Are these nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit something we do, or things the Spirit does for us?
Although clearly the Spirit is the Planter and Producer of the fruit as He alone can initiate and empower these graces, nevertheless, each of these nine graces is also commanded of believers.
Every believer has great potential for as Paul explained we have “been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:11)
Our task on earth as obedient children is to work out now what God has worked in us. Or as Paul instructed the saints at Philippi, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12, 13)
Charles Spurgeon is careful to add that fruit calls for care. If you have a garden you will soon know this. We had a profusion of flowers upon our pear trees this year, and for a few weeks the weather was warm beyond the usual heat of April, but nights of frost followed and cut off nearly all the fruit. Other kinds of fruit which survived the frost are now in danger from the dry weather which has developed and endless variety of insect blight, so that we wonder whether any of it will survive. If we get over this trial and the fruit grows well we shall yet expect to see many apples fall before autumn, because the worm has eaten into their hearts and effectual destroyed them. So is it with Christian life; I have seen a work for the lord prospering splendidly like a fruitful vine, when suddenly there has come a frost night and fond hopes have been nipped; or else new notions, and wild ideas have descended like insect blights and the fruit has been spoiled; for it the work has escaped these causes of damage, some immorality in a leading member or a quarrelsome spirit, has appeared unawares like a worm in the center of the apple, and down it has fallen never to flourish again.
God does not make a law against the nine fold fruit of the Spirit for these are the very virtues that God desires believers to supernaturally manifest in a Christ like walk. And just as there is “no law” against the fruit of the Spirit, there is likewise no law which will produce them for they cannot be produced by your self-effort, including attempts to keep the law.
Neither God nor man has ever made a law against these things; the more there is of them, the better will it be for everybody, Oh, that they prevailed all over the world!
Good men make no law against these things, nor does God, for He approves of them, What a wonderful cluster of the grapes of Eshcol we have here! The fruit of the Spirit, as if all this were but one after all; many luscious berries forming one great cluster. Oh, that all these things may be in us and abound, that we may be neither barren nor unfruitful!
C. Norman Bartlett writes that although there is no law against the aforementioned fruit of the Spirit, many Christians live and act as if there were, if one judges by the meagerness of spiritual fruit bearing in their lives. Law can neither produce nor prevent the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. Legality, however, militates against the vitality so essential to their production.
S. Lewis Johnson writes that in the concluding words of Galatians 5:23 there is an important point made by Paul. The Law of Moses finds no flaw in the fruit of the Spirit. The flesh may imitate, or counterfeit, certain of the virtues, but is can never produce them. The Spirit alone can do that, and the results satisfies all the demands of the moral law in the believer’s life. It is sometimes forgotten that life by the Spirit in not a lower standard than life by the moral law, or the Ten Commandments. It is, if anything a higher standard. Arthur Way has caught that in his rendering of Galatians 5:18: “But if you definitely surrender yourselves to the Spirit’s guidance, you are then not under any law, but on a HIGHER PLANE!”
Vincent explains that against such virtues there is no law to condemn them. The law can bring no charge against them.
Richards adds that laws are passed against sinful acts. No one would think of passing a law against love, joy, kindness, goodness, or patience. It follows then that Law is irrelevant to Christians who live by the Spirit. What need is there for Law in a heart where love, kindness, and goodness reign? Commit yourself to Jesus, actively love others, and trust the Spirit to express Himself through you. Do this, and you need not worry about the Law.
James Boice writes that this last clause is most likely an understatement used for rhetorical effect. The law, as Paul has said, was given to restrain evil; but these qualities do not need to be restrained. Hence, no law opposes them. There may also be a sense, however, in which Paul is suggesting that the law cannot be against such as live in this manner because of the very fact that by being so led they are in principle fulfilling what the law requires.
William Kelly asks: “When did law ever produce these?” So the law will never condemn those who walk in these thing. If you are producing these fruits of the Spirit, there is no condemnation against them.
SPIRITUAL GROWTH
O Thou Most High,
In the way of Thy appointment I am waiting for Thee,
My desire is to Thy Name,
My mind to remembrance of Thee.
I am sinner, but not insensible of my state.
My iniquities are great and numberless,
But Thou art adequate to my relief, for Thou art rich in mercy;
The blood of Thy Son can cleanse from all sin;
The agency of Thy Spirit can subdue my most powerful lusts.
Give me a tender, wakeful conscience
That can smite and torment me when I sin.
May I be consistent in conversation and conduct,
The same alone as in company, in prosperity and adversity,
Accepting all Thy commandments as right,
And hating every false way.
May I never be satisfied with my present spiritual progress,
But to faith add virtue, knowledge, temperance, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity,
May I never neglect what is necessary to constitute Christian character,
And needful to complete it.
May I cultivate the expedient, develop the lovely, adorn the gospel,
Recommend the religion of Jesus, accommodate myself to Thy providence.
Keep me from sinking or sinning in the evil day;
Help me to carry into ordinary life portions of divine truth and use
Them on suitable occasions, so that its doctrines may inform, its warning caution,
Its rules guide, it promises comfort me.
