Program / Course 9: Christology and Pneumatology / Lesson 7.4
What you will learn
- List the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 and explain why Paul says fruit and not fruits.
- Explain how the fruit differs from the gifts and why Paul sets love above the gifts.
- Describe the New Testament tests for spirits and for prophecy.
- Summarize how the desert tradition, Ignatius of Loyola and Jonathan Edwards approached discernment.
The big idea
Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), and sets it against the works of the flesh. The fruit is the visible character that the Spirit forms in believers. It is the standard by which gifts and claims to speak for the Spirit are tested. Christians in every tradition have written about discernment, the practice of judging what is from God, what is from oneself and what is from darkness. The tests they use overlap: agreement with Scripture and the church’s faith, the quality of fruit, humility and testing in community.
Key terms
- Fruit of the Spirit
- The qualities of character that the Spirit produces in believers, listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Paul uses the singular fruit.
- Works of the flesh
- In Galatians 5:19-21, the opposite of the fruit: sexual immorality, idolatry, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, and the like. Flesh here means human nature turned against God, not the body.
- Discernment of spirits
- The ability or practice of distinguishing what comes from God from what comes from other sources. It is a gift in 1 Corinthians 12:10 and a practice commended in 1 John 4:1.
- Consolation and desolation
- Terms in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola for inner states: consolation moves toward faith, hope and love, and desolation moves away from them.
- Discretion (diakrisis)
- In the desert tradition, the virtue of wise judgment that guards against excess and delusion. John Cassian called it the mother of virtues.
- Delusion (prelest)
- In Eastern Christian spirituality, a state of spiritual self-deception, often arising from pride or from seeking visions.
- Religious affections
- A term used by Jonathan Edwards for the deep movements of the heart in religion. He wrote a treatise on how to tell true from false ones.
Background
The Spirit’s work is real but can be imitated or confused. The New Testament knows both. Paul commends the gifts of the Spirit and also writes against pride and disorder in using them. John warns his readers not to believe every spirit. The church has therefore always paired expectation of the Spirit with testing.
The topic closes the course because it joins the Spirit’s gifts and the Spirit’s work in sanctification. It also shows how Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions, which differ on much, give similar advice about distinguishing true from false experience.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The fruit of the Spirit
In Galatians 5, Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). Translations vary in some of the words. Interpreters note that Paul says fruit, singular, and many take love as the root, with the others as aspects of it.
Fruit grows over time and is not produced by effort alone. The image of a vine in John 15 makes the same point: branches bear fruit by remaining in Christ. Paul adds that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions (Galatians 5:24) and that they should walk by the Spirit (5:25). The fruit marks the life of every believer, not only of those with special gifts.
Step 2: Gifts without love
Paul says that a person can speak in the tongues of angels, prophesy, understand all mysteries, have faith to move mountains, and give away all possessions, and still lack love and be nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The point is that the gifts alone do not prove spiritual maturity. Jesus says the same: some will say they prophesied and cast out demons in his name, and he will say he never knew them (Matthew 7:22-23).
This is why fruit is the test. Jesus says of false prophets, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). The fruit of a life, and of a teaching, is seen over time in its effects. This test does not make gifts less real. It places them under love.
Step 3: Tests in the New Testament
First John 4:1-3 commands: “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God,” and gives a test of confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Paul gives a similar test: no one speaking by the Spirit calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). Prophets are to speak in turn and others are to weigh what is said (1 Corinthians 14:29). Believers are told not to quench the Spirit or despise prophecies, but to test everything and hold what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).
The Bereans are praised for examining the Scriptures daily to see whether Paul’s teaching was true (Acts 17:11). The Didache, an early manual, adds practical tests: a prophet who asks for money or stays more than a few days is false, and one who teaches the truth but does not practice it is not a prophet.
Step 4: Discernment in the tradition
The desert fathers prized discretion. Anthony, according to Athanasius’s life of him, taught his disciples to test the visions that came to them. John Cassian’s Conferences, which carried desert teaching to the West, include a conference on discretion, where Abba Moses says that without it even great ascetics fall. The Orthodox warn of prelest, the delusion of those who seek experience and visions and who trust themselves.
Ignatius of Loyola in the sixteenth century wrote rules for discernment in the Spiritual Exercises. A person in consolation is moving toward faith, hope and love, and one in desolation is moving away. The rules advise that one should not make major changes in desolation, and that the enemy often disguises evil as good. This approach is widely used in Catholic and some Protestant retreats.
Step 5: Edwards and the Protestant tradition
During the revivals of the 1740s in New England, many were swept by intense experiences, and critics called them dangerous. Jonathan Edwards wrote A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746) to answer. He argued that intense feeling, fluent speech and apparent conversions do not prove grace, and that the best sign is holy practice: lasting fruit in a changed life, humility and love.
Protestant confessions generally say that Scripture is the final test of every claim to the Spirit. Catholic teaching adds the judgment of bishops and the church, as in the investigation of reported apparitions. Orthodox teaching adds the guidance of a spiritual father or mother. The shared elements are Scripture, fruit, humility and community.
- Why might Paul speak of one fruit and not many?
- How does fruit differ from gifts in what it shows about a person?
- Which of the tests in the New Testament are about doctrine, and which are about conduct?
- What dangers does Cassian see in lacking discretion?
- Why would Ignatius advise against major decisions in desolation?
- How does the community help in discernment?
Examples
The vine and the branches
In John 15 Jesus says that the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine. The picture shows that the fruit is not manufactured by the branch. It comes from remaining in connection. Many writers use it to explain Galatians 5.
Ignatian rules
Ignatius notes that for those who are growing in faith, the good spirit gives courage and peace and the evil spirit stings with anxiety, while for those drifting into sin the pattern is reversed. The pattern requires careful attention over time and is best practiced with a guide.
A constructed test
A church member announces that the Spirit told him to leave his family to preach. The elders ask him to consider love, patience, faithfulness to his commitments, agreement with Scripture and the counsel of others. He finds that the prompting fails most of these tests. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching treats discernment as a gift and a skill. It draws on Ignatius, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, and places private experience under the judgment of the church. Private revelations are never required for faith.
Orthodox
The Orthodox tradition stresses humility, obedience to a spiritual guide and the testing of experiences by the ascetic fathers. It warns of delusion, and treats extraordinary experiences with reserve.
Protestant, Reformed and evangelical
These traditions test every claim by Scripture and by fruit, as Edwards taught. They stress the sufficiency of Scripture and the importance of the local church. Some distrust inner impressions as guides to decisions.
Pentecostal and charismatic
These traditions stress the gift of discernment and ask leaders and congregations to weigh prophecies, following 1 Corinthians 14. They share the concern for fruit and Scripture, and they differ in how freely they expect direct guidance.
Psychological and secular perspectives
Psychologists point out that strong religious experience can arise from natural causes such as suggestion, emotion or illness, and urge care. Many Christian writers agree that natural causes may be involved and still hold that God works through them. Discernment includes asking about such factors.
Why it matters
A student who has studied the Spirit should be able to tell the difference between spiritual intensity and spiritual maturity. The tests of the New Testament and the tradition protect against both credulity and cynicism, and give a way to speak about experience that churches of different kinds can share.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Strong feeling is proof of the Spirit.
Correction: Edwards and the older tradition said that feeling alone proves nothing. The test is fruit, and agreement with Scripture and the church’s faith.
Misunderstanding: Testing prophecy shows a lack of faith.
Correction: Paul commands testing in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 1 Corinthians 14. John does the same. The commands are part of the Spirit’s own instruction to the church.
Misunderstanding: Fruit means being nice.
Correction: The fruit includes gentleness and kindness, and also faithfulness, self-control and love of truth. Paul and Jesus both confront wrongdoing. The fruit is the character of Christ formed in a person.
Knowledge check
List the fruit of the Spirit and say why Paul calls it fruit and not fruits.
In Galatians 5:22-23 the fruit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Paul uses the singular fruit, and many interpreters take this to mean one character with many aspects, with love as the root. It contrasts with the works of the flesh, which are listed in the preceding verses.
Why does Paul put love above the gifts?
In 1 Corinthians 13 he says that tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith and sacrifice are nothing without love. The gifts serve the common good and may be abused, but love marks the maturity of the believer and lasts. The principle is that the fruit tests and governs the gifts.
Name three New Testament tests for claims to speak by the Spirit.
Confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2), confessing Jesus as Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3), and the weighing of prophecy by others (1 Corinthians 14:29). Also the fruit by which false prophets are known (Matthew 7:16) and the examination of Scripture (Acts 17:11). Any three with references is a good answer.
What did Edwards argue about religious experience?
He argued that intense feeling, ready speech and dramatic conversions are not reliable proof of grace, since they can occur without it. The surest sign is holy practice that endures: love, humility and changed conduct. He wrote this in the Treatise Concerning Religious Affections after the revivals of the 1740s.
Think it through
- Which part of the fruit is hardest to see in yourself and easiest to see in others?
- What would a trustworthy community of discernment look like?
- How can a person tell a prompting from the Spirit from a personal wish?
- What would you say to someone who distrusts all religious experience?
Independent assignment
A discernment checklist
In your own notebook, write 500 to 700 words. Compose a checklist of at least eight questions for testing a claim to speak by the Spirit, drawing on Galatians 5, 1 John 4, 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 and one author from this lesson. Apply the checklist to a constructed case that you invent. Add a note on which questions need others to answer. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- John Cassian, The Conferences Read the second conference, on discretion.
- Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of St. Anthony Read the passages where Anthony tests visions.
- J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Read the Didache, chapters 11 to 13, on testing prophets.
- Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ Read for the inner life and humility.
- Galatians 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.
- 1 John 4:1 Try the spirits whether they are of God.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
- Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits.