Galatians 5 part 2

Galatians 5:22-26 – The Fruit of the Spirit part 2

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.

This week I want to go back and dive a bit deeper into the fruit of the Spirit. Right now, more than ever, we need to choose to walk by the Spirit and, I believe these two verses are key to how we as believers need to live. It says that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. This means we die to self. We now think of others more highly than we think of ourselves. (Philippians 2:3-4) We are not self serving, but seek to serve others. (Mark 10:42-45) It also says we must now follow the Spirit instead of our own desires. When we chose to follow Christ, we chose to follow Him as our master. The definition of a master is someone who has people working for him as a servant or slave. The servant or slave no longer choses their own path or will. On the contrary, they have to let go of their own will and do the will of the master. So, we now walk in His steps. We now go where He leads. The things of this world no longer entice us. Our only desire is to do the will of the Father. And when we walk in the Spirit, the fruit we produce will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. So, let’s explore these attributes a bit deeper.

The English language can be very inadequate at times, and no word suffers this inadequacy more than love. In English, the word love has to encompass all aspects of love from loving a person to loving pets, sports teams etc. The Greek language, on the other hand, has seven words for love. The word used in this passage is agape, which will explore deeper in a moment. But first, I would like to go through each of these other aspects of love to give us a better idea of the type of love we are to exhibit. By giving all the definitions, we can narrow the meaning down to it’s purest form.

First is Ludus love. It is flirtatious love and describes the type of love we have when we have a crush on someone. It is casual and requires zero obligation. Second is Eros love. This is the passionate or lustful love. It appreciates the physical appearance and is driven by attraction and desire. Third is Pragma love. It is love built on commitment and understanding and describes a long-term love developed over time. It goes beyond just a physical love to love rooted in companionship. The word pragmatic comes from this word which means a love of all things practical. Fourth is Philia love. This is the intimate, knowing and soul to soul bonding love that we would have for our friends. It is kind, encouraging, authentic and wants what’s best for the other person. Fifth is Storge love. This is the word used to describe a protective and kinship based love you would have for your family or for a football team or a country. Sixth is Philautia love. It describes the love we have for ourself. The word actually encompasses two concepts. The first is the healthy self love we have – the one that helps us to take care of ourselves. The second is the selfish fame-seeking love and is the foundation for narcissism.

Finally we come to the word used in this passage – Agápe. This is the word for love we ascribe to God. It is a love that is empathetic, caring and selfless and expects nothing in return. We can only have this kind of love as a fruit of the Spirit as it is not something we come by naturally. The other six words for love are things we can achieve through the flesh. We can have crushes, lusts, love our family, our pets, and even ourselves, but we cannot have a truly selfless love without Christ. Agape is the kind of love Jesus wants us to exhibit as disciples. In John 13:34 he says, “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Each word for love in this verse is agápe.

The next fruit of the spirit is joy. The Greek word for joy is Chara. Chara means delight or joy that has it’s source in grace, specifically the grace God has given us. When we have this kind of joy, we can be joyful at all times, even in times of trial and sorrow. This is why Paul can write in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”, and James can write in 1:2-4, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” Paul and Silas exhibited chara joy when they sang praises to God while in prison. The great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer exhibited chara joy when he preached his last sermon right before his death on April 9, 1945. His words were remembered by a captured RAF pilot: “This is for me the end, the beginning of life.”

We now come to the word for peace, which is eirēnē. Eirene describes a state of absolute tranquility – a peace beyond understanding. It is a direct outgrowth of chara. Paul describes this in Philippians 4:4-7 when he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Can you see the progression from joy to peace? True tranquility can only come from a heart that is free from worry and stress. When we are joyful, even in times of trial, we allow God to keep our mind focused on Him. He will then give us that peace beyond anything we can understand.

The word for patience is makrothymiai. Makrothymiai is a word that combines the root words markro and thymiai. Makro means long and thymiai means temper or to be long-suffering. It’s direct opposite is being short-tempered. Patience flows out of one who is at peace. The world can be chaotic around them, but they can still be tranquil, thus long suffering. This is the type of patience that God exhibited over the many generations with His children Israel, and us, as He gives grace upon grace. It is the type of patience we must have in today’s world. While everything is chaotic around us, we can stand firm in the fact that God is on His throne. We wait on Him instead of running into the fray without direction or speaking before we wait to see what God wants us to say. The person I can always use as an example of patience is my father. Everyone else, including me, can be upset with everything going on and at our wit’s end while my father is at peace. He has always been able to wait on God’s direction and voice.

The word for kindness is chrēstotēs and describes moral goodness and integrity. The word refers to a kindness that meets needs in God’s way and in His timing. It’s not quite the definition of kindness that we normally think of. Chrestotes is born out of patience, waiting on God to direct. It requires that we have something that seems to be lacking in today’s world – integrity. The definition of integrity is one who is honest and shows a consistent uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. We can look at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as examples of chrestotes. They willingly went to the fiery flames rather than sacrifice their moral goodness. This kind of kindness is good and fit for use. It is the same kindness that God exhibited toward us when he brought us salvation.

Interestingly, the word for goodness, which is agathōsynē, is strictly a biblical term. It has not been found in secular writings and describes someone who is inherently good. It is uniquely ascribed to believers as it is a goodness that comes from God and shows itself in spiritual and moral excellence. This kind of goodness is an outgrowth of chrestotes (kindness). It describes a person who is a true servant.

The word for faithfulness or faith is pistis, which is a moral conviction or a conviction of truth. It is a word that describes our specific relationship to God and is especially reliant on Christ for salvation. The root word is peithô , which means to persuade or to be persuaded. Just as agathosyne comes from God, so too is pistis. It is always received from God, and is never generated by us. We are wholly reliant on God to be faithful.

The word for gentleness is prautes which means mildness. It is a gentleness born out of humility and is probably better translated meekness. Jesus said in Matthew 11:29-30, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Prautes begins with the Lord’s inspiration and finishes by His direction and empowerment. It is a divinely-balanced virtue and can only operate through faith (pistis).  

The word for Self Control is enkrateia and has a root meaning of power over one’s self or self mastery. Self-control, in its widest sense, is mastery over our passions. It is the virtue that holds our appetites in check, controlling our rational will or regulating our conduct without being duly swayed by sensuous desires. You are literally exercising dominion from within and is born out of a truly humble and meek heart.

Have you caught the pattern yet? Joy comes from agape love. Real peace comes from true joy. Patience is born out of a peaceful heart and true kindness comes from a truly patience person. Goodness is born out of kindness and faithfulness can only come from goodness. Gentleness comes from a heart full of faith while self-control comes from a gentle and humble heart. All of these are born out of agape love which can only come to us by the Father. It is the same with all the fruit of the Spirit. The only way to be joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled is to be Spirit filled. The only way to be Spirit filled is to be under the leadership of God who is master of all. And love is the key to it all. To truly exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, you must have agape love. It is the first fruit and the one that encompasses all the other fruit. There is no virtue that can exist without agape love, for this is the love of God.

There’s an old song I used to sing when I was a child called “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” It goes like this: We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity will one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love. There is a call for us to live and produce the fruit of the Spirit instead of the flesh. Jesus gave us a new command – to Love (agape) one another as He loved (agaped) us. The world awaits those who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. It is crying out for people of integrity. The world needs to know true peace and true joy. It needs people who are kind, gentle, faithful, good and self-controlled. The world looks to see if the church can exhibit these virtues. So I would say this: rise up oh church and walk in the Spirit. Rise up oh followers of Christ and bear the fruit of true believers. Like the church in the above picture, we need to be a light in this barren world – a place where they can find hope. For the world is watching – and they will know us by our agape.