Fruits of the Spirit - Introduction

There was big trouble in the churches of Galatia. And the nature of the trouble led Paul to assert some pretty strong ideas about Mosaic law and the heritage of the Hebrew Bible. But he did come around to the positive side, too

One of the general things that struck me is that the fruit of the Spirit is contrasted (vv 19-21), but not in very parallel fashion, with works of the flesh, 15 of them plus an et cetera. (Paul also has a deal more to say about flesh and spirit, but let's skip that for now.) The word "fruit" is used quite a lot throughout the Greek Testament, and quite consistently to indicate produce, though it may be human as well as spiritual or vegetable. It's sometimes translated (NRSV) as "harvest," "profit," "produce" (noun or verb), "descendants," and even "advantage" and to refer to the material contributions of the worshipping community. A lot of the vegetable uses are in fact metaphorical for the kind of fruit borne by people rather than trees.

"Spirit" is even more widely used, and again heavily, but not exclusively, as Paul uses it here, to refer to one of the ways God is made manifest, later to be known as the persons of the Trinity. In fact, the "unclean spirits" driven out of people are the same word.

(Read the New Revised Standard Version at http://bible.oremus.org/bible.cgi?ql=126214493