Turn to Galatians 5. The second half of Galatians 5 gets at the core of following the Lord. In an ordinary day, an ordinary week, what do we turn away from, and what do we pursue? Galatians 5 lists the works of the flesh, which we avoid, and it lists the fruit of the Spirit, which we seek. What should we avoid, and what should we do instead? It is an ongoing battle.
This is the second of three messages on “essential character.” What kind of person does the Lord want us to be? The first message was from the beatitudes of Jesus, in Matthew 5, and the third will be from James 3 and what he calls “wisdom from above.” The beatitude life, and wisdom from above, and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, all describe much the same person. That’s what I hope you see in these three.
The “flesh” in Galatians 5 is not our physical body, it is our human readiness to sin, our weakness when we are tempted. But in Galatians 5, Paul does not talk about “the flesh” as if it is a part of us. It’s not “our flesh,” it is “the flesh.” Paul writes as if the Flesh is a force or power pulling us in a dark way, and the Spirit is another force or power leading us in God’s way.
1 The Problem in Galatia: Biting, Devouring, Provoking, and Envying (5:15, 26)
If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other… Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Biting, devouring, provoking and envying. That’s how our text begins, and how it ends. Too much of that in the Galatian churches.
Paul does not actually say that this is happening there, but given how the whole section reads, there’s not any doubt. Relationships between Galatian believers were rocky. They were going at each other too much. That’s why he teaches them about the flesh and the Spirit.
2 Opening Summary: Free so we can Serve One Another (5:13–15)
This opening paragraph packs the whole teaching into a few lines. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free [from the Law of Moses]. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
In the Bible, freedom is not so we can do what we want; God frees us so that we can enter a better service. Indulging the flesh means we bite and devour each other, and end up destroying each other. That’s the wrong use of freedom.
Instead, serve one another humbly in love. This way we fulfill what the law wanted all along. Gentile believers like the Galatians, and like us, are not under the Law of Moses at all. But Paul won’t leave it there. If the Spirit leads us to serve one another humbly in love, then we will be doing what the Law wanted more than anything, we’ll be fulfilling the Law.
Let’s be careful to understand what “love” means in this paragraph. Love is not a feeling in your heart, like it often is in our society. In the New Testament, love is humble service to one another. We can serve without being humble. We can be humble without serving. Love is not a feeling in your heart. Humble service to one another – that’s what “love” is.
3 The Daily Battle, and the Solution (5:16–18)
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The Spirit and the flesh want opposite things. The flesh wants us biting and devouring each other, and the Spirit wants us to serve one another humbly in love. As a result, we cannot just go through life doing whatever we want. Sometimes we may want to do the right thing, and that’s good, but other times we’ll want to do what’s wrong.
So, what do we do? We walk by the Spirit (v16), we are led by the Spirit (v18), and we keep in step with the Spirit (v25). The answer is not to go back to the Law. The Holy Spirit takes us forward, we walk by the Spirit, we are led by the Spirit, we keep in step with the Spirit.
How do we know if we’re walking by the Spirit and being led by the Spirit? Do we get some special Holy Spirit tingling, or some inner confidence that for sure this is the Holy Spirit? No. Those things might happen, but that’s not how this Scripture works.
Paul will list the works of the flesh, and then he will list the fruit of the Spirit. When our actions produce the works of the flesh, we are not being led by the Spirit. When our actions produce the fruit of the Spirit, we are being led by the Spirit and we are walking by the Spirit.
We know by the result of our words and actions. He opens the next line, “The acts of the flesh are obvious.” This Scripture will spell it out, two lists, a flesh list and a Spirit list, so we will be able to recognize in ourselves and others whether flesh guides us or the Spirit. Both are obvious.
4 The Acts of the Flesh (5:19–21)
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you now, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
There are several lists like this in the New Testament. It’s good for us to read these lists out once in a while. As God’s people, we name the things we will not do. We name the things God calls us to avoid; we say them out loud. Every believer is uncomfortable with something on this list, something that we struggle with, and it feels too close to home. Nevertheless, we name the things God has told us not to do.
The first three are: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery.” In Paul, all three words describe sexual immorality. First century Greco-Roman society allowed all kinds of sexual activity. Sexual purity was not considered.
It was the same much earlier in the days of Moses. While they were in the wilderness, God told the Israelites, “they did all these sexual things in Egypt, where you used to live, and they do them all in Canaan, where I am bringing you. But you are not going to live like that, because I am Yahweh your God.” Beginning of Leviticus 18. There’s nothing new in what happens in our day.
If we compare this sin list to other similar lists, one thing stands out in this list and makes it different: eight of these terms describe relationship troubles, the very thing that plagued the Galatian believers: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. All of these are the opposite of “serve one another humbly in love.” Doesn’t matter how righteous it feels, my brothers and sisters, it’s the flesh.
Sometimes what the Spirit leads us to do is hard work and exhausting. It does not feel like the Spirit is doing anything. Sometimes it comes more naturally, and is a joy. Either way, it is the Spirit, because the flesh never desires to do the right thing. This Scripture told us what the flesh produces, and it’s never the right thing.
I warn you now, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. That is a frightening line, isn’t it. Galatian believers reading this letter are doing some of those things: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.
Paul writes these lists to people in churches, so they would look at themselves. Se we would look at ourselves. It sounds like there could be people in the church who will not inherit the kingdom of God, and it will be for reasons like this. We all struggle with something here, and the kingdom is a kingdom of forgiveness. Let’s make sure that we understand that the Lord has called us away from these.
5 The Fruit of the Spirit (5:22–26)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
“Love, joy, peace.” These are not how the Spirit makes us feel, these are not telling us about our internal experience. Our Scripture today talks about life in the group, in the congregation. When the Spirit produces his fruit in the church, the relationships in the church are loving and peaceful, which brings joy. For the most part, our group atmosphere has much of this. Sometimes that’s not true, but usually it is, which is wonderful.
The Holy Spirit wants to guide relationships between believers. How are we getting along with each other? How do we treat each other? Let’s not use our freedom as a chance to let the flesh go wild. Instead, let’s serve each other humbly in love.
Love, joy, peace, then patience. Sometimes there are people that drive you nuts; they are so irritating. When there are people like that in the church, my brothers and sisters, the Spirit leads us to patience. We gently bear with these people.
In Ephesians we read, “be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.” That’s patience. My brothers and sisters, living out the fruit of the Spirit can be very hard work. At different points in your life, you have been patient with difficult believers. That’s not easily done, is it, especially when it goes on for a while. Love and joy and peace happen in the congregation only when there is also patience, the kind that bears with one another in love.
The last fruit of the Spirit is self-control. The Spirit produces self control. So are we controlling ourselves? Or is the Spirit? Answer: The Spirit leads us and helps us to control ourselves. And now we’re talking about the people who are irritating and difficult, which we all are sometimes.
You will be unpleasant with me, and sin against me, and I’ll be irritated and upset with you. I will be unpleasant with you, and sin against you, and you’ll be irritated and upset with me. We will both be ready to overflow with the works of the flesh, and we both believe ourselves to be entirely righteous. We will both be far from serving one another humbly in love.
And the Spirit will say, “Don’t do it. Keep still. Don’t say a thing. Not a thing.” That’s the Spirit producing self control in us. If there will be love and joy and peace in the church, there will also be plenty of patience and self-control. And when we do speak, we do it gently and humbly, though we feel no love at that moment, but it will be love, and it will be the fruit of the Spirit.
I read a commentary that said the first the fruit of the Spirit and the last were the most important. Love and self-control. As far as the Galatian believers were concerned, love and self-control were most important. When I first read this commentary, many years ago, it seemed unlikely; but it has grown on me. Love and self-control go hand in hand.
So, let’s walk by the Spirit, let’s be led by the Spirit, let’s keep in step with the Spirit. This Scripture has told us what it looks like when we keep in step with the Spirit, and what it looks like when we don’t. We need the Spirit to lead and guide and help us, and we also need to be taught what that will look like.
Notice that what the Lord’s beatitudes held up, and the Spirit’s fruit, are a lot the same. That’s what I’m calling “essential character.” Both use the word “peace,” “blessed are the peacemakers,” and the fruit is “love, joy, peace.” And both hold up being “meek.” “Blessed are the meek.” The second last fruit of the Spirit is “gentleness,” but in Greek it is the same word as “meekness.” Beyond these two words, what the beatitudes invite, and what the Spirit produces, are much the same way of living.
Every marriage has difficult times. Tension and pain. Let us not suppose that what God says to spouses is any different than this. Every married couple needs to take Galatians 5 home with them. Never mind any one else’s marriage, or your spouse. Let’s each of us hunger and thirst to have this kind of righteousness in our homes and marriages.
6 Spirit Miracles and Spirit Fruit – Galatians 3:5
Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
When the Galatians heard the gospel and believed, God sent his Spirit, and on a fairly regular basis the Spirit worked miracles among the Galatian churches. These Spirit miracles continued while the Galatians were bickering and quarreling with one another. People, it is entirely possible to have Spirit miracles going on in the congregation, while we are not walking in the Spirit, not being led by the Spirit, while not keeping in step with the Spirit.
Miracles of the Spirit are good, everything the Spirit does is good, and I’d be happy to see more of it here. But don’t confuse the Spirit’s miracles with the Spirit’s fruit, or being led by the Spirit. The Spirit is far more interested in our fellowship than in our miracles.
We should talk about something else here, too. When Christians speak of walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit, we sometimes mean living more spontaneously, following our impulses and hunches. We assume these impulses come from God. Some believers often get nudges from the Holy Spirit to do this or that. For some that is common, and it is good.
But the core of being led by the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit. And that is the same for every believer. Paul uses more “led by the Spirit” language than anywhere else, and he tells us what it looks like: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That’s what we look like when we walk by the Spirit.
Conclusion
Let’s walk by the Spirit and be led by the Spirit. Let’s live out the fruit of the Spirit in our homes and in our church. Let’s thank God for all the times this very thing has happened. God has equipped us for doing his will, and by his Spirit he has worked in us what pleases him. For this we will thank him. Amen.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for every time we have said “no” to the flesh, and have lived out what the Spirit produces. We have not done that every time, not at all, but with your help we often have. And Father, forgive us our sins, as we forgave those who sinned against us. We are not blameless, and lead us out of the places where we often fail. Thank you for the Holy Spirit, and for all the Spirit has done among us. Amen.
BENEDICTION: May the God of peace equip us with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what pleases him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Go in God’s peace to love and serve the Lord.