Book Review - Fruit of the Spirit

The following review was written by Ava Langerak on the book The Fruit of the Spirit of Jesus Christ by Richard J. Smit (Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing, 2012). This review was originally published in the August 2023 issue of The Grandville Gleaner.

The author, Richard J. Smit, starts the book by laying out the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance. Next, he draws attention to the fact that the fruit is not simply produced by us but instead by the outstanding work of Christ, by the Spirit, in and through us. 

The author takes the time to explain each different fruit in its own chapter, explaining how that individual fruit is worked in us by Christ and how we can continue to exercise and enjoy that fruit in our walk of faith with Christ. The author also quotes from Scripture to provide the basis behind what each chapter teaches you.

He then ends each chapter with a list of questions to make you pause and reflect and in turn take time to make sure you understand the chapter. These 5-6 questions ending each chapter cause the reader to process what they just read about instead of just looking over the words. They test their understanding, with some questions being simple and others tat the reader must take time to think about.

The whole book is only 155 pages separated into 11 short chapters making it easy to read. The book is clear enough in its explanations that most readers can read it and understand what it is teaching. This book is great for personal use to learn of the wonderful fruit of the Spirit and all of their different aspects that can be seen in a Christian's way of life.

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Richard J. Smit has been a minister in the Protestant Reformed churches since his ordination in 1996. He has served as a missionary to the Philippines twice, ministering for over a decade to the saints there, to whom his book Fruit of the Spirit is dedicated.

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