i can only give a hypothetical answer..... and continues to
maintain the stand that perhaps we are splitting too many
hairs....
on your question.... the issue of what this "fruit" is, can be a
contentious issue.....
taking into the assumption that the "fruit" of the spirit (Gal
5:22,23) is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness and temperance"... is it really conceivable
that anyone, in any given amount of time, do not display any of
these at all.... or do we mean that all the nine attributes need to
be present at the same time? or does God accept "work-in-progress"
Christians....
what if, again hypothetically speaking, one of us in sgforums
got so worked up and start to flame each other over our theological
stand, therefore, perhaps, losing, the longsuffering and temperance
aspect of this "fruit"..?
to some, this fruit means bringing in new believers.... so what
happens to Christians who had never, directly, bring others to
Christ?
theoritically, it is all so simple - bear fruit and you are fine
and dandy.... but practically speaking.... how does that all work
out?
can you, omnia, for example, claim to have the fruit of the
spirit? seriously, the only person i can think of having such
attributes to almost a perfect level was mother teresa.
also, is it conceivable that anyone goes through his entire sad
life not doing at any one time, any of the attribute?
.... if our conclusion now is...as vince said ....only God can
judge.... that what the heck are we talking about???
Jesus did mentioned what we are judged on in last judgement in
MT so no need to be contentious right? Ok, if you want to, it's
ok.
According to Paul, he said every commandment can be substitued
with Love and that he is preaching about faith, hope and love and
nothing is greater than love.
No one need to claim he has fruit of the spirit or anything.
Every one should just do his best to live out their Christian
life.....that is to love your neighbour (doing good works).
As we all agreed, God is the final judge and He will look at our
hearts and He knows what is in there....
We cannot be perfect but we should not use that as an excuse and
stop trying....and praying to God to help us overcome our
short-coming.