The Positive Fruit of a Spirit Filled Life...

This week, we have been looking at a section of a letter in the Bible called the book of Galatians, where a man named Paul has been explaining that we are to vote no n religion because religion produces rotten fruit. Wednesday, Paul revealed the rotten fruit, or results that are produced by a religious centered lifestyle that embraces the religion of license or rebels from the religion of legalism.

Today, as Paul continues in this section of this letter, we will see the fruit, or results that are produced by a gospel centered lifestyle that is led, influenced and controlled by the Holy Spirit. So let’s look together beginning in Galatians 5:22:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Here we see Paul reveal the fruit, or what is produced, by a gospel centered lifestyle that is led, influenced, and controlled by the Holy Spirit. In these verses we are introduced to a list of nine different fruit, or results that are produced. In verse 22, the word love here describes an other-centered warm regard and interest in someone. The word joy refers to a mindset that entails an experience of gladness. When Paul uses the word peace, this word describes a state of well being and harmony that one has with God and others.

The word patience refers to the ability to bear up under provocation. The word kindness describes the quality of being helpful or beneficial to someone. When Paul uses the word goodness here, this word, in the language that this letter was originally written in, refers to one’s generosity toward others. Faithfulness is a state of devotion to Christ that is based on one’s confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel.

Gentleness is the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self importance. In other words, a gentle person is not full of themselves, but demonstrates strength under control.  Paul concludes this list with self control, which is the restraint of one’s impulses. Paul then explains that, for the person who lives a lifestyle that is gospel centered and influenced and controlled by the Holy Spirit, there is no Law. But what does that mean?

Paul here is revealing the reality that a Spirit filled, gospel centered lifestyle fulfills the Law. A gospel centered lifestyle that is influenced and controlled by the Holy Spirit does what a religious centered lifestyle could never do, which is fulfill the requirements of the Law. Think of it this way: If you always lived a gospel centered life that was influenced and empowered by the Holy Spirit in a way that produced the fruit of the Spirit, would you break any of God’s rules? Does a life of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control, lie, cheat, steal, sleep around, or worship something other than God as God? You see a Spirit filled, gospel centered lifestyle fulfills the Law and reveals and reflects Jesus to others.

Now, so often, there is a tendency to look at the list of the fruit of the Spirit and use it like a scorecard. In other words, we look at our life and go “o.k. love-good; joy-good; peace-good; patience-not so much; goodness-o.k.; kindness-o.k.; gentleness-nope; faithfulness-most of the time; self control-except at Coldstone. So let’s see. I scored 6 out of 9 so I am doing o.k.

But here’s the thing: When Paul refers to the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is singular. In other words, you either score 9 out of 9 or you score 0 out of 9 at any given time. Here’s what I mean: If my life is not producing the Spiritual fruit of love, am I going to have joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control?  If my life is not producing the Spiritual fruit of patience, am I going to have love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control?  No you are not.

You see, at any point in time, when we live gospel centered lives that are led, controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit, we will produce the results of all of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. When one of the fruit, or the results is not produced in our lives, then none of the fruit is produced in our lives, because we are beginning to attempt to live a lifestyle that is either embracing the religion of license or rebelling from the religion of legalism. Paul hammers this point home in verse 24:

 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

If Paul were having a conversation in the courtyard coffeehouse this morning, verse 24 and 25 would sound something like this: “Those who live a gospel centered lifestyle that are controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit are destroying our old nature that is dominated by selfishness and sin and that craves and desires to rebel against God and the word of God. So, if we have been rescued from our selfishness and rebellion and have experienced forgiveness and the relationship with God that we were created because of the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives, then let’s keep in step with and live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit”. 

Paul here is reinforcing the reality that a growing and maturing relationship with Christ that results in revealing and reflecting Christ is not the product of our activity for God. Instead, a growing and maturing relationship with Christ that results in revealing and reflecting Christ is the product of the Holy Spirit’s activity as God in our lives. This leads Paul to conclude this section of his letter with a final contrast in verse 26:

Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Here we see Paul exhort the members of the churches of Galatia to not become boastful. Now this word boastful literally means to have an exaggerated self concept. In other words Paul is saying “Hey do not be full of yourselves. Don’t forget that what is produced in your life is because of the Holy Spirit’s activity and not your activity”. Paul then reveals two ways that we reveal that we have become full of ourselves.

First, Paul reveals that we become full of ourselves when we are challenging one another. Now this phrase means to provoke or challenge someone. In our culture we would refer to this as when we call someone out so as to show that we are better than someone else. Second, Paul reveals that we become full of ourselves when we are envying one another. We are envious when want what others have or when we want others not to have what they have. Now whether it is challenging or envying, both behaviors are produced as the result of comparison, aren’t they? Both challenging and envying are the products of comparing our performance with others, aren’t they?

Paul’s point here is that the boastfulness that flows from challenging and envying others reveals that we are no longer living gospel centered lifestyle that produces the results of the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives. Instead, we have shifted to live religious centered lifestyle that is controlled and influenced by our old nature apart from Christ. And that is why we must vote no on religion. We must vote no on religion because religion produces rotten fruit.

So what does the fruit, or what is produced by your life, reveal when it comes to how you have been casting a ballot to vote? Do the rotten results that your lifestyle is producing reveal the reality that you are living a religious centered lifestyle that that is controlled and influenced by our old nature apart from Christ that is either embracing the religion of license or rebelling from the religion of legalism? Or does the fruit, or what is produced, by your life reveal the reality that you are a follower of Jesus who has embraced a gospel centered lifestyle that is led, influenced, and controlled by the Holy Spirit?