Rethinking the Church | The Fruit of the Spirit

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NRSVUE)

Paul could have written, "the fruits of the Spirit," but he didn't. He wrote "the fruit of the Spirit"—singular. This isn't a list of separate characteristics we pick and choose from, like items on a spiritual menu. It's a description of one fruit, just like we might describe an apple as red, juicy, sweet, and crisp.

When God's Spirit is at work in someone's life, you see all of these characteristics developing together. They're not things we manufacture through willpower or achieve through effort—they're things we become when we're connected to Jesus.

Notice that Paul isn't giving us a to-do list. He's describing transformation. This isn't about behavior modification; it's about heart change. You can't fake having these characteristics, at least not for long. They either flow naturally from a life surrendered to God, or they don't exist at all.

Think about the difference between artificial fruit and real fruit. You can buy plastic apples that look perfect and never rot, but they'll never nourish anyone. Real fruit, on the other hand, grows naturally from a healthy tree. When it's ripe, everyone can see it, taste it, and be nourished by it.

That's what Paul is describing here—real spiritual fruit that grows in healthy Christians and healthy churches. It's not about putting on a performance or trying to convince people we're spiritual. It's about the authentic transformation that happens when God's Spirit lives in us.

This fruit is also recognizable to others. When someone demonstrates genuine patience in a stressful situation, people notice. When someone responds with kindness to rudeness, it stands out. When someone maintains joy despite difficult circumstances, it catches attention. When someone shows faithfulness in small things, it builds trust.

And spiritual fruit benefits everyone around us. Our love makes others feel valued. Our peace helps calm anxious situations. Our patience creates space for people to grow. Our kindness brightens difficult days. Our faithfulness provides stability in uncertain times.

But this fruit doesn't develop overnight. Just like natural fruit takes time to grow and ripen, spiritual fruit develops gradually as we stay connected to Jesus through prayer, Bible study, worship, community, and service. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more we begin to reflect his character.

This is what healthy spirituality looks like—not perfect behavior, but the gradual transformation that produces the kind of character that can only come from God. When people see this fruit in our lives, they get a glimpse of what God is like.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, we want to bear the kind of fruit that only you can produce in us. We confess that we often try to manufacture these characteristics through our own effort, but we know that real transformation can only come from you. Help us stay connected to Jesus so that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control grow naturally in our lives. Make us people who demonstrate your character to everyone we meet. Amen.