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
For those of us who grew up in church, and even for those who haven’t, but have been exposed to church sermons, the “Fruits of the Spirit” are among the most well-trodden ideas we heard from the Bible. They’re frequently used for scripture memorization and as a list, have become a measure of our character against what we should be.
I hope you’ve had fun following along these last couple of months as we’ve compared each fruit to a character that we feel embodies it. It’s fun to revisit some of our favorite characters as we emphasize a trait that is both biblically and sensibly significant for us to display in our lives.
But I also hope this series was more than that. I hope that as you’ve read (or as you review – I’ve linked them all below), you’ll understand a little bit more about what it means to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
And further, I hope to stress that despite all the we‘s and I’s I’m using in this post, the fruits are a result of a work done within us. They are not our attempt to curry favor with God; instead, they are a gift from God done through the Holy Spirit. If you’re like me, you may try and try again to be more patient, but it’s when we live a life in response to God’s grace, a natural reaction cultivated through truly understanding what’s He’s done, that the Spirit will work and we’ll see these fruits. And when these fruits ripen, we’ll begin to understand that this isn’t really a list – the fruits are a gift from God that bring sweetness to a life that’s so often sour.
Post on the Spirit Fruits series:
Love: Honda Tohru (Fruits Basket)
Joy: Sasami Jurai (Tenchi Muyo!)
Peace: Ashitaka (Princess Mononoke)
Patience: Alicia Florence (ARIA)
Kindness: Vash the Stampede (Trigun)
Goodness: Sawako Kuronuma (Kimi ni Todoke)
Faithfulness: Kamina (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)
Gentleness: Andromeda Shun (Saint Seiya)
Self-Control: Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin)
This was an awesome series, and I really enjoyed reading the different opinions on them and the different characters brought up! There were some fantastic choices.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! It was fun for us to write. 🙂
[…] tones; so how does this blog pull it off?! In the recent post that I enjoyed reading was Characters that embody the fruits of the spirit TWWK posted a verse from Galatians 5:22 – 23 along with the other “spiritual fruits” as in […]