Cultivate the Fruits of the Spirit

by Honesty 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Honesty

  How do JW's cultivate the fruit of the spirit as the following Kingdom Ministry article instructs them to do?

  km 6/82 p. 3 pars. 2-3 Working Together in Unity
  
  To maintain that unity each one of us must make diligent efforts every day to cultivate the fruits of the spirit in our lives and let the Word of God be our guide in doing so.
  
  Over the years, I have seen several references in Watchtower literature that encourages JW's to cultivate the fruits of the spirit but no real instruction on how they can go about cultivating it.
  
  Is 'cultivating the spirit' a biblical teaching?
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  OpenFireGlass

  To maintain that unity each one of us must make diligent efforts every day to cultivate the fruits of the spirit in our lives and let the Word of God be our guide in doing so.

  Watchtower literature that encourages JW's to cultivate the fruits of the spirit but no real instruction on how they can go about cultivating it.

  Ahhh, yes... "Cultivating" the "Fruits of the Spirit"....

  
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  Confession

  I remember what my dad used to do. In his little bathroom, he kept nine index cards--one with each of the fruits of the spirit printed on it. Every day he'd rotate them so that he could concentrate on a new one each day. I still think that working on ourselves in this way is certainly a good thing.

  The problem as I see it is that the organization is so controlling, it keeps people within from learning how to develop their own sense of right and wrong. Even though I'm sure the WTS never planned it this way, their domination results in the majority of people most of the time acting in a drone-like way. The Society has so built up the profound importance of "God's Organization" that adherents end up feeling that just going to meetings, service and following all the rules they've made is what is involved in "doing the right thing."

  Couple that with the fact that most JWs are weighed down with an endless stream of meetings, meeting preparation, talks, service hours, assemblies, conventions--and the constant admonition to "do more," it doesn't usually leave anyone with the time to "cultivate the fruits of the spirit."
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  Deputy Dog

  Honesty

  Is 'cultivating the spirit' a biblical teaching?

  Being a Calvinist, I've been asking most mainstream churches the same question, t'ill I'm blue in the face.

  D Dog
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  Inquisitor

  Over the years, I have seen several references in Watchtower literature that encourages JW's to cultivate the fruits of the spirit but no real instruction on how they can go about cultivating it.

  Honesty,

  I'm quite certain that there's been some cited examples of displaying fruits of the Spirit.

  e.g. Are you long-suffering enough to wait on Jehovah's Day (having witnessed the past stuff-ups by the GB)?

  Have you publishers shown kindness to the elderly by offering them transport to the hall (cos the PO's wife has just about had it with her husband taking on responsibilities that no one wants)?

  Do you display a spirit of mildness when elders make a mistake, being willing to forgive and forget ? (cos you can wait till your butt gets wrinkly and Elder Up-Himself will still believe he is Right in that dispute, thus removing the need for an apology)

  Do you love Peace or are you one of those Jezebelian sisters the Apostle John wrote about? Do you make life difficult for the brothers and forget that you are a scarf-wearing, mouth-zipping, child-bearing sister?

  I'm quite certain I've sat in a meeting where fruits of the Spirit were discussed. I distinctly remember that it was a time when you could hear the knives sharpening in between paragraph readings.

  INQ
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  Seeker4

  The Witnesses emphasis on the 9 fruits of the spirit in Galations 5 became for me a symbol of the rote approach of the Witnesses to both spiritual matters and Biblical scholarship.

  First of course, they could reel off the fruits from memory, whether they had any idea of how to actually cultivate and practice them or not.

  But it was the braindead assumption that this was a complete list of how the holy spirit affected a person that got to me, even in my years as a Witness. It's no more a complete list than the verses previous to it are a complete list of the works of the flesh. You might think that murder or torture or stealing would be works of the flesh - but they're missing from the list.

  How about courage as a fruitage of God's spirit, or truthfulness or generosity or wisdom? Yet the Witnesses, in such a typical way, if asked to name the fruitage of the spirit, would parrot the nine fruits and stop. Guaranteed. Every time. Why? It was a list, you could memorize it, and you didn't have to THINK about it.

  S4