Holy Spirit - Part 5: The Fruit of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit not only imparts (gives) life and holiness, but then He sustains the same things in the soul of the saved. He not only communicates heavenly graces but He cultivates and develops them. This process, which we call sanctification, was put into place along side the granting of the Lord's Messiah, such that after conversion, brought by election, each believer is to become more and more like the Messiah as we journey through our Christian walk.

While there is a  new nature of those who have become His own, this new nature has NO power of its own, being entirely dependent upon the Creator and Giver. Therefore the fruit which is born unto the believer is clearly called “the fruit of the Spirit”, so that the honor and glory of it goes only to He who grants it. 

The Old Testament prepared our understanding of this matter.

Hosea 14:8

“From Me is thy fruit found … I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed...”

Just as rains renew vegetation, so does the pouring out of the Spirit bring new life.

The fruit of the Spirit granted to the believer is the conforming of him unto Christ, first in his heart, and then in his life. It is only when a miracle of grace has been worked in our hearts that Christ begins to be formed in us, and that we (in our small way) reproduce His graces, and this is ONLY due to the sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 7:20

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them”.

The fruit that the saved bear is that which will distinguish them as the children of God from the children of the devil. This fruit conforms them to the image of Christ, first to His graces, and then to His example. These virtues are not issued from the heart of one who was fallen until salvation, but are supernaturally placed within the newly renewed heart of faith. 

There are three leading passages on this matter in the New Testament:

John 15 names the conditions of fruitfulness which are union with Christ, calling and cleansing by the Lord, and mutual abiding by the Lord and the believer.

Galatians 5 furnishes a description of the fruit itself. 2 Peter 1:5-8 states the order of the cultivation of the fruit within the soul that has been called to God. All this effort is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit by which the Father is glorified is the fruit of the Spirit.

John 15:8

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit...”.

This fruit is clearly detailed for us as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

There are three reasons why these are called fruit.

First, all grace is derived from the Spirit just as fruit is issued from a plant.

Second, the description of these is pleasantness of our new being and fruit is sweet and pleasant to the taste.

Third, fruit orchard owners are enriched by the fruit produced, just as believers are enriched by the fruits of holiness granted by the Spirit.

We should be very careful to note that the use of the term “fruit” is a singular number, meaning one, and teaches us that the gifts are in unity when given, not broken apart into separate portions.

We should also carefully note that these gifts are essentially considered into three thoughts, with the first three (love/joy/peace) when exercised lean toward God. The second three (longsuffering/gentleness/goodness) when exercised lean toward man. The last three (faith/meekness/temperance) when exercised lean toward ourselves.

Love is surely the greatest of all the fruit.

The mark of the follower of Jesus is love. Jesus so commanded in John 13:35, teaching that this one thing seen in us is how we will be seen as His.

This love is known in the Greek as “agape”, meaning a deep, spiritual, giving and godly love. Paul delivers this lesson for us in 1 Cor 13 showing its beauty. It is supreme and it suffers all things, it is giving by not seeking its own way, it remains kind after all trials, and when we exercise it we can say that we have passed from spiritual death into eternal spiritual life.

Its gentleness does indeed mirror the love of Jesus for all those who come to Him, and all of these graces gifted by the Holy Spirit as His fruit guide the renewed soul closer and closer to God.