Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faith[fullness], 23gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
As I studied this passage, I of course had to look into the
meanings of the words. As is often the case, the Greek words don’t mean
anything different than what is presented in English, but they mean so much
more. Words are not usually technical things; they’re actually pictures. I
suppose if I use the word “one,” as in “one house” I may mean nothing more than
to communicate that there was one single house as opposed to many. That’s being
technical and it probably wouldn’t matter if I spoke in English or Greek or …
Chinese for that matter. One means one. But, to use words like love and joy and
peace, the speaker always has a picture in his mind, not something technical
but rather something expressive, a painting of sorts, something his own heart
sees clearly but then is endeavoring to communicate with words. The person
hearing or reading those words may actually comprehend that picture or they may
not, depending on their own personal perceptions of the words. Perhaps the
problem is least an issue say within a close family or between two
long-standing co-workers. But the less context shared between the speaker and
the hearer, the more likely they understand the words differently, to whatever
extent. This becomes a challenge when suddenly we are trying to translate words
expressed 2000 years ago in another language and in a totally different culture,
as we must do with Bible work. Once again, my experience has been to find not
that the words mean anything different, just so much more. Love is certainly
love in any language. But even in English it can mean so much more. In English,
we tend, I think, to depend on context to try to communicate the fullness of
the picture we try to paint. If we’re speaking of a mother’s love for her baby,
we all know that is something different than a husband’s love for his wife, or
a brother’s love for his sister, or a man’s love for his new Corvette, etc.
Often times in Greek or Hebrew, they may actually have different words to do
the painting. I’m reminded of the Eskimos who had like 26 different words for
“snow.”
I guess my bottom line is just to express the value of
word-studies. Are they absolutely necessary? No. People can read their Bible in
any reasonably faithful translation and spend their entire lives growing on
what they’ve read. But for a person who loves to dig and study, there is
certainly a treasure-trove of delightful discoveries awaiting them as they
would try to grasp the fullness of the pictures the ancient authors sought to
paint. I feel that way even with these nine seemingly simple “fruits” of the
Spirit. Each word is a jewel worthy of an entire study in itself. In fact, I
may come back and do such a study. For now, I will [try to] content myself with
recording a few of my observations made as I perused the words in this study.
In the last post, I noted that love, joy, and peace are
special treasures from Jesus Himself. The words themselves I think mean pretty
much the same in English as they do in Greek, with the understanding that they
are Jesus-gifts. What I mean is that “peace” is in Greek the same calmness and serenity
it means in English, but we have to add the thought as Jesus said, “My peace I
give to you; not as the world gives …” We can (for now) leave the study of
these three precious jewels, love, joy, and peace, if we understand we’re
talking about something way deeper than this world offers, and something that
grows out of our intimacy with the Lord. They are very specifically His love, His joy, and His peace.
He is the vine, we are the branches, if we abide in the vine, the fruit we’ll
bear is love and joy and peace – His love
and joy and peace.
The word patience is again, in a sense, the same in either
Greek or English, but, on the other hand, it is instructive to realize that
there are two Greek words which get translated “patience.” Our word is
makrothumia, while the other is hupomone. The first is more literally being “long-fused,”
while the second is more literally “endurance.” The first (our word here)
paints a picture of person who doesn’t blow off easily. It is the virtue of
encountering something adverse and being able to calmly, deliberately decide on
the most appropriate response. The second word paints a picture more
specifically of the ability to bear the adversity for a long period of time,
keeping up one’s own composure, love, joy, peace, kindness, etc., in spite of
the adversity in our own life. Certainly, patience in either language includes
both ideas, of being long-fused and of bearing up under adversity, but it is of
interest in our present passage that the fruit of the Spirit here presented is
that of being “long-fused.” The Holy Spirit’s presence in our heart and control
over our lives will help us more and more be “long-fused” people who don’t “fly
off the handle” at every little irritation, who can compose themselves and respond
deliberately to our perceived adversities.
The next two words I have translated “kindness” and “goodness.”
I can’t help but note that these words have considerable overlap to the point
where the lexicons and translators end up producing pretty much the same list
of English words for both. But I personally think there is a notable
distinction between the two. The base word for kindness actually refers to
something useful, beneficial, or favorable. It includes the idea of action. The
word translated “goodness” is just that, goodness – it refers not so much to
the actions produced but to the nature of the thing producing them. Goodness is
simply the virtue of being “good.” As Jesus said, “A good man, produces good
things out of the goodness in his heart.” Kindness is those “good things.” The
Holy Spirit helps us to be good, to
choose to think thoughts which are true and lovely and of good report, so that
what’s going on “inside of me” is actually goodness (as opposed to the endless
rottenness I’m prone to). But then He also helps us to express that goodness in
acts of kindness.
As good people often point out, everyone we meet is bearing
some kind of burden. If we allow the Holy Spirit to help us be good (to be
thinking loving, compassionate thoughts), then He also helps us to choose
deliberately to speak kindly to store clerks, to the drones who handle phone
calls for the health insurance company, to the dental assistant, even to the
policeman handing us a ticket. The Holy Spirit also wants to help us see the
needs people have which we may actually be able to meet, whether they be those
little acts of kindness (like an encouraging note), or holding the door for a
young mother with her arms full, offering someone to borrow our ladder, or, if
we have the means, paying someone’s child’s way through college(!). Goodness
and the kindness it incurs change how we treat everyone from our spouse and
children all the way to the nameless strangers we pass in the store. Our world
is full of needs. Jesus wants to raise up good people who see those needs and
will be His hands and feet (and mouth) to touch those lives with His love. Of
ourselves we’re too selfish to ever pull it off, too consumed with our own
petty issues and affronts. But Jesus put His Holy Spirit in our hearts to make
goodness and kindness a growing reality in our lives.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness – six virtues
which in themselves transform us from the proud, angry, selfish, wounded
buffoons we are in ourselves and instead allow us to be the very presence of
Jesus Himself in our world. There are three more to take up in my next post!
Oh, may God help true believers (starting with this one) to
stop camping on all the muckety-muck we mistakenly call faith, and actually
allow Him to cultivate in us genuine Holy Spirit fruit. Before the world around
us “hears” the Gospel, may they first “see” it written on our hearts.
