Fruit of the Holy Spirit

What Does “Fruit” Mean In The Bible?

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In John 15, Jesus tells us that His disciples must bear fruit:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 
“If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:1-8, ESV)

If this issue of fruit production is so important, we must ask what kind of fruit is Jesus looking for? Clearly this fruit is the result of staying connected (abiding) to Christ. But what is the fruit that abiding in Christ produces?

To answer that question I looked at every occurrence of the word “fruit” in the Bible, and how it is used. I found the following 17 different uses of the word:

  1. Literal Fruit
    (Gen 1:11-12, 29, 3:2-6, Gen 3:12, Ex. 10:15, Lev 19:23-25, 23:40, 26:4, 26:20, 27:30, Deu 20:6, Josh 24:13, Jdg 9:11, 2Sam 16:2, 2Ki 19:29, Neh 9:25, Ps 148:9, Ecc 2:5, Song 8:11, 8:12, Isa 32:10, Isa 37:30, Isa 65:21, Jer 31:5, Eze 25:4, Amo 9:14, Mic 7:1, Hab 3:17, Zec 8:12, Mat 21:19, 21:34, Mat 26:29, Mar 4:20, Mar 11:14, Mar 12:2, Mar 14:25, Luk 13:6,7, Luk 20:10, Luk 22:18, John 12:24, John 15:2, 1Co 9:7, Rev 6:13

2. Metaphor for Produce Generally
Gen 4:3, Lev 25:19, Num 13:20, Num 13:26, Num 13:27, Deu 1:25, Deu 7:13, Deu 11:17, Deu 26:2, Deu 26:10, Deu 28:4, Deu 28:11, Deu 28:18,
Deu 28:30, Deu 28:33, Deu 28:42, Deu 28:51, Deu 30:9, Deu 30:9, Jos 5:12, Neh 9:36,Ps 72:16, Ps 105:35), Isa 4:2, Jer 7:20, Hos 14:8, Joe 2:22, Jas 5:7), Jas 5:18, Rev 18:14)

3. Babies- Fruit of the Womb
Gen 30:2, Deu 7:13, Deu 28:4, Deu 28:11, Deu 28:18, Deu 28:53, Deu 30:9, Deu 30:9, Ps 127:3, Isa 13:18, Lam 2:20, Eze 36:8, Eze 36:30, Mic 6:7, Luke 1:42

It is easy to see that Jesus is not expecting His followers to be farmers and vine-dressers. Nor is He requiring us to have lots of babies.

  1. Firstfruits
    This refers to the practice of offering part of the harvest, the first part gathered, back to the Lord in thanksgiving and in faith that He will protect the remainder of the harvest.
    (Exo 23:16) You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labour, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labour.

(Neh 10:35) We obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the LORD;

(Neh 10:37) and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labour.

  1. Fruit of the Heart
    (Deu 29:18) Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,

(Jer 11:19) But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.”

  1. Metaphor for Strength and Vitality
    (2Ki 19:30) And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

(Ps 1:3) He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Ps 80:12, Ps 92:14, Isa 27:6, Isa 37:31, Jer 11:16, Jer 12:2, Jer 17:8, Dan 4:12, 4:14, 4:21, Hos 9:10, 9:16, 10:1, Amo 2:9)

We could possibly see this as something that Jesus is expecting of His people. Abiding in Him produces the fruit of spiritual and emotional steadfastness.

  1. Return From Work Or Effort
    (Ps 128:2) You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Job 20:18, Ps 78:46, Ps 104:13, Ps 105:44, Pro 27:18, Pro 31:16, 31:31, Eze 23:29

  1. Return From Living A Sinful Life
    This would be the exact opposite of what the Lord requires.

(Pro 1:31) Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.

(Hos 10:13)
You have ploughed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Pro 14:14, Jer 6:19, Amo 8:1-2, Rom 6:21, Rom 7:5.

  1. Wisdom or Righteousness
    (Pro 8:19) My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.

(Mat 3:8) Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Pro 11:30, 12:12, Isa 3:10, Isa 11:1, Isa 27:9, Isa 45:8, Jer 17:10, Jer 21:14, Jer 32:19, Eze 34:27, Amo 6:12, Mic 7:13, Mat 3:10, Mat 7:17-19, Mat 12:33, Mat 13:23, Luk 3:9, Luk 6:43-44, Luk 8:14-15, John 4:36, John 15:4-8, 16, Rom 6:22, Rom 7:4, Gal 5:22, Eph 5:9, Php 1:11, Php 4:17, Col 1:10, Heb 12:11

  1. Words- Fruit of the Lips
    I think Jesus is actually saying that He wants fruit that is in some way tangible, not just words, especially as the Old Testament prophets condemned Israel for honouring God with their words only.

Pro 12:14, Pro 13:2, Pro 18:20, Isa 57:19

  1. Sexual Love
    This is only used in the Song of Songs, and in the context, this is not what Jesus is talking about.

(Son 2:3, Son 7:8)

12.A Snake
(Isa 14:29)
Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.

  1. People
    Mainly used as an analogy by the Old Testament prophets, to refer to the people of Israel.

(Isa 17:6)
Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten— two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the LORD God of Israel.

Eze 17:8-9,23 19:12-14

  1. New heavens and earth blessing
    (Eze 47:12) And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

(Rev 22:2) through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

  1. Sacrifices on the Altar
    (Mal 1:12) But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised.
  2. People being saved
    (Col 1:6) which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
  3. Praise
    (Heb 13:15) Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Conclusion
Some of these categories seem to be easily excluded. Looking at the context of John 15, it would seem that Jesus is saying that if we abide in Him, then outcomes such as a righteous life (9), or a sense of vitality and strength (6), people being saved (16) and praise from our lips( 17) should be expected.

In the end it is not about our efforts alone; after all a fruit tree does not strain to produce fruit. If we are true followers of Christ, then certain things will follow. We can often tell who the true christians are in a group or a community by observing the way they speak and act. This is the fruit of Christ within.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Self-Control

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The Fruit Of The Spirit- Self-Control

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

The last quality in this list of characteristics of the presence of the Holy Spirit is self-control.

Self-control is the ability to restrain our actions under stress or provocation.

It can cover a whole range of areas from sexual sin to rage to addictions.

The man or woman of God is not to be easily derailed from responding to other people, to temptation and to life circumstances. That is not to say that we have to control our emotions and never show feelings. Emotions are good things, but our reactions to them are often not good.

Self-control is the ability to say “No” when our body or heart says “Yes’. It is the ability to take a pause to think things through, to pray, to ask “What would Jesus do in this situation?”

It was self-control that enabled Joseph to resist Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39).

It was self-control that enabled Jesus to say “No” to satan in the wilderness.

It was self-control that enabled Stephen to pray forgiveness for his persecutors (Acts 7).

It is self-control that enables an alcoholic to say “No” to a beer with a mate, but yes to cola.

It is self-control that enables someone to say “No” to chocolate.

It is self-control that enables us to resist the urge to retaliate when someone insults or assaults us.

Self-control can be nurtured by spiritual discipline such as fasting, but like the other fruit of the Holy Spirit, it grows over time as we seek to live in fellowship with God, and let Him direct our paths. Unlike the other fruit, it is experienced in a moment of testing rather than over an extended time.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Gentleness

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“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Gentleness is often confused with weakness. In fact, it is the opposite. Gentleness may be thought of as strength controlled for the sake of another person.

An illustration of gentleness is a father wrestling with a little child. There is no doubt that the father could injure the child if wrestling with serious strength. But he chooses to marshal that strength, to control it for the sake of the child’s safety and to encourage the child to grow in his/ her own physical strength.

The Greek word, as does its English counterpart, carries its meaning into other areas also. Other words might be used include meekness, forgiveness and patience.

In relationships, when somebody disappoints us or hurts us we can choose to react harshly and condemn the person, perhaps even break off the relationship. Alternatively we may choose to forgive, to make allowances for them and to maintain the relationship.

We live in a time when people are very critical of one another and harsh towards public figures they disagree with. A social media post from 20 years ago might be resurrected for condemnation if it fails to live up to contemporary moral standards. Yet, the same people who condemn others are defensive when criticised themselves. In this culture, we need gentleness more than ever.

God has the right to treat us harshly for our sins. Yet, He gives us time to repent, forgives us endlessly and exhorts us to return to Him. There will be a time of judgement, and everybody who has not received God’s forgiveness in Christ will be judged and punished.

In the meantime, God treats us with gentleness.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Faithfulness

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“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

The Greek word pistis is more often translated in the New Testament as faith, but it equally carries the idea of faithfulness. In this list of characteristics that define the way that we behave towards other people, faithfulness seems a better fit.

One dictionary defines the word faithful as “Adhering firmly and devotedly, as to a person, cause, or idea; loyal.”

Faithfulness means firstly that we are faithful to God. We don’t give up on our relationship with God when He fails to deliver for us the goods we think we should get, or when life gets difficult. On the contrary, for the faithful person adversity just causes them to dig deeper and hold on more tightly.

Faithfulness means that we do not go hopping from congregation to congregation, moving onward when preachers teach challenging messages or when we have disagreements. The most mature christians are those who work out their disagreements and difficulties with others.

Faithfulness in marriage means that we hang in there “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” No trophy wives or younger models, no playing the field or looking for a better offer.

Faithfulness can be seen as stickability, the determination to so value another person that nothing can separate us from them.

The faithfulness that God plants in us is the faithfulness that He has towards us, the idea that nothing will turn Him away from us.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Goodness

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“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Goodness in the original Greek means being virtuous. We could say it describes a person of integrity.

Goodness means that we know what is the right thing to do in any situation, regardless of our perception of cost. Goodness means that we are the same person in private that we are when people are watching us.

We might expect that goodness is a natural result of walking with God, even if we had not read Galatians. The gospels depict Jesus as someone who was not impressed by the crowds nor by the importance of the political and religious leaders. Jesus just did what was right, always. This flowed from His intimate relationship with the Father.

Goodness saves us from the stress of worrying about what will happen if somebody finds out what we have done, because we seek to do what is right regardless of public opinion.

Of course, we don’t always get it right. Sin is still with us. But as we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, we become more like Jesus.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Kindness

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The Fruit Of The Spirit- Kindness

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Kindness is defined as a quality of being friendly, generous or warmhearted.

This word again shows how the fruit of the Spirit is really a singular characteristic rather than a series of individual qualities which we might mix and match. A kind person is someone who is also loving, peaceful, patient and gentle.

To be kind means that we empathise with other people and try to give of ourselves to them. The nature of that giving depends on the needs of the other person and on our own resources. In one situation kindness might be expressed as a gift of money. In another situation it might be expressed in the giving of time and energy to help somebody out. In a third situation it might be that an encouraging word is the way to express kindness.

Some people are naturally generous in temperament while others have to work at it.

The key is empathy, seeing how another person is feeling and meeting them at a point of need. Kindness is always outward looking, seeking to build other people and engage with them.

Kindness takes us out of ourselves, but in doing this it grows us in our love for other people.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Patience

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The Fruit Of The Spirit- Patience

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Patience is a concept that is foreign to most people in Western culture. Faster is always better; fast food, instant coffee, microwaves, speed dating, faster transport, shorter queues. We hate waiting. The mock prayer, “Lord give me patience, and hurry up!” has a ring of familiarity to it.

Yet, for many parts of life, waiting is unavoidable, and in fact is part of the journey. It still takes 9 months, more or less, to produce a baby. Christmas only comes once a year. Often, anticipation is part of the pleasure of the event.

The word translated as patience in Galatians 5:22 has a wide range of meaning including patient endurance of evil, forbearance, patient expectation, slowness to avenge injuries. Patience, then, is more than the ability to wait.

Biblical patience is about looking at the long term, the bigger picture. It means focusing on God’s purposes rather than obsessing with what I want. It means seeing our lives through the lens of eternity.

We don’t like to think of suffering as a part of life. Patience, though, is the ability to endure suffering, knowing that God is with us. Even the worst and most extended suffering is just a blip when seen against our eternal destination of heaven.

Joy, peace and patience are closely linked. We experience joy because we trust in Jesus, and nothing can take away the assurance of His love for us. We experience peace because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, We grow in patience because we trust that, despite our circumstances now, the promises of God will not fail.

Patience, as we might expect, grows over time. We learn that God is faithful and we grow in our ability to trust and to wait.

We should also rejoice that God is patient. He gives everyone a chance to turn to Him. Peter reminds us: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).

The patience that we have to develop is a shadow of the immense patience that the Lord has with us.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Peace

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“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

The world thinks peace is about an absence of noise or of war. The Biblical concept goes much much deeper.

In the New Testament the Greek word eirene means peace, concord, unity. In the Old Testament the word shalom carries both the sense of harmony and every kind of blessing from God. Rather than the meaning of “getting away from it all” that we might think of as peace, the Bible has the sense of “getting on together.” We might not always agree with our neighbour or approve of what they do, but we can be at peace with them.

We can think of four areas that relate to peace.

1. Peace with God. Our sin separates us from God, and in a sense makes us into His enemies. Jesus has paid the price for every sin and in doing so, He brings us peace with God. In Romans 5:1 we read, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus has justified us (i.e. made us righteous) and so there is no enmity between God and those who put their trust in Christ.

The great war is over and we are united in peace with our heavenly Father.

2. Peace with ourselves. We were created for friendship with God. People work best when we follow the laws to love God and love our neighbour. Sin puts a huge tear in our spiritual well-being because it separates us from God and makes it impossible to love our neighbours. We have one part of us wanting to walk in God’s paths, and another part that directs us to live for our own self-interest.

When we are united with God and consciously want to do things His way, then the great tear in the fabric of our nature starts to be healed. Of course, we are still subject to temptations to go our own way, but our will is brought into submission to God, and the fight is less intense (mostly).

3. Peace with others. Until we see other people as valuable and loved by God, pride makes it impossible to live in peace with others. If I come from a viewpoint that I am the most important person in the world, and you do likewise, then there is no place for harmony between us. It is like the guitarists in a band playing their own songs at the same time. Each is competing for attention, but neither is playing in harmony with the other.

My significance comes from being loved by God. I don’t have to prove anything to any person, and so I do not have to compete with anyone for significance or approval. It is possible in this stance to live in peace with other people.

4. Peace with creation. When Adam and Eve sinned, it did not just affect them. The whole of creation was thrown into chaos. Part of that chaos manifests as a kind of war with nature. People try to gain as much short term gain from nature as possible without thinking through long term consequences. We suffer from the effects of drought, flood, bush fires, earthquakes and pandemics.

Humans were designed to cultivate the earth and to continue in God’s creative actions on the earth. But how can we do that when we are afflicted with so many problems in just staying alive? Being united with God means that we have access to God’s wisdom to find solutions for many problems, and also to live in harmony with creation. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God promises, “ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Peace, God’s peace, transforms every relationship, including our relationship with the earth.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Joy

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“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Joy is the second quality described as a part of the fruit of the Spirit.

Joy is very different to happiness. Happiness, as its name suggests, depends on what happens. It can be more variable than the weather. It can be generated by very poor reasons. A bank robber, for example, might be happy that he got away with it. We can be happy when a good thing distracts temporarily from a generally miserable life.

Whereas happiness comes from the outside, joy bubbles up from the inside. Our joy comes from our knowledge that we are loved and valued by God, we are adopted into His family, and set apart for a distinctive purpose.

I can be caught up in the worst of circumstances, such as grieving the sudden loss of a person I love, and yet the joy of the Lord is an unseen strength that prevents the loss from overwhelming me.

We are commanded on many occasions in Scripture to rejoice always. If joy were an emotion this would not make sense. We don’t seriously tell people to be happy when they are sad. But christians must rejoice, for we have much to celebrate.

The key to joy is to keep our focus on God and not on this worldly life. One great way to nurture joy in our lives is to develop a habit of giving thanks in all circumstances. Then it is not our circumstances that determine our joy, but the other way round.

To rejoice, start with a list of things to thank God for. Your salvation and your relationship with God, your personal and family relationships, the place that you live, the benefits that you enjoy each day, the air that you breathe, the beauty of creation.

When we go through the process of thanking God for the many benefits He has given us, joy is always close by. The fact is that joy is always in your life, just as surely as the Holy Spirit is. It is just that sometimes we focus on the wrong things.

This is not about positive thinking, but rather acknowledging that God is always with us and continues to pour blessing upon blessing on us. Positive thinking tries to persuade us that suffering is not real. Joy acknowledges our struggles, and then adds, “But God…” It is God who gives our life purpose and direction. Nothing can steal that from us.

Joy is the key signature of the christian life. Joy should be a key stone in every part of our lives.

There is so much to rejoice in and to be tankful for.

The Fruit Of The Spirit- Love

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The Fruit Of The Spirit- Love

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

When we make the decision to follow Jesus, God the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and starts equipping us to fulfil that decision.

One of the ways that the Holy Spirit does that is to make our character to be more like that of Jesus. Paul describes these qualities as the “fruit of the Holy Spirit.” It is important to realise that although there are nine qualities (to match the nine gifts in 1 Corinthians 12), there is one fruit. These characteristics are connected together- you don’t get more love without self-control and patience for example. As we examine the fruit of the spirit we must always remember that there is overlap and connection, one fruit in nine parts.

The first quality is the one which over-arches all the others, that is love.

There are four words in Greek that describe love. The word used here is agape (pronounced ag-a-pay) which refers to the love which God has for us. This is unconditional love which loves people regardless of their response. This is selfless love which expects nothing in return. This is unfailing love which never gives up.

Agape love is the love that God demonstrated to us at the cross. God so loved (agape) the world that He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). God’s love is poured out upon us, even when we reject it, but it is made complete when we receive it and start to return love to Him.

Paul describes agape love in 1 Corinthians 13:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres Love never fails

In human terms, this kind of love is impossible for us to express to other people because we are sinful. The love that comes closest to this is the love of a parent for a child- this is sacrificial, self-giving, at times to the point of death.

The Holy Spirit makes it possible for all christians to become channels of God’s agape love to other people, christians and non-christians alike. As we enable the Holy Spirit to transform us, the hurts, self-centredness and other obstacles to love are melted away. Instead of focusing on our own needs and wants, we learn to focus on the needs and wants of other people.

Historically, it has been the heroic love of christians which has impressed pagan cultures. The care of christians for abandoned babies, for widows and for orphans was a big factor in the turning of the Roman Empire to Christ. In times of plague before modern medical technologies were available, christians often stayed to care for the sick after others had fled the city, putting their own lives at risk.

Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to force it or fake it or follow a template. The Holy Spirit makes it second nature to love others with the love of the Lord.