Galatian 5:22-23 details the “fruit of the Spirit” as “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” When Christians think about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, they often do so without considering the context of the passage. Prior to Paul’s list in verses 22-23, he called his readers to “walk by the Spirit” in verse 16. What does it mean to “walk by the Spirit” and how is this related to the “fruit” noted in verses 22-23?
I find Thomas Schreiner’s comment about “walking in the Spirit” very helpful. He wrote, “The word “walk” (περιπατεῖτε) denotes the need to submit to the Spirit day by day.” Schreiner continued, stating, “There is a tension in these verses between divine enablement and human choice. On the one hand, believers must choose to live by the Spirit, while on the other hand, the Spirit empowers believers to live a life pleasing to God.”[1] It is this idea of “walking by the Spirit” that Paul is commending to the church in the Galatia. Some Bibles translate the second clause of verse 16 as a command as well, but in reality, the second clause, “and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh,” is the result of “walking by the Spirit.”
So, for Paul, the desires of the flesh (which he highlights in verses 19-21) are overcome by actively, presently, and continually “walking by the Spirit.” The war that we wage within our own lives against the “desires of the flesh” is a war that we wage in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a tension at work within us. We have fleshly desires and spiritual desires. But because believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they are able to overcome the fleshly desires that once enslaved them apart from Christ. This is what Paul has in mind here in verse 18, which parallels Galatians 5:1 when he spoke of the freedom that Christ had set us free for in the Spirit. We have been set free from enslavement to our fleshly desires by the Holy Spirit. We are no longer under the enslaving power of the law that could only tell us what was wrong with us. We needed a supernatural work of God that would set us free.
As we progress through Galatians 5, we come to Paul’s concern over the deeds/works of the flesh, which we see in verses 19-21. Paul wrote: Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The first set of “works of the flesh” deals with sexual sins (sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality). Paul cares dearly about sexual holiness, especially given his social context. Sexual immorality was rampant in the first century and one of the fundamental ways that the church reflected its status as a “holy nation” was by living sexually pure lives.
The second set of sins deal with worship (idolatry, sorcery). Idolatry is a near-constant concern for the apostle Paul, which is essentially a failure to praise and thank God for His goodness and to turn and worship the creature rather than the Creator. Sorcery is similar in that it the practice of sorcery or magic attempts to find help or aid from some other source than the true God.
The third group of sins is primarily concerned with social sins (enmity, strife, jealously, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these). These sins disrupt the community of faith, which exists to glorify God (Eph. 3:10-21). When a church is plagued with members or false converts who practice the sins mentioned in this group, the glory of God is dishonored and devalued in the world.
According to Paul, those who do not seek repentance for these sins and make a practice of these desires of the flesh will not inherit the Kingdom of God. It does not matter what the people profess to believe about Jesus Christ. If people do not repent of such actions, if people do not seek to put these sins to death, if people practice these sins and those like them, they, according to Galatians 5, will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
So, to come full circle to Paul’s point regarding justification by faith alone, we need to be clear that “Righteousness by faith instead of works of law must not lead to a life of sin. Those who are justified by God’s grace are also empowered by the Spirit to live in a new way… Good works are not the basis of justification, but they are most certainly, though still imperfect and partial, a consequence of justification.”[1] Those who have been truly justified by the faith that results from the Holy Spirit’s work will most definitely demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, which brings us back to verses 22-23.
When you look at verses 22-23, notice how Paul contrasts the fruit of the Spirit from that works of the flesh. There is an undeniable difference between a life that is driven by the desires of the flesh and a life that is directed by the Holy Spirit. The “fruit of the Spirit” results not from the flesh, but from the Spirit’s empowering work in the believer.
Notice also how Paul speaks of the “fruit” as opposed to the “fruits.” The Spirit’s fruit is not like a produce section in the grocery store where we can pick and choose the fruits that suit our taste. We do not get to elect to practice love but not peace, joy but not gentleness. The life in which the Spirit is active will demonstrate this fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is the Holy Spirit’s work within the believer and in the church.
I might also add that this appears to be in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah regarding the latter-day work of the Holy Spirit among the people of God. God’s plan was always to bring together Jew and Gentile into one body of people (Eph. 2:11-22) for His own possession (1 Peter 2:9-10). This was not a mystery (Zech. 8:20-23). The mystery was regarding the means by which God would bring Jew and Gentile together into the one people of God (Eph. 3:10-22). Once God did this, according to Isaiah 32:15-18, “the Spirit would be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness would become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field would be deemed a forest. Then justice would dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness would abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness would be peace, and the result of righteousness would be quietness and security forever. And God’s people would abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”
Thus, this language of the “Fruit of the Spirit” is rooted in an Old Testament expectation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s people, which we see now in the context of the church of Jesus Christ.
As Paul concludes this section in Galatians 5, he states, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” True Christians have died to the flesh. The flesh no longer has enslaving power over them. They have been set free from sin’s condemnation. They are being set free from sin’s power. And one day, they will forever be set free from sin’s presence.
We, therefore, who belong to Christ must quit returning to the place of our enslavement. We must refuse to return attempts to justify ourselves before God on the basis of our own performance. We must realize that “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death,” and that we are “no longer debtors to the flesh to live according to the flesh.”
[1] Thomas R. Schreiner, Galatians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 348.
