Is the Fruit of the Spirit More Like a Pie or a Tree?

Fruit Pie or Fruitful Tree?

Many of us love a good homemade pie. Whether apple, berry, or peach, a homemade pie is the result of a specific process in the kitchen. The baker arranges and prepares her ingredients, presses out the dough, creates a suitable filling, and adds a lattice crust, and—voilà!—the finished product is a delight to the eyes and the taste buds.

The fruit of the Spirit is not like a homemade pie. But how many of us think of things in this way? Start with some love, add a bit of joy and peace, fill with patience and goodness, and top with some self-control, and—voilà!—we hope we got the recipe right. We trust that all our efforts are enough. We pray that the finished product is a delightful (and fruitful) Christian life.

But God’s word tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is precisely that: of the Spirit. It is not “of us.” Rather than picturing the Spirit’s fruit, then, as a homemade pie that depends on its ingredients, we are to picture it as a tree:

[The blessed man] is like a tree
      planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
      and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. (Ps. 1:3)

A fruitful tree is dependent on external factors to survive and thrive. It bears fruit because it is well hydrated, supplied for, and nourished through its roots. Everything a tree needs it receives from outside itself. Even a very active process such as photosynthesis involves air, sunlight, and water. God’s word is telling us that believers are like trees: fully dependent on him for any growth and fruitfulness. A holy life in Christ produces holy, good fruit.

The Fruit of the Spirit Is . . .

Consider your present thinking about the fruit of the Spirit. Do you tend to think of it as a homemade pie, which depends on your own efforts and a combination of the right ingredients? Or do you think of a fruit-bearing tree that relies on its sources of nourishment to flourish? The differences are enormous: worship rather than legalism, prospering versus exhaustion, joy instead of frustration. When it comes to this important spiritual reality, we will want to have the mind of Christ and a heart deeply rooted in his words. We will want to be like a tree.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal. 5:22–23)

The apostle Paul wrote these familiar words to a church family struggling to keep believing the good news about Jesus (Gal. 1:6–7). The church was being persuaded by false teachers to follow certain rules (specifically, circumcision) in order to be accepted by God (Gal. 6:15). With great passion for the truth Paul reminds them, however, that “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6).

What counts in the Christian life? “Faith working through love.” In other words, genuine faith bears good fruit. Paul is reminding us that it is only through faith in Christ that we are accepted by God (Gal. 2:16) and adopted as his children (Gal. 4:6–7). And therefore it is only by faith in Christ that we receive the promised Spirit, who bears his good and delightful fruit in us (Gal. 4:6, 5:18).

The fruit of the Spirit is precisely that: of the Spirit. It is like a tree, not a pie.

Searching Questions

As we root ourselves in God’s nourishing word—as we seek to be fruitful believers—we find an invitation to examine our hearts. Paul poses at least two searching questions to the Galatian church that are still relevant to us today.

Have I Turned to a Different Gospel? (Gal. 1:6)

Any modification of the gospel message will distort our grasp of how we become fruitful people. This was the Galatians’ problem. Do we firmly believe that we are “justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law” (Gal. 2:16)? Or are we hoping that our good works will save us? In other words, our eternal hope must be rooted in who Jesus is and what he has done, not in what we are doing.

The gospel (or “good news”) tells us that Jesus, the Lord of all creation, is making everything right concerning sin and will rescue us from sin and all its effects as we put our trust in him. The gospel does not tell us to “bear some fruit to earn your salvation” (the pie); it declares, “Enjoy your salvation in Christ, and then bear his fruit” (the tree). Turning to a different gospel results in discouragement (Gal. 2:11–14) and possibly even spiritual death (3:10). But holding fast to Christ’s true gospel is life (Gal. 2:20), freedom (Gal. 2:4–5), and fruitfulness (Gal. 6:8–9).

Having Begun by the Spirit, Am I Now Being Perfected by the Flesh? (Gal. 3:3)

Perhaps you would say that you believe the true gospel but tend to drift into self-sufficiency (Gal. 4:9), works-based righteousness (Gal. 5:2), and therefore a burdensome form of Christianity (Gal. 5:7). Paul reminds the Galatians (and us) that nothing can be added to our salvation (Gal. 3:5). We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus (Gal. 1:1–5). That is all!

However, this does not mean we do nothing (Gal. 5:16). As with a tree’s active photosynthesis, we are called to “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25), which proves that our faith in Jesus is genuine (John 15:8). But we must be careful; it is always possible to slip into legalism, thinking we can somehow earn God’s favor. However, just as we received “the promised Spirit through faith” at the moment we believed (Gal. 3:14), so we must “stand firm . . . through the Spirit, by faith” every moment until Jesus returns (Gal. 5:1–6). We continue as we first began: by the Holy Spirit’s love and power (Gal. 3:3).

A Fruitful People

The fruit of the Spirit reflects the very heart of God—for it is his Spirit who produces all his graces within us. We see this most clearly on display in Jesus, whose entire earthly life was empowered and made fruitful by God’s Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18), making him our perfect substitute, compassionate brother, and faithful high priest. When we are redeemed by Christ from the curse of the law, we receive adoption as sons, and God sends the Spirit of Jesus into our hearts (Gal. 4:3–7). What more could we desire?

And what happens when a child of God is rooted in Christ and filled with his Spirit? She bears his fruit. She becomes fruitful. Such a person is not like a fruit pie but like “a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:3).

This article is adapted from ESV Devotional Journal, Fruit of the Spirit by Kristen Wetherell

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