Galatians 5:22-26 - Fruit Production

Cultivate a Spirit-filled life to bear love, joy, peace, and more.

Galatians 5:22-26 (NIV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Listen to passage & devotional:

Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 24: The Sanctification of Sinners

We believe that this true faith,

produced in man by the hearing of God’s Word

and by the work of the Holy Spirit,

regenerates him and makes him a “new man,”

causing him to live the “new life”

and freeing him from the slavery of sin.

Therefore,

far from making people cold

toward living in a pious and holy way,

this justifying faith,

quite to the contrary,

so works within them that

apart from it

they will never do a thing out of love for God

but only out of love for themselves

and fear of being condemned.

So then, it is impossible

for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being,

seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith

but of what Scripture calls

“faith working through love,”

which leads a man to do by himself

the works that God has commanded

in his Word.

Summary

Today's passage is memorable and well loved because of the beautiful metaphor it presents: the Spirit filled life as one bearing sweet, nutritious fruit. But this passage also ends with a warning based in cold, hard logic. Since the beauty of this passage is so easy to see, working through it backwards will help us see the logic a bit easier.

The final verse warns of what happens to people who've experienced a taste of salvation, but who continue to be guided by their own sinful nature (sarx). Such people become conceited and consumed with envy and self promotion. This is our natural state as sinners, the condition we default to unless the Spirit regenerates us.

Instead of trying to stay a step ahead of everyone else, a true Christian "keeps in step" with the Spirit (v25). This keeps your eyes focused on the Spirit, and not so full of yourself or worried about how you compare to others.

Our natural inclination towards conceitedness and envy doesn't go away easily; it requires a painful separation. You must crucify your flesh - not physically, of course; the Bible uses the word flesh - literally the Greek word sarx - to refer to the residual sin that's woven into our fallen human nature. Sarx is like a zombie: you put it to death one day, and it comes right back to life the next. This means this painful crucifixion process never ends for those who are in Christ, that is, until Christ returns and makes all things new.

Dig Deeper

Washington state, where our family lived for 25 years, is one of the world's richest fruit growing regions. Often it's said that money doesn't grow on trees, but in some senses it does. But those who grow the fruit earn every cent of this tree-grown currency. Orchards must be situated in areas that get tons of sun, have supply to abundant irrigation water, be kept free of pests and devastating mildews, and be given plenty of fertilizers. The work never ends in the orchard; as soon as harvest is complete, the winters are spent pruning the trees.

For all the work these growers do, there's one thing they can't do. Not one of them can do anything to actually produce fruit. All they can do is make sure all of the growing conditions are as ideal as possible. But when a fruit tree is planted in a good environment and properly cared for, it can't help but to bear fruit.

The same can be said of you. No matter how hard you try, you can't do a thing to produce the fruit of the Spirit on your own. But when you do the hard work of placing yourself in an ideal spiritual environment in which sinful pests are eradicated and you're fed with abundant biblical inputs, you can't help but to bear the richest of fruit.

AAA Prayer (About)

ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Triune God - Father, Son and Spirit;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for stamina to crucify sarx daily, and that you'll put yourself in an ideal spiritual environment in which you'll naturally bear the fruit of the Spirit;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: