit of the Spirit in daily life. The essential conditions for bearing fruit are abiding in God's Word (Psalm 1) and maintaining an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ (John 15). The sermon also expands the list of spiritual fruit beyond the nine listed in Galatians 5:22-23, drawing additionally from Colossians 1:9-11 and 2 Peter 1:5-7.

The central section divides the nine fruits into three groups: upward-oriented (love, joy, peace), outward-oriented (patience, kindness, goodness), and inward-oriented (faithfulness, gentleness, self-control). This Sunday's sermon focuses on the inward group. Faithfulness is defined as keeping one's vows and responsibilities to the end despite hardship, illustrated through the lives of Moses, the apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:6-7), and the moving story of Dr. Benjamin Warfield who cared for his invalid wife for ten years without leaving her side. Proverbs 20:6 is quoted to underscore that many claim to have unfailing love, but a truly faithful person is rare.

Gentleness is explained not as weakness or passivity, but as strength under control — illustrated through the image of the Vietnamese bamboo, which is both firm and flexible. Moses is described as the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3) yet a powerful leader. Jesus describes himself as gentle and humble in heart (Matthew 11:28-30). Self-control is presented as the most difficult quality to attain — the one who rules his own spirit is greater than the one who takes a city (Proverbs 16:32). The story of the legendary beauty Xi Shi and King Fuchai is used to illustrate how even powerful rulers have failed for lack of self-control.

The sermon concludes with two modern illustrations of self-control: the Stanford marshmallow experiment by Professor Walter Mischel, which showed that children who could delay gratification tended to be more successful in life; and international PISA test results showing that students from Vietnam and other Asian countries outperformed American students in mathematics, partly because of greater perseverance and self-discipline. The pastor calls the congregation to recognize that God does not call us to success but to faithfulness, and that all genuine change must begin from within.