Fruit of the Spirit - Sunday School Lesson

Learning about the fruit of the spirit at a young age will help your Sunday school children grow to live a more Godly life. Without the basic knowledge of how God expects us to live, children may never grow to let God shine through and may even come short of the glory of God.

Fruit of the Spirit
Photo Courtesy of Yosarian, Wikimedia

While learning to get by in this world is a necessity, our eternal life is the most important thing children need to know about and how to share that knowledge with others.

That being said, let's begin our Sunday school lesson about the fruit of the spirit.

What Are the Fruits of the Spirit?

The fruit of the spirit can be found in Galatians 5:22-23. I've added the verse below for you.

 

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 

 

There are 9 elements to the fruit of the spirit as you can see in the verses above. For younger children, you may have to work on two at a time while older children can do three, four or even five one week and finish up the others in the weeks to come.

 

Trying to do all 9 in one lesson may result in the kids forgetting them or even becoming confused.

 

One of the best ways to learn all of the fruits is by learning them just as they are in the bible. Start with the first part of the verse - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness.

 

Again, if you have smaller children, just work on two - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy.

 

Many kids learn visually, so having these printed on a large piece of poster board will be your best option. Of course, if you have a black board or a dry erase board, those will work great too.

 

Print this on the board...

 

But the

fruit of the Spirit

is

love

joy

peace

longsuffering

gentleness

 





Don't add the other fruits until you are ready. Having too much on the poster board will only cause confusion.

 

When the kids have learned the first part, then and only then should you move on to the last part of the verse...

 

goodness

faith

meekness

temperance

against such there is no law.

 

 

So, what do these fruits mean?

 

Meaning of the Fruit of the Spirit

 



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First, it is important to know that God calls them the fruit of the spirit not 'fruits'. The best way to
describe this is to say that it is ONE fruit with nine elements. The first three elements are in relation to God. The second three are in relation to man. The last three are in relation to one's (inner) self.

 

If you'd like to study these using the elements above, only do three each time you meet that way you can talk about the relation to God, man, and one's self as well.

 

We'll start with the first one and go through all nine. I've listed them below in case you need them.

 

• love - to be self-sacrificing and show a Christlike love.
• joy - to have an inner rejoicing in the Lord.
• peace - to have the peace (salvation) that only Christ can give and no one can take it away.
• longsuffering - showing patience in times of trouble or suffering especially when those troubles are brought on by other people such as being provoked.
• gentleness - to be kind, gracious, tender, and mild
• goodness - always ready to do good and to be moral
• faith - being true to his promise and tasks he performs
• meekness - having controlled strength and listening to hear God
• temperance - self-control

And, last but not least, the end of the verse. What does 'against such there is no law' mean?

 

This means that there is no law that says you can not possess these virtues. There are so many laws in this world telling us what we can and can't do, it is good to know that no man can take these things away from us.







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Gideon in the Bible Meets an Angel

Although many different Sunday school lessons can be taught from the story of Gideon in the bible, today we're going to focus on listening, following, and acting like Christians.

Gideon in the Bible
The angel set under an oak tree.
Photo: Anne Lowe

How many times have you talked to someone who says they are a Christian but they don't live a Godly life?

You may even have thought they were not a Christian at other times just by their actions and speech.

In today's world, it has become the 'norm' to live however you want when you want with no regards to the church or to God.

It is not supposed to be this way. The bible says,

James 1:22 KJV

 

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

God tells us in this one verse that we are to not only hear (or read) what is in the bible, but we are supposed to do it too. If we don't follow God's word, we are deceiving ourselves and thus, deceiving others just like lying.

Below is the story of Gideon in the bible where he meets an angel - The Angel of the Lord to be exact. Use it to teach your class how listening and following God's word is very important in our Christian lives.

Gideon in the Bible - Sunday School Lesson

At a time when the people of Israel had turned from God and turned to worshipping idols, the Midianite people began to come into their land and destroy everything. They took what they wanted and got rid of the rest.

 

The Israelites were so scared they fled from their homes and lived in caves in the mountains.

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 The bible tells us that there were so many Midianite people it looked like swarms of grasshoppers in the land. It also said they had so many camels you couldn't even count them.

 

What could the Israelite people do but run and hide?

 

You see, when people do not follow God, they become scared and try to run from their troubles. But, if we choose to listen to God and follow Him, he will help make us strong and face whatever trouble comes our way.

 

This doesn't mean we won't be scared from time-to-time. It just means that God is right beside us, leading us where we need to go to face and overcome our troubles and fears.

 

The Angel

During this time, a young man named Gideon lived in the land. He was an Israelite and his family was very poor. He was even the youngest in his family, but God had a very important, very special job for Gideon.

 

He was to defeat the whole Midianite army!

 

As Gideon was working one day, an angel appeared under an oak tree nearby. He began talking to Gideon telling him how important he was going to be and how it was going to be his job to defeat the Midianites.

 

What?!?

 

Gideon couldn't believe what the angel was telling him. How could he defeat so many people?

 

The answer was simple.

 

The angel, who was actually Jesus before he came to earth as a baby, said, "I will be with you."

 

The Lesson

What if Gideon hadn't listened to the angel of the Lord? What if he went about his business as he did everyday? What if Gideon didn't obey what he was told? What if he let fear control him?

 

The answer is simple - the Israelites would never have defeated the Midianites.

 

Because Gideon listened and obeyed, he led the small 300 men Israelite army into battle against the huge Midianite army and won!

 

Now, some of you will say, "But, Gideon lived in bible times. Or, Gideon wasn't afraid."

 

Both of these are true, but do you know what? Gideon was younger than the others. Gideon was poor. Gideon was scared. And Gideon was just like you.

 

The only difference in Gideon and people today is that Gideon listened to God and followed what he said. Even though we don't hear God talking to us like Gideon did (although, some people have), we have the bible. God's words are written inside so that we can have his words with us at all times.

 

Just like the verse above says, "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only". We need to stand strong in the Lord. We should always live like we know Jesus and we should always let others see we have Jesus in our hearts.

 

No one should ever look at us and wonder if we are Christians. They should be able to tell by our words and our actions.

 

 

 

 

 

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