What is St. Paul’s understanding of Christian virtues?

a. The apostle Paul does not break down the Christian virtues into specific behaviors. Instead, he provides us with a brief and simple list of the works of the Holy Spirit in our inner lives to mould our behavior in every area of our lives. He says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22–23).

b. The apostle offers this list of the fruits of the Spirit in order for them to be a kind of constitution for the whole life of the believer. He left it to the people of God — especially the Fathers of the Church — to work out how to practice these virtues in more detail; not merely as a code of ethics to be followed, but rather as the fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer as a child of God, a member of the body of Christ, and the temple of God in which the Spirit of God dwells.

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