FRUIT
FULNESS
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cf. 2 Ti 2®), Rev 18'^ 22^ — passages -which, like some of the others, are on the borderland between the literal and the symbolic. Jiide '^ compares the ' un- godly ' of the day with ' trees in late autumn when the fruit is past.' In Ac 2^" the word is used in its physiological sense.
{b) Specific. — References to specific fruits are not numerous. Ja 3^- asks whether a fig-tree can yield olives or a vine figs. St. Paul in Ro ll'''^- uses the curious idea of grafting a wild olive on to a good olive tree ('contrary to nature,' v.-^) to illustrate the participation of the Gentiles in the promises made to Israel. Rev 11* identifies the 'two wit- nesses' (perhaps St. Peter and St. Paul) with the ' two olive trees ' of Zee 4 ; and Rev 6'^ in its mention of a fig-tree casting her unripe figs in the spring tempests recalls Is 34*. Rev 14"'-" is a vision of the harvest and vintage of the earth when tlie grain and tlie grapes are fullj' ripe. St. Paul's use of the grain of wheat in the great Resurrection argument of 1 Co 15 is familiar to all, and is an eclio of Christ's word in Jn 12-**^.
2. The term in spiritual metaphor. — We may begin our study of the spiritual lessons inculcated under the image of fruit with another passage from Corinthians. In 1 Co 3^ the Apostle reminds his readers that they are 'God's husbandry,' i.e. His 'tiltli' or 'tilled land.' This recalls the Parable of tiie Vineyard spoken by Jesus (Mt 21, Lk 20); Christian churches and lives are fields and gardens from M'hich the owner who has spent love and time and care over them may reasonably expect good results, 'fruit unto God' (Ro 7*). And tiiose too who are His overseers, those wlio plant and water, naturally look for produce and the reward of their toil. Thus the Apostle hopes, as he looks forAvard to his visit to Rome, that he may ' have some fruit among ' the people of that city as he had in Corinth and Ephesus (Ro 1^^). Two passages in Phil, may be glanced at here : (a) the difficult reference in 1--, which probably means that, though death would be gain, yet if continuance in living means fruitful labour ('fruit of work' = fruit which follows and issues from toil), St. Paul is quite ready to waive his own preference ; {b) 4*^, where, thanking the Philippians for their kindly gift, he says he wel- comes it not so much for himself as on their behalf ; it is a token that they are not unfruitful in love, and it will, like all such evidences of Christian thought and ministry, enrich the givers as much as the recipient (cf. 2 Co 9^).
(1) The way is now clear for a brief survey of the main topic — the fruits of the neiv life in Christ Jesus. The 'fruit of the light,' says St. Paul (Eph 5^), 'is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,' and the more familiar passage in Gal 5-^ speaks of the 'fruit of the Spirit' as 'love, joy, peace, longsufiering, kindness, goodness, faithful- ness, meekness, self-control.' Trees are known hy their fruit, and the existence of these virtues in an individual or a community are the surest, if not the sole, signs that the life is rooted with Christ in God, that the branches are abiding in the True Vine. It was the Apostle's greatest joy when he could congratulate a church like that at Colossa- on its share in the fruit-bearing which the gospel was accomplishing wherever it was proclaimed and accepted (Col 1*^), when it bore fruit in every good work (v.i"). The fruit of the new life is re- garded in Ro 6-^ as sanctification. On the other hand, St. James (3''') gives it as one of the character- istics of the ' wisdom that is from above' — which is perhaps his way of speaking of the Spirit — that it is ' full of . . . good fruits,' by wiiich he no doubt means 'good works.' In the next verse he says that ' the fruit {i.e. the seed which bears the fruit) of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace.' The 'fruit of righteousness' is an
OT phrase, and meets us again in Ph V-^ and He 12'^ where 'righteousness,' or conformity to the highest moral standard, is described as the ' peaceful fruit' of discipline patiently endured.
Returning to the Iocais classicus, Gal 5^2, it is worth noticing that St. Paul introduces the nine virtues which he enumerates as one ' fruit.' Like the chain of graces in 2 P p-^, they are all linked together as though to suggest that the absence of any one means the nullity of all. We need not press too heavily the suggestion that the nine fall into three groups describing («) the soul in relation to God ; (&) its attitude to others (this is to make ' faith ' = faithfulness, and though St. Paul usually thinks of faith as the basis of Cliristian character, he was not so rigidly systematic as not to see in it, or at least in an increase of it, afrtiit of the Spirit) ; (f) principles of daily conduct. There is more perhaps in the antithesis between the 'works' of the flesh (v.^^) and the 'fruit' of the Spirit. Yet the dispositions enumerated show themselves in good works, though these are not expressly specified, being infinitely varied and adaptable to changing conditions. The list may be supplemented, for example, by He 13^^, where ' praise ' is the fruit of a thankful heart expressed by the lips, and Ro 15-^, where the generosity of the Gentile Christians to- wards the Juda?an poor is the fruit of the spiritual blessing which St. Paul's converts had received.