The Fruit of the Spirit

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"Against such there is no law."

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"Crucified the flesh."

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"The passions and the lusts thereof."

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"By the Spirit."

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"By the Spirit let us also walk."

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"Not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another."

1. Note the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit, not only in the nature, but also in the way in which the nature manifests itself. We have the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. The flesh is restless and agitated, always striving, yet never attaining. It works, but works itself to death, even while struggling for life. The Spirit is calmness and peace and rest. Its life is as the life of a tree, quietly bearing fruit to life eternal.

2. The law is spiritual (Rom. 7:14), therefore it can not be against the fruits of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the fulfilling of the law, for love sums it all up. Compare this lesson with chapter 3:21. The law is not against the promise of God, but is just what God has promised to put into our hearts, that its fruits may be borne by us.

3. Each of the words used in describing the fruit of the Spirit might well be the subject of an entire lesson. Whoever studies this lesson exhaustively will find work for many months or even years. The best we can do now is but to make a beginning. Let us make a good beginning.

4. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom. 8:9. And if any man have the Spirit of Christ, this fruit must be borne. Therefore if any man is not loving and joyful, if he does not exercise faith, or is not temperate, he is none of Christ's. But do not let anybody therefore immediately resolve to be joyful, or to have peace. This fruit of the Spirit is not worked out; it comes as a necessary consequence of yielding to the Spirit. Christ has left His peace with us, and God alone can put gladness into the heart. But it must be there if God reigns there, for in His presence there is fulness of joy. Ps. 16:11.

5. "If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk." But do we live by the Spirit?—Certainly, there is no other source of life. "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Job 33:4. "As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; all the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils; my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit." Job 27:2-4. The fact that anybody has breath, is reason enough for him to serve God, who "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." Acts 17:25; 1 Tim. 6:17. The fact that God gives us breath, makes us dependent on Him, and constitutes His claim on us. Whoever would be independent of God, must cease to breathe God's breath. But there is still more in this. We often hear that "while there's life there's hope;" this is so because life is hope. We live only by the Spirit; therefore, all we have to do is to yield to "the power that worketh in us" (Eph. 3:20), and the fruit of the Spirit will be brought forth "above all that we ask or think." We think that it is easy to do wrong, and so it is; but God has made the way of righteousness much easier, even to the extent that He is stronger than Satan, and life is stronger than death.

6. It is possible for one to live in the flesh and yet be wholly free from the flesh. See Gal. 2:20. There is no Christ except the crucified One, and if we are His, it is by being baptized into His death. Rom. 6:3, 4. We are crucified with Him, but we also rise with Him, to live a new life, even a spiritual life. He does not raise the flesh—the old man. If we build up the things once destroyed, we make ourselves transgressors. But "if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Rom. 8:10. That which is impossible with man is possible with God, and whatever He has made possible for us, He has a right to expect to see in us.