Mar 1
2021
The Fruit of THE SPIRIT
The fruit of the Spirit is a popular concept within the Christian faith. The fruit that Paul lists in his letter to the Galatians (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) is succinct, yet not exclusive nor exhaustive. What I mean is that the idea that the Christian life should bear the fruit of genuine conversion is taught all over the New Testament, even by Jesus himself, who says we will be known (or identified) as his true followers by our fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). The analogy is simple, a tree or plant is identified by the fruit that it produces. We would no more expect a professing Christian's life to be marked by unrepentant sin and a pursuit of worldly pleasures than we would expect an apple tree to produce oranges. It would be unnatural.