Fruit of the Spirit
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40 free Fruit of the Spirit trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Love, joy, peace and the qualities that follow them make up one of the best-known verses in the New Testament. The apostle Paul's short list of what the Holy Spirit grows in a believer is taught in Sunday schools, memorised at youth camps and preached from pulpits everywhere. This quiz works through that list quality by quality. It covers the wording of the passage and how older and newer Bibles translate it, the Greek behind the English, and the stories and sayings that show each quality in action, from famous parables to lesser-known moments in the Old Testament and the book of Acts. The questions run from easy to demanding, so the quiz suits kids' clubs and youth groups, teen and adult Bible studies, and anyone who wants to test what they remember. Every answer comes with a short explanation, and you can play on screen or print the questions for a class.
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Q 01In Jesus's parable about kindness, who helps a beaten traveller after a priest and a Levite walk past?
A Samaritan
A Samaritan was the last hero the audience expected, since Jews of the day did not associate with Samaritans. He bandaged the man's wounds and paid an innkeeper to care for him.
Q 02Which biblical sufferer, stripped of wealth, family and health, gave English a byword for patience?
Job
Job is praised for his endurance in the letter of James, and the King James wording, 'the patience of Job', passed into everyday speech.
Q 03Jesus entered Jerusalem 'gentle and riding on' which animal, fulfilling a prophecy of Zechariah?
A donkey
A donkey carries the king in Zechariah's prophecy, which goes on to promise that he will take away the war horses and proclaim peace to the nations.
Q 04On the night Jesus was born, to whom did an angel announce 'good news that will cause great joy'?
Shepherds
Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks near Bethlehem heard it first, then hurried into town and found the baby lying in a manger.
Q 05Teaching his disciples how to bear much fruit, Jesus says 'I am the vine; you are the' what?
Branches
Branches cut off from the vine simply wither, Jesus goes on, so his followers bear fruit only by staying joined to him: 'apart from me you can do nothing'.
Q 06Paul names love as the greatest of three things that last, alongside faith and which other quality?
Hope
Hope completes a trio that Christian teaching later named the theological virtues. Joined to the four cardinal virtues, they make up the traditional seven virtues.
Q 07Which exile in Babylon kept praying three times a day despite a royal ban and was thrown to lions?
Daniel
Daniel kept his windows open toward Jerusalem and prayed just as before, a lasting picture of faithfulness. King Darius, tricked into signing the ban, could not sleep and hurried to the den at dawn.
Q 08After fasting forty days in the wilderness, Jesus refused the devil's dare to turn stones into what?
Bread
Bread was what the tempter urged a hungry Jesus to conjure. He answered with a line from Deuteronomy, 'Man shall not live on bread alone', a classic picture of self-control.
Q 09From love to self-control, how many qualities does the NIV Bible list as the fruit of the Spirit?
Nine
Nine qualities make up the list, yet the Greek word Paul uses for fruit, karpos, is singular: one fruit, not a basket of separate ones.
Q 10Which letter of Paul, attacking demands that Gentile converts be circumcised, lists the fruit of the Spirit?
Galatians
Galatians is also where Paul recalls opposing Peter to his face at Antioch for drawing back from eating with Gentile believers.
Q 11Just before the fruit of the Spirit, Paul lists vices such as envy and drunkenness as the acts of what?
The flesh
The flesh here means the sinful side of human nature rather than the body itself. Paul's catalogue runs from sexual immorality and idolatry to fits of rage and orgies.
Q 12Which word completes Paul's verdict on the fruit of the Spirit, 'Against such things there is no ___'?
Law
Law is the letter's running theme, and a few verses earlier Paul tells his readers that anyone led by the Spirit is no longer under it.
Q 13Which Greek word for selfless love, distinct from eros and philia, names the first fruit of the Spirit?
Agape
Agape is love by choice rather than by feeling, a goodwill that gives without asking anything back. Older English Bibles often translated it as 'charity'.
Q 21Which woman's name comes from the Greek word for peace that Paul uses in the fruit of the Spirit?
Irene
Irene comes from eirene, and the Greeks also honoured Eirene as the goddess of peace. A famous Athenian statue showed her cradling the infant god of plenty.
Q 22Where was Jesus sailing when he calmed a storm with words the King James Version gives as 'Peace, be still'?
The Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee is really the lowest freshwater lake on Earth. Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the stern when the squall broke over the boat.
Q 23Which son was born to Abraham and Sarah after years of patient waiting, when Abraham was a hundred?
Isaac
Isaac means 'he laughs'. Sarah had laughed at the idea of a baby in old age, and at his birth she said God had brought her laughter.
Q 14Which King James Version word for patience in the fruit of the Spirit also describes God as slow to anger?
Longsuffering
Longsuffering was the 1611 translators' choice. The New International Version now prints 'forbearance' in the same place, and many other modern Bibles simply say patience.
Q 15Which King James Version word for the last fruit of the Spirit later named a movement against alcohol?
Temperance
Temperance in 1611 meant self-restraint in every appetite. Only in the early nineteenth century did campaigners narrow the word to total abstinence from drink.
Q 16Which Bible chapter, a favourite reading at weddings, describes love as patient and kind and never failing?
1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13 was written to a quarrelling church, not to a bride and groom, yet the Church of England calls it the most popular reading at its weddings.
Q 17In the Sermon on the Mount, 'By their fruit you will recognise them' is Jesus's test for spotting whom?
False prophets
False prophets, Jesus warns, come in sheep's clothing but are wolves inside. He adds that nobody picks grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles.
Q 18Which Old Testament book foretells a child to be called Wonderful Counsellor and Prince of Peace?
Isaiah
Isaiah's words are a fixture of Christmas services, and Handel set them to music in Messiah as the chorus 'For unto us a Child is born'.
Q 19In the Beatitudes, Jesus says 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called' what?
Children of God
Children of God is the promise attached to the seventh Beatitude. The one that follows blesses people who are persecuted for doing what is right.
Q 20Which letter did Paul write in chains yet fill with joy, urging readers to 'Rejoice in the Lord always'?
Philippians
Philippians returns to joy again and again in four short chapters, even as Paul notes that the whole palace guard knows he is a prisoner for Christ.
Q 24Which worker does the letter of James hold up as a model of patience for believers awaiting the Lord's coming?
A farmer
A farmer cannot hurry the rain or the harvest, James points out, and he tells believers to wait for the Lord's coming in the same steady way.
Q 25Which famous song of King David ends with goodness and love following the singer 'all the days of my life'?
Psalm 23
Psalm 23 closes with the singer at home in the house of the Lord, after a walk through the darkest valley and a feast laid out in front of his enemies.
Q 26Which man nicknamed 'son of encouragement' does Acts call 'a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith'?
Barnabas
Barnabas sold a field and gave the money to the apostles. He later vouched for the newly converted Saul when the believers in Jerusalem were still afraid of him.
Q 27'Well done, good and faithful servant' is the praise in which parable of Jesus about money left in trust?
The talents
The talents were huge sums: one was worth about twenty years of a labourer's pay. The English word for a gift you are meant to use probably comes from this story.
Q 28Which Old Testament book, traditionally credited to Jeremiah, gave the hymn 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness' its title?
Lamentations
Lamentations is five poems of grief over ruined Jerusalem, yet in the third the poet turns to say that God's compassions never fail and that his faithfulness is great.
Q 29Which emotion does a famous line in Proverbs say that 'a gentle answer turns away'?
Wrath
Wrath is cooled by a soft reply, the proverb says, while its second half warns that a harsh word stirs up anger.
Q 30To which defenceless thing does the book of Proverbs compare a person who lacks self-control?
A city with broken walls
A city with broken walls lay open to any raider in the ancient world, and the proverb says a person who cannot govern their own impulses is just as exposed.