Fruit of the Spirit

I thought we had a good conversation today regarding the fruit of the Spirit. There was one question about whether the word “fruit” could really mean “fruits”. While I am no Greek scholar, the word (according to the NET Bible resources (net.bible.org)) it would appear singular. However, there is a footnote later that offers an alternate translation/punctuation form where a colon would appear after the word love. So, the verse could be rendered “But the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…”. The colon representation could then be interpreted as “the fruit of the Spirit is love which manifests itself in joy, please, etc…”.

I’m certainly not going to posit a doctrine based on a colon. However, I thought our discussion around this topic was on target. Without love, none of the other fruit really seem possible. Love is the ultimate core value for Christians to emanate to others. And its the core attribute of God.

Peace

Tagged as: Band of Brothers, Galatians