The Fruit of the Spirit

       When you think of the Fruit of the Spirit, do you think of them as separate fruits? or do you think of them as one Fruit? Yesterday I bought a book written by D.L. Moody called "The Secret of Success in the Christian Life." Towards the end of the first chapter it was talking about love, the first of the Fruit of the Spirit. (I had never heard or thought of this before, but it is good to know.) The paragraph said, "The fruit of the Spirit, as you find it in Galatians, begins with love. There are nine graces spoken of in Galatians 5, and of the nine, Paul puts love at the head of the list; love is the first thing in that precious cluster of fruit. Someone has put it in this way: that all the other eight can be put in the word love. Joy is love exulting; peace is love in repose; longsuffering is love on trial; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love at school; and temperance is love in training. So it is love all the way      love at the top, love at the bottom, and all the way along down these graces."

       Astounding isn't it? That if we only have love, it will be all we need. But this kind of love is not a love that people have on their own. It is agape love, God's kind of love. Which means that without Him, we cannot have this kind of love. So in order to have a perfect love, we must be Christ's, and we must turn everything over to Him. We cannot have this love with anything contrary to God's working.

       "Cleanse me Lord, of all things contrary to your being, so that I can know that perfect love of your Holy Spirit."