Teaching Text

GALATIANS 5:13-26

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. 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.

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 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, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, 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.

Sermon Recap

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our series, A Manifesto of Fruitfulness, teaching from Galatians 5:13-26 on the fruit of the Spirit.

Pastor Jon began by grounding us in the reality that we have all been formed–there is something, someone, or events in our lives that have formed us into the person we are. However, we are all also being deformed. Sin deforms, distorts, and destroys our spirit. Pastor Jon introduced the concept of the three senses we are driven by connected to the three parts of who we are, including spiritual sense (spirit), emotional sense (soul), and physical sense (body). Sin kills our spirits so we are no longer in right standing with God, leading us to act from a place of emotional sense and physical sense–oftentimes referred to as “the flesh.” The flesh is human life organized independently of God. It is the self as its own source, judge, and savior. In simpler words, the flesh consists of the coping mechanisms for life apart from God.

Galatians 5:19 underscores that the acts of the flesh are obvious. The works of the flesh described in our teaching text can be categorized in four main ways: indulgences (drunkenness and orgies), sexuality (immorality, impurity, sensuality), religion (idolatry, witchcraft), and relationships (hatred, enmities, jealousy, disputes). The culture of the flesh and the human heart apart from God leads to death, but Jesus sends His Spirit to transform us.

In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God pledges to transform the hearts and spirits of His people. God Himself makes a home in us, so we reorder our emotional and physical senses under the new spiritual sense that He gives us. The fruit of the Spirit is not synonymous with natural traits or giftedness; instead, the fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of a heart and spirit transformed by Christ. This fruit is produced by union, not imitation; by beholding, not striving; by desire, not coercion; by training, not trying; in community, not in isolation; slowly, not immediately. We abide in Him, remain planted in good soil, allow Him to do the transformation work in and through us, and then we bear visible fruit.

It is important to note that we participate in fruit bearing, but do not ourselves generate fruit. Galatians 5:24 indicates that those who belong to Christ, crucify their flesh–you don’t crucify your flesh and then belong to Christ. As such, we must all walk at the pace of God’s formation in our lives–not ahead or behind–but right in step with God, making a habit of consistently reflecting on His transformation work in our lives. The Holy Spirit has the power to transform hearts of stone into hearts of flesh; no matter the things that once formed or deformed us, Jesus is more than able to transform us, and through His Spirit, generate fruit in and through us.