Fruit of the Spirit
The Grapes of Galatians
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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NET)
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I’ve talked before about how I consider the fruit of the Spirit to be more akin to a cluster of grapes than a cornucopia of fruit.
Back when I was in seminary, I did a deeper dive on this verse in my Greek exegesis class.
Something I saw fascinated me:
Each fruit was equal.
What I mean is, in the sentence structure of the Greek, each “piece” of fruit (love, joy, peace, etc.) functioned as the direct object. So, in essence, you had a sentence with a 9-stack of equal direct objects.
Thus, if I wanted to focus on one fruit, the sentence “But the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness.” makes complete sense.
What does this mean for me?
No one fruit is more or less important than the others.
Sure, love is listed first, but it’s not greater than self-control here.
And patience is not less than gentleness.
All of them are equally important.
More than that:
All of them are the Spirit’s fruit, not my own.
I don’t have the ability within me to grow this fruit. I lack the tools.
But the Spirit can grow it in me.
In fact, He’s in the business of making me more and more like Christ.
And the fruit of the Spirit is one of the key ways He does this.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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