Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

I know you must have heard the expression, “The clothes make the man.” Dress for success also comes to mind. Nothing covers a less than perfect body better than a really great tailor. Seamstress for you ladies, I must not leave you out on this issue. Not all of us have perfect bodies. Those that do have a tendency to show that as much as possible. The rest of us try to hide as best we can our imperfections.

The garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness, they are not exactly well tailored clothes, but in a spiritual sense that is exactly right. Our imperfections are hidden from all. Now comes the interesting part, if we are to carry out this spiritual example to any spiritual result that we can use in our daily lives.

The hands and the face are not covered by a suit, a robe, a dress. Those things are where we are exposed. Hands signify works according to Ecclesiastes 2:11. According to Proverbs 27:19 a man’s face is a reflection of his heart, his countenance exposed. Take into consideration that spiritually speaking these two areas are exposed what has God provided to His children that will in any way reflect our true countenance, in light of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

I would guess that obedience of faith would account for the works, the hands. The face might be a little more difficult to cover since we are all different and no one “looks” like me.

Romans 14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

Our conscience is tailored according to God’s will.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Why do we want to compare fruits of the spirit with natural fruit? The words were given as an example of what the Holy Spirit does in use and we look upon the fruit as it were something to pick and consume, as if the tree were ours and we have the ability to go to our tree and pick as we choose. We see ourselves as consumers.

Does the tree consume the fruit or just produce it? Produce might even be the wrong word, trees bear fruit. As the apple matures on the branch until ripe and then falls off, to dies to the earth and produce seed, which is scattered and produces more trees. What if we were not consumers in this telling but just rather the tree?

Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

It is no surprise to me that the very first Psalm tells us that a man is like a tree. Here is the comparative of man and tree, tree and fruit. Yet when we think about fruits of the Spirit we often think of ourselves as consumers, as if the fruits were there for us, to our benefit, ours to use, ours to make our lives more abundant.

Matthew 12:33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

The character of a tree is known by its fruit.