Theopedia

Fruit of the Spirit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

— Galatians 5:22-23

Definition

The fruit of the Spirit is the single, unified character the Holy Spirit produces in a believer, listed by Paul as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Paul’s grammar marks the contrast deliberately: against the many, discrete “works of the flesh” (Gal. 5:19) he sets one, singular “fruit” of the Spirit, since “the curses of the law are uttered not so much against single acts of transgression as against the evil affections from which they spring.”1

Biblical Basis

Paul frames the fruit as the direct opposite of “the works of the flesh,” a list of specific, discrete sins (Gal. 5:19-21), immediately followed by the fruit’s own single list (Gal. 5:22-23). Strong notes that this pairing shows “dispositions and states predominate” in both lists: neither is primarily about isolated acts, but about the settled character from which particular acts, whether sinful or Spirit-given, spring.1 Paul grounds the whole contrast in union with Christ and the Spirit’s own presence: “since we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25), and elsewhere identifies love specifically as “the fruit of the Spirit” in its own right (cf. Rom. 5:5, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”).

Doctrinal Significance

The fruit of the Spirit is evidence of the Spirit’s work in a believer, not a meritorious contribution the believer makes toward salvation. Boettner states the point directly: love, joy, peace, and the rest “are not the meritorious basis of salvation, but rather ‘the fruits of the Spirit.’”2 The fruit is what genuine faith produces, not what earns or secures it.

Related Doctrines

References

  1. Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology: A Compendium and Commonplace-Book Designed for the Use of Theological Students, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: The Griffith & Rowland Press, 1907), 555. ↩ ↩2

  2. Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1932), 42-149. ↩