The Fruit and The Flesh
- Rita Egolf
- Jun 1
- 5 min read
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
—Galatians 5:22-23, KJV
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like…”
—Ephesians 5:19-21 KJV
Tonight in Bible study our pastor touched on the fruit of the spirit vs the works of the flesh. This post was inspired by that study.
The garden of the soul is never empty.
Something always grows there.
And the soil of our hearts—whether cultivated by the Spirit or overrun by the wild weeds of flesh—will bear evidence of who we have allowed to tend it.
Paul, under divine inspiration, draws a striking contrast, not just between good and evil, but between the fruit that comes from God and the works that spring from man’s own sinful nature.
For every blossom of the Spirit, there seems to be a twin thorn—twofold—sprouting from the flesh.
Consider this: (*see definitions below)
Love is crowded out by adultery and fornication*.
Love seeks to give; lust seeks to take.
Joy is smothered by uncleanness and lasciviousness*,
empty pleasures that leave us more hollow than before.
Peace cannot share space with idolatry or witchcraft*,
for peace bows only to one Lord.
Longsuffering is devoured by hatred and variance*—
the flesh demands quick revenge, not patient endurance.
Gentleness crumbles beneath emulations*
and wrath, which clamor for dominance instead of grace.
Goodness is overrun by strife and seditions*,
always tearing, never building.
Faith is mocked by heresies*
and envying doubting God’s truth and coveting another’s portion.
Meekness falls prey to murders and drunkenness,
the loss of restraint and sacred regard for life.
Temperance is drowned in reveling*,
and such like—chaos parading as liberty.
You see, the works of the flesh are many and loud and persistent.
They do not sleep.
They are not content to visit—
They desire to reign.
And your greatest enemy?
It’s not the world.
It’s not even the devil.
It’s the flesh you carry every day.
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…”
—Romans 7:18, KJV
To dive into this further you must first understand one important Bible truth:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”
—Genesis 1:26, KJV
We are triune, like our Creator.
God is - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
(1 John 5:7 KJV)
We are - body soul spirit.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23, KJV)
• The body—this vessel of dust—will not be redeemed until glory. Our current physical bodies are temporal and corruptible, and will one day die. (But if you’re saved, in heaven, we will receive a new glorified body.)
“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Philippians 3:20-21
• The soul—the real you. Your inner essence, your personality, your mind, will, and emotions—everyone’s soul is eternal. When you die your soul will go to either heaven or hell….for all eternity.
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment…” Heb 9:27
• The spirit, born dead in sin, must be quickened by the new birth. Before salvation, your spirit lies dormant. Dead. But when you receive the free gift of Christ’s salvation, His Spirit brings life into your inner spirit that was dead.
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
—Ephesians 2:1, KJV
Either way, when you die, your spirit returns to God, as it is His. Your spirit does not have an individualized eternal destination like your soul.
“The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”
—Proverbs 20:27, KJV
“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” -Ecclesiastes 12:7 KJV
Upon salvation our sins are separated from our soul through a divine operation:
“In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”
—Colossians 2:11, KJV
*Your sins are no longer attached to your soul, but they remain in your corruptible flesh.
When God looks at you, born again and blood-bought, He sees the righteousness of Christ.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21, KJV
Yet still—still—we wrestle.
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other…”
—Galatians 5:17, KJV
Our flesh remains unredeemed this side of heaven therefore our corruptible flesh wars against our redeemed spirit and soul. This is why even born-again believers still sin. We are not sinless once saved, we are just no longer responsible for the eternal penalty of our sin-only the earthly consequences in sowing & reaping.
An old preacher once illustrated this truth with the following example:
Inside every Christian are two dogs.
One black, one white.
The black dog is the flesh.
The white dog is the Spirit.
And they are always fighting.
The one that wins is the one you feed.
(The Fruit and The Flesh)
So today I ask you, tenderly but earnestly:
What are you feeding today?
Are you cultivating the fruit of the Spirit?
Or are you harboring the twin weeds of the flesh?
This fruit—this sacred evidence of a life walked with God—is not manufactured.
It is borne.
Slowly.
Steadily.
Painfully, sometimes.
But it is His fruit, not yours.
Yours is to abide. His is to produce.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine…”
—John 15:4, KJV
Let us walk in the Spirit.
Let us crucify the flesh.
Let us remember we are not our own—we are bought with a price.
And let us garden well.
For the fruit we bear is not just for our own nourishment, but for those who walk beside us, hungry for the scent of Heaven.
*fornication: The incontinence or lewdness of unmarried persons, male or female
*lasciviousness: Looseness; irregular indulgence of animal desires
*variance: Difference that produces dispute or controversy; disagreement; dissension; discord.
*emulations: Contest; contention; strife; competition; rivalry accompanied with a desire of depressing another.
* seditions: a tumultuous assembly of men rising in opposition to law or the administration of justice, and in disturbance of the public peace.
*heresies: an offense against Christianity, consisting in a denial of some of its essential doctrines
*reveling: to carouse.
Beautifully written and food for the soul