Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR:
Discover why the fruit of the Spirit is singular, not plural, and how accepting Christ’s sacrifice gives you the complete package of love, joy, peace, patience, and more – not just bits and pieces it is complete.
What?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law.”
I was just being anxious, not experiencing the fruit of the Spirit. One interesting thing about this verse in Galatians 5:22-23 is that it’s the fruit in singular. The fruit of the Spirit is all of these things. Not the fruits, like I can have a couple of these fruits. I can have a couple of grapes and apples and oranges, but it’s THE fruit. You get the whole package.
How do we get this package? By being in the Spirit. That’s the connectedness between me and Christ and God in the Holy Spirit, having that connection, having that bond. First I accept Christ’s sacrifice for all of my sins. When I remember that, when I stay in tune with that, I get the fruit – the whole fruit, not just the seeds or the skin or the stem or the peel, but the whole thing.
Before I got ready for this, there’s a finance problem right now at our house and I was not having the peace. And now I do. I got that peace back by spending time in prayer and meditation, doing my daily S.A.V.E.R.S., and spending time in God’s Word.
Why?
I share this because Kingdom Family Leaders often try to compartmentalize spiritual fruit. We think we can have patience in one area while lacking peace in another, or show kindness at church while lacking self-control at home. We treat spiritual fruit like a buffet where we pick what we want. That’s not fruit of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is singular for a reason. When you’re connected to Christ through accepting His sacrifice, you don’t get partial fruit – you get the whole package. The issue isn’t which fruits you have, it’s whether you’re connected to the vine.
Lesson
The principle of singular fruit reveals how the Spirit works. You don’t earn fruit piece by piece through behavior modification. You receive the complete fruit through relationship with Christ. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires – the fruit flows from belonging, not from trying harder.
The connectedness to Christ through accepting His sacrifice for past, present, and future sins is what produces the fruit. When anxiety, impatience, or lack of peace shows up, it’s not that you need to work harder on that specific fruit. It’s that you need to reconnect to the source – remember Christ’s sacrifice, spend time in prayer and meditation, stay in God’s Word.
The fruit is all or nothing because it comes from being in the Spirit, not from self-effort. When you’re connected, you get love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as a complete package.
Apply
Identify one area where you’re lacking spiritual fruit right now – maybe peace about finances, patience with your kids, or self-control in an area of temptation. Instead of trying to manufacture that specific fruit through willpower, spend time reconnecting to the source. This week, implement or return to daily spiritual practices – prayer, meditation, time in God’s Word. Watch how the whole fruit package shows up when you’re connected to the vine.
You be blessed!
