lessons are learned within the heart and mind with the ever-abiding Spirit, not in the outer world of cause and effect, or karmic reaction. When the intention of the heart and mind is to do well, God seeks to strengthen and guide the soul in grace, not karma.
Edgar Cayce’s visionary discourses explain this well, as in this quotation:
Do that which is good, for there has been given in the consciousness of all the fruits of the spirit: Fellowship, kindness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, love; these be the Fruits of the Spirit. Against such there is no law.
Doubt, fear, avarice, greed, selfishness, self-will; these are the fruits of the evil forces. Against such there is a law. Self-preservation, then, should be in the fruits of the spirit, as you seek through any channel to know more of the path from life—from good to good—to life; from death unto life, from evil unto good. Seek and you shall find. Meditate on the fruits of the Spirit in the inner secrets of the consciousness, and the cells in the body become aware of the awakening of the life in their activity through the body. In the mind, the cells of the mind become aware of the life in the Spirit. The spirit of life makes not afraid.
Then, know the way; for those that seek may find.
EC 5752-3
In the next chapters we will explore the Fruits of the Spirit and learn how the law of karma becomes the liberating grace of soulful living.
3
Fruits of the Spirit
According to the disciple Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, the Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Here are his words:
I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one other, that you may not do the things that you desire.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. [Note this statement, for it reveals the grace of a Spirit-led life.]
Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. [Note again how the Fruits of the Spirit lift one from the law.]
Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.
Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.
Galatians 5:16-26, WEB (World English Bible);
brackets mine
The American Standard Version (ASV) translates the ancient text with a slight difference in two words: patience becomes long-suffering and gentleness becomes meekness:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.
ASV
The Revised Standard Version (RSV) interprets the wording exactly as the World English Bible (WEB):
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Surprisingly, a major Catholic Bible translates this passage quite differently from all Protestant translations, including the addition of three new Fruits. This translation into English was a literal, word-for-word translation of the ancient Latin Vulgate Bible, translated by Jerome from the years 382 to 405. The Latin Vulgate was translated from Hebrew and Chaldean Scriptures, which comprise the Christian Old Testament, and the Greek records of the Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation, which comprise the Christian New Testament.
This Catholic translation from Latin to English was published prior to the 1611 publication of the King James Version, upon which most modern Protestant Bibles are based. The Catholic English New Testament was first published in 1582 by the British College at Rheims. Later, in 1609, the British College at Douay published the Catholic Old Testament. Thus, this Bible is called the Douay-Rheims Version (DRV). Here is that most unusual translation.
But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience,
benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness,
faith, modesty, continency, and chastity.
Webster’s dictionary defines longanimity as “forbearance,” as in patient endurance, and continency, as the exercise of self-constraint in sexual matters. Mildness could easily correlate with “meekness.” We have also seen that Paul’s famous description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 has, in some translations, used the word charity for “love,” expressing the selfless character of the type of love Paul was writing about. The word benignity reveals just how literal the translation was from the Latin, this word having the Latin root for well-born, which was believed to result in a manner and tone that was kind and gentle. Chastity is not listed in any of the modern non-Catholic translations. Somehow that got lost over the years, and the interpretation is rendered “self-control.” Is it possible that this is temperance? Not likely, since we already have continency in the list, and chastity would mean abstinence, not moderation.
The most commonly published list of the Fruits of the Spirit contains nine fruits: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
In the Edgar Cayce discourses, patience is added, while maintaining long-suffering, as are mercy and forgiveness.
A blend of all these sources would produce this list:
The Fruits of the Spirit
Love
Mercy
Forgiveness
Patience
Faith
Meekness
Humility
Kindness
Gentleness
Peace
Joy
Goodness
Temperance
Long-suffering
