Galatians 5 part 1

Fruit of the Spirit part 1

Vs. 1-6 Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire law. You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope for righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

We finally get to one of the main issues – circumcision. The leaders who were trying to subject the Galatians back under the law of Moses wanted the new believers to be circumcised. Interestingly, circumcision was a practice that pre-dated the law. It was a part of the everlasting covenant between God and Abraham. Genesis 17:9-14 clearly defines it as a covenant between God and Abraham and Abraham’s descendants. For this reason, descendants of both Issac and Ishmael circumcise. This is an interesting issue for Paul to bring up. On the one hand, we find in Acts 16:3 that Paul has Timothy circumcised, yet in Galatians 2:3-5, he did not have Titus circumcised. So, why Timothy and not Titus? Is Paul being inconsistent or hypocritical? After doing the research I found three reasons why he is not. First, Titus was Greek while Timothy was not. Yes, Timothy had a Greek father, but hsi mother was Jewish and, according to 2 Timothy 3:15, Timothy was raised as a Jew. Second, in Galatians, Paul is resisting Jewish believers who wanted the Gentiles to come under the law. Timothy, on the other hand, was working with Jewish non-believers. His circumcision was not motivated by pressure from within the believing community, but by a missionary strategy to fellow Jews. Third, Titus was clearly dealing with a theological issue while Timothy was dealing with being a stumbling block to unbelieving Jews, since he himself was Jewish. So, for Titus, circumcision would have meant he was taking on a law that was not meant for him. By doing this, he would have to take on the law in its entirety. For Timothy, he was a part of the Abraham covenant by his birth to a Jewish mother. Remember circumcision pre-dates the law and is a sign of an everlasting covenant. His circumcision opened up opportunities for him to be a witness among his fellow Jews. For the Galatians, the issue was grace verses the law. If Christ has truly fulfilled the law, and we are saved by grace, we have to choose between the two. I don’t know about you, but I choose grace!

Vs 7-15 You were running well. Who prevented you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from the One who called you. A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in the Lord you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. Now brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated! For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

Have you ever been a part of a church dispute? I’m pretty confident many of you would answer yes. It seems there is always someone in every church who wants to stir things up. They are the yeast that can spread throughout the entire congregation. A little bit of negativity grows into a whole lot of bad feelings. And these disputes can be anything from what color carpet the sanctuary should have (yes, I was actually a part of a church where that was an issue that almost split the congregation), to serious theological issues currently splitting denominations today. Paul asks a very important question – who is preventing you from obeying the truth? The Greek word for preventing is “enekopsen”, which means to cut into, impede or hinder. These are people who are actually impeding the progress of the Galatians’ walk with Christ. Paul has a crucial word for them: they will pay the penalty. It is something we all need to take seriously. Maybe some self reflection is in order about now. Am I the yeast that spreads and impedes anyone’s walk? Or maybe I’m someone helping to the pot. If the answer is yes, then how can I become someone who helps to heal rather than inflict wounds? I love Paul’s description here – if you bite and devour one another you will be consumed by one another. This is so true. Infighting can absolutely tear a church to pieces. We need to be a people who pursues truth. Otherwise, there is a penalty to pay. Instead, we are to serve one another through love. It is the only way to restore those who have strayed from the truth and heal broken congregations.

Vs 16-18 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Romans 8 is probably the best passage to really explain what Paul is talking about here. He says in verses 1-4, “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. What the law could not do, since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh, like ours, under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” When we put our trust in God through Christ we become a new person. We are no longer condemned by the law because of Christ’s work on the cross where He became a sin offering for us. In His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said “For God loved the world in this way. He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that he might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17) The Spirit and the flesh are polar opposites. You can’t be under both. You are either a slave to the Spirit or a slave to the flesh. In the sermon on the mount Jesus reminds us that we cannot be the slave of two masters. We can only be devoted to one. If we are children of God we are now under the Spirit. Again, the law is God’s, therefore it is perfect and holy. But, the law cannot save us since it requires us to be perfect and holy too. Not gonna happen! So, Christ came and fulfilled the law by being perfect and holy. Then, His death on the cross fulfilled the sin offering requirement set by the law. This is what it means by “the One who did not know sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) The next two verses describe what happens when we try to fulfill the law without Christ.

Vs 19-21 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealously, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance – as I told you before – that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Not a pretty picture at all. Us trying to work out our salvation in the flesh just results in more sin. Again, God never intended the law to be our salvation. It was only there to show us what it would take to be holy and righteous. It is the bullseye in the target and we are never going to hit the bullseye. This is why there was an elaborate system of sacrifice that was set up. This system was also a foreshadowing of the work that Christ would do. Those that lived before the work of Christ lived for a future grace that was promised. We, who live after Christ’s work are children of the promise. If we live like people before the promise, we condemn ourselves to an existence never being able to hit the target. We will fall into the things of the flesh, because we have chosen the flesh as our master. And Paul is very explicit here – you cannot inherit the kingdom of God if you practice the things of the flesh. On the other hand, if we choose to be the children of the promise and allow the Spirit to be our master then the picture is very different.

Vs 22-26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Many books and sermons have been written on the fruit of the Spirit. In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus says, “A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit, on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thorn-bushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush. A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.” The fruit we produce comes from our heart. We can’t serve two masters. We will desire one or the other, and the produce from that desire will either be the flesh, which leads to death, or the Spirit, which leads to life. We can’t have both because, just like the flesh and the Spirit, death and life are polar opposites. The last phrase in Luke 6:45 really stands out to me. The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. You can pretend all you want, but when push comes to shove, whatever is in your heart is going to come out of your mouth. Right now, I’m preaching to the mirror! I think back to how many times I allowed the flesh to just take over instead of allowing the Spirit to speak through me. It was the reason why Jesus said, if you have something against your brother, leave that offering at the alter and go and reconcile. It is the reason He said not to let the sun set on your anger. It is the reason Jesus was so hard on the religious leaders saying they were whitewashed on the outside but rotten on the inside. It’s easy to look the part, but the stuff that’s inside will eventually come out. I see it all the time on Facebook. People saying the most horrible things to other people, and about other people, calling them names and bullying them. We live in a world right now where we seem to thrive on being nasty to one another. What is in our hearts is going to overflow out of our mouth. This is why James said in his letter, “Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.” (3:10-12) My prayer is that we would be a source of spring water that flows from our hearts and out of our mouths. I pray we will be children of the promise – those who allow the Spirit to work in their lives so we can produce His fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self control.