The Fruit of the Spirit

The Hebrew word translated as “fruit” is used both literally and figuratively throughout the Old Testament.¹ It means any kind of produce or reward for activity, whether of plants or trees, or of the womb, or of the works of the hands or minds—whether good or evil.

The same is true of the New Testament Greek word for “fruit” in the New Testament. We first encounter the metaphor of “fruit” being used by John the Baptist when he preached to the Pharisees: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 4.7-10).

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7.15-20).

Again, speaking not only of prophets: “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matthew 12.32-34).

How can a man be made good, and made to bear good fruit?

In Christ’s parable of the Sower,² the seed is the preached word of God, and the yields of increasing amounts of cereal fruits are changed lives and godly living—living according to the word received (Mark 4.1-20). Those people who receive the word of the gospel, and bear the fruit of it, have been made good. And this is still happening around the world, even today.

And in his parable of the Vine, Jesus proclaims, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15.5-8). There will either be the “much fruit” that evidences and assures us of our abiding in Christ—or there will be no good fruit at all. Apart from abiding in Christ and his words abiding in us, we “can do nothing.” Christ and his word alone makes people good.

The apostle Paul also wrote about the products of a person’s labours as being the fruit of those labours (Romans 1.13; 15:28; Philippians 1.22; 4:17). And he wrote about the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s soul, as bringing forth fruit (Romans 6.21-22; 7.4-5; 15.28; Colossians 1.6; 5.16-26; Ephesians 5.9; Philippians 1.22; 4.17).

In Paul’s famous phrase, “the fruit of the Spirit” (Colossians 5.16-26; Ephesians 5.9), he speaks of godly character and good works that emerge from the Holy Spirit-indwelled person—the true Christian. That he calls this godliness the fruit of the Spirit teaches us that only those people who have the Holy Spirit can bear this fruit, and that it cannot be manifested except by the indwelling and enabling of the Spirit. The character traits of the Christian must therefore be qualitatively different from the love, joy, peace, etc. that a person can have without the Holy Spirit. Christian character is not merely quantitatively different from non-Christian character. For the Holy Spirit does not take the the non-Christian’s love, joy, peace, etc. and intensify them. No, but Paul is saying that this is a fruit that fallen, unregenerate human beings have no experience of—it is a produce of God the Holy Spirit in the soul and life. These are distinguishing marks of grace³; character traits that evidence conversion.

You cannot bear this fruit of the Spirit unless you are walking in the Spirit. And if (or, speaking to true Christians, when) you do that, you also cease and desist from walking in the flesh. We should let the time past suffice us for our sins, as Peter admonished us (1 Peter 4.3). And we ought to reckon yourselves dead to sin in order to live in Christ,⁴ walking after the Spirit (Romans 6.1-6; 8.1-6). Walking after the Spirit, and being led by the Spirit, takes the Christian out of the lusts of their flesh and into the desires of the Spirit, which is the will of God (Ezekiel 36.27). In place of doing the works of the flesh, we must crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. The Spirit-walking Christian, instead, lives an increasingly obviously different life—a life in the Spirit, in which he or she bears the fruit of the Spirit.

Paul’s list of godly character traits in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians is not comprehensive but a summary that was relevant to his immediate audience—and that is still relevant to us today. Paul describes two contrary ways of living: the works of the flesh (of fallen mankind) versus the fruit of the Spirit (in Spirit-indwelled, regenerate Christians). This Spirit-wrought “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, [and] temperance” is totally opposed to the works of the flesh, which Paul summarises in his list: “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (Galatians 5.19-21).

Paul repeatedly warns about where the ungodly life takes people: “of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (v.21). Whereas of the bearers of the fruit of the Spirit, he says, “we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith” (v.5) and that such people are “they that are Christ’s” (v.24). They are those to whom Paul pronounces, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Galatians 1.3-5), and of whom, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (3.13). “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (6.16).

The apostle summarises the character traits of the godly differently in his Epistle to the Ephesians: “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5.8). But his purpose in Ephesians is the same: to contrast the ungodly life with the true Christian life. We must be followers of God and walk in love, shunning fornication, all uncleanness, covetousness, moral filthiness, foolish talk and jesting—walking as children of light and consequently bear this fruit of walking in the light. Then we will be “proving,” i.e. demonstrating in our own lives, “what is acceptable unto the Lord” (Ephesians 5.1-10).

Fallen man lives according to fallen man’s depraved will. But Christians increasingly live according to God’s revealed will, as godliness is produced in them by the Holy Spirit.

The difference cannot be more stark. It is spiritual death or spiritual life. A living death, walking in the lusts of the flesh, on the broad way leading to destruction—or a born-again new life in Christ, walking according to the desires of the Spirit, and the end is everlasting life. In Adam or in Christ. In the broken covenant of works and bearing its fruits or in the covenant of grace and bearing its fruits. “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6.21-23). Much good fruit or only evil fruit.

Now, we sadly find that this Christian living is often weak and unobservable because we are so stained and overshadowed (and sometimes, almost totally eclipsed) by our old sins, in our ongoing irreconcilable war⁵ of our new man against our old man. But the happy truth is this: real, born-again Christians possess this new nature—and they wouldn’t have this internal struggle without it! Christians have the Holy Spirit (Romans 8.9). They are the included in “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). And they will walk in the Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit.

True Christians have—and become increasingly aware of and thankful for—God’s grace in their experience, and God’s grace in evidence in their lives.

So, what is this fruit of the Spirit?

To be continued…