March 28 - Galatians 5:19-26

March 28 - Galatians 5:19-26

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. 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. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

I love Paul.  “The acts of the flesh are obvious…”  They are!  And though we know them when we see them in others, sometimes we miss them in ourselves.  The biggies are patently obvious, but sometimes the little ones like jealousy, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, discord, hatred … those are the ones that we try to ignore and hope that no one will notice.

Do you see, though, that Paul doesn’t even mention murder and theft?  There is no mention of rape or kidnapping, bombings, child molestation, either.  Those things that we believe are certain assurances of hell aren’t on this list – though they are more obvious than Paul’s list!

Paul wants us to understand that those things we do on a daily basis without thought will separate us from God’s kingdom.  As Christians we can no longer look at the murderers and rapists of the world and believe that we are better than them.  We can no longer go to bed at night and believe that we’ve got ‘goodness’ in the bag for the day.  He wants us to see that we are in desperate need of a Savior … because without Him, we aren’t going to make it any further on the path to eternity.

The fruit of the Spirit.  Notice that these aren’t individual fruits.  Fruit is that which is produced and which brings good to the world around us.  No … the Spirit produces fruit in our lives and it looks like this: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

This is what the world needs to see.  When the world hands you stress and frustration, hatred and anger, jealousy and discord … responding with love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control is transformational!

Walking in the Spirit shows the world that Jesus cares and at the same time, that we care as well.  Walking in our own selfish lives shows the world nothing but what it expects to see. 

Transform the world with the fruit of the Spirit.