Fruit of the Spirit

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Syele

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In the Kids Bible Club I teach, the children are learning the 9 fruit of the Spirit this unit. It is one of my favorite units to teach because so much can be covered in one list.
But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
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I noticed yesterday in another thread a Catholic referred to the 7 fruit of the spirit. I also recall people here listing Charity as one of them. Is this just a different English translation that causes the number and names of them to be different? Or are the fruit Catholics are referring to from a different source? What are the 7 fruits of the Spirit then? Perhaps the person who cited 7 miscounted??
 
I teach the Confirmation class at my parish, so I am very familiar with this information.

I think that the seven that you see are the Gifts of the Spirit. They are different than the fruits of the Spirit. There are actually more than seven listed in scripture, so they are divided into types.

The Gifts given at Confirmation are Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Council, Piety, Courage (Fortitude), and Fear of the Lord.

St. Paul also lists the charismatic gifts, which include prophacy, speaking in tongues, and healing, as well as gifts such as Faith and apostelship.

Now the Fruits of the Spirit, as understood by Catholics, are charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity. I know that we list 12, but longanimity is patience on a long scale, Chastity had to be in there (we are Catholic), and continency belongs as well. You could argue, if you wanted, that self-control includes continency and chastity.

The difference, as understood by Catholics, is that the gifts are given by the Spirit, but not everyone has them to use to the same level. The fruits can be worked on by us and developed. If you want, I can show you how I teach them to develop the fruits. It may be useful to you, even if you only use the 9.

I hope that this helps.
 
ralphinal said:
I teach the Confirmation class at my parish, so I am very familiar with this information.

I think that the seven that you see are the Gifts of the Spirit. They are different than the fruits of the Spirit. There are actually more than seven listed in scripture, so they are divided into types.

The Gifts given at Confirmation are Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Council, Piety, Courage (Fortitude), and Fear of the Lord.

St. Paul also lists the charismatic gifts, which include prophacy, speaking in tongues, and healing, as well as gifts such as Faith and apostelship.
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Why are Charismatic gifts listed separate?
Now the Fruits of the Spirit, as understood by Catholics, are charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity. I know that we list 12, but longanimity is patience on a long scale, Chastity had to be in there (we are Catholic), and continency belongs as well. You could argue, if you wanted, that self-control includes continency and chastity.
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I can think of tons of things that would go well in a list like this, but we stick to the Galatians passage for the kids learning the list. From where does the Catholic list originate?
The difference, as understood by Catholics, is that the gifts are given by the Spirit, but not everyone has them to use to the same level. The fruits can be worked on by us and developed. If you want, I can show you how I teach them to develop the fruits. It may be useful to you, even if you only use the 9.
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I would like to see it.
I hope that this helps.
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ahh it does some. We also list gifts separate from fruits but there being more than 7 gifts and more than 7 fruits had me stumped.
 
The Gifts are separate because they come from different parts of the Bible and they have different functions. The ones that I listed first are in Isaiah 11:2, and you connect them with 1 Peter 4:14 where Peter says that the Spirit of God will rest upon you. It is the concept that we are given some of the gifts that Christ had. These gifts help us as Christians.

It is my understanding that the Catholic list actually comes from that passage but with a different translation. The Latin vulagte includes the 12. My RSV does not. I am not sure why they are different.

Here is how I teach it.

Fruits Related to Dealing with Life

Charity leads to Joy which leads to Peace
Charity: Loving God and loving your neighbor so that you care for their well-being
Joy: happiness related to having the Devine love of God in our heart; inner happiness regardless of emotion or external forces
Peace: internal calm connected with having Joy and Charity; the external world will not upset us.

Patience leads to Longanimity (Long Suffering)
Patience: the interior spiritual strength needed to deal with suffering and unfulfilled hopes
Longanimity: Being able to deal with suffering over a long period of time

Fruits Dealing with Others

Goodness leads to Benignity leads to Mildness which leads to Faith
Goodness: desire to treat everyone well
Benignity: Actually treating others well
Mildness: keeping your temper in check
Faith: Trusting others as well as being trustworthy

Fruits Dealing with Things

Modesty leads to Continency which leads to Chastity
Modesty: Moderation and harmony related to the way we treat things, including our own sexuality
Continency: Moderation in the way we behave
Chastity: the proper use of our sexual and sensual side of our being

Chastity is the final of these Fruits, as it is the most difficult to achieve for the immature spirit to achieve. If we follow the whole list in order, Chastity is extremely easy.

My source on this is a book about the Charismatic Catholic movement written by an Archbishop back in the 1950s. It is a good way to teach it.
 
👍 This is very much how I teach them as well.
Charity leads to Joy which leads to Peace
Charity: Loving God and loving your neighbor so that you care for their well-being
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This is what we cover under Love…
Love God with all your heart, strength and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Patience leads to Longanimity (Long Suffering)
Patience: the interior spiritual strength needed to deal with suffering and unfulfilled hopes
Longanimity: Being able to deal with suffering over a long period of time
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We do not use the word “Longanimity” but the concept is the same when we are teaching about patience.
Benignity: Actually treating others well
Mildness: keeping your temper in check
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Would be Kindness and gentleness and a bit of self-control with keeping ones temper in check.
Modesty leads to Continency which leads to Chastity
Modesty: Moderation and harmony related to the way we treat things, including our own sexuality
Continency: Moderation in the way we behave
Chastity: the proper use of our sexual and sensual side of our being
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These would fall under self-control and also I cover other things besides sexuality: greed, jealousy, gluttony, anger etc.

Its good to see something we agree on so easily.
 
Syele said:
👍 This is very much how I teach them as well.

This is what we cover under Love…
Love God with all your heart, strength and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

We do not use the word “Longanimity” but the concept is the same when we are teaching about patience.

Would be Kindness and gentleness and a bit of self-control with keeping ones temper in check.

These would fall under self-control and also I cover other things besides sexuality: greed, jealousy, gluttony, anger etc.

Its good to see something we agree on so easily.
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I actually expand it to cover most sins of the flesh as well. Yes, I agree that it is good that we ahve some things we agree on so easily.

What denomination are you again?
 
ralphinal said:
I actually expand it to cover most sins of the flesh as well. Yes, I agree that it is good that we ahve some things we agree on so easily.

What denomination are you again?
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I consider myself Non-Denominational but currently attend an Assembly of God Church.
 
Syele said:
I consider myself Non-Denominational but currently attend an Assembly of God Church.
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Cool. You know, I always thought that we did a diservice by not discussing the Holy Spirit with other denominations. It seems like we can have common ground there.
 
Syele said:
…

I noticed yesterday in another thread a Catholic referred to the 7 fruit of the spirit. I also recall people here listing Charity as one of them. Is this just a different English translation that causes the number and names of them to be different? Or are the fruit Catholics are referring to from a different source? What are the 7 fruits of the Spirit then? Perhaps the person who cited 7 miscounted??
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Charity can be understoond as love. Depend of which translation you use. Love means sefless giving. Sometimes we like to use charity. I think it’s the same thing, if one is not too particular. I use NAB generally and it says love, but I accept charity too for people who like to use that.

Charismatic gifts are not in league with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. I would say charismatic gifts can result in the fruits but seldom vice-versa.

The charismatic gifts mentioned in 1 Cor 12 are wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle, prophecy, discernment, tongue and interpretation of tongue. Altogether there are nine charismatic gifts mentioned by Paul in this chapter. By no mean these are the only ones though but generally I think they are the more common ones.
 
Is it plural (Gifts of the Holy Spirit)?

Or Singular (Gift of the Holy Spirit)?
 
Reuben_J said:
It is plural. There are different gifts but given by the same Spirit. 🙂
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How come the Catholic Bible says otherwise:

Gal 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, Mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.

Or is that a case of wrong bible grammer?

Hey they have 12 items here! How is that? Which is corrupted, the protestant bibles or the catholic? 🤷
 
Paul likens the church as made up of different parts of a body. The arm, the leg, the eye, etc. Normally those who are endowed with the gift would normally do not have all of them. Thus Paul was saying each part of the body has different role but all the roles are for the building of the church.

I realize you may not believe in all these, but that how’s the scripture puts it.

Regards.
 
Reuben_J said:
It is plural. There are different gifts but given by the same Spirit. 🙂
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How come the Catholic Bible says otherwise:

Gal 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, Mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.

Or is that a case of wrong bible grammer?

Hey they have 12 items here! How is that? Which is corrupted, the protestant bibles or the catholic? 🤷
 
Reuben_J said:
The fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5) are not gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12).
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You said “gifts”, not me. Lets stick with fruits. How come your bible is in singular? 🤷

I heard a good protestant explanation for that. I want to hear the catholic opinion.
 
AgnosTheist said:
You said “gifts”, not me. Lets stick with fruits. How come your bible is in singular? 🤷

I heard a good protestant explanation for that. I want to hear your opinion.
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I really don’t know about the Protestant.
 
AT,

I would say that the sigular is acceptable as the concept is that it is one fruit made of many parts. Cahrity leads to joy which leads to peace and so on. In other words, they are not separate things, but parts of one complete unit.

I usually use the plural out of habit. I really should use the same language.
 
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