“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
“Fruit” in the text is a translation of the Greek word “karpos.” The word literally refers to, for example, fruit produced on a plant. But in the Bible it is used metaphorically of the result of the actions of people whether good or bad. It is a derivative of the same word that Jesus used for “fruit” in Matthew 7:16-17: “But you shall know them (false prophets) by their fruits (karpon): do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17. Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit: but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.” The results, or fruit, of our actions reveal what we are. When people do bad things, the fruit, or result, is evil. History of some bad actors reveals this to us. We have an example of this in the actions of the Islamic radicals. Their fruit is death and mayhem. But we can find examples in our own lives when we have let Satan’s temptations lead us to do bad things. My point here is that we need to look at the fruit, or the result, of our own actions. What are your fruits at home, at work, at play, or even, or especially, at church? What fruit is your life producing? The gist of Paul’s thinking in Galatians 5:18-21 is that if people follow evil instincts, they will do bad things, such as, hatred, strife, adultery, fornication, just to mention a few things from these verses. Of course this is not an exhaustive list of what Paul called “the works of the flesh.” Perhaps there is no exhaustive list of evil fruits when people yield to Satan’s temptations. Paul’s point in verses 22-23 is that when we follow the Holy Spirit our lives will produce good fruit. He gives a list of fruits: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” These words encompass the results of a lot of our actions as we are led by the Spirit. What you need to do today is to prayerfully and carefully, look at the list in these verses and see if your life reflects these aspects of the Spirit’s fruit. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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