Gardener Looks at Fruit of the Spirit

Rated: A- ( )

I really don't know anything about the author of this one, W. Phillip Keller, so I was a bit on the defensive when reading it. At the end, I don't think I can tell you much about the author's theology, so I remain hesitant to fully recommend it. While the book is basically sound, I don't know how Keller's other books are.

The first part of this book makes one major error that is really unfortunately. Keller was attempting to get his reader to really examine himself before looking at the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5 to see how that fruit would grow, to ask the questions whether our own souls are prepared for the influence of the Spirit, or if we need to seek repentance and faith. That's great, and what he said was good.

Except he took his text from the parables of the soils.

I know he was trying to stick with the theme, but he made the common mistake of using this passage to basically tell us to change what sort of soil we are, which is not the point at all of the parable itself. The parable describes why people react the way they do to the Gospel -- it's because of who they are.

Now, the points that Keller makes are fine, and they can be supported by other passages in the Scriptures, but he does some reading into the text here instead of drawing out of the text.

In the second part, he gets into the fruit of the Spirit -- a term Paul uses in Galatians to describe the vitrues that come forth by the influence of the Spirit. Keller's exploration of these virtues is really good and worth the read.

All in all, Keller's work is not a must read, but not unworthy of the time either. ( )