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The “Beatitudes” and the “fruit of the Spirit” are two very substantial teachings for living the Christian life, and I wondered if there is any connection between them. Since the apostle Paul is sometimes considered an “expositor” (trying to clarify the teachings of Jesus), there just might be some association here.

It so happens that there are nine “Beatitudes” (there are nine “Blessed’s”), and there are nine “fruit Of The Spirit.” Is this a coincidence?

Well, it seems that if a Christian is honestly trying to achieve the character quality that Jesus is stating in the Beatitudes—that we desire to acquire—then there might be something more that we can expect to be blessed with than just what is mentioned in that particular Beatitude. (i.e. If one “mourns” then they will be “comforted”).

The “Beatitudes” have to do with the qualities of one’s heart, whereas the “fruit Of The Spirit” deals with the actions one does when they are guided by the Holy Spirit. In a different context, Jesus mentions that “out of the heart of men (from ‘within’), proceeds thoughts” (‘actions’), so it would just depend on whether or not the apostle Paul was trying to clarify Jesus’ hard teachings of the Sermon on the Mount.

In addition to this, is there is a reciprocal relationship between them (i.e. When one emphasizes the Beatitudes, does that affect the ‘fruit’ they produce, and when one increases their focus on one of the fruit of the Spirit, does that affect their inner attitude of the Beatitude associated with that ‘fruit’?).

Here’s how they correspond to each other:

When you look at the above ‘pairings’, you might be inclined to say, “I don’t see correspondence in all of them. The first one seems reasonable with ‘Blessed are the pure in heart’ and the associated fruit of the Spirit is ‘love.’” But, the next one, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ being associated with the fruit of the Spirit of ‘joy’ is not as clear cut. Well, I have found, time and time again, that when there is a ‘difficulty’ about understanding precisely the meaning of what Jesus said, you can find somewhere in the teachings of the apostle Paul the matter clearly explained. So, he’s not going to just reframe the Beatitudes, he’s going to describe their intent.

Also, since these two lists are ‘distinct’ from each other in the Bible, their emphasis will be different. Jesus is talking about the inward thoughts in the Beatitudes, and Paul is explaining what the consequences would be of those certain thoughts of the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, you would not expect the two lists to correspond exactly, since one is speaking about what you think (concerned with your inner attitude), whereas Paul is talking about what happens when these thoughts bear ‘fruit’ in action (when the thoughts become works of the ‘flesh’). In addition to that, elsewhere in the Bible, the concept of works of the ‘flesh’ (sinful nature) are mentioned to be the consequences of the thoughts of the ‘heart’ (Mark 7:21-23; Galatians 5:16-17; James 1:14; Romans 7:18; Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 2:1-3; 2 Timothy 2:22; Romans 13:13-14).

All this being said, it seems that it is possible that Paul is actually trying to explain what Jesus said in the Beatitudes. Jesus does not emphasize the aspect of works of the ‘flesh’ or fruit of the Spirit for one very simple reason: He knows if you have these thoughts—these thoughts which He described as “blessed”—then you will have the Fruit of the Spirit. You cannot do these things yourself—it is something the Spirit does in you. You cannot produce the fruit. By definition they are of the Spirit. So, having spoken the first part, the second part will follow—and Paul, as a commentator, has the task of explaining explicitly what actions would be a consequence of these inner thoughts.

One thing also to note about these pairings, is that their meanings have been expanded beyond what Jesus’ intent was just in the Beatitudes, to what He said about the ‘attitude’ throughout the Bible. The same is true about fruit of the Spirit—I have also included teachings about each ‘action’ from other areas of the Bible.

Now, let’s go beyond what our first impression might tells us, and compare them to see whether or not these observations are valid.

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