His fruit; He produces it; He
bears it, not we. It is well to notice that these graces are not said to
be the fruits of the Spirit but the fruit, _i. e._, if the Spirit is given
control of our life, He will not bear one of these as fruit in one person
and another as fruit in another person, but this will be the one fruit of
many flavours that He produces in each one. There is also a unity of
origin running throughout all the multiplicity of manifestation. It is a
beautiful life that is set forth in these verses. Every word is worthy of
earnest study and profound meditation. Think of these words one by one;
"love"--"joy"--"peace"--"longsuffering"--"kindness"--"goodness"--"faith" (or
"faithfulness," R. V.; faith is the better translation if properly
understood. The word is deeper than faithfulness. It is a real faith that
results in faithfulness)--"meekness"--"temperance" (or a life under perfect
control by the power of the Holy Spirit). We have here a perfect picture
of the life of Jesus Christ Himself. Is not this the life that we all long
for, the Christlike life? But this life is not natural to us and is not
attainable by us by any effort of what we are in ourselves. The life that
is natural to us is set forth in the three preceding verses: "Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness,
revellings and such like" (Gal. v. 21, R. V.). All these works of the
flesh will not manifest themselves in each individual; some will manifest
themselves in one, others in others, but they have one common source, the
flesh, and if we live in the flesh, this is the kind of a life that we
will live. It is the life that is natural to us. But when the indwelling
Spirit is given full control in the one He inhabits, when we are brought
to realize the utter badness of the flesh and give up in hopeless despair
of ever attaining to anything in its power, when, in other words, we come
to the end of ourselves, and just give over the whole work of making us
what we ought to be to the indwelling Holy Spirit, then and only then,
these holy graces of character, which are set forth in Gal. v. 22, 23, are
His fruit in our lives. Do you wish these graces in your character and
life? Do you really wish them? Then renounce self utterly and all its
strivings after holiness, give up any thought th