We are more patient with our dealings with others, joy fills us more, we exercise more self-control, etc. When we submit to God fully and allow him to transform us, all of this fruit should appear in our lives. Tomorrow, self-control.” But the Holy Spirit doesn’t work like that. So why “fruit of the spirit” instead of “fruits”?Īs Christians, we may get tempted to focus on one fruit at a time. When we face temptation or people who attempt to sway us from righteous living or from Christ himself, we lean on these three virtues. Our final triad: gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, refers to how we handle opposition. We refuse to add to the fire of antagonism. Instead of choosing to be revoked or choosing to retaliate, we endure sufferings and choose to love others. These especially manifest themselves in our relationships with others (opposed to the first three showing up more in our relationship with God). The next three, according to MacLaren Expositions, get lumped into a triad: patience, kindness, and goodness. When we spend time with God, we are full of love, full of heavenly joy, and full of peace. Love, joy, and peace appear to go together. With it, we have comfort in knowing God heal this broken world. As mentioned in the Candle of Advent article found on, peace extends to others and our inner selves. Peace goes hand in hand with this attribute. In such a presence of brightness, we can experience comfort during difficult trials ( Psalm 94:19).

As it further explains, joy comes from the radiance, the brightness of God himself.

Joy, first of all, goes deeper than a mere happiness, says Ellicott’s Commentary. Without it, our good works have no use on earth ( 1 Corinthians 13:1).īut what about the others? Why did Paul choose these in the list and not other admirable attributes? Love is the most important out of these nine. The nine hallmarks of the spirit working in a Christian’s life are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is just like when we spend more time with a person, we begin to look and sound like them.īut why are these singular? In other words, why isn’t it the “fruits” of the Spirit? Why these nine, and why does this bear an importance on the church today? First Off, What Are the Nine Fruit of the Spirit? In other words, when God indwells us, and we spend more time with him, we begin to emanate his attributes. In these, Paul lists nine attributes of the Holy Spirit, which appear in Christians when they are indwelt by him.

Fruits of the spirit