Fruit of the Spirit

1 John 3:23-24, 1 John 4:7-21, James 2:14-17

Christopher J.H. Wright says in his book Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

“We are commanded not only to believe in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, but also to love one another and together they are one integrated command. If you do the first (believe), you will do the second (love). If you aren’t doing the second (loving one another), you aren’t doing the first (believing in Jesus). Don’t try to split them, for they are both the single command of God: believe in Jesus and love one another. They go together.

So love for one another is not only the evidence of the life of God within us, it is also the evidence of the faith through which we came to receive that life in the first place. James said that faith without deeds is dead. John would agree by saying that faith without love (love that is proved in good deeds) is also dead-nothing but an empty claim. In fact, since “this is his command,” it follows that if we aren’t showing practical love for one another, we are simply disobeying the commands of the Jesus we say we believe in. And what kind of disciples are we then?

Our love for one another makes visible the love of God…We are supposed to be the living proof of the living God. No one can see God. But people can see us. And when we love one another, it is the love of God they see. When Christians love each other, it shows who they belong to. It points people to Jesus. Christian love is incredibly transforming, and in many contexts so surprising and countercultural that it can only be the work of Christ, the power of the gospel, the fruit of the Spirit.”

- Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-26, Colossians 3:1-17, Matthew 22:34-40

We all have a certain animosity toward clichés. We resist the idea that universal truths could define our individual thoughts, ideas, and actions. As a new parent, people told me over and over, “Your kids will grow up so fast.” I hated hearing it. Yet it proved painfully true. One day my baby was crawling; then walking, running, talking, arguing, and then heading out the door to school. The older I get, the more I realize that many clichés carry truth. The things we hear again and again often point us toward wisdom that we are ignoring. The repeated truths can either be bitterly filed away as clichés, or embraced as wisdom and allowed to shape our lives. This is the choice we face with scripture’s command to love.

We have heard a million times that we are called to love God and love others (Matthew 22:34-40). It sounds good and feels right, but after hearing it so often, we can become deaf and indifferent to its message; the truth is that love is the central fruit of the Spirit to which all others cling. Love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul highlights in Galatians 5. Why? Because love is not a cliché but the defining mark of a life transformed by the Spirit. Love is essential to flourishing in the Holy Spirit-filled life. It tops the list because it shapes how every other expression of the Spirit’s fruit is lived out.

David Guzik, in his biblical commentary on Galatians 5 points out, “It is fitting that love be the first (fruit of the Spirit) mentioned, because it encompasses all of the following. It may even be said that the following eight terms are just describing what love in action looks like.” Martin Luther originally stated it this way, “It would have been enough to mention only the single fruit of love, for love embraces all the fruits of the Spirit.” (Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians). Love matters. For the Christian, love of God and His people matters more than anything else. Love is the vehicle that allows the other fruit of the Spirit to take place and thrive in our lives. Until we are open to love, we will never be open to the other works that the Spirit is offering to perform in our lives.

Galatians 5:1-14

Love is a term we may think we already know and understand. Often love is associated with deep feelings of connection and affection towards another person. This is indeed one facet of love, but biblically speaking, the love that Scripture, and certainly the love that Paul is referring to in Galatians 5, is a love that goes further than feelings. The Greek word that Paul is using in Galatians 5 is agapē. Agapē love can most simply be defined as love in action. Agapē is a verb; it is work that takes place in our lives. This is the love that comes from our hearts and into our world and lives. It bridges the gaps, helps others, heals relationships, and serves God and His people.

As we discussed last week, the battle raging in the churches of Galatia centers on two false teachings. On one side was the belief that Gentiles must become circumcised, Torah-observant Jewish Christians to follow Christ. On the other was the idea that, because of their freedom in Christ, believers could live however they pleased, with full license and no moral restraint. Paul is attempting to explain to the churches in Galatia the true way of Christian living, a way that rejects both of these paths and instead embraces a life lived in step with the Spirit. A life in step with the Spirit is a life marked by the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5, Paul bookends this argument with the fruit of love. He first mentions love in verse 6 as the response to legalism, and then presents it as the solution to the morally permissive view of the Christian life. This true agapē love should open our hearts to the Spirit. And to be open to and filled with the Spirit is to understand the way God has called us to live and then freely walk in it.

The things Christ calls us to, the laws, commandments, directions, and teachings He gives, are ultimately things of love. If we have spent any time reading about the life, miracles, teachings, and sacrifice of Christ, the centrality of love is undeniable. So, just as Paul explains to the churches in Galatia, love bridges the gap between legalism and moral license, because agapē love actively bridges gaps by moving us beyond ourselves and toward others in love and service.

Galatians 5:19-26, John 15:1–8

After listing the “works of the flesh” in verses 19–21, Paul turns to the nine qualities that make up the fruit of the Spirit. One important detail is easy to miss: Paul uses the word “fruit” (karpos) in the singular, not the plural. That stands in contrast to the “works” of the flesh.

The singular “fruit” suggests that the Spirit is forming a whole new way of life in us. These nine qualities are not a list we can pick and choose from, focusing on the ones that come naturally and ignoring the harder ones. They belong together. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all part of the same Christlike character the Spirit is producing in us. We may grow more quickly in some areas than others, but God is shaping the whole person.

Paul’s picture of fruit also matters because fruit grows from life. A healthy tree bears fruit because it is alive, and in the same way, these qualities grow because the life of Christ is at work in us through the Holy Spirit. But that does not mean growth is passive. The Spirit begins His transforming work in us when we put our faith in Christ, and we are called to respond by “keeping in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Like a gardener tending a tree, we make room for growth through obedience, repentance, prayer, and daily dependence on Christ.

This is where the biblical idea of abiding becomes so important. To abide (menō) means to remain connected to Christ and to make Him the place where we live, depend, and find our life. It is not about trying harder to produce fruit on our own. It is about staying close to Jesus and allowing His Spirit to shape us over time. In Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit, Christopher J.H. Wright describes the fruit as a portrait of Jesus Himself. As the Spirit forms Christ in us, these qualities begin to appear because they reflect His character.

Galatians 3:15-29 5:16–18, 24–25

Paul’s contrast between the Law, the flesh, and the Spirit is not an argument that rules are bad or that Christians should “follow their hearts.” Rather, Paul describes the new reality created through Christ’s death and resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Mosaic Law was God’s good and holy gift to Israel. It revealed His character, exposed sin, and marked Israel as His covenant people. Yet, as Paul explained earlier in Galatians, the Law functioned temporarily as a guardian, like “guardrails,” until the coming of the Messiah (Gal. 3:24–25). It could reveal sin and point toward righteousness, but it could not transform the human heart or free people from the power of the flesh. Returning to the Law as the basis for righteousness, then, was a return to slavery after Christ had brought freedom.

This was the heart of the problem in Galatia. False teachers were telling Gentile believers that faith in Christ was not enough; they also needed to be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law to truly belong to God’s covenant people. Paul strongly rejects that idea. God’s people are identified by faith in Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5, Paul describes two very different ways of living: according to the flesh and according to the Spirit. By “flesh” (sarx), Paul does not simply mean the physical body, but fallen human nature turned away from God and living in its own strength. The result is the “works of the flesh” which highlights patterns of sin that damage both individuals and communities.

If keeping the Mosaic Law cannot transform the heart, the question becomes what actually enables believers to live the kind of life God desires. The Law still matters because it reveals God’s character, exposes sin, and shows us the kind of holy life God intends for his people, but the power to produce that life comes through the power of Spirit. The alternative to legalism is not living however we want, but life in the Spirit. Those who are “led by the Spirit” are “not under the Law” (Gal. 5:18), not because God’s moral standards have been abolished, but because the Spirit accomplishes what the Law could never do.  As believers “walk by the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16, 25), He forms in them the kind of character God has always desired. This helps explain Paul’s statement, “Against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:23). As N. T. Wright explains, Christian freedom is not freedom to do whatever we want, but freedom to love and serve others. Paul is describing not only personal spiritual growth but a Spirit-shaped community marked by love, unity, and service rather than rivalry, division, and selfish ambition.