"So I say, let the Holy
Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful
nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the
opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires
that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two
forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to
carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the
Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses."
(Galatians 5:16-18)
Every moment of every single
day, we have two choices. We can follow ourselves or we can follow
God's leading. Because we aren't perfect, we will have a combination
of these two each and every day for the rest of our lives. But in
these verses, Paul is urging the Galatians and urging US to do our
best to allow the Holy Spirit to do the leading. This is the way to
have the best possible life. When you mess up, turn back around, talk
to God, and set back out on the right path.
If we choose to follow
ourselves, which is ultimately our "sinful nature," we can
look forward to a whole host of problems. Check out the list that
Paul has written out for us as a sample:
"When you follow the
desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual
immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery,
hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish
ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and
other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that
anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God."
(Galatians 5:19-21)
I have to take a minute to
address that last line: "...anyone living that sort of life will
not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:21b) I think that
what Paul is saying here is that if you are living only for
yourself, fulfilling your own desires and needs and wants, you
can't possibly be living for Jesus. The two are mutually exclusive to
one another. When you accept the gift given by Jesus, you are set
free in Him to live for Him. Loving Jesus means showing it outwardly
and that means stepping away from the nonsense in the list above to
embrace the list below:
"But the Holy Spirit
produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There
is no law against these things!" (Galatians 5:22-23)
These are some popular
verses. There are songs written about them. There are Bible Studies
and other books written about them. They are often memorized at
Vacation Bible School and in Sunday School classrooms. We could
devote an entire week or more to the study of these verses. In the
Bible Gateway Commentary on these verses entitled "Freedom for
Moral Transformation," it is written that "the fruit of the
spirit is the moral character developed by the Holy Spirit."
The author goes on to write
this: "These character qualities are not a new list of laws or
moral codes that must be kept; they are the result of living and
being led by the Spirit." In case there was any doubt here, Paul
is not saying you're free from the Law of Moses but here's a new set
of laws for you to live by. No! Again, when we are living for Christ,
we are working on developing these characteristics in our lives
because of the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.
" Those who belong to
Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful
nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by
the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our
lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be
jealous of one another." (Galatians 5:24-26)
If you think back to
Galatians 2:19, we saw that Christians were crucified with Christ.
But in Galatians 5:24, Paul is calling us to crucify our own
"passions and desires of [their] sinful nature." The
Galatians Commentary adds this thought: "Since Roman crucifixion
was a merciless, painful means of execution, Paul's statement
describes an absolute and irreversible renunciation of evil."
We are called to make an
absolute choice here. Choose to follow Christ fully and put aside the
sinful nature. Choose to actively practice the fruits of the spirit
so they can grow in your life. Paul says all of this in Galatians
5:25 when he writes, "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us
follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives."
This goes against so much of
our worldly teaching! The world would have you believe that our
feelings can and should guide us, that many of the fruits of the
spirit listed above are just feelings that you can't control. No!
They are choices- hard ones to be sure- but choices none the less.
You can choose to love others. You can choose to rest in the joy of
Jesus despite your circumstances. You can choose to practice
patience, kindness, and gentleness with those around you. Are they
difficult choices? Yes! That's why we need the Holy Spirit to guide
us! That's why we need to continually practice them every single day.
A runner doesn't go out and run a marathon on the first day they
choose to become a runner. They practice daily in order to build up
the necessary endurance to do the marathon. It's the same with us in
our daily lives. We must choose to practice these fruits in order for
them to grow and blossom in our lives.
I think everyone struggles
with some of these fruits at varying times in their lives. That
doesn't change how Jesus feels about us or dictate how good a
Christian we are. Please don't hear me saying that because I'm not. I
think the two fruits I struggle with the most are gentleness and
patience. They don't come naturally to me. Anyone who knows me knows
that I value honesty and faithfulness quite a lot. And sometimes,
those two values throw gentleness and patience out the window. I am
working on them! Trust me. Jesus has brought me a long way but he is
far from finished with me. I am a work in progress. But guess what?
So is every single other Christian.
My prayer today is that
these words are valuable to someone, that I've shared only what God
would have me share with you. I have no idea how many people will
read these words nor does it matter. I am doing my best to follow
where God leads me. Where is God leading you? Which fruits of the
spirit are you working on with Him in your own life?
*Bible Gateway Commentary: Freedom for Moral Transformation- https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Gal/Freedom-Moral-Transformation
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