Walk by the Spirit

but a moment of freedom: in the US on a trip last week - Had the opportunity to speak to around 40 church planters from across the US. thanks for your prayers - my audience were certainly thankful - they had to put up with a 3h torrent from me but most seemed to survive as a result, I expect, of your prayers.

desire #1: sleeeeeep in. No breakfast or coffee available. No-one expecting anything from you until US morning. And yes, I’m tired.

desire #2: return well. Hard to be away, places an extra burden on your family. I want to land back in the UK ready to serve, ready to help. And if I slip into US time, that’s just not going to happen

Life is full of competing desires like that, internal wrestling matches. I’d love that to have been a total walkover, no struggle at all, but 3am in the US, there I am wrestling with my pillow!

Today we’re heading into the next section of the short letter we’ve been looking at in the Bible called Galatians (because it’s written to a group of churches in an area called Galatia) - and we’re taking it slow because there’s a lot here. There’s so much here, in fact, we could go far, far slower!

If you were with us last week, we read about competing desires inside Christians, where the Bible teaches us that although God the Holy Spirit has come to live within us, the good and holy things he desires are in competition with the darker things our old human nature still desires, that there’s a conflict.

Galatians 5:17 NIV

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.

Today’s passage picks up the story with two lists reflecting what flows out of these two competing sources. Let’s read together - and I think Cameron is going to be reading for us today as Ruth’s out with covid. Ruth, we’re missing you! Let’s pray for Ruth quickly before we read.

… pray ...

page 1172 Gal 5:19

Galatians 5:19–23 NIV

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.

Thanks Cameron. That list of the fruit of the Spirit is a pretty famous bit of the bible, pretty well known. But it’s set out in contrast to another list, a list of the sort of things our old human nature produces.

Here’s what I want you to notice: although these two lists reflect the two different and competing desires we looked at last week, the lists are not direct opposites. They’re not mirror images of each other. It’s not like one pulls left and the other pulls right, 180 degree opposites.

See how one starts with sexual immorality? A mirror list would start with sexual purity, then, right? And the mirror for witchcraft might be the worship of God.

But it’s no mirror list - they are lists of fundamentally different things. First there’s a list of “acts” - deeds, things we do - then there’s a list of “fruit” - which is a bit of an abstract metaphor, but if we were trying to define the sort of thing in that list, we might use words like character or virtue: who we are rather than what we do.

Why is that the case? Why are these positives, these goods, focused on who we are, not what we do? The answer, I think, is our author highlighting a big truth for us: God is changing who we are on the inside, not just what we do on the outside. That’s the big thing we’re going to be exploring today. The Bible’s vision for the outward Christian life, our acts, flows out of an inward change, our character. That’s what God works on, what he is changing.

Before we dive in, as I was preparing, it occurred to me that we should take one further step back and ask the question of whether internal change is actually ok: should we change who we are on the inside in the first place?

What does our world, our culture say? On the one hand, there are enough self-improvement books written to fill a library; there’s a whole industry built around it - so there must be a lot of people willing to pay for insight into how they can change.

But on the other hand there’s lots of talk about being true to yourself too; lots of value placed on being free to be “who you are inside” in our society. And the two are in tension. It can’t be true to yourself to try and change yourself, right?

So should our goal be “to be who we are inside”, or “to change who we are inside”? Is our problem more that the world around us squeezes us out of being who we truly are, and things would be so much better if we could just be ourselves? Or is our problem that, try as we might, we just can’t stop who we are inside oozing out of us in ways we don’t like, and things would be so much better if we could truly change?

Would it be good for you just to truly be yourself, to let it all hang out? Or do you wish you could change, are there things inside you that you want to fight? Everyone has to answer that question for themselves - only you know who you really are inside - if anyone does at all.

Speaking for myself, I know inside of me there are things I want to fight. Certainly that’s the bible’s view of humanity: that humanity is broken, that there are things inside each one of us that should not come out. That’s the bible’s explanation for the mess our world is in: all too often, that darkness inside of us has been allowed out. And I think that’s a pretty compelling explanation.

If you’re willing to entertain that answer, at least for the next few minutes - that the problem is us, that we need to change - then our next question is “what’s the solution?” Is there a solution?

It’s very common to start from the outside and try and work in. I had a quick google of how to grow in patience and probably the top answer from the articles I skimmed was “practice”. Grow in patience by being patient. Make rules for yourself to enforce patience in small things, like letting one car merge ahead of you each day.

Well, I have to say, I’m a big fan of self improvement stuff. I like a lot of these books and I think they have helpful things to say, that we can make some progress, begin to develop some better habits - but the problem is these habits are so hard to build, yet easy to lose, right?

During these last few months, as we’ve studied our way through this letter, Galatians, we’ve talked about the Jewish Torah lots, a huge set of rules God gave the Jewish people telling them how to live. Could that, or something like that, be a solution? Something focused on acts, deeds, things we do? Could that ultimately re-calibrate who we are inside?

Galatians’ answer is clear: “no”. The Jewish Law doesn’t solve our fundamental root problem, that we, humanity, are broken; twisted. That we’re not right, not what we should be. It doesn’t change the fact that our default setting, our default orientation, is not reliably towards what’s good, right and true.

Yes, it limits the damage, constraining our warped nature. Yes, it shows us the problem, highlighting our failures. But it’s no solution. Rules don’t change hearts.

And this idea, that a focus on external acts isn’t enough to deliver internal change, isn’t just an idea you find here in Galatians - think of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, a super-religious group of Jews who were unbelievably scrupulous about following the Jewish Torah. On the outside they look seriously impressive - if external acts were going to change anyone, it’d be them.

When they’re surprised Jesus and his disciples don’t make a big deal of washing rituals around meals, here’s what Jesus has to say to them:

Matthew 23:25–26 NIV

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

That outside act, washing, doesn’t change anything. It’s what’s inside that matters. That’s where true change flows from. Any true, lasting change to a person, any true transformation is inside-out, not outside-in.

So how do we pursue inside-out change rather than outside-in? Change which doesn’t start with our actions, but change which starts with who we are? How is it that we can change who we are? Rules don’t change hearts, like we already said. So what does?

This letter we’re studying, Galatians, tells us the only solution is an inside-out transformation. And it tells us that transformation starts with joining a new family. A few weeks back, we read this:

Galatians 4:4–6 NIV

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

Through God’s son, Jesus, the Bible tells us we can join a new family, God’s family. And as members of God’s family, we have real hope for an inside-out transformation. The game has changed - because God himself, God the Holy Spirit now lives inside of us. We have new desires from him competing with our old, warped ones.

Our reading today, those two lists, really are the problem spelled out, and the solution spelled out. The problem is the actions which come out of what’s inside us, our broken nature; the solution is the inner change, the renewed inner self, which God’s Spirit grows inside of every true follower of Jesus. That’s the Bible’s claim.

We could dig into details, look at specific acts or virtues from these lists - and there’s loads to say and to think about each of these - but I really want to keep us at the top level, this morning. I think the big point for us here is that it’s internal change, change to who we are, that’s God’s solution to the external problems of our world.

Well, so what? That’s the question we like to ask each week. All very interesting, but so what?

If you’re here today and you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian, thanks so much for taking time to be with us. That virtue list - love, joy, peace and the like - I expect that’s not very controversial. I mean, looking further back you can find lists which are somewhat similar appearing in Aristotle’s writings, for example. I don’t think there’s much debate around whether self-control is a good thing or not.

But what I’d challenge you to think about this morning is how it is that we cultivate virtues like these - how do we pursue that inside-out change? Do you feel like you really could change who you are inside? I wonder whether you’ve ever tried to change yourself, who you are inside, and how you’ve gotten on with that?

And then I’d want you test what I’m talking about this morning: if you know someone who claims to be a follower of Jesus, then what I’m arguing, what I think the bible teaches us, is that they have a sort of super-power, an ability to change who they are inside as God works on them. So have you seen any evidence of that?

It’s important to say here that I’m not at all claiming Christians are the nicest people around. No, I know some fantastic people who’d have nothing to do with Jesus - and I know many of us Christians are pretty messed up and can be rotten still. What I’m saying is that Christians, I think you’ll find, are people who change.

John Newton, who wrote that famous hymn, Amazing Grace, put it this way:

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”

Do you see any evidence that people following Jesus are not what they once used to be? If you do, can I challenge you to investigate?

And what about if you are a follower of Jesus here this morning? What do I think this passage says to you? If through Jesus you have been adopted into God’s family, if God’s Spirit has been sent into your heart as a result, then be fruitful. Pursue this inside-out change that is now possible; don’t get caught up with outside-in rules.

See, the metaphor our writer uses here is fruit. Fruit grows from a seed - we might say the Spirit is that seed, that latent potential. But the potential in a seed stays locked up unless we provide the right environment, the right conditions.

This is a very special bunch of dates, a very special set of fruit, on a very special plant. It’s so special it even has a name. Anyone know it? Methuselah. What’s special about this plant, is the seed which this plant was grown from, the seed which ultimately produced this bunch of fruit. That seed had been dormant for about twenty six centuries. Found in an archaeological dig in a cave, the potential in that seed had been waiting patiently for the right conditions. And only recently was it given them, only recently did it grow and bear fruit.

The seed, the Spirit, has the potential, the power to transform us from the inside out. But that potential can stay locked up. It only produces fruit given the right conditions.

That’s why in the past few weeks we’ve read commands to “use your freedom”, to “walk by the Spirit”, to be “led by the Spirit” and to “not do whatever you want”. Our inside-out transformation flows out of an active choice, an act of the will using our new-found freedom: to choose what the Spirit desires, not what our flesh desires, which is in conflict with it. We’ve been set free by Jesus - now we need to choose to use that freedom, to choose between these competing desires.

And that choosing is about character, who we are inside, not about acts, what we do outside. Choosing to have the same character we see in Jesus: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control - choosing to keep in step with his Spirit - since it is his very own Spirit that is inside of us, revealing his righteous desires to us.

what does the flesh desire and what does the Spirit desire in the moment? Can you tell which is which? Can you feel the Spirit’s desire at all? Can you choose the way you want to go? When you know by the Spirit what love is, what kindness is, what gentleness is, in your particular situation, your role is to choose it, to use your freedom to work on that internal change.

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I think the metaphor of fruit has one more thing to show us too before we finish today, too: fruit doesn’t just pop up on the tree. When you germinate a seed, when you provide it with the right conditions, growth is still gradual, progressive. I don’t think it’s an accident that our writer uses fruit, something all of us are familiar with, here. I think he wants us to accept these virtues, these fruit of the Spirit, are something which grows slowly, little by little, through a whole season of life.

Growing the fruit of the Spirit is like growing a muscle. The muscle is already a part of us but we have to choose to use it if we want to see any growth. We have to - so I am reliably told - exercise regularly if we really want to build any muscle - and that’s true of virtue, of character, too. We have to exercise faith, believe that through the Spirit, we have everything we need for inside-out change, and then work for it.

So Christian, don’t be discouraged if progress seem slow - keep going to the gym. Encourage yourself: progress may seem slow, but it is sure - think of the plant growing up through a concrete floor: this seed is unstoppable once you provide the right conditions.

So Christian, encourage your brothers and sisters when you see growth in them. See, this sort of gradual change is often really hard to observe when you’re close up, when you look it in the face all the time. When I see my lack of gentleness again and again, I don’t notice the slow, gradual progress. When I look at myself each day, I don’t see much change.

It’s like watching our kids grow up - they don’t seem much taller than yesterday. But when a friend visits from out of town and hasn’t seen them for a while, they’re stunned at the way they’ve stretched. It’s like watching a tree in your garden grow. Each day it’s much the same - but one day your neighbour sees it peeking over the top of the fence.

So when you see this sort of inside-out change in those around you, when you see the character of Jesus reflected in a fellow believer, tell them. It can be such an encouragement to know, yes, it may be slow, but the fruit is growing. Can I encourage you this week to be on a special look out, and to encourage one another: God is changing us - from the inside out.