'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23.
Meekness, temperance'--GAL. v. 22, 23.
'The fruit of the Spirit,' says Paul, not the fruits, as we might more
naturally have expected, and as the phrase is most often quoted; all
this rich variety of graces, of conduct and character, is thought of as
one. The individual members are not isolated graces, but all connected,
springing from one root and constituting an organic whole. There is
further to be noted that the Apostle designates the results of the
Spirit as fruit, in strong and intentional contrast with the results of
the flesh, the grim catalogue of which precedes the radiant list in our
text. The works of the flesh have no such unity, and are not worthy of
being called fruit. They are not what a man ought to bring forth, and
when the great Husbandman comes, He finds no fruit there, however full
of activity the life has been. We have then here an ideal of the noblest
Christian character, and a distinct and profound teaching as to how to
attain it. I venture to take the whole of this list for my text, because
the very beauty of each element in it depends on its being but part of a
whole, and because there are important lessons to be gathered from the
grouping.