118.0 Beyond The Sin Struggle: As believers, once we discover and experience the power of the Living Christ to help us manage the sin struggle, something wonderful happens. We enter into the consistency of a Christ empowered lifestyle, where our primary daily emphasis begins to shift.
Our concern moves from the conquest of the sin motive, and its resultant actions, to an emphasis on the quality of our character in Christ.
So, the question of fruitfulness, not sinfulness, is the normal preoccupation of our spiritual maturity.
Thus, using the same energy source which we employed to conquer the sin impulse, the power of the Living Christ, we begin to produce what, again, the Church often refers to as "character fruit."
118.1 Fruitfulness: Paul speaks of this Spirit generated fruit in the book of Galatians, chapter 5, where he says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit".
