The fruit on the altar that year was the most beautiful anyone at the church in Abeokuta could remember. Not one piece of it was real.
Wunmi had chaired the decoration committee for the Harvest Thanksgiving service for three years running, and this year she was determined to outdo herself. Real fruit, she had decided, was too unpredictable. Bananas blackened overnight. Pawpaw split open in the heat. The year before, a basket of oranges had attracted flies during the pastor’s sermon. So she travelled to Lagos and spent most of a Saturday in the market buying plastic produce by the sack: glossy oranges, perfect pineapples, bunches of purple grapes, apples so red they looked lacquered. She hired a carpenter to build a tiered wooden stand covered in gold cloth.
The preparations took two weeks, and they were not peaceful. Wunmi rearranged the work of the teenage girls who had volunteered to help so many times that two of them went home in tears and did not come back. She quarrelled with the ushers about where the chairs would go. And on the Saturday evening before the service, she found that an elderly widow in the church had brought her usual offering for the altar: a large raffia basket of real produce from her small farm outside town, yams, pawpaw, garden eggs and a bunch of plantain. Wunmi looked at it and moved it quietly to a side table near the vestry door. “It does not match,” she told her assistant.
On Sunday morning the congregation gasped when they walked in. Women took photographs. The visiting preacher mentioned the display in his opening remarks. Wunmi sat in the second row glowing.
After the service, while people were greeting one another, the pastor, Pastor Akpan, walked to the front and picked up one of the plastic oranges. He turned it over in his hand for a moment. Then he caught Wunmi’s eye and smiled. “It is very beautiful,” he said. “Who is going to eat it?”
She laughed, because she thought he was joking. Then she saw the deaconesses carrying the widow’s basket out to the car park, where they would divide its contents among three families who had been struggling since the start of the school term. Nobody needed to divide the plastic fruit. It went back into the sacks, to be stored in the church office until next year.
PunchlineWunmi told me later that she drove home with Pastor Akpan’s question ringing in her ears. “I had produced the most impressive display in the history of that church,” she said. “And none of it could feed anybody.”
Fruit in a quarrelling church
Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit is one of the most familiar passages in the New Testament. We print it on bookmarks and teach it to children in Sunday school. But it is worth noticing where it sits. Just before it, Paul has warned the Galatian believers, “if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another” (Galatians 5:15). He has listed the works of the flesh, including “hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings” (Galatians 5:20-21). And immediately after it comes this:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Look at how the passage closes: “Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” The fruit of the Spirit is framed on both sides by community conflict. Paul is writing to churches torn by argument over the law, where believers were biting one another and competing for status. Into that setting he describes what the Spirit grows.
That changes how we read the list. These are the qualities the Spirit produces among people, in exactly the places where the flesh would produce strife. Love is shown to someone. Peace is made between people. Longsuffering is endured with someone. Gentleness, goodness and meekness are all directed toward others. Faithfulness is faithfulness to someone. Even joy and self-control, which might seem the most personal, are shaped by the community: joy shared in the household of God and self-control that refuses to provoke.
Notice also the word Paul chooses. In verse 19 he speaks of the “works” of the flesh. In verse 22 he speaks of the “fruit” of the Spirit. Works are manufactured. Fruit is grown. The flesh can produce an impressive range of activity. Only the Spirit can produce this kind of character.
And there is one more contrast in the passage that speaks directly to Wunmi’s story. The closing warning is against vain glory, the Greek kenodoxos, empty glory. It describes a hunger for admiration that has nothing solid underneath it. A display can win admiration. Fruit feeds people.
The qualities that face toward others
Let us walk through the qualities Paul names, with that community setting in mind. Other teachings in this series look closely at self-control and at the qualities of patience and meekness in emotional maturity. Here I want to see each of them as it appears between people.
Love comes first, and it is the root of all the rest. The word is agape, the love that seeks another’s good at cost to oneself. Paul has already told the Galatians that the whole law is fulfilled in loving your neighbour as yourself (Galatians 5:14). The Spirit’s first fruit is the very thing the law aimed at and could never produce.
Joy is the gladness of those who know they are loved by God. In a quarrelling church, joy is often the first casualty. People stop enjoying one another. They come to meetings braced for a fight. The Spirit restores the simple delight of belonging to God’s family.
Peace in the New Testament includes inner calm, and it reaches further, to reconciliation and the end of hostility. In Galatia, where Jewish and Gentile believers were being divided over circumcision, peace meant learning to sit at the same table again.
Longsuffering is literally being long-tempered, slow to boil over. It is the patience that bears with a difficult brother for a long time without giving up on him.
Gentleness in the King James translates chrestotes, which is often rendered kindness. It is the same root Jesus used when He said, “my yoke is easy” (Matthew 11:30). It describes a person who is easy to be around, whose presence makes life lighter for others.
Goodness is generous, active goodness. It does not merely avoid harm. It goes out of its way to do good.
NuggetFaith here is best understood as faithfulness: reliability, the quality of a person whose word can be trusted and who keeps showing up.
Meekness is strength held under control. It is the spirit in which Paul tells the spiritual to restore a fallen brother (Galatians 6:1).
Temperance, self-control, closes the list. In a church conflict, it is the tongue held back from the cutting remark.
Now set Wunmi’s two weeks of preparation beside that list. There was plenty of energy, skill and commitment. But the girls who went home crying had met very little longsuffering. The ushers had met very little gentleness. The widow, whose basket was moved to the vestry door, had met very little love. None of this made Wunmi a hypocrite or a false believer. She was a sincere Christian who had let a project crowd out the fruit. Most of us have done the same with a wedding, a building project, a crusade or a career. The work grows impressive while the people around it go hungry.
Read the list again and ask yourself where each quality is tested. Not in your quiet time, mostly. In the kitchen, the office, the committee meeting, the family WhatsApp group and the car with your spouse at the end of a long day. That is where fruit is recognised.
The fruit of the Spirit is recognised in the kind of life growing among people. An impressive display can draw admiration, but only fruit can feed anyone.
The vine and the branches
Paul’s agricultural picture has its roots in the teaching of Jesus Himself. On the night before the cross, walking with His disciples perhaps past vineyards on the way to Gethsemane, He said:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Jesus says that He is “the true vine.” Israel had often been pictured as God’s vine in the Old Testament, and the prophets lamented that the vine had produced wild grapes. Now Jesus presents Himself as the true Vine, the One in whom God’s people at last bear the fruit God desires.
The Father is the husbandman, the farmer. He does two things. He takes away the fruitless branch, and He “purgeth” the fruitful one, pruning it so that it bears more. The same word is used in verse 3: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The disciples had already been cleansed by the word of Christ. Pruning is the Father’s careful work on branches that are already bearing, and the disciples had no need to fear it as punishment.
Then comes the heart of the passage: “Abide in me, and I in you.” A branch does not produce fruit by trying harder. It produces fruit by remaining connected to the vine, through which the sap flows. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” And Jesus closes with a sentence that ought to humble every busy Christian: “for without me ye can do nothing.”
Notice where this teaching goes next. Jesus says, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8). Then He speaks of His love: “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love” (John 15:9). Then of joy: “that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). And then He tells them exactly what the fruit looks like: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
A few verses later Jesus adds, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). Fruit that remains is fruit that lasts. Plastic oranges last a long time, of course, but only because nothing can be done with them. Real fruit remains in a different way. It is eaten, and it nourishes. Its seeds go into the ground and grow again. The patience you show a struggling believer, the kindness you show a junior colleague, the faithfulness you show an ageing parent, go on bearing fruit in other lives long after the moment has passed.
So the fruit Jesus has in mind in John 15 culminates in love for one another. It grows from abiding in Him. And it is recognised among the disciples, in the way they treat each other. Paul and Jesus are saying the same thing. Abide in the Vine, walk in the Spirit, and the life of God will show itself in love, joy and peace among His people.
A display is not a harvest
Jesus gave a sobering warning about mistaking religious activity for fruit:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Look at what these people had done. They had prophesied in Christ’s name. They had cast out devils. They had done “many wonderful works.” By any outward measure their ministries were impressive. And Jesus says, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Jesus Himself prophesied, cast out devils and worked wonders, and He sent His disciples to do the same. Yet these things, however genuine, do not by themselves prove a life yielded to God. Just before this passage Jesus says, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16), and He explains that “a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:18). The test He gives is the fruit of character. The people in verse 22 pointed to their works. Jesus looked for something else.
I hold a Pentecostal conviction about the gifts of the Spirit. I believe they are for the church today, and I have seen God use them powerfully. But gifts and fruit are different things. Gifts are given; fruit is grown. A gift can be received in a moment and can operate in a person who is still very immature. The Corinthian church overflowed with gifts and was full of envy, strife and division. Samson moved in extraordinary power while his private life was falling apart, and the day came when “he wist not that the LORD was departed from him” (Judges 16:20).
Paul’s great chapter on love says it clearly:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor , and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Tongues without love are noise. Prophecy and faith without love amount to nothing. Even sacrificial giving without love profits nothing. Brothers and sisters from other traditions sometimes worry that Pentecostal churches prize the spectacular and neglect the slow work of character. Where that is true, we should hear the rebuke. The answer is to keep the gifts and to remember that the same Spirit who gives gifts also grows fruit, and that it is the fruit that tells you whether a life is truly yielded to Him.
Wunmi’s display was a gift of sorts. She had real talent, and the church was right to enjoy it. But while she was building it, the actual fruit of her life, the patience, kindness and gentleness that the girls and the ushers and the widow needed from her, had been almost entirely absent.
Fruit takes seasons, and pruning
If fruit is grown and not manufactured, then it takes time. The psalmist describes the righteous person as “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season” (Psalm 1:3). Notice: in his season. Trees do not fruit all year round. They have seasons of blossom, seasons of growth and seasons when nothing much seems to be happening.
James uses the same image to encourage patience: “Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it” (James 5:7). If God is patient with the slow growth of His children, we can be patient with our own growth and with one another’s.
And sometimes fruit grows through hard seasons. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). The Father’s pruning can hurt. A rebuke, a failure, a public embarrassment like Wunmi’s, can be the knife in the husbandman’s hand. He cuts back what is unfruitful so that real fruit can grow.
This has two practical consequences. First, do not fake fruit. It is far easier to tie plastic oranges onto a branch than to wait for real ones. Many believers learn to perform kindness, to smile in church while seething at home, to speak gently in public and harshly in private. That is display. The Spirit wants the real thing, and the real thing comes from abiding.
Second, do not despair at slow growth. If you look at your life and see more temper than patience, more worry than peace, do not conclude that the Spirit has failed or that you are not His. Return to the Vine. Abide. Fruit grows in seasons, and the Husbandman knows what He is doing.
Putting on what the Spirit grows
Does that mean the believer simply waits passively for fruit to appear? Paul’s letter to the Colossians answers that question:
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Notice how Paul begins: “as the elect of God, holy and beloved.” Identity comes before activity. Before he tells the Colossians to put on anything, he reminds them who they are: chosen, set apart and dearly loved. You do not put on kindness in order to become beloved. You put it on because you already are.
Then he uses the language of clothing: “Put on.” The qualities he lists overlap strongly with Galatians 5: mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. And he immediately sets them in the context of conflict: “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any.” Paul assumes there will be quarrels in the church. He does not tell the Colossians to avoid all disagreement. He tells them how to behave when it comes. Bear with one another. Forgive as Christ forgave you.
“And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Love is the belt that holds the whole outfit together. “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body.” The peace of God is meant to act like an umpire in the heart, settling the disputes that arise between members of one body.
So the fruit of the Spirit is grown by Him and also put on by us. These are not contradictory. The Spirit produces the life; we choose, day by day, to wear it. When you are tempted to snap at the volunteer who keeps getting the arrangement wrong, you can choose to put on longsuffering, trusting that the Spirit who lives in you will supply what you are putting on.
How fruit is recognised
If fruit is recognised among people, then the people around you are the best judges of it. Your own estimate of your spiritual growth is often unreliable. You may feel close to God and still be difficult to live with. You may feel dry and still be growing in patience and kindness without noticing.
So ask the people nearest to you. Ask your spouse whether you have become more patient this year. Ask your children whether you are kinder than you used to be. Ask the colleague who works under you, the driver, the house help, the junior member of the committee. They will tell you more about the fruit of the Spirit in your life than any spiritual experience can.
Jesus said, “For every tree is known by his own fruit” (Luke 6:44). He went on to explain that the mouth speaks “of the abundance of the heart” (Luke 6:45). What comes out of you when you are tired, hurried or provoked shows what has been growing within.
There is a danger on the other side too. Once we learn that a tree is known by its fruit, it becomes very tempting to go around inspecting everyone else’s branches. But the same sermon in which Jesus said, “Ye shall know them by their fruits,” also contains His warning about the man who sees the speck in his brother’s eye and ignores the beam in his own (Matthew 7:3-5). In Matthew 7, fruit-testing is given chiefly to protect believers from false prophets, people who come in sheep’s clothing to lead God’s flock astray. It is not a licence to grade the spiritual growth of the sister in the next pew. Begin with your own tree. Be patient with others, as the Husbandman is patient with you.
A guard-rail is needed here. Gentleness, meekness and longsuffering never require you to accept abuse. Bearing with a difficult brother is one thing; tolerating violence, threats or exploitation is something else entirely. If you are being harmed, the fruit of the Spirit in you does not require you to stay silent. Seek safety, speak to someone you trust, and involve the appropriate authorities or qualified help. Love that protects the vulnerable is itself the fruit of the Spirit.
And fruit does not make you a doormat. Jesus was the most gentle Person who ever lived, and He also overturned tables in the temple. Meekness is strength under control.
PunchlineWunmi was not asked to chair the decoration committee the following year. She asked to be released herself. “I needed to learn something,” she said.
Before the next Harvest Thanksgiving, she went to see the two girls who had gone home in tears and apologised to each of them. She went to the widow’s farm outside town and spent a Saturday helping her harvest yams. On the day of the service, she arrived early and helped the new committee arrange the altar. There was no gold cloth that year. There were baskets of real produce from the members’ farms and gardens, a few slightly bruised pawpaws, plantain that would be ripe by Wednesday, and the widow’s raffia basket right at the front, in the centre.
“It was not as beautiful,” Wunmi said. “Some of the bananas were already turning. But after the service we packed everything into the deaconesses’ cars and took it to twelve families. That was the best Harvest I have ever attended.”
Pastor Akpan, she said, came and stood beside her as the cars drove off. He did not say anything about oranges. He did not need to.
That is what the Spirit is growing in you. Not a display for others to admire, but a life others can feed on: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, ripening slowly among the people God has placed around you.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Where are you most tempted to produce an impressive display instead of real fruit?
- Read Galatians 5:15-26 again. How does the setting of community conflict change the way you understand the fruit of the Spirit?
- Which of the nine qualities is most tested in your closest relationships at the moment?
- What does it mean for you to “abide” in Christ in the ordinary routine of your week?
- Who could you ask, honestly, about the fruit they see, or do not see, in your life?
This Week
This week, ask two people who know you well, perhaps your spouse, a close friend or a colleague, a simple question: “Which of the fruit of the Spirit do you see growing in me, and which do you think I most need?” Receive their answers without defending yourself. Then choose one quality and, each morning, read Colossians 3:12-15 and ask the Holy Spirit to grow that fruit in you. Look for one concrete opportunity each day to put it on in a relationship.
A Prayer
Father, thank You that I am chosen, holy and beloved in Christ. Forgive me for the times I have produced an impressive display while the people around me went hungry for patience, kindness and love. Lord Jesus, You are the true Vine; teach me to abide in You, because without You I can do nothing. Holy Spirit, grow Your fruit in me, in my home, my workplace and my church. Prune whatever is unfruitful, even when it hurts. Help me to put on love, forbearance and forgiveness when I am provoked, and let Your peace rule in my heart. Make my life something others can feed on. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.