THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Galatians 5:22-25 NKJV
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Paul has moved into more of the practical aspects of a spiritual life. In this fifth chapter, he begins to encourage the believers in Galatia to love one another and walk in the Spirit, as opposed to walking in the flesh. He gives us quite a list of the works of the flesh, covering everything from sexual sins to envy, hatred, and murder. It’s a fairly comprehensive list that none of us can read without saying ouch. Then Paul gives a description of how we are to live our lives, referring to it as the fruit of the Spirit.
There have been many theological debates as to just whose fruit Paul is talking about. The list starting in verse 22 with love, joy, and peace, is it the fruit of the Holy Spirit or the fruit of the spirit of man after becoming a new creation in Christ? I tend to fall into the latter camp, that this list of fruit that is to be in our lives is produced in us because of the life of Christ that is within us. Jesus said in John 15:5 that He is the vine, and we are the branches. As we stay in union with Him, we will bear much fruit. The qualities of love, joy, peace, and the rest of that list, are Christ-like. And as we live this way, we bear Christ-like fruit.
Now, if you are in the other camp, believing that this is the fruit that the Holy Spirit works in our lives, you won’t get an argument from me. The bottom line is that we walk in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or meekness, and self-control. And if we stop and think about it, if we are living this way, we are not arguing. To quote the old Nike slogan - just do it! The important thing is that we who belong to Jesus crucify our flesh and live in this manner. We are alive in the Spirit, so we should walk in the Spirit.
I believe the big challenge we face is that we have become highly accustomed to walking according to how we feel. We have believed that if I don’t feel love, then I am not loving, that if I can’t detect any feelings of joy or peace, they must not be present. The challenge is, what does it mean to walk in the Spirit?
If we view walking in the Spirit as more of a decision than a feeling, we are moving in the right direction. If we believe that we have the capacity to walk in the peace of God and the joy of the Lord, we have overcome half the struggle. We have learned in certain environments to crucify our feelings. We may feel like just telling someone off but knowing that the person can fire us from our jobs helps us keep our feelings in check. We may have strong feelings, but we don’t have to give in to them. And, in the same way, we can have no loving feelings and yet still act in love toward another person. We may not feel as if we have an ounce of joy, but if we choose to rejoice and praise God, the feelings often follow. We have been trained most of our lives to monitor our feelings, so to begin to crucify them is a new thought. This new way of thinking and new mindset is what the Scripture calls renewing our minds. Mind renewal leads to a transformed life.
So don’t give up on walking in the Spirit. Instead, by faith, begin to believe and declare that you can exhibit the fruit of the Spirit and grow more every year. Good fruit is a good thing in our lives.
PRAYER
Thank You, Lord, that I have the fruit of the Spirit in my life. And this fruit will grow in my life more and more.