The Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, and Patience
The fruit of the Spirit encompasses love, joy, peace, and patience as foundational virtues, guiding us to encounter life's challenges with a godly perspective. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the outward expressions that shape a compassionate community, as emphasized in Galatians 5:22. Kindness, a virtue highlighted in both biblical and modern contexts, embodies traits of sympathy, charity, and tolerance, fostering a warm and generous spirit within individuals and communities alike.
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The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness... Galatians 5:22
Love: This is the foundation from which the Holy Spirit produces all the other fruits. Joy, peace and patience: The focus of these three fruits is inward. These are the Spiritual fruits that enable us to encounter the challenges in our lives with a godly and edifying perspective. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control: The focus of the rest of the fruits of the Spirit are outward. These are the Spiritual fruits that empower and compel us to embrace the people in our lives with a godly and edifying perspective. Love is the foundational fruit from which all others grow. Joy, peace and patience are the inward fruits the Holy Spirit uses in us to develop a godly soul. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are the outward fruits the Holy Spirit uses through us build a godly community.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines kindness as one who is friendly, generous, or warmhearted. It is one who is sympathetic, charitable, considerate, forbearing, tolerant, and humane. This definition is pretty close to biblical kindness. Biblical kindness is derived from an attitude. But, in order for our kindness to be biblical, it must always be proceeded by activity.
Biblical kindness is a friendly, sympathetic, forbearing attitude that leads us to intentionally touch and help people in their need. Biblical kindness cannot be defined by how we feel. It must be defined by how we act and what we do! Remember, this is a fruit of the Spirit. This is not some calculated effort to be kind so people think you are filled with the Spirit! When you walk in the Spirit, you will see the world from God s perspective. When you do, you will start developing a genuine heart of compassion for people around you. When you see people struggling, the Spirit of God will stoke your compassion and you will want to do something.
There are lots of people who are friendly, warmhearted, sympathetic, considerate, forbearing, tolerant and humane, but they don t actually do anything. They feel, but they do not act. If we are going to show biblical kindness we must provide something beneficial for someone. We must actually do something that touches another person. One theological dictionary defined the Greek word for kindness this way: To be useful and benevolent, to help people, to provide that which is good for people.
I Corinthians 13 defines godly love. The second characteristic that defines love is kindness. If you walk in God s love you will walk in kindness. Kindness is motivated by love. Because God loves us He shows us kindness. If we love others, we will show them kindness. If you are not showing kindness to others it is because you are not walking in God s love. If you are walking in the Spirit, godly kindness will be a natural and spontaneous outflow. Kindness must become a defining characteristic of all believers.
An act of kindness will give you access into people s lives. It will open the door to their hearts. It will open the door into their homes. If you touch someone in their need they will invite you into their lives. If the person is a believer, your act of kindness will confirm and build their faith.
There is a connection between love and kindness. Jesus loves us, so he shows us kindness. When we love others, we will show them kindness. When we show people kindness, they will open their lives to us. When they open up, then we can share the love of Jesus that can lead them to salvation. Acts of kindness may prove to be the most effective way to get into people s lives. However, Spirit filled kindness is not a strategy. It is an outpouring that opens doors. One does not demonstrate kindness because it is an effective tool. One shows kindness because they are kind!
In May of 2001, my wife and I were on a plane. Our daughter cried for over six hours and we were desperate. I am sure there were a lot of people on that flight who were feeling sympathetic to us. But it was the one individual who actually made eye contact with me and offered me a friendly gesture that made all the difference.
