Fruit
Paul’s description of the fruit of the Spirit is one of the best loved, most quoted, and most studied passages in all of scripture. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
Why “fruit”? It could just be generic, equivalent to the “product” But consider, he may be offering a parable. How does literal fruit come about? Soil and water are necessary but not sufficient. For there to be fruit there has to be a massive input of energy from an external source. All the power, all the energy, comes from the sun.
This fits Paul’s point. It’s the fruit of the Spirit. It’s not in me to produce fruit.
How does this work? Just look at the first item in the list: love. We are told explicitly where love comes from: “Love is from God… We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:7 & 19) Love doesn’t begin from within. It is a result of the power of God shining on us.
What do we know about God’s love? “God so loved the world…” (John 3:16) Do we put these together and say, we love in response to God’s love, God loves the world, therefore the world loves God? Well, no. Doesn’t work that way, does it?
The soil in which the fruit tree is planted has meaning too. Jesus’s parable of the sower shows us as much. (Mark 4:3-20) So yes, God loves everyone—so much He would give His Son. But everyone doesn’t respond by loving in return.
Can we apply the origin of love to the rest of the list? It’s easy for some of them. We can bear the fruit of patience because He first showed patience with us. We can be kind because He first showed kindness to us. We can be faithful (true, loyal) because He is faithful, always keeping His promises. Same with gentleness. Even self-control.
But what of joy? Well, there’s joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:7) We share that joy, don’t we? When we see someone respond to the gospel? What of peace? Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” (John 14:27) Goodness? “No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18) But we are expected to be taught by Him to produce goodness: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
You see? Every aspect of the fruit originates with God. It’s not my fruit, it’s His. I do have a part to play. No fruit comes from hardened or rocky or weed-choked ground. Which we all are, by nature. There’s some hoeing and weeding to be done. But that comes from the external power source too:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)
How does the “abiding” happen? I think, in practical terms, it means coming under the influence of God and of His Son. We learn to be loving by observing, really paying attention to, God’s love. We become kind, patient, joyful and all the rest in the same way. First step: confess and embrace that it’s not me producing any of it. It’s God, exercising His own power, through Jesus—the conduit He established to show us His love, His kindness, His goodness, all of the fruit He wants to see growing in us.
Love, Paul