Our preaching through the book of Galatians has brought us to chapter 5 and Paul’s enumeration of the Christian virtues he calls the “fruit of the Spirit.” Remember that this set of virtues immediately follows the list of vices he labeled “the works of the flesh.” The latter is what our sinful nature naturally produces in our life. The former, the fruit of the Spirit, are what God in his grace produces within us through the Holy Spirit.
Here’s what Matthew Henry had to say on the topic:
“He specifies the fruits of the Spirit, or the renewed nature, which as Christians we are concerned to bring forth, v. 22, 23. And here we may observe that as sin is called the work of the flesh, because the flesh, or corrupt nature, is the principle that moves and excites men to it, so grace is said to be the fruit of the Spirit, because it wholly proceeds from the Spirit, as the fruit does from the root: and whereas before the apostle had chiefly specified those works of the flesh which were not only hurtful to men themselves but tended to make them so to one another, so here he chiefly takes notice of those fruits of the Spirit which had a tendency to make Christians agreeable one to another, as well as easy to themselves; and this was very suitable to the caution or exhortation he had before given (v. 13), that they should not use their liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”
Excerpt From
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
The occasion, or the reason for which Paul is writing this is to give an alternative to the teaching of the Judaizers who were adamant that in order to please God we must focus our lives on keeping the law as diligently as possible. By contrast, Paul encourages us to keep our eyes on Christ and be attentive to the means of grace—the gospel proclaimed in word and sacrament. These feed our faith and encourage us to heavenly desires, true repentance and genuine faith, which produce a desire for heart obedience. By thus walking in the Spirit these are the things that will be produced in our lives. We do not make a list of these things and endeavor to do them in our own strength with a view to pleasing God or earning his favor. Rather we look for these things and ask for these things and trust that God will produce these things in our lives as we draw closer to him in love.
As believers, there is nothing we can do in this life to make God love us any more. Nor is there anything we can do in this life to cause God to love us any less. It is because God loves us that we seek to please him, long to please him, long to have this fruit produced within us.
I hope that you have already planned to worship with us again this Sunday and I look forward to seeing you there. Let us pray for each other that our church will be a church that exhibits this fruit in a world that practices the opposite.