Fruit of the Spirit • Study 5 of 7
Galatians 5:22–23 | Estimated Study Time: 25–30 minutes
Opening Question
When we read the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, which qualities do we naturally recognize in ourselves—and which ones are easier to overlook because they do not come as naturally?
Paul has already told us that the fruit of the Spirit is singular. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are not nine separate spiritual fruits from which we choose the ones that best fit our personalities. Together, they describe the kind of character the Spirit of God produces within a person who walks with Him.
That makes this passage more challenging than it first appears.
It is easy to read the list and identify the qualities that already resemble our natural temperament. A patient person may feel comfortable with longsuffering. Someone naturally generous may recognize goodness. A quiet personality might even be mistaken for meekness.
But spiritual fruit is more than personality.
God does not simply strengthen the characteristics we already possess and leave the rest untouched. His Spirit works throughout our character, including the places where our natural tendencies are least like Him.
In this study, we are going to slow down over each word Paul uses. Some of the words in the King James Version have changed in everyday English during the centuries since the translation was made, so looking at the Greek words behind them can help us understand what Paul was communicating.
The purpose is not to create nine separate standards against which we constantly score ourselves. It is to look more carefully at the one fruit the Spirit is growing and ask where His work is becoming visible—and where we still need to surrender to it.
Read the Word
Read Galatians 5:22–23 slowly.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Try not to hurry through the words simply because they are familiar.
Paul has deliberately placed this description immediately after the works of the flesh. In verses 19–21, he described what becomes visible when the flesh is allowed to direct a person’s life. Now the contrast is placed directly before us:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is…”
Notice again that Paul does not say fruits.
The Greek word karpos (καρπός), translated fruit, is singular. What follows is a description of the character produced by one source—the Spirit of God working within the believer.
That means we should resist separating these characteristics too quickly. They belong together.
Love without self-control can become little more than emotion. Meekness without faithfulness may become passivity. Goodness without longsuffering can disappear as soon as someone becomes difficult to deal with. The Spirit is not developing disconnected virtues. He is forming a life increasingly characterized by all of them.
As you read the passage again, notice which words immediately seem familiar and which ones you have rarely stopped to consider.
Those less familiar words may contain more than we realize.
Love — Agapē
Paul begins with love.
The Greek word is agapē (ἀγάπη), a word used throughout the New Testament for a love that seeks the good of another. This kind of love cannot be reduced to affection or emotion. Feelings may accompany it, but agapē is capable of acting for another person’s good even when doing so is difficult.
That makes love much more demanding than simply being fond of people.
It is relatively easy to love people who appreciate us, agree with us, and treat us well. The character of our love becomes clearer when someone disappoints us, inconveniences us, or gives us little reason to expect anything in return.
Spiritual love changes the question from “How do I feel about this person?” to “How should someone being shaped by Jesus treat this person?”
This does not mean ignoring harmful behavior or refusing appropriate boundaries. Love and wisdom are not opposites. It means that even when boundaries are necessary, bitterness, revenge, and deliberate cruelty do not have to control our response.
The Spirit grows within us a love that increasingly changes how we see and treat other people.
Joy — Chara
The word translated joy is chara (χαρά).
We sometimes use joy and happiness almost interchangeably, but circumstances can make that understanding too shallow. Biblical joy does not require us to pretend that painful circumstances are pleasant.
There are experiences that should grieve us. Loss hurts. Disappointment is real. Scripture never requires us to rename sorrow as happiness.
The joy produced by the Spirit exists at a deeper level.
It grows from a life whose confidence ultimately rests in God rather than in circumstances remaining favorable. That means joy and sorrow can sometimes exist in the same person at the same time.
A believer may grieve and still know that God has not abandoned them. We may be disappointed and still recognize His goodness. We may walk through a difficult season without allowing that season to become the final definition of our relationship with Him.
Spiritual joy is not constant cheerfulness.
It is a settled reason for rejoicing that reaches deeper than the circumstances surrounding us.
Peace — Eirēnē
Paul’s next word is peace, from the Greek eirēnē (εἰρήνη).
Peace includes the idea of harmony and well-being. In the Christian life, it reaches both inward and outward.
There is the peace we have with God and the peace His presence can produce within us. But spiritual peace should also affect the atmosphere we create around other people.
That deserves attention.
Some people desperately want peace while repeatedly contributing to conflict. We can ask God to calm our minds while continuing arguments, holding grudges, repeating gossip, or insisting on winning every disagreement.
The Spirit’s work of peace reaches into those places too.
Being peaceful does not mean avoiding every difficult conversation or refusing to confront something that is wrong. Sometimes peace requires an honest conversation. But there is a difference between addressing conflict because reconciliation matters and feeding conflict because we need to prove ourselves right.
As peace grows within us, we become less controlled by the need to create turmoil around ourselves.
Longsuffering — Makrothymia
Longsuffering is one of those KJV words whose meaning is almost contained in the word itself: suffering long.
The Greek word makrothymia (μακροθυμία) carries the idea of patience, endurance, and restraint, particularly in situations that could provoke anger.
This kind of patience is most clearly tested by people and circumstances that require it.
It is easy to believe we are patient when nothing is testing our patience. Longsuffering becomes visible when the same frustration appears again, when someone requires more grace than we expected to give, or when something does not happen according to our timetable.
Longsuffering does not mean remaining indefinitely in abusive or dangerous circumstances. Biblical patience should never be used as an excuse to require someone to endure harm.
Instead, it describes a character that is becoming slower to explode, slower to retaliate, and more willing to give appropriate time and grace.
Sometimes the clearest evidence of spiritual growth is not that difficult people have disappeared from our lives.
It is that they no longer produce the same reaction from us.
Gentleness — Chrēstotēs
The KJV uses gentleness for the Greek word chrēstotēs (χρηστότης), which carries the sense of kindness, goodness, or graciousness toward others.
This is more than having a pleasant personality.
Spiritual gentleness becomes visible in the way we handle people, particularly when we have the ability to make their situation more difficult.
A sharp answer may be deserved. An embarrassing mistake may give us an opportunity to expose someone. We may possess information that could be used against another person. Gentleness asks what we do with that power.
The Spirit can change the way we speak, correct, disagree, and respond.
Sometimes spiritual maturity is visible not merely in what we say but in the care with which we say it.
Goodness — Agathōsynē
The word translated goodness is agathōsynē (ἀγαθωσύνη).
Goodness goes beyond avoiding wrongdoing. It describes a positive commitment to what is good.
There is an important difference.
We can define holiness entirely by what we refuse to do and still overlook opportunities to actively do what is right. Spiritual goodness moves us toward generosity, integrity, compassion, justice, honesty, and practical care for others.
It asks more than, “Did I do anything wrong?”
It also asks, “When I had an opportunity to do good, what did I do?”
The Spirit does not merely restrain harmful behavior. He develops within us a desire to become people through whom good is actually done.
Faith — Pistis
The word faith in verse 22 comes from pistis (πίστις).
Depending on context, pistis can refer to faith, belief, trust, or faithfulness. In a list describing character, faithfulness helps us understand an important part of what Paul is describing.
A Spirit-shaped person becomes increasingly trustworthy.
Our word begins to mean something. Commitments matter. People should not constantly have to wonder whether we will do what we said, disappear when something becomes inconvenient, or change our loyalty according to what benefits us most.
Faithfulness is often less dramatic than other expressions of Christian life, but it is deeply important.
It appears in showing up, keeping promises, remaining dependable, telling the truth, and continuing to do what is right when there is no recognition attached to it.
Some of the strongest evidence of God’s work in a life may be found in ordinary consistency.
Meekness — Prautēs
Meekness comes from prautēs (πραΰτης).
Modern English sometimes makes meekness sound like weakness, timidity, or an inability to stand up for oneself. That does not adequately communicate the New Testament idea.
Meekness is better understood as strength that does not need to dominate.
A meek person may possess authority, ability, knowledge, or influence without needing to use those things to overpower others. Meekness does not eliminate conviction. It changes the manner in which conviction is carried.
This is especially important when we know we are right.
How we treat someone when we possess the stronger argument can reveal as much about our character as the argument itself.
The Spirit does not make us incapable of strength.
He teaches us what to do with it.
Temperance — Enkrateia
The final characteristic Paul names is temperance, translated from enkrateia (ἐγκράτεια).
In modern English, temperance is sometimes associated specifically with abstaining from alcohol. The Greek word is broader. It refers to self-control—the ability to exercise restraint over desires and impulses rather than being ruled by them.
This reaches into nearly every part of life.
Our appetite can demand satisfaction. Anger can demand expression. Sexual desire can demand gratification. Curiosity can pull us toward things we should not consume. Money can be spent impulsively. Words can leave our mouths before wisdom has been given time to speak.
Self-control does not mean those desires never appear.
It means they are no longer automatically given authority.
This may be one of the clearest places where the conflict between flesh and Spirit becomes visible. The flesh says, “I want this, therefore I should have it.” The Spirit teaches us that desire does not have to become our master.
Temperance allows us to say no—even to ourselves.
One Fruit Growing Throughout the Whole Life
After looking at these nine characteristics individually, we need to bring them back together.
Paul gave us one fruit.
That prevents us from choosing the qualities that suit us and ignoring those that challenge us. We cannot simply say, “I have love and goodness, but patience has never been my thing,” as though longsuffering belonged to a different kind of Christian.
Our natural personalities will affect how easily certain characteristics appear. Some people are naturally quiet. Others are outgoing. Some are patient by temperament, while others make decisions quickly. The Spirit does not erase personality.
But He does transform character.
The question is not whether every believer expresses these characteristics in exactly the same way. The question is whether the Spirit is increasingly producing all of them.
That also means we should be careful about comparing our growth with someone else’s. The person beside us may be at a different point in the process.
The better comparison may be with the person we used to be.
Are we more patient than we once were? More dependable? Less controlled by anger? More capable of showing kindness when it costs something? More restrained when desires demand immediate satisfaction? More willing to seek peace than to win?
Fruit grows gradually.
But healthy fruit should grow.
Take Time to Reflect
Read Galatians 5:22–23 once more, this time pausing over each characteristic rather than reading the list quickly.
Then consider these questions:
- Which characteristic can I most clearly see God developing in my life?
- Which characteristic do I tend to excuse because I tell myself, “That’s just not my personality”?
- How does my behavior toward difficult people compare with the love, longsuffering, gentleness, and meekness Paul describes?
- Are there desires or impulses in my life that regularly overcome self-control?
- Would the people who know me best describe me as faithful and dependable?
- Where can I recognize genuine change compared with who I was a year ago?
- What area of my character do I need to stop defending and allow God to continue changing?
Do not use the passage merely to create a list of everything that is still wrong with you. Notice the places where growth has already occurred as well.
If you can recognize greater patience, deeper love, increased self-control, or a steadiness that did not exist before, thank God for that growth.
Then be equally honest about what remains unfinished.
Spiritual maturity does not require pretending that every part of the fruit has fully matured. It requires remaining connected to Jesus and allowing His Spirit to continue working in the places that have not.
Carry It With You
The fruit of the Spirit gives us a picture of what God’s work within a person begins to look like when it becomes visible.
It looks like love when selfishness would be easier. Joy that reaches deeper than circumstances. Peace that does not need to create conflict. Patience when frustration has lasted longer than expected. Kindness when harshness would be easier. Goodness that actively chooses what is right. Faithfulness that can be trusted. Strength that does not need to dominate. Self-control when desire demands otherwise.
None of these qualities grows perfectly overnight.
And none of them grows independently of the vine.
That brings us back to the question from the previous study. We remain connected to Jesus, and as His Spirit works within us, the evidence of that relationship begins appearing in our character.
So rather than asking only whether you possess each characteristic, pay attention to its direction.
Is love growing?
Is patience becoming stronger?
Is your response to conflict changing?
Are you becoming more trustworthy?
Are desires that once controlled you beginning to lose some of their authority?
The presence of unfinished areas does not mean nothing is growing. But those areas should not simply be accepted as permanent parts of our personality either.
Bring them to God and remain connected to Him.
Then carry this question with you:
What kind of person is the Spirit of God forming me to become?
Next Study: Crucifying the Flesh — Galatians 5:24
