Whenever Christians talk about
Galatians 5.22-23 THGNT - 22 ὁ δὲ καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματός ἐστιν ἀγάπη, χαρά, εἰρήνη, μακροθυμία, χρηστότης, ἀγαθωσύνη, πίστις,
- 23 πραΰτης, ἐγκράτεια· κατὰ τῶν τοιούτων οὐκ ἔστιν νόμος.
Oh okay; the King James Version.
Galatians 5.22-23 KJV - 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Anyway, this way we have a small inventory of fruit memorized. Comes in handy if there’s ever any question whether these things are fruit.
Defining the words.
Obviously whenever people quote this verse, it’s to list the fruits, and to define ’em. And for that, they bust out the dictionary—and if they have any sense, they bust out the Greek dictionary, since our English dictionaries only tell us how popular culture defines stuff.
I’ll quote Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament.
ἀγάπη /agápi, fromἀγαπάω /agapáo. Love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast—(feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love.
χαρά /hará, fromχαίρω /haíro. Cheerfulness, i.e. calm delight—gladness. Or “greatly” (or “be exceeding”) “joy(-ful, -fully, -fulness, -ous).”
εἰρήνη /eiríni, probably from a primary verbεἴρω /eíro (to join). Peace (literally or figuratively); by implication, prosperity—one, peace, quietness, rest, + set at one again.
μακροθυμία /makrothymía, from the same asμακροθυμώς /makrothymós. Longanimity, i.e. (objectively) forbearance or (subjectively) fortitude—longsuffering, patience.
χρηστότης /hristótis, fromχρηστός /hristós. Usefulness, i.e. morally, excellence (in character or demeanor)—gentleness, good(-ness), kindness.
ἀγαθωσύνη /agathosýni, fromἀγαθός /agathós. Goodness, i.e. virtue or beneficence—goodness.
πίστις /pístis, fromπείθω /peítho. Persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (gospel) truth itself—assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.
πραΰτης /praýtis, fromπραΰς /praýs. Mildness, i.e. (by implication) humility—meekness.
ἐγκράτεια /enkráteia, fromἐγκρατής /enkratís. Self-control (especially continence)—temperance.
Other dictionaries will analyze these words in greater detail, and of course you can
Anyway these are some of the traits which should be obvious in a growing Christian. Having this verse memorized means we can more easily identify other Christians as growing… or not. But more importantly, we can identify whether we are growing… or not. It’ll remind us to be fruity.
