The Fruit of the Spirit

The Fruit of the Spirit (Galatian 5:22-23)

Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

In John 15, Jesus taught and preached concerning bearing fruit. Jesus used the illustration of a vineyard to tell us how to allow the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit. In this passage, God is the husbandman (John 15:1), Jesus is the vine (John 15:1, 5), and we are the branches (John 15:5). Without the vine, the branch can do nothing (John 15:4-5). Just as the branch needs the life of the vine every day, we need the Holy Spirit of God every day.

The fruit of the Spirit (not fruits) is like a cluster of grace. It has all of these in the one cluster. A fruit tree, such as an apple tree, produces several apples, but only apples. The Holy Spirit is the Source of all spiritual fruit in our lives. Picture one tree producing nine different kinds of fruit. Example: Apples, Oranges, Pear, Bananas, Peaches, Cherries, Plums, Grapes, Strawberries. The fruit of the Spirit has nine components: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23a).

The fruit of the Spirit has three groups.
1. Love, joy, and peace are qualities which appear in our relationship with God.

2. Longsuffering, gentleness, and goodness are qualities which appear in our relationship with others.

3. Faith, meekness, and temperance are qualities which appear in our relationship with ourselves.

By yielding to the Lord we become fruitful. As Christians, we are called to bear fruit. That means we are to produce the fruit of the Spirit in increasing abundance over the course of our faith walk. All the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit must be present in our lives if we are allowing the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit in us.

The fruit of the Spirit is for the benefit of others. Within each of us there is an abundant harvest of fruit to minister to those we encounter. All around us are people who desperately need love, joy, peace, gentleness, someone to be patient with them, be good to them, and so on. The fruit of the Spirit enables us to meet the basic human needs God has instilled in every human being.

Question to Consider:
Can you think of one person who manifests the character of Jesus Christ so much that when you are with him or her, you feel as if you have been with Jesus?

Point to Ponder:
Write down some ways the Lord is using you to display His fruit in your life.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for sowing Your Spirit and Word into my life. Help me yield to the divine seed You have planted inside me. I know that Your life resides in me, longing to be released, so today I make the choice to let Your Spirit start working mightily inside me. Thank You for the life of God that is flowing up from my spirit right now, producing the life and the nature of Jesus Christ in me. In Jesus name, AMEN!

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