By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.   Galatians 5:22-23 (NRSV)

Harvest Although I have heard it argued that the biblical "fruit" and "gift" are the same thing, I disagree. The very words are completely different, and life experience and careful scripture study has given me reasons to believe these are different things. Those things which are called "gifts of the Spirit" are given by God. We may ask for them, but we don't necessarily do anything for them. They're given by grace. These things include the gifts as listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and elsewhere, including the various ministries of the Body of Christ (spec. Ephesians 4:11-12). Those are gifts, they are given by God, by his goodness and grace, through the Holy Spirit. I've been given a number of these gifts, and I can tell you right now: I didn't have anything to do with it. God gave, I just received. As for fruit, this does have to do with us. We sow the seeds, and the types and kinds of seeds we can sow are many. What it comes down to is that what we sow, we reap (Gal 6:7). If we sow dissent and sorrow, that's what we will reap, and I don't necessarily mean in the world to come, but in this one. To put it in a more modern phrase: What goes around comes around. I spent a lot of years sowing whatever I felt like, and almost all of it was sown, as Paul wrote, "to the flesh" (Gal 6:8). I have harvested the fruits of those seeds, believe me. Regret, sorrow, pain... everything I gave, I got back. I still bear the scars of some of it, frankly, and still occasionally reap regret for things past. However, for a while now, I've been deliberately working with God, and sowing good seeds. The more love and compassion I sow, the more I get back, although not always from the same person I gave it to. The same it true of faith. The more I invest, the more I find I have, owing to a rich harvest. Patience has been much harder to sow, because I had very little to invest, but whatever I deliberately sow, I get it back. Trust, as well, has been particularly difficult for me to sow, but after many years it's finally coming back to me. Sometimes, the rewards are immediate and I get a good dose of something nice right away. Sometimes it takes years for the fruit to become ripe. And sometimes, I think, I plant seeds which won't be seen by me when they come to fruit (God's keeping track of it all, I'm sure). Until I tasted the bitterness of a bad harvest, knowing that it was exactly what I, myself had sown, I had no real concept of what Paul was talking about when he said that what we sow we will reap. I certainly didn't understand the value of planting good seeds until I experienced the sweetness of a good and righteous harvest. I'm not discovering or teaching anything new; this is a truth as old as time itself. I'm just living it and experiencing it and passing it on as best I can in accordance with my own calling. What we sow, we will unquestionably reap. What goes around comes around. What seeds are you sowing in your life? And what harvest do you reap? New Main Menu About Contact General Writings Index

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.   Galatians 6:7-9 (NRSV)
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