Lesson 11 The Character of Christ

     The Character of Christ  is the Fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.  This is what we, as Christians, are to be developing in our lives by the influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This comes by yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  It's much simpler to walk in the Fruit (character) of the Spirit than you might think.
     We mostly walk in the character of the flesh that we walked in for so long.  In order to walk differently, we must learn to think before reacting to the various trials and temptations that life brings our way.  There are only two ways of dealing with these things in our lives.  We will either react
by the Word or by the world.  These are our only options.
     It's always easier to do like we did before being saved because we were trained by the world.  Before I was born again, I was moody and distant in many ways.  I stayed away from people as much as possible.  Even when people came to my house, I wondered what they wanted.  It never occurred to me that someone would come simply to visit me and that they had no ulterior motive behind their visit.  I chose to have only a few friends and I was quite content to leave it that way.
     My wife and close family were really all I cared much about.  I always lived way out in the country with my family, my horses and my collie dog.  The people I worked with were just that; people I worked with.  I never went to their house to hang out and they didn't come to my house.  I worked hard and provided for my own and took care of things like I should.  If anyone asked me, I would have told them, "I loved my family," but it was only after being saved that I realized I really didn't love them.
     We can only really learn to love after we're born again.  God is Love.  Without Him in my life, I did what was expected out of obligation and affection more than anything else.  The true meaning of Love was something only the Spirit of God can put in our hearts.
     The Fruit of the Spirit is simply the Spirit of God living through us.  We can stand in opposition to it and stubbornly walk in the things of the flesh like before being saved or we can yield to Him and live in His character.  The character of Christ is a life lived through Christ instead of a life that's lived for Christ.  Some might believe that these are one and the same.
     When we allow Jesus to live through us, there is no phony or make believe nature anymore.  We become transparent to the point of being "real."  You're not one thing in church and something different at home.  You are as He is, "The same yesterday, today and tomorrow and forever."  You don't respond in anger or frustration at things that used to make you lose it anymore.
     There are many things in Jesus' life that we take for granted and believe happened only because, "He was Jesus."  Jesus said though, that, "It's the Father that does the works."  Jesus wasn't only speaking about the miracles, but why and how He did them.  He was moved by compassion and healed the multitude. 
     This compassion is and was the very character of the Father Who lived through Him and not He Himself.  Jesus had the opportunity to become frustrated, angry and fed up with the people because it was in His flesh part of His make up.  The difference between Him and us is the He never yielded to it.
     Hebrews 12:23 (Amplified) says, "Looking away (from all that will distract) to Jesus, Who is the leader and the source of our faith (giving the first incentive for our belief), And is also its finisher (bringing it to maturity and perfection) He, for the joy (of obtaining the prize) that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God."  Verse 3 goes on, "Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself (reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials), so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your hearts."
     As we allow the Holy Spirit to live through us and not just in us, we can obtain this same "fruit" or character that was in Jesus.