What Is Spiritual Fruit? - Fruitful Living: How to Grow a Life That Matters

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” (Galatians 5:22-23, NLT)

You’re in the produce section of your neighborhood grocery store. Just for a minute, lay your list aside and look. In bins and boxes, piled high, stacked neatly, arranged in alternating bands of color, are fruits of every imaginable flavor and type. Focus on the fruit.

Apples mirror your reflection in their polished surface. Within their crunchy fruit, their seeds make a star-shaped design when cut in half horizontally. Grapefruit exude a tangy, sweet aroma, their skin thick and spongy. Bananas perch delicately, bunched by fives and sixes, yellow skin dotted with brown sage spots. Strawberries wear their seeds as a cloak. Pineapples guard their syrupy sweetness with a prickly exterior. Coconuts challenge any fruit eater to break through their barrier to get to the good stuff.

Fruit is the result of growth. It’s the evidence that a plant or a vine or a tree has been rooted and established, fed and nurtured, watered and staked and pruned to the point of reproducing. Spiritual fruit is what results in our lives when we root ourselves in a relationship with God. When we live a life connected like this with God, He grows His nature in who we are and fruit results. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The fruit of the Spirit are those God-like qualities that make us look like Him. Rather than “doing” words, they are “being” words. They are His nature exhibited in our personalities. When we plant ourselves in a relationship with Jesus, day in and day out, the result of that relationship is the fruit of His characteristics in us. The fruit of the Spirit is what we look like when we’re like Jesus.

For most of us, such a definition can be unsettling. Looking and acting like Jesus? That might be a very good thing…but would our own character traits fade away? Would God replace the “me” we know with some saint-like replica that more closely resembles what we believe Jesus to be? Our edgy enthusiasm tamed to a controlled warmth. Our tough determinism melted to a driven discipline. We picture a robot-like being – only holier. We pull back and wonder, will we even recognize ourselves if we live such a fruit-filled life? The question haunts, will I still be me?

The fruit of the Spirit is not about being nice. The fruit of the Spirit is indeed God’s characteristics. But it is God’s characteristics exhibited in our own unique personalities. Being like Jesus means showing these spirit fruits – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control – as expressed in our own personalities.

“Peace” in your own skin might look like a calm version of a caffeine addict, whereas in the skin of your friend it may look more like a way laid-back chill. “Joy” might appear as stillness in you but more like a whooped-up party in your sister.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. These are the fruit of the Spirit. These are God’s qualities exhibited in our personalities. These are what we look like when we look like God. If we want to grow a life that matters, we’ll focus on God growing His characteristics in our personalities.

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, I want to be like You. I can’t do life by myself without messing it up. Please save me from myself so that I can be the best me I can be by being in a relationship with You. And, as I “plant” myself in You, will You please grow these qualities that look like You in me? I long for a life that matters and that makes a difference in my family and my world. I realize that happens when these qualities are growing in me out of a relationship with You. In Your name, Amen.

Adapted From: Fruitful Living: Growing a Life That Matters by Elisa Morgan. Our Daily Bread Publishing https://www.amazon.com/Fruitful-Living-Growing-Life-Matters-ebook/dp/B0F55VLYJ4/ref=sr_1_1?