In my Ladies’ Bible Study group we’re discussing Dr. David Jeremiah’s explanation of Galatians 5:24, the “Fruit of the Spirit” which according to Wikepedia is “ a biblical term that sums up nine attributes of a person or community living in accord with the Holy Spirit, according to chapter 5 of the Epistle to the Galatians: ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.’ “ Dr. Jeremiah teaches that the Christian life, when filled with each of the nine attributes, transforms that life “beyond amazing.” I’m more than ready for such a promise to be fulfilled. Aren’t all of us who follow Jesus?

The nine fruit(s) of the Spirit are often taught as separate characteristics. Check out images of Galatians 5:24 on the internet and there are countless pictures of nine fruits often hanging from a generic tree. Love? It’s an apple. Peace? A smiling pear? Etc. Etc. While that’s a pictorial way to remember the nine attributes and makes for cute coloring pages, it’s also inaccurate. The word which English translates into fruit (often plural) means the part of a plant which encases its seed -and is not necessarily the tastier counterpart (fruits) to veggies. It’s the more general word fruit, implying fruition, a coming into completeness and reproduction after its own kind. It’s a birthing image. Think of Mary’s cousin Elizabeth when she saw Mary six months pregnant:

…she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!Luke 1:42

So yes, the word fruit is confusing unless you’re a linguistic odd ball.

I usually considered the “fruit of the Spirit” abstractly, as concepts and ideas. I had far too much of Plato’s philosophy and Thomas Aquinas’ theology in my education – and therefore still tend to analyze and conceptualize. If I can over think something – well, that’s why God gave us brains, to shape it all into tidy systems of philosophy and theology? Right? Uh, that would be a No!

The Holy Spirit cut through my inductions and deductions with this simple fact: Jesus Christ embodied every one of the “nine fruit” in His time on earth! Who else was filled with constant love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and gentleness? With faithfulness and self control even to death? The fruit of the Spirit is not a crate of mixed fruits to be chosen and savored one at a time. Nor are we to seek love, peace and joy now and hope for the rest later . Jesus loved while being gentle and also simultaneously patient, kind and faithful. His goodness can’t be separated from His peace. His life is the fruition of the Father’s will and plan, and in this age, the true “fruit of the Holy Spirit” is Christ’s life in the believer. Paul is describing the character of Jesus manifested in the believer through the Holy Spirit and not mental constructs.

Jesus spoke several times to the disciples of their need to abide in Him so as to be fruit bearing.

…Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5

The beyond amazing life is this: Christ in us so we can be fruitful through Him. Apart from Jesus, the “fruit of the Spirit” becomes pretty word pictures.