by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2025
(Jun. 23, 2025) — Question: The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, etc. It seems a secular person (not Spirit-filled) could possess these same fruits, yes? If so, how would inspecting the fruit of someone’s life say anything about their life in Christ?
Response: You are right. Anyone, Spirit-filled or not, can exhibit love, joy, patience, etc. (Galatians 5:22–23).
Your question assumes that these virtues are the fruit of the Spirit only when the Spirit produces them. I agree. When these come from another source, they are another kind of fruit. One is genuine, the other artificial; one has integrity, the other deceives.
Here are two guidelines.
1. Look for consistency.
The Holy Spirit, who produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, etc., will also inspire this confession: Jesus is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3).
When you see what seems to be the fruit of the Spirit, learn what the person says about Jesus.
The Apostle John explains, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God” (1 John 4:2-3).
Only those who believe in Jesus bear the fruit of the Spirit of Christ. Fruit from any other source is deceptive and spoiled.
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2. Check if the fruit is wrapped in “because.”
Take love, for example. Love’s nature is to seek others’ welfare—to be kind, encouraging, uplifting, generous, etc.
The difference between genuine and artificial love is this: We love because; God loves.
Our love reciprocates; our kindness obligates.
Artificial love has strings.
Jesus mentions this in the Sermon on the Mount: You love those who love you. You greet only your brethren. This is no more than the love and greetings that tax collectors bestow (Matthew 5:43-48).
We have sayings for how we act: Tit for tat; You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
This taints even our relationship with God. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. … We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 5:10, 19).
There it is. Even with God, we love because. He loved, and we love Him back.
Genuine love strips the “because.”
Loving us, God sent Christ. Not because we loved Him, nor because we were top-notch, nor because God was obliged. Rather, “When we were still without strength… while we were still sinners… when we were God’s enemies”—this is when Jesus died and reconciled us to God (Romans 5:6-10).
This is the love that the Holy Spirit pours out in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The fruit of the Spirit is love that doesn’t love because.
So, the test is this: When I see love, patience, kindness, etc., is “because” attached? God is patient, kind, and loving by nature, not because of any prior action on our part. And we are called to be partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
A closing thought.
You asked how inspecting the fruit of someone’s life would say anything about their life in Christ.
Someone has said that God calls us to be fruit producers, not fruit inspectors.
Each of us is accountable to bear genuine fruit and not to be deceived by the artificial. Jesus taught that we do this by abiding in Him (John 15:1–8).
He also said that God is the husbandman who will remove or prune branches that don’t bear fruit (John 15:2). He did not put the pruning shears in our hands.
This suggests two courses of action.
- If someone says they are a Christian because they are patient, loving, kind, etc., yet quibbles about Jesus, Paul advises, “Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1). Restore the understanding that fruit done in the spirit of boasting personal goodness is works, whereas we are saved by grace, which is a gift.
- As for us, take up the plea of the Psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23).
May our lives be so full of love for Christ and full of His Spirit that anyone who samples our fruit will taste and see that the Lord is good.
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