But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)John Calvin: -- *Commentary on Galatians*
Though many distinct graces are mentioned here, yet Paul calls them "fruit" in the singular number, to teach us that they proceed from one Spirit, that they are all connected together, and that they must all be found in believers. For it would be absurd to boast of having love if we are not controlled by chastity, or to boast of having peace if we are troubled by anger. The Spirit so unites the whole that it cannot be divided.
Thomas Aquinas: -- *Commentary on Galatians, Chapter 5, Lecture 7*
Now these are called fruits because they are the ultimate delight of the soul, produced in us by the Holy Spirit. As the end of a tree is its fruit, so the end of the spiritual life is the delight that comes from these works of grace. They are not works of the law but of the Spirit, and against them there is no law because they are the fulfillment of the law itself.
Athanasius: -- *On the Incarnation*, §54
For the Son of God became man so that we might become God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit incorruption. He was not injured by them, but they were healed. He suffered, yet living He quickened dead things. The Word spread Himself everywhere, above and beneath and in the depth and in the breadth, that every creature in every place might behold its God.
John Owen: -- *The Mortification of Sin in Believers*
Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. He who doth not kill it while it is mortifiable, whilst it may be mortified, will find it mortal when it is too late, and that which he cannot mortify. Sin will not only be stirring, but striving, and then conquer, if not continually mortified. The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.
If the singular fruit of the Spirit is one indivisible work -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control bound together -- then which single branch of that fruit are you most content to be without, and what does that reveal?
Seneca: -- *On the Shortness of Life*, §1
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the greatest things, if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and careless living, when it is devoted to no good end, finally, when the greatest of all evils, an endless preoccupation, drives it on and on, we are forced to feel at last that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.
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