(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
Read Chapter 5
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
For the fruit of the light. So the Latin and divers Greek copies; not the fruit of the spirit, as we read in many Greek manuscripts; and in this Dr. Wells thought fit to change the Protestant translation. (Witham)
Christ himself is rightly called goodness, righteousness and truth. He is goodness in that he gives grace to those who believe in him, not according to their works but according to his mercy. He is himself righteousness in that he gives to each what he deserves. He is himself truth in that he is the one who knows the causes of all creatures and all things. .
When Paul says “in all goodness,” he is directing this against those who are wrathful and bitter. When he says “and in all that is right,” he is speaking against covetousness. When he says “and in all that is true,” he speaks against false pleasure. The fruit of the light is evidenced not in the vices he has already spoken of but in their opposites. .
In all goodness, he says: this is opposed to the angry, and the bitter: and righteousness; this to the covetous: and truth; this to false pleasure: not those former things, he says, which I was mentioning, but their opposites. In all; that is, the fruit of the Spirit ought to be evinced in everything. Proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; so that those things are tokens of a childish and imperfect mind.
