The gifts of the Spirit vs. the fruit of the Spirit?

What’s the difference between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit?

The moment that we trust in Jesus to be our Savior and Lord the Holy Spirit enters our life. 

Ephesians 1:13 – “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”

As a result, the Holy Spirit imparts a new nature in us. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”

There are many things that the Holy Spirit does in us, once he comes into our life, but two of the most important things are:

(1) The Holy Spirit empowers us for service by giving us one or more “gifts of the Spirit”.

(2) The Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ by reproducing “the fruit of the Spirit” in us.

(1) The gifts of the Spirit

From the moment a believer trusts in Christ to save him/her, God imparts one more spiritual gifts to his children. There are four chapters in the New Testament that mention the spiritual gifts: 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, & 1 Peter 4. They include things like wisdom, knowledge, leading, encouraging, teaching, giving, helping, administering, shepherding, evangelism, prophecy, faith, and mercy, to name a bunch.  They are directly given to us by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:4 says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.”

Furthermore, it is God who determines which gift(s) we get.

1 Corinthians 12:11 says, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”

We don’t decide what gift we will have any more than we decide the color of our skin, or the height we will be. The purpose of these gifts is to empower us to serve God in this world.

Like it says in Ephesians 4:12, all this is “so that the body of Christ may be built up.”

As we use our spiritual gifts, the body of Christ is built up. Building up our church depends on each one of us using our spiritual gifts!

(2) The fruit of the Spirit

The fruit of the Spirit are qualities that the Holy Spirit reproduces in every believer over time and with our cooperation to make us more like Christ.

Romans 8:29 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

To that end, it says in Galatians 5:22-23, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Each of these “fruit” were perfectly demonstrated by Christ. Therefore, the more we show them, the more we will be like Christ. 

The fruit of the Spirit is contrasted with the “acts of the sinful nature”.

Galatians 5:19-21a – “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”

There is an ongoing battle in every believer. It is a battle between the sinful nature and the new nature.  Even though we have a new nature, we still have the sinful nature too. Yet, as we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we can be victorious. Of course, we will never reach perfection this side of heaven, but we should make it our goal to grow in the fruit of the Spirit, with God’s help.

But remember, fruit always comes from the roots.  The roots is our sustenance from Jesus and as we spend time with Jesus day by day and learn to love and obey him, fruit will show up! In Acts 3 and 4 Luke records a miracle that took place in the early church.  A blind man was given sight after Peter and John prayed for him.  As a result, the religious leaders got upset and threw them into prison.  When Peter and John were released the next day, they spoke boldly about Christ and the religious teachers were amazed at the extraordinary confidence and the spirit of boldness that John and Peter displayed.  Acts 4:13 says that they took note that these men had “been with Jesus.”  That was it!  That was the secret to their success.  They had spent time with Jesus.  Similarly, we too need to focus on being with Jesus daily, spending time with him in pray and in the Word. That will help us produce “the fruit of the Spirit” in our life.