photo by Caleb Gregory
By Mike Chaffin
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Galatians 5:22
I once had a dwarf mandarin orange tree that made over 475 oranges in one season. Admittedly, that was a banner crop, but on average it produced around 300 oranges a year. I was amazed at how much fruit it made.
The tree was very fruitful. Being mandarin, the oranges ranged in size as they ripened. However, they were all oranges.
Paul used the metaphor of a fruit tree to tell us what we will bear as Spirit filled Christians. The full quote is,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
Like fruit trees, Paul uses the singular word ‘fruit’ to describe what we produce. While the fruit we bear is singular, and comes from the Holy Spirit, it is comprised of nine parts or attributes. The fruit of the Spirit we experience and express to others should be composed of all nine attributes. I think if one word captures the essence of the fruit of the Spirit it is charisma.
Charisma is defined as, “compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.” Used in a Christian sense, our fruit will draw people to Christ. They will see what you have and want the same.
Look at the list again. See what attributes of the fruit of the Spirit you lack. Ask Jesus to help you with those. Let Him prune away the dead branches so you can bear the whole fruit.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for the infilling of the Holy Spirit that helps us live in love, peace, joy, and self-control. Thank you for helping me to express these with patience, kindness and goodness having the faith to move mountains and mercy toward others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
* There is a website that conducted a search for Bible verses. They compiled a list of the verses in order of the magnitude of hits they got in their search. Some of these verses probably qualify as ‘people’s favorites’, while others might be on the list because they are some of the most important and most teachable words of God.
