The Spirit's Fruit

A Spirit-Filled Live affects the way we live - especially in relationships.

(From Ephesians 5) Mutual submission in love.

A Spirit-filled husband serves his wife even to the point of lovingly laying down his life for her.

A Spirit-filled wife honors and respects her husband.

A Spirit-filled marriage will refuse gossip, slander, arrogance, and provocation.

Spirit-filled parents never discipline out of anger but only out of what is for the child’s good

Spirit-filled employment means working hard with integrity as to the Lord.

Spirit-filled management means treating workers with respect recognizing they stand before God’s authority.

Acts 2 - Signs/Wonders to Transformation Something obviously changed from before.

Transformation

The process of transformation does not depend on our self-discipline as much as it depends on our willingness to embrace God’s help. It’s the fruit of the Spirit.

It’s not bad people made good. It’s restoration original purpose.

God created us in His image with the intent that we would reveal His character and wisdom in the way we cared / governed His good creation.

Idols and images that were banned because they do not reveal his glory - but his children can. We are the images.

Humanity’s sin marred that image

But in Christ we have been created new… New Creation, God’s workmanship. So that what God originally did in and through Adam, he has done even better and final through Jesus Christ - the new Adam.

Problem of sin

God would fix that- not with more rules and laws but with His Son - Jesus.

He would give us a new spirit and new heart.

He would give us His Spirit so we do His will and have His desires.

That the telos - the ultimate destiny is conformity to the image of Christ. Simply that you would be your true self filled with Christ’s character.

Transformation is the work of the Spirit!

Galatians is a letter arguing right standing with God by faith in His grace - alone. But also, it’s a letter about the Spirit’s work.

Galatians Bird’s eye view here:

The Spirit works powerfully among us.

We cannot be what God created us to be without His Spirit.

Galatians 3:5 “So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”

The Spirit witnesses to us that we are God’s children… We have a new identity.

Galatians 4:6–7 “6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”

Genetic traits are passed down from parents to their children. So with God in a finite / limited capacity. We have a new godly/righteous nature.

The Spirit’s objective is Christ formed in us so that He will be seen out of us.

The Holy Spirit is working in us - transforming us into who we already are.

Galatians 4:19 “19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,”

It is not about outward religious expressions count for nothing. The only thing that counts is faith (which is not a work), it is a humble acknowledgement that you cannot and He can and has and will, working through love. Love is the why, love is the motivator, love is the foundation. God is love.

Galatians 5:6 “6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

The Apostle’s personal Mission Statement

As Paul said, Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Dare we believe that we are actually new in Christ? And have His Spirit?

Some of us trust too much in our own abilities;

Some of us are too consumed by our own failings;

All of us must learn to depend on Christ’s work in us by his Spirit.

If we wish to depend on him more fully, we should pray for it, expecting it.

But be aware: The fruit of God’s presence in our lives involves not just a changed identity and new heart but: changed behavior that reveals a changed heart. It means that we must change how we relate to others, even when it costs us something.

This is what Paul teaches next in Galatians 5

Context: This is all about the unity of the church which is not simply a theological truth but it is that truth with true behavior towards each other.

His warning about living according to the flesh is not so much against licentiousness but rather a different kind of licentiousness, the biting and devouring one another, the conceit, the competition, and jealousy among the Christians.

Galatians 5:16–25 “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.

Paul’s emphasizes here that the solution to the passions of the flesh is not more laws, but rather the Spirit, who transforms from within.

Flesh: Worldly orientation of selfishness - Looking inward, all about me. The Flesh boasts in Self

Spirit: Heavenly orientation - Looking outward, in loving service. The Spirit boasts in the Cross.

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.

Works of the flesh - all looking inward. They are all about me.

Sexual immorality uses another person to gratify one’s own desires.

Idolatry and sorcery are attempts to manipulate the world into the shape I would like it to be.

Hostility, anger, and party spirit are all about me and those like me squaring off against some other group.

Drunkenness enables me to sink into a private, shallow world, where though there may be a party going on with lots of people, my relationships are hollow at their core.

But by contrast on an inward looking life:

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.”

This is a life oriented towards others.

love, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness.

Also joy (can be private) but it desires to be shared and multiplied.

Also peace, is not simply a nice time of relaxation and zen within ourselves but rather the genuine like-minded fellowship of relational harmony.

Also self-control, it is one thing to keep one’s passions and moods on a tight leash when alone, but it is quite another to restrain them when other people around are acting in ways that provoke the sleeping dragon.

We Conclude...

The behavior of Christians should flow from our new identity, and our identity is determined not by our past but by our destiny with Christ (Rom. 6:4–5).

It is imperative that we believe and be persuaded that God’s Spirit is a sufficient guide for our moral/ethical life. He truly is our guide to holiness and love… In two ways - towards God and towards each other.

The Spirit, for Paul, is at the center of Christian discipleship. Repeatedly, where modern evangelicals might be inclined to point people first to the Bible, or the gospel—pray in the Bible, rejoice in the gospel, be led by the Bible, find assurance in the gospel, experience God’s love through the Bible, keep in step with the gospel, and so on—Paul points people first to the Spirit.

The chief actor in the sanctification of the believer is not a message, but a Messenger: a person who can be grieved or honored, not just a word that can be rejected or believed. The third person of the Trinity, for Paul, was a dynamic, experienced reality.

I submit to you it is His love towards us and in us that changes us so we can serve God and one another in love.

Our moral guide is the Spirit because everything good in our life is the result of God’s work on our behalf.

He is not only the guide, He is also the one who empowers, supplies, energizes these behaviors - fruit.

But we are not simply passive.

What must we do in order to control the lusts of the flesh and to bear the fruit of the Spirit?

When we hear fruit, it is easy to assume that these things will just happen “naturally.” That we don’t have to work on it because then it would be inauthentic.

But that misses the point, after all, a fruit tree needs to be planted and watered, tended and pruned, protected against the elements and various kinds of disease, and defended against attack from predators both animal and vegetable. So yes, we don’t produce the fruit of the Spirit (He does) but we still must think through, work at, cultivate, and practice.

Paul says, “Crucifixion” - v.24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

The one-off crucifixion—already an event of the past—needs now to be appropriated and implemented.

Because it is not automatic, we still will deal with temptations to battle and a fight to eagerly carry out God’s purposes and follow His directions, we must as Luther said, “daily baptism.”

Implications of crucifixion:

Rejection of the old nature is to be pitiless and without mercy. Crucifixion in the Roman world was not pleasant, it was reserved for the worst criminals, it was the most shameful act. Therefore our flesh is not something to be respected or treat nicely but something so evil that it deserves crucifixion.

It will be painful. Anyone who has fought with a sinful desire knows this struggle and the pain.

It is decisively dead. When we came to Jesus Christ, we repented. We ‘crucified’ everything we knew to be wrong. We took our old self-centered nature, with all its sinful passions and desires, and nailed it to the cross. And this repentance of ours was decisive, as decisive as a crucifixion. So, Paul says, if we crucified the flesh, we must leave it there to die. We must renew every day this attitude towards sin of ruthless and uncompromising rejection. In the language of Jesus, as Luke records it, every Christian must ‘take up his cross daily’

Then...

The way to overcome undisciplined fleshly passion is not to focus on the passion in hopes of mastering or suppressing it, but rather:

To live a life dominated by trusting in God,

Surrendering to the Spirit of God,

Recognizing your new identity, your new self, the goodness of God, and His love for you.

Closing Statements

Depending on the Spirit of God for our “morality” which is love.

Love that is defined by Christ’s sacrificial giving of His life in love. To see it is to be affected by it.

Love is inspired by God’s Spirit. He is the one who awakens love in our hearts.

Love is expressed in doing good to others, especially in the church. This is not from discipline but a miracle of the Holy Spirit.

Change by addition, not subtraction.

2 Kings 4:38–41 “38 Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.” 39 One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. 40 The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. 41 Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.”

Matthew 12:33–37 “33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

Average American spends 2.5-3 hours a day watching television.

4 - 5 hours on their phone per day, with younger ones up to 6 hours.

In that is over 2 hours per day on social media.

While only 11% of Americans read their bible everyday and that for about less than 15 minutes at time, with some averaging 30-45 mins.

Only 32% of Protestant Christians read their bible everyday. And almost 20% once a month to never.

Let me be clear, this is not “Read your bible and then God will bless you and do things for you.” It’s rather, the blessing is in reading/studying/meditating your Bible.

It’s just true that we will always, constantly be filling ourselves up with something. Be filled with The Spirit - The Words Jesus speaks to us they are spirit and they are life. The Word / Spirit will produce the fruit in you.