Fruit Of The Spirit

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

An expression taken from Galatians 5:22-23, the fruit of the Spirit refers to the evidence that the Spirit of God lives and reigns in a person’s life. The fruit of the Spirit, as listed in Galatians 5:1, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

“Love” is that self-giving kind of action, not necessarily emotion, that God himself showed when he loved the world so much that he gave his only Son (John 3:16).

“Goodness” is the translation of a Greek word that suggests the idea of generosity. The word “faith” refers usually to trust or confidence in someone or something. However, the word can also mean faithfulness and reliability, the things that cause people to have faith. Both meanings are suggested by the word used in Galatians.

Another fruit, translated “temperance” in the King James Version, is the Greek word for self-control, that ability to hold oneself in. Since these qualities are the fruit of the Spirit, legalism and obedience to law cannot create them.

In the part of his letter where Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit, he is describing the way Christians are free from the law-that is, they don’t need to keep it in order to have God justify them; God has done so in Jesus Christ. Paul warns the Galatians Christians that one cannot be justified by circumcision (Galatians 5:3).

But Paul also cautions that “freedom in Christ” does not mean license to sin, but rather an opportunity to continue as loving servants, belonging to one another (5:13). Life in the Spirit means that one will not fulfill the desires of the old, pre-Christ sin nature (5:16).

Then Paul describes both the works of the sin nature and the fruits of the Spirit. A person who is abstaining from the works of the flesh and is demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit in her or his life will be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, dependable, gentle, and self-controlled.

SPIRIT

The spirit is the part of existence that is not physical or material. The noun spiritus signifies breath and life. God, the source of all life, is himself Spirit (John 4:24). He put a spirit within all human beings so that they could connect with him. A Christian’s faith experience is made real when that person experiences the Spirit of Jesus Christ in his or her spirit.

Other Pages on the Holy Spirit Can Be Found Below

Holy Spirit 1 Holy Spirit 2 Holy Spirit 3 Holy Spirit 4 Holy Spirit 5 Holy Spirit 6  Holy Spirit 7  Holy Spirit 8  Holy Spirit 9

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