Not nine achievements but one fruit the Spirit grows: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness”. In Galatians 5:22, the Greek word is karpos (G2590): fruit: what a plant bears, and so, in a picture, what a life produces. Strong’s says it is fruit ‘as plucked’, the part you can pick and eat.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind the word “fruit” in this verse is the Greek word karpos (said kar-POS).
It means fruit: what a plant bears, and so, in a picture, what a life produces. Strong’s says it is fruit ‘as plucked’, the part you can pick and eat.
This form, karpos, is singular: ‘the fruit’, not ‘the fruits’. Paul lists nine things after it and keeps the word one. A few verses earlier he wrote “The acts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19), and there the word is plural.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘fruit’ 47 times and ‘crop’ 9 times. In one of Jesus’ stories a man “went to look for fruit” on his fig tree (Luke 13:6):
Word by word
| ὁ | δὲ | καρπὸς | τοῦ | πνεύματός | ἐστιν | ἀγάπη |
| the | but | the fruit | of the | Spirit | is | love |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul is writing to the churches of Galatia, who are being told that keeping the law is what makes them right with God. He answers that they were “called to freedom” and must use that freedom to “serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13). Then he sets two lists side by side. First, “The acts of the flesh are obvious” (Galatians 5:19). Then this one. The word for “fruit” is karpos, and here it is singular. Paul names nine things, love, joy, peace and the rest, yet calls them one fruit, where the acts of the flesh were many. They are not nine separate achievements to collect. They are one life the Spirit grows, showing itself in nine ways. It is “the fruit of the Spirit”: the Spirit is the one who grows it. Christians read that singular in different ways, some seeing one fruit with nine sides and others a single harvest of many kinds, but both hear that these belong together. A fruit tree does not strain to make apples; it grows them by being alive and planted. Jesus said the same about a vine: “no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine” (John 15:4). You do not have to manufacture love, joy and peace by effort alone. Which of these would you most like the Spirit to grow in you this year?
What the original says
Behind “self-control” in this verse is the Greek word egkrateia (said eng-KRAH-tay-ah).
It means self-control: strength over yourself, your appetites and your temper. Strong’s says it comes from egkratēs, made from ‘in’ and kratos, ‘strength’: strong in a thing.
This form, egkrateia, is a noun, the last of the nine in Paul’s list, right after praütēs, “gentleness”. Then the list closes with a short line: “Against such things there is no law.”
The New Testament uses it only a few times: the Berean has ‘self-control’ 4 times in all, as when Paul spoke to the governor Felix on “righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25):
Word by word
| πραΰτης | ἐγκράτεια | κατὰ | τῶν | τοιούτων | οὐκ | ἔστιν |
| gentleness | self-control | against | the | such | no | there is |
Original form
What this tells us
Just before his list of the Spirit’s fruit, Paul has named the opposite: “and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (Galatians 5:21), a life where appetites run everything. His own list ends exactly where that one left off, with strength over appetite. Then he adds, “Against such things there is no law.” The word for “self-control” is egkrateia: being strong over yourself, over your hungers, your words and your temper. Notice where Paul puts it. He does not call it willpower or a rule to keep; he names it as part of the fruit of the Spirit, something that grows in a life the Spirit is shaping. Paul knew about athletes: “Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline” (1 Corinthians 9:25), with a verb from the same family. Proverbs paints the opposite picture: “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who does not control his temper” (Proverbs 25:28). Self-control is a wall with its gates working. It does not shut everything out; it decides what comes in. Where do you most need that kind of strength right now? You can ask the Spirit for it as a gift, and not only try harder for it.
What the original says
Behind “remains” in this verse is the Greek word menō (said MEH-noh).
It means to stay, to remain, to abide: to keep living where you are. Older Bibles often put it as ‘abide’.
This form, menōn, is an ‘‑ing’ form describing someone: ‘the one remaining’ in me. The fruit comes after it: “will bear much fruit”. Staying comes first; the fruit follows.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘remain’ 53 times, ‘stay’ 25 times, and ‘abide’ 10 times, as in “whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16):
Word by word
| ὁ | μένων | ἐν | ἐμοὶ | κἀγὼ | ἐν | αὐτῷ |
| the one | abiding | in | Me | and I | in | him |
Original form
What this tells us
It is the night before the cross. Jesus has eaten the last supper with his disciples and is talking with them for the last time before his arrest. He uses a picture they all know: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard” (John 15:1). The word behind “remains” is menō: to stay, to keep living where you are. In this verse staying is the cause and fruit is the result: “The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit.” A branch does not produce grapes by trying harder. It produces them by staying joined to the vine that feeds it. Jesus says it plainly: “For apart from Me you can do nothing.” He also says what the fruit is for: “This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8). Many readers hear Paul’s fruit of the Spirit and Jesus’ fruit of the vine as two pictures of one life: love, joy and patience growing in people who stay close to God. Jesus even names joy here: “so that My joy may be in you” (John 15:11). Staying close is not one more task to add to a busy day. It can be as simple as coming back to him, again and again, in prayer and in his words. Where could you do that this week?
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind “fruit” in this verse is karpos again (said kar-POS), the word you met in Galatians 5:22.
It is the same word: fruit, what a plant produces, and so what a life produces over time.
This form, karpōn, is plural, ‘fruits’, and follows apo, ‘from’: word for word, ‘from their fruits you will know them’. The Berean says “By their fruit”.
Jesus says it twice in a few verses, here and in “So then, by their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:20). In all, the Berean has ‘fruit’ 47 times:
Word by word
| ἀπὸ | τῶν | καρπῶν | αὐτῶν | ἐπιγνώσεσθε | αὐτούς |
| by | the | fruits | of them | you will know | them |
Original form
What this tells us
Jesus is near the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Just before this he warns, “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). How can anyone tell the difference, when the clothing looks the same? His answer is the word karpos, fruit: what a life actually produces over time. “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Words can be borrowed and a look can be put on, but fruit takes a whole season to grow. Sooner or later it shows what kind of tree you are looking at. He goes on: “Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17). A few verses later he adds, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Galatians gives the same test from the inside. Love, joy, peace, patience and kindness are the fruit to look for, in a teacher and in yourself. This verse is a test for teachers, but it can also be a quiet mirror. When the people around you look at the fruit of your life over a long season, what do you hope they will see?
What the original says
Behind “is patient” in this verse is the Greek word makrothumeō (said mak-roth-oo-MEH-oh).
It means to be patient, to bear with something for a long time. Strong’s calls it being ‘long-spirited’: the opposite of a short temper.
This form, makrothumei, is a verb about what love does now: love ‘is patient’, it keeps bearing. The noun from the same family, makrothumia, is the “patience” in Galatians 5:22.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘patient’ 6 times, as in “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming” (James 5:7):
Word by word
| Ἡ | ἀγάπη | μακροθυμεῖ | χρηστεύεται | ἡ | ἀγάπη | οὐ |
| the | love | is patient | is kind | the | love | not |
Original form
What this tells us
The church in Corinth was gifted and divided. Its members compared their spiritual gifts and argued about which ones mattered most. Paul has just told them, “eagerly desire the greater gifts”, and then, “I will show you the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). This chapter about love is that way. The first thing Paul says love does is makrothumeō: it is patient, it stays steady for a long time, it does not snap. Love is described here by what it does, and it starts with one of the slowest and least showy things of all. In Galatians love was the first fruit of the Spirit and patience the fourth; here they meet in a single sentence. God is patient in the same way. When he passed before Moses, the LORD called himself “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6), and Peter writes that the Lord “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9). Think of a parent showing a child how to tie a shoe for the twentieth time. Patience is love that has decided not to hurry the other person. Who is testing your patience right now? This verse does not pretend it is easy. It shows you what love does in exactly that place.
What the original says
Behind “fruit” in this verse is the Hebrew word peri (said peh-REE).
It means fruit: what a tree bears, and so, in a picture, what a life produces. It is the word for fruit from the Bible’s first chapter on.
This form, piryo, has ‘its’ joined to the end: its fruit. The fruit comes, word for word, ‘in its time’; the Berean says “in season”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘fruit’ 88 times and ‘produce’ 13 times. On the third day of creation God made “fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind” (Genesis 1:11):
Word by word
| פַּלְגֵי | מָיִם | אֲשֶׁר | פִּרְיוֹ | יִתֵּן | בְּעִתּוֹ | וְעָלֵהוּ |
| streams of | water | which | fruit · its | it gives | at · appropriate time · its | and · leafage · its |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 1 opens the whole book of Psalms with two ways to live. “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked” (Psalm 1:1). “But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). This verse is the picture of that person. The word for “fruit” is peri. The tree in the psalm does not bear fruit all the time, but “in season”, when its time comes. Its roots are by “streams of water”, so even in a dry summer its leaf stays green. The fruit is what people see, but the water is what makes the fruit possible. The psalm sets another picture beside it: “Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind” (Psalm 1:4). Jeremiah uses the same tree: “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:7), whose roots reach the stream so that it does not “cease to produce fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8). Jesus’ vine and Paul’s fruit of the Spirit grow from this old root. If your life feels like a long dry season, this psalm does not promise fruit by tomorrow. It promises fruit in its time, for the one whose roots go down to the water. Where are your roots drinking from?
What the original says
Behind “fruit” in this verse is karpos (said kar-POS), the word you met in Galatians and Matthew.
It is the same word, fruit, used here for a whole life that is good and right.
This form, karpon, is singular, as in Galatians 5:22, and is followed by dikaiosunēs, ‘of righteousness’. The verb before it, “filled”, is in a form that describes a finished state: people who have been filled.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘fruit’ 47 times and ‘crop’ 9 times. James uses the same phrase: “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness” (James 3:18):
Word by word
| πεπληρωμένοι | καρπὸν | δικαιοσύνης | τὸν | διὰ | Ἰησοῦ | Χριστοῦ |
| filled | with fruit | of righteousness | that | through | Jesus | Christ |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul is writing from his chains to a church he loves, and he tells them what he prays for them: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” (Philippians 1:9). He is “confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6). The word for “fruit” is karpos again, and once more it is one fruit: “the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ”. Paul does not say it comes from the Philippians’ own effort. It comes “through Jesus Christ”, and it ends somewhere beyond them: “to the glory and praise of God.” This is the same harvest Paul names in Galatians, seen from another side: a life filled with what is good and right. Hebrews says even hard seasons can grow it, since discipline “yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). A good orchard is not proud of its apples; people taste them and praise the gardener. Paul prayed this for people he loved. You could pray it for yourself and for someone near you: that your lives be filled with this fruit, and that God receive the praise.
Behind "fruit" are 16 different words
Your English Bible says "fruit" 188 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
Read Paul’s list slowly, one word at a time, and notice where you stop:
Name it
Which part of this fruit do you most want to see grow in you? Write it down, and where you would like to see it this week.
Carry with you
Which part of the fruit of the Spirit would the people closest to you most like to see growing in you?