Word studies · Greek · Strong's G2590
καρπός · karpós · appears 66 times in the New Testament
In one line: What a life produces, showing what it is rooted in.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Galatians 5:22
Karpos is fruit — the visible product of what a thing actually is, which is why Scripture uses it to test claims.
The New Testament uses karpos for literal produce and, constantly, for the outcome of a life: fruit in keeping with repentance, the fruit of the Spirit, fruit that abides. Jesus makes it the test of teachers and disciples alike — “by their fruits you will know them.”
Karpos is the ordinary Greek word for fruit or crop, what a plant yields when it is what it is. Its agricultural plainness is the point: fruit is not manufactured by the branch but produced through it, given the right connection.
Paul writes “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...” with a singular noun and a list — one fruit with nine facets, not nine achievements to collect. English readers often hear it as a checklist; the Greek suggests a single ripening character.
Karpos (G2590) appears 66 times in the New Testament, and Galatians 5:22 makes the noun singular — one fruit of the Spirit, described nine ways.
Fruit language keeps Christian ethics from becoming performance: what grows reveals what is rooted, and cannot be faked for long. It also keeps it from becoming passive — Jesus expects fruit, and the vine passage makes bearing it the ordinary result of remaining in Him.
Instead of resolving to be more patient, ask what your patience is currently rooted in. Tend the connection this week and let the fruit follow, which is the order Scripture actually gives.
fruit (as plucked), literally or figuratively
Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.
Matthew 3:8Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings, and they yielded no crop.
Mark 4:7In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Luke 1:42Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
John 4:36I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, how often I planned to come to you (but have been prevented from visiting until now), in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
Romans 1:13Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk?
1 Corinthians 9:7Press and hold fruit in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.