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Galatians 5:13–18 NET

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”However, if you continually bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Galatians 5:18–23 NET

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

“Good and Evil”

Cheaters never prosper.

The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

The Lord opposes the proud, but exalts the humble.

Love wins.

We hear all these phrases, and more, about how good triumphs over evil, and love conquers all. The book of Proverbs has dozens just like them. It seems like the conventional wisdom is that good guys win, bad guys lose, and all is eventually right in the world.

But there’s a small problem: If good always wins, then I need to change my understanding of what’s good. That’s the point being made in the song we just heard. Evil does well. Good; not so good. Evil is reliable. It’s bankable. It’s something you can count on. In a world where we constantly tell one another that right will win the day, the things that win the day don’t look quite right.

So if who’s winning

Writing on the same topic, the Apostle Paul compiled two lists. One, he calls the works of the flesh. The things people do when giving in to the worst of who they are. And it’s not so great a list. It’s full of abusive, harmful, selfish behavior.

By comparison, he offers the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. It’s impossible to make laws against these things! he declares excitedly. Why does that matter? Well, Paul is a Christian, writing to an audience of Christians, in an empire where Christianity has, at various times, been outlawed. To claim to be a follower of Jesus could land a person in prison - in fact, that’s exactly what happened to Paul a few years after writing this letter.

The second

But these things, the fruit of the spirit? There can’t be a law against them, because they’re not unique to a religion or spiritual tradition. They are both universal, and the best humanity has to offer. Paul is essentially providing a blueprint for how anyone, Christian or not, can live a good, moral, beneficial life.

And why wouldn’t we want to do that? Why wouldn’t we all, Christian or otherwise, want to live a good, moral, beneficial life? Can you imagine what would happen to the world if we did so?

As Lucy sings, “it’s hell that we choose, and heaven must lose.”

Humans have a choice about the kind of world we want to live in, and it looks like we have collectively chosen hell. But if, together, we have managed to create hell on earth by pursuing the works of the flesh, then what would happen if we all, individually and together, began to produce the fruit of the spirit?