“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 NIV
The fruit of the Spirit is a term that is used a lot in the Christian community. The fruit is a list of 9 different characteristics, traits or attributes that should be visible in the lives of Christians. These characteristics or traits demonstrate that growth and maturity are occurring in a Christian’s walk with God. The list is not a checklist of characteristics that we go through and check off as we accomplish them. For example, we do not move from developing love, accomplish it and then move on to developing joy. They all work together, we may develop one of them faster or easier than another but we have the seed of all of them in us.
As we grow in our walk as a Christian, we begin to develop the different parts of the fruit. An example is that when we are saved, our overall attitude changes but not over night. It takes some time to develop. Any plant that produces fruit does not produce it the moment it is planted. It may not even produce it the first year that the plant is in the ground. The development of fruit takes time, which is something we need to be aware of as Christians. Sometimes we rush to “develop” the characteristics that we believe we should already have when we have not taken the time to let God work in us to produce the right environment for the growth to occur.
How do we know that we are responding to the Holy Spirit and we are beginning to produce the Fruit of the Spirit? As I wrote earlier, our attitude changes, we should begin to notice that in times when we would have been angry before, we are not becoming angry as quickly or when we would have been very impatient with someone that we are giving them more grace.
As we move through the next week or so looking at the fruit, please remember that it is not a checklist that you go down through accomplishing one before moving to the next, but a collection of traits that you develop and grow all together, a little at a time.