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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT*

Expression taken from Galatians 5:22-23. As listed there, this fruit is the evidence one may expect from a life in which the Spirit of God is living and reigning. 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 KJB, 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 means 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.