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Fruits of the spirit Word Search

This fruits of the spirit word search hides words like love, joy, peace to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy fruits of the spirit vocabulary activity.

10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included · Free printable PDF

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SELFCONTROL
GENTLENESS
GALATIANS
PATIENCE
KINDNESS
GOODNESS
PEACE
FRUIT
LOVE
JOY

🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!

True stories

The hardest handshake

Munich, Germany

In 1947, in a church basement in Munich, Germany, Corrie ten Boom had just finished speaking about God's forgiveness when a man stepped forward with his hand out. She recognized him at once: a former guard from Ravensbruck, the camp where her sister Betsie had died. He said he had become a Christian and asked Corrie to forgive him. For a long moment she could not lift her arm; she had survived his cruelty. Praying silently for help, she finally reached out and took his hand. She later wrote that a strange warmth seemed to flood her in that instant. The former prisoner and the former guard stood there, hands clasped.

A swap in the death block

Oswiecim, Poland

In July 1941, at Auschwitz near Oswiecim, Poland, guards chose ten men to starve in a bunker after a prisoner escaped. One of the condemned, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out for his wife and children. A Franciscan friar named Maximilian Kolbe stepped from the lines and quietly asked to take the man's place, explaining he had no family. The startled commander agreed. Kolbe died in the bunker weeks later; Gajowniczek survived the war and lived into his nineties. For decades afterward he traveled to tell the story of the stranger who chose to die so he could go home. He said he could thank Kolbe only with his eyes.

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Did you know?

love: Paul uses the Greek agape, a giving, self-spending love rather than mere affection or warm feeling.
joy: The joy Paul names is chara, a settled gladness he says endures hardship, unlike happiness tied to circumstances.
peace: Paul's word eirene echoes the Hebrew shalom, meaning not just calm but whole, restored, and rightly ordered.
patience: The Greek makrothumia literally means long-tempered, the slow fuse that refuses to flare up against people.
kindness: The word chrestotes sits so close to Christos that early readers heard a near pun on Christ's name.
goodness: This is agathosune, a rare word barely found outside the Bible, describing active uprightness, not just being harmless.
galatians: Galatia took its name from Celtic Gauls who invaded Asia Minor around 278 BC, settling in modern central Turkey.
gentleness: The Greek prautes once described a war horse trained for battle: full strength, fully controlled, never weakness.
faithfulness: Paul's word pistis means both faith and faithfulness, covering trust in God and being trustworthy yourself.
selfcontrol: The Greek enkrateia pictures a hand on the reins; athletes used the same word for strict training.
fruit: In the Greek, fruit here is singular (karpos), one unified harvest with many parts, not nine separate prizes.
spirit: Paul contrasts the Spirit's fruit with the works of the flesh; works are plural and effortful, fruit grows quietly.
forgiveness: The Greek aphesis means a release or letting go, the same word used for canceling a debt.
compassion: The Greek splanchnizomai locates compassion in the bowels, which ancient writers saw as the seat of deep emotion.
longsuffering: The King James Bible often renders makrothumia as longsuffering, a patient endurance that refuses to retaliate.

Trivia

In which New Testament letter does Paul list the fruit of the Spirit?
Galatians (chapter 5, verses 22 to 23).
Is the word fruit in Galatians 5:22 singular or plural in the original Greek?
Singular (karpos).
Paul contrasts the fruit of the Spirit with what opposite category earlier in the same chapter?
The works of the flesh.
How many qualities are named as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians?
Nine.
The region of Galatia was named after migrating people from which European group?
Celts, specifically Gauls.

Trivia · 1 / 5

In which New Testament letter does Paul list the fruit of the Spirit?

Galatians (chapter 5, verses 22 to 23).

In their words

Joy is the serious business of Heaven.
C. S. Lewis

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)

Is this fruits of the spirit word search free to print?

This fruits of the spirit word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like SELFCONTROL, GENTLENESS, GALATIANS hidden across, down, and diagonally. You can play it right here in your browser — tap the first and last letter of a word — or download it as a printable PDF with the full answer key on page two. It's free for personal and classroom use, so teachers can print copies for a whole class with no sign-up and no account. Word searches like this one are a proven way to build vocabulary, spelling, and word-shape recognition, which is why they're a favourite with ESL learners, elementary classrooms, and anyone who likes a quiet puzzle with their coffee.

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