Galatians 5:22-23 - Homiletics

"The fruit of the Spirit."

Here we have the picture of a lovely garden, with all the choicest growths of the Spirit.

I. THE NINE GRACES OF THE SPIRIT .

1 . First group. "Love, joy, peace." They all spring out of the filial relation into which we are brought by faith in Christ. Love is the tie that binds our hearts to God as our Father; joy is the glad emotion that springs up after our reconciliation with God; peace is the summer calm that settles down upon the soul that has entered into its rest. Love has been called the foundation of the fabric; joy, the superstructure; peace, the crown of the work. Love has a primary place, for it is "shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost." Joy is dependent upon love, and may well be called "joy of the Holy Ghost." It is enshrined in the very heart of love. It rises and falls, with love itself, like the thin thread of mercury in the thermometer, by the action of the surrounding atmosphere. Peace is linked with joy "in believing." Peace and joy are the two ingredients of the kingdom of God ( Romans 14:17 ). It is "the peace to which we are called in one body" ( Colossians 3:15 ), which will keep our hearts and minds in the midst of all worldly agitations.

2 . Second group. "Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness." The first group blends naturally into the second, for there is a near relation between peace and long-suffering. The graces of this group begin with the passive and end with the active, for long-suffering is the patient endurance of injuries inflicted by others; goodness is an active principle, not a mere kindly disposition; while gentleness or kindness is something between the two—a principle, however, which tends largely to promote the usefulness and the comfort of life, lessening the friction that enters more or less into all our intercourse with our fellow-men.

3 . Third group. "Faith, meekness, temperance." These three graces refer to the regulation of Christian life. It is curious to find faith seventh, and not first, in this list of graces. Faith is the root-principle of all graces. It goes before love itself, for it "worketh by love," and it precedes joy and peace, which both spring from our believing ( Romans 15:13 ). It has, therefore, been suggested that faith is here taken for fidelity. There is no reason, however, for any departure from its usual meaning. Faith is here regarded, not as the means of salvation or as the instrument of our justification, but as the principle of Christian life, which controls and guides it. Thus faith supplies the strength of self-control that is implied in temperance, and is the secret spring of that meekness which is an ornament of great price. Temperance comes last in the list of graces, because self-control is the end of all Christian life. Like the governor in machinery, it adds nothing to the power at work, but it equalizes the power so as to produce a uniform type of work.

II. MARK THE SPECIAL PRIVILEGE THAT ATTACHES TO THESE NINE GRACES . "Against such there is no Law." There is Law against the seventeen works of the flesh—to condemn them; but there is no Law to condemn the nine graces of the Spirit. There is Law to restrain the sinner—it exists for the purposes of this restraint—but in the graces of the Spirit there is nothing to restrain. They all chime in with the requirements of the Law, because they radiate from that love which is the very fulfilling of the Law. Thus those who are led by the Spirit are not under Law.