What Are The Fruit Of The Spirit? Meaning Of The 9 Fruit

As believers, one of the beautiful things deposited in us in Christ Jesus is the Holy Spirit. We have the Spirit of God living in us. We have fruit our God-given Spirit possesses which are referred to as the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit are qualities we need to have as a believer. They make up character traits that people see in us and they will be able to testify that we are believers.

God desires for every one of us to walk by the Spirit and not act on the fruit of the flesh because it is not in our nature.

This is why we cannot live our lives in a mediocre manner. We have to move past mediocrity and live the life that God has designed for every one of us and this life is one conditioned by the Spirit and is deeply rooted in the word of God.

In our society today everyone is living their truth so why not live yours? This truth here is nothing but the word of God on which our faith is built.

The fruit of the Spirit are very essential in our everyday life and in this blog post, I would enlighten you more on the fruit of the Spirit.

What Are the Fruit of the Spirit?

The fruit of the Spirit are attributes of our born-again spirit as a believer. These fruits are qualities we should exhibit because it shows that we are saved men who have the Holy Spirit living in us.

The nine fruit of the Spirit include:- love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Why You Need to Walk by the Spirit

You cannot call yourself a believer and still allow yourself to be controlled by the flesh. There is a way to conduct your everyday life in which you walk by the Spirit. Romans 8:14 informs you that as many that are led by the Spirit are called the sons of God.

You are not just a believer by your mouth but also by your actions. How do you dress? How do you treat people around you? How do you react when faced with a problem? What are the kinds of words that come out of your mouth? etc.

You are not living this life on your terms but you are living the life God has designated for you in Christ Jesus.

The Fruit of the Spirit

There are 9 fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23 and it is important to know each of them and how to apply them in our daily living. The fruit of our Spirit include:

1. Love:

Love is the most important element to possess as a believer. Paul admonished in 1 Corinthians 13 that we can do all the good works in the world but if we have no love we are like a clanging cymbal. 

This means without love in our spiritual walk with God, we are nothing. As believers, love others as Christ first loved us. Loving others should come naturally to us because we have the Spirit of God living in us.

2.  Joy:

Joy is one of the fruit of our born-again Spirit as believers. Joy isn’t a trait that should be difficult for us to have because it should be natural in our lives.

 The joy we have in Christ Jesus is nothing compared to the happiness we have in this temporal world. We are to rejoice always for it is God’s will for our lives as seen in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. 

In all circumstances, we are to exhibit joy in our lives. Nothing should overwhelm us so much to the extent of stealing our joy.

 1 Peter 8-9 tells us that even though we have not seen God yet we believe, we will have inexpressible joy as a result of our salvation. This kind of joy cannot be explained nor expressed.

3. Peace:

Peace is part of the fruit of the Spirit we have as believers. This kind of peace is the type that Jesus Christ gives and not the world as he told us in John 14:27. 

This is why when everyone is anxious around us, we will be at peace because being peaceful is a natural phenomenon for us.

This type of peace will prompt people to ask us why we are calm or not disturbed about an issue. To activate this fruit, our mind should stay on Christ Jesus. Isaiah26:3 makes us understand that He will keep in perfect peace whose mind stays on God.

4. Long-Suffering:

Long-suffering indicates patience because there will be times when our faith will be tested, and periods will come that will tempt us to deviate from the faith but from the word of God we are told that one of our fruit is long-suffering. We are to wait on God and see His plans for us come to fruition.

5.  Kindness:

Being kind to others is an act of love because love itself is kind as shown in 1 Corinthians 13:4. As believers, we ought not to exhibit cruel behaviour towards others. Kindness is one of the fruit of the Spirit and it should be activated in our lives. 

A kind behaviour stems from someone conscious of who they are and who they belong to.  Ephesians 4:32 makes us understand that we should be kind to one another and express forgiveness to others just as God in Christ forgave us.

6. Faithfulness: 

One of the fruit of the Spirit we have is faithfulness. Being faithful entails trusting God even in the sea of impossibilities. Faith is having absolute trust in God even when it seems like everything is falling out of place. God requires us to have faith in Him in every situation we find ourselves in.

It should not only be when things are going well that we have faith, we need to have faith even when it seems like all is not going according to plan. We walk by faith and not by sight as we can see in Ephesians 4:32. This ‘faith’ is part of the fruit of our Spirit hence, we need to exercise it as believers.

7. Goodness:

 In everything, it is required for us to be good as believers and live the exemplary life of Christ. We live in a very dark world but you and I have been called the light, there is so much more that is required of us as believers. 

God should see our life on earth and be proud of us. Do not make the world deceive you by telling you that being good is boring, remember we are in the world but not of the world.

8. Gentleness: 

As a believer, we ought to be gentle because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble as written in James 4:6. Gentleness is among the fruit of our Spirit, therefore no matter the social status we attain we should never feel more superior than others.

Jesus Christ on earth, despite being the Messiah, washed the feet of His disciples and we can read about the story in John 13:1-17. His humility is also seen when John, the Baptist, immerses him in water in Matthew 3:13-17.

Jesus didn’t need to be baptised but he acknowledged the good works of John, the Baptist by allowing Him to baptise Him.

9. Self-Control

Self-control is one of the fruit of our Spirit. Therefore, in our speech, actions, mechanisms etc. we ought to be disciplined. We cannot live a callous life, there is a better way to live.

This self-control is an attribute to cultivate because when disciplined it is easier to not give heed to our fleshly desire. Remember those who are led by the spirit are called the sons of God as stated in Romans 8:14.

Points to Note

1. As believers, we are to live according to the fruit of the Spirit and desist from all fruit of the flesh stated in Galatians 5:19-21.
2. Living by the fruit of the Spirit is easy when you have submitted yourself to the will of God.
3. The Spirit of God lives inside of us and the result of His Spirit in us is the fruit that we produce.
4. It is not enough to only activate 5 of the fruit of the Spirit, it is essential to walk by it.
5. The fruit of the Spirit are not only applied on Sundays but every other day. 
6. Walking in accordance with the fruit of the Spirit shows that you honour the word of God.

8 Scriptures on the Fruit of the Spirit

• 1 John 4:16: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and He who abides in love abides in God, and God in Him.

• Romans 15:13: Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

• Ephesians 4:1-2: I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.

• Philippians 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

• Philippians 4:5: Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

• Proverbs 25:28: Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.

• Proverbs 16:32: He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

• Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed your read? If this blog post has given you a proper insight into the 9 fruit of the Spirit kindly leave a comment and share this blog post.

Remember you are a child of God who has the Spirit of God living in them so therefore you can produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

God loves us and requires us to desist from all fruit of the flesh and live by the fruit of the Spirit. I hope this blog post meets you well?

Read Also: What are the Fruits of the Spirit? 9 Characteristics Explained