Live By the Spirit
Notes
Transcript
We’ve read our passage this morning eight times as part of this series. We’ve read that list of 15 examples of works of the flesh, and the 9 examples of fruit of the Spirit.
Lets hone in on that phrase “Fruit of the Spirit”, we know what it is by now, perhaps you have even memorized verses 22 & 23 here:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...
Even in today’s secular culture these attributes would be considered positive by just about anyone’s measure. Yet Paul is not telling us to:
Be loving, be joyful, be patient, be kind, be good, be faithful, be gentle, be in self-control
Although it would be good to be all of these things, or even any of these things. That is not his message at all. In fact, if you think that is what he is saying then you’ve missed his message altogether. Paul is not talking about anything that WE do, he is talking about the FRUIT (or product) of the Spirit.
If you walk down the produce aisle in any grocery store you have an amazing treasure trove of fruits from a variety of trees and plants from the world over. Fruits like apples, oranges, pears, cherry’s, bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes and so much more. Vegetables such as: asparagus, celery, lettuce, radishes, potatoes, corn, onions, artichokes, peas, carrots, and so much more.
All of these are the natural products of the types of tree or plant that they come from. You are not going to pick lemons off of an apple tree, a grape vine, or dig them up out of the ground. You will only get lemons off of a lemon tree. That is one fruit from one type of tree. It is the natural product of that tree.
You don’t have to ask a lemon tree to make sure that it is producing lemons and not apples. It is in its nature to produce lemons.
You don’t have to ask an apple tree to only produce apples.
We all intuitively understand this. The type of fruit produced is a product of the nature of the tree.
So the question then comes back to what is the Apostle Paul talking about when he gives the list of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as not multiple fruits (plural) but as THE FRUIT (singular) of the Spirit?
In this passage that we’ve been considering all summer long from Paul’s letter to the Galatians and the greater church, he gives us insight at the very opening to this section, vs. 16 & 17
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
The Spirit and the flesh are in direct opposition to one another. I find it intriguing that Paul used the term “works” for what comes from our desires of the flesh. Indeed they are works. It takes work on our part to strive after these things among which are fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, envy.. these take work.
We talk about people who “hold on to their anger.” Holding on takes work. That’s not what Paul is asking us to do. In fact, Paul is asking us to die to ourselves as he has in this letter and others.
Earlier in this letter he wrote:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
In so doing Paul invites us to do the same thing. At our Ash Wednesday service I use this verse as a non-traditional alternative to the “Remember you are dust and to dust you will return.”
As the individual presents themselves to receive the ashes they say the first part of the verse:
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Then the person imposing the ashes will say the remainder of the verse, but in second person:
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
The life [you] now live in the flesh, [] live by faith in the Son of God, who loved [you] and gave himself for [you].
It’s a powerful thing to think of oneself as dead. When you’re dead you no longer have rights. You amount to nothing.
In his letter to the Romans Paul wrote:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
A living sacrifice is such a beautiful yet contradictory idea. The sacrifice is put to death as it is offered up. The ideal that Paul presents to the Romans is one of continuous offering up, continuous sacrifice, continuous putting to death the flesh so that he might present himself as holy and acceptable to God.
Paul refers to himself as having been crucified and no longer living. In our passage today he says:
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
It is a constant dying to the desires of our flesh whose passions and desires are never fulfilled, and are driven by the whims of a selfish heart. Instead we are to “walk by” and “live by the Spirit.”
In verse 16 we read, Gal 5:16
Galatians 5:16 (ESV)
I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
The Proverbs tell us “if you walk with the wise you will become wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” You and I are called to live by the Spirit. As Paul closes out this thought he writes:
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
If the Spirit is indeed filling us as we profess, we will be inline with the Spirt, we will be in step with the Spirit.
When I was a child my dad used to often take us to parades like our local community parade, but then also larger events like Seafair, or even some military events down at Fort Lewis. I always loved the marching. It’s all in sync.
I grew up dancing, tap and jazz and we always sought to not only be in sync with the music but also with each other.
In college I went to most of the football games, and always loved seeing how synchronized the Husky Marching Band was on their home turf. And I gotta admit it was a privilege to see them march in a Rose Bowl Parade.
If you and I are walking by the Spirit, living by the Spirit, we ought to keep in step and be in sync with the Spirit. This produces the fruit we’ve been talking about.
Paul concludes this section with these words: Gal 5:26
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
To be conceited is self-centered. Whenever we put ourselves at the center we are living contrary to the Spirit. A friend of mine defines the word
SIN
SIN
as whenever I put “I” in the middle. If I am in the middle, I’m in Sin.
A famous book begins with the words, “It’s not about you.” A very true sentiment, it is not about us at all, it is all about God. If we live by the Spirit, we are seeking to honor God first, we are seeking God’s kingdom first, and not living for ourselves.
For the Spirit to produce the fruit in us, we must be like grain, we grow and live and die and the seed falls to the ground to produce a new plant.
The fruit of the Spirt…the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control - all of these are produced naturally from you and I being connected to the source, having our roots in God. They are not produced by our striving to be loving, be joyful, be peaceful, be patient…etc.
They are the product of one walking and living by the Spirit of God.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Folks, the reality is, if we are walking and living by the Spirit, and keeping in step with the Spirit the fruit will be on full display. And the opposite is true as well.
If you find it difficult to love, difficult to find joy, difficult to be at peace, difficult to be patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled that is a sign for you to stop and reassess what you’re doing in your relationship with God. Ask yourself why you’re angry, why you’re jealous, why you have those impure thoughts, why you’re divisive. And then repent, turn from these and seek after God. Seek to crucify those things along with all the desires of your flesh and to walk by the Spirit.
We inherently know that walking by the Spirit is better, but our battle continues to be to die to ourselves and to live for Christ.
When we do this, there is a richness, we sense that peace, we feel that joy inside, we’re able to be patient in the most difficult of times. We can be gentle and kind, our anger is under control and we really do love others including those who might be against us. It changes everything about us.
Most of all, when we walk and live by the Spirit, and keep in step with the Spirit, we bring glory to God. We bring joy to God. We honor God. And we are living the way we were intended to live and that is to the glory of God. AMEN.