Expression taken from Galatians 5:22
, 23. As listed there, this fruit is the manifest evidence one may expect from a life in which the Spirit of God is living and reigning. Jesus also implied that the character of a life can be determined. In the context of Matthew 7, the test for false prophets is, among other things, the kind of life they live. Consequently, even though Jesus did prohibit censorious criticism of others by his followers (Mt 7:1), he encouraged fruit inspection. The secret to exhibiting spiritual fruit in abundance is described in John 12:24. Using as an illustration a grain of wheat sown in the ground, Jesus encourages death to self and to the desires of the old nature and resurrection to the new life of “much fruit.”
The fruit of the Spirit, as listed in Galatians 5, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Love is that outgoing, self-giving kind of action, not necessarily emotion, that characterized God himself when he loved the world so much that he gave his only Son (Jn 3:16). Goodness is the translation of a Greek word that includes the idea of generosity. The word “faith” refers usually to trust or confidence in someone or something. However, the word can also refer to that which causes trust and faith, namely faithfulness and reliability. Both meanings are in the use of the word here as another evidence of the Spirit-controlled life. Another fruit, translated “temperance” by the kjv, is the Greek word for self-control, that ability to hold oneself in, to keep oneself in check. It is significant that the Spirit is said to be the one responsible for this fruit. Since these qualities are the fruit of the Spirit, it is self-evident that legalism and obedience to law cannot originate or produce them.
This fruit appears in a context within Galatians where Paul is emphasizing Christian freedom from obedience to the Law as a meritorious means of being justified before God. He warns the Galatian Christians, who were in danger of returning to the Law, that physical circumcision is an outward sign of a return to legalistic means of justification and that to attempt to obtain it this way is impossible (Gal 5:3). However, lest the Galatians overemphasize their freedom in Christ, Paul cautions that this liberty does not mean license to sin, an opportunity for gratifying the desires of the flesh, but rather an opportunity to continue as loving bondservants belonging to one another (v 13). Life in the Spirit will mean that one will not fulfill the lusts or desires of the flesh (v 16). Then Paul identifies both the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. A person who is abstaining from the works of the flesh and is demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit in his life will be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, dependable, gentle, and self-controlled. These are not said to be gifts of the Spirit, however, but graces that will adorn the life that is under the Holy Spirit’s control.
There has been some confusion about the relation of this fruit to the gifts (Greek, charismata) of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; 12:28–31a; Romans 12:3–8; and Ephesians 4:11–14. First Corinthians 12:31b explicitly relates the gifts of the Spirit to the fruit. The first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22 is love, the very item which Paul mentions as “a more excellent way” (1 Co 12:31b) rather than as a gift to be listed with the others.
It is significant that the works of the flesh, are many, while the fruit of the Spirit is singularly one. Hence some have interpreted Galatians 5:22 to mean that the fruit of the Spirit is singular, namely, love, and that what follows (vv 22, 23) are varying facets of love. Correlating this Galatians reference with 1 Corinthians 12:31b demonstrates that the fruit of the Spirit is love with all of its many aspects and also the more excellent way in which the various gifts are to be used. To underscore that love is not itself a gift, Paul goes on to describe the fruit of the Spirit, in 1 Corinthians 13, the great love chapter of the Bible. Comparing these two passages it is interesting to note how many of the facets of love appear in both places. Paul is saying in essence that the gifts of the Spirit are only effective, worthwhile, and capable of edifying, when they are exercised in a proper way, that is, with the qualities given in Galatians 5:22 and 23 and 1 Corinthians 13.
It becomes apparent then that the fruit of the Spirit and not the gifts or any particular gift is the evidence of a Spirit-controlled life. The Corinthians were blessed with many of the gifts (1 Cor 1:5, 7; chs 12, 14), but they were still immature (1 Cor 3:1–4). The proof of a Spirit-led, sanctified life is not the gifts of the Spirit but the fruit of the Spirit, chief of which is love.
