Perhaps you’ve heard about the fruit of the Spirit. You may have learned about them or taught them at Vacation Bible School, and you might even know a catchy song that helps you remember what comes after love, joy, and peace.
Many people know that the famous fruit of the Spirit come from the book of Galatians. But we rarely connect these Christian qualities to the message of Paul’s letter. Why was this list written to these specific Christians?
Context matters. Every word in the Bible was written in a historical moment and for a purpose. When we learn to read the Bible and honor the way it was written in time, we’ll see that some of its most familiar, musical verses have more depth than we have thought.
The Immediate Context
Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23)
The larger section in most Bibles is Galatians 5:16–26. Paul urges the Galatians to “walk by the Spirit” so that they “will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). He describes how the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to each other. Immediately before the fruit of the Spirit, Paul lists “the works of the flesh,” which are “evident.”
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. (Gal 5:19-21)
We clearly must not take these sins lightly!
Then Galatians 5:22 contrasts these obvious works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. When the Spirit is present—when a person is “led by the Spirit” (Gal 5:18), “live[s] by the Spirit,” and “keep[s] in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25)—these fruit sprout forth in a similarly obvious way.
The Larger Context
This list of the fruit of the Spirit comes not only in a specific paragraph, but toward the end of a specific letter. How does this fit in with Paul’s train of thought?
Some of those in Galatia were deserting Christ, turning toward a different gospel (Gal 1:6). Paul insists that his gospel is from Jesus himself (Gal 1:11) and then writes about his own reception of the gospel and how he responded.
In Galatians 2:15–21, Paul writes the content of this gospel, nicely summarized in verse 16: “…a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” This faith brought with it the Holy Spirit, and since the Galatians began in faith by the Spirit, they must also continue by the Spirit (Gal 3:2-3). This is the “promised” Spirit that is received through faith (Gal 3:14).
God sent his Son “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:5). And sons receive the “Spirit of his Son” in their hearts, inclining them to call God “Father” (Gal 4:6).
Before they knew God, the Galatians were “enslaved to those that by nature are not gods” (Gal 4:8). Paul tries to show them the foolishness of turning back “to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more” (Gal 4:9).
Christ set us free for freedom (Gal 5:1). “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Gal 5:13).
By this point we have arrived at the paragraph we examined earlier. But now we can place it in context. Those who have embraced the true gospel have received the promised Spirit by faith. This Spirit leads away from slavery to the works of the flesh and toward freedom—the freedom to serve one another through love.
How do we know we are walking by the Spirit? We show the fruit of the Spirit.
The Spirit Bears Fruit
The fruit of the Spirit are not a magical collection of good behaviors or character traits. Rather, they are what the Holy Spirit brings about in those who believe the true gospel—those who have been justified by faith, those who have the Spirit of adoption as sons, those who “belong to Christ Jesus” and “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24).
Context matters.
(My co-blogger Peter wrote some similar ideas about the fruit of the Spirit more briefly back in June, but I wanted to give this section of Galatians a longer treatment.)
For more examples of why context matters, click here.
Leave a Reply