But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity,
Paul has just listed the works of the flesh; now he turns to what the Spirit produces in a believer. That change of word — fruit instead of works — sets up the whole passage. It raises a practical question: is a good life something we make, or something that grows?
Commentators point to the difference between noisy activity and quiet growth.
Notice the contrast between the "works" and the "fruit." The "works" are easy to understand. Their noise fills the earth. You can see their confusion and damage on every side. "Fruit," on the other hand, grows silently, even in nature. In summer, no one in the orchards is bothered by the noise of ripening fruit. The wonder of its growth takes place without a sound. So it is with the fruit of the Spirit. Notice that it says "fruit," not "fruits." These lovely moral features are thought of as one bunch. There are nine of them, but they all grow from one stem — the Spirit of God.
The word "works" carries the sense of straining; "fruit" does not.
"Works" mean effort. A person without God's Spirit understands that, because effort is what his life in this world is made of. But there is no effort in the thought of "fruit." No amount of trying would ever get fruit from a tree. If the tree is in the right climate, healthy and watered, it will bear fruit.
The order is not random. Love heads the list, and the rest are treated as its outgrowth.
If we turn to Galatians 5:22, we find the first fruit of the Spirit is love. All the other fruits grow out of that one. If love is missing, the rest is only artificial fruit tied onto a tree — it never grew there... The next on the list is joy. Our joy will always match our love. This is an unfailing principle. And so it is with the next, peace. If, in all we do and say and think, we are moved by love, we shall enjoy a peace which nothing can disturb.
The first three named are a condition of soul, and the rest depend on them.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so on… Notice that the first of these fruits are love, joy, peace. The Spirit does produce the practical fruits that show the life of Christ to other people. But the inward fruits come first — the ones that face God. They are the state of soul the others grow out of.
This is why happiness in God changes how we take insults from others.
If I am fully happy in God, I do not mind when someone insults me; I take it patiently. I am fully happy, and my soul rests in these blessed affections. So nothing else has power to pull me away.
Read the list as a portrait. It describes a person.
But what is this list? It is a beautiful description of Christ as He walked through this world in lowliness. So if such fruit is seen in believers, it will result in the reproduction of Christ in His people. Christ Himself has gone from this world. But God intends the character of Christ to still show in those who belong to Him. Christ in person has gone to the Father's house. Christ in character continues in His people on earth.
Gifts and public service are given to some. This fruit is not limited that way.
We are not all gifted, or called to be teachers and preachers, or to undertake great works. But "the fruit of the Spirit" is open to every believer, from the youngest to the oldest. It is the one thing all true service needs.
As for how it comes, writers point away from effort and toward time spent with Christ.
The Spirit of God works to reproduce in us the likeness of the One we give our attention to. It is not a question so much of trusting Him as studying Him; it is a matter of love rather than of faith. As we love Him, we come to resemble Him. So the Spirit produces in our lives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The closing phrase answers the argument about the law head-on. Law can command love, but it cannot grow it.
But all these are the fruits of the Spirit; and he adds, "against such things there is no law." When did law ever produce these? So the law will never condemn those who walk in these things… If you are producing these fruits of the Spirit, there is no condemnation against them.
Those who press law on Christians face a further problem.
By the law they can never produce fruit like this. And even if someone could keep the law perfectly, the result would still not compare to the beauty and worth of the fruit of the Spirit.
- One stem — it is fruit, not fruits: nine features hanging together as one bunch, all drawing from the Spirit of God.
- One root — love stands first, and joy and peace follow. Without love, the rest is fruit tied onto a tree that never grew there.
- Inward first — the state of soul that faces God comes first, and the qualities others see follow. Being happy in God is what makes an insult bearable.
- One likeness — the list is a portrait of Christ. He has gone to the Father, and His character is meant to continue in His people.
- No effort, no law — fruit grows quietly out of time spent with Christ. Law has nothing to say against it, and never had power to produce it.
meekness, self-control against such things there is no law.
The list of the Spirit's fruit ends with two quiet qualities: gentleness and self-control. Then comes a verdict that answers the teachers who were pushing the Galatians back under law: no law stands against such things.
The flesh has "works." The Spirit has "fruit" — and the singular matters.
Notice the contrast between the "works" and the "fruit." It is easy to understand the "works." The earth is filled with the noise of them. Their confusion and disruption are visible on every side. "Fruit," on the other hand, is of silent growth, even in nature. In summer time, among the orchards no one is driven to distraction by the noise of maturing fruit. The wonder of its growth takes place without a sound. So it is with the fruit of the Spirit. You notice it is "fruit," not "fruits." That is because these lovely moral features are thought of as one bunch: nine in number, but all growing from one stem — the Spirit of God.
Older translations read "meekness, temperance." Both words point inward, to a curb on what we are by nature.
Then he gets down to what deals more with one another: "meekness, temperance." These suppose a bridle put on the evil nature — the self-control which the Holy Spirit works in the soul for the Lord's sake. We are clearly set in this world to be a letter of Christ, so that we should not give a false character to Him whose name we bear.
One of these qualities gives up its rights. The other wins a victory inside.
Gentleness (or meekness) is the quality that submits to personal humiliation, if need be. It does not demand our personal "rights" as we see them. Self-control is a great inner conquest. Proverbs 16:32 reminds us: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." In contrast, "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls" (Proverbs 25:28).
Self-control also guards what we know. Knowledge without it swells the head.
Temperance is needed in our knowledge. In Galatians 5:23, this same word is translated "self-control." Knowledge without self-control may leave us puffed up with a sense of self-importance, as it did the Corinthian believers.
God will not condemn what He Himself has produced.
It is not God's way to seek to produce holiness in the flesh through the law. The flesh is not subject to the law, and cannot be. God gives a new life in Christ, and the Holy Spirit, to produce fruits which are acceptable to Him. Against these fruits there is no divine law. God cannot condemn the fruits of His own Spirit.
Those who press law as the rule of life must admit two things.
Those who love to teach the law must admit that there is no law against the nine lovely fruits we have just been considering. Further, they must admit that they can never bring forth such fruit as these by the law. And even if one could keep the law perfectly, the result still could not compare to the beauty and preciousness of the fruit of the Spirit.
The one who is not under law is the one who fulfils it.
If I am walking after the law, I do not fulfil it; if I am walking after the Spirit, I do. The same teaching appears in Galatians 5. If we walk according to the Spirit, there are good fruits: "against such there is no law." On the contrary, the law justifies the fruits of the Spirit. But the Spirit never justifies the ways of any man who makes the law his rule of life.
Read the nine together and a familiar figure appears.
What is this but a beautiful description of Christ as He passed through this world in humiliation? So when such fruit appears in believers, it reproduces Christ in His people. Christ Himself has gone from this scene. But God intends that the character of Christ should still be seen in those who are Christ's.
- One stem. Nine qualities, one fruit. It grows quietly from one stem, the Spirit. Effort does not assemble it.
- One bridle. Gentleness gives up its rights. Self-control rules its own spirit. Both look inward, where the flesh is loudest.
- One verdict. No law condemns this, because God will not condemn the fruit of His own Spirit.
- One impossibility. The law never produced these things. Even perfect law-keeping could not match their beauty.
- One portrait. The full list is Christ's own character, and the Spirit reproduces it in His people.
But they that [are] of the Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts.
Paul has just listed the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. He now states a fact about everyone who belongs to Christ — one that raises three questions: when did this crucifixion happen, who did it, and what does it change today?
This verse is one of three places in Galatians where the cross meets a specific enemy. One writer traces the pattern across the whole letter:
Legalism turns back to the principles of the law. That at once gives the flesh a place, because the law appeals to the flesh, and the flesh brings in the world. So the law, the flesh and the world go together. To correct the wrong use of the law and the evils of the flesh and the world, the Spirit of God brings in the Cross of Christ. So in this letter we find the Cross applied to the law in Galatians 2:20; to the flesh in Galatians 5:24; and to the world in Galatians 6:14.
Willis translates the verse closely, then stops on the phrase that names the people:
"But the ones of Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with the emotions and passionate cravings." "The ones of Jesus Christ" reminds us of Galatians 3:29, where being of Christ makes you Abraham's seed. We noticed that the expression "of Christ" meant more than "belonging to Christ." It also means being a part of Christ, members of Christ, not merely the property of Christ.
Willis quotes a literal translation; the ESV has "passions and desires" for "emotions and passionate cravings."
Paul uses the past tense here. That one point carries the weight of the verse.
This is part of the comfort God gives me. As a matter of faith, and not of mere feeling, I am entitled to know that "those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." It does not say, "They are crucifying it," as if it were something still going on. It is done in receiving a crucified Christ. In God's sight, and now to faith also, their nature was nailed to the tree, and is done with before God.
Christ was crucified — so how can Paul say that we crucified the flesh? The answer turns on consent.
How have I crucified the flesh with its passions and desires? The answer is plain. As a believer, I have consented to God's just and righteous judgment of myself as a man in the flesh — a man who cannot please God, and who is unfit for His presence.
Another writer ties this consent to belonging to Christ at all:
This last scripture shows what belonging to Christ involves. No one comes into allegiance to Him on any other terms. He must himself solemnly endorse and confirm the sentence carried out against the flesh at the Cross.
This crucifixion is not the same as the daily work of putting sin to death.
Scripture does not call the "members which are on the earth" crucified. The old mortal body and its members, prone to evil, are still with us, and we have to subdue them. "Mortification" is the process that controls them... To mortify is to put to death. We cannot put to death what is already dead.
Because the flesh is a crucified thing, no amount of religious effort can improve it.
We can make the flesh moral — we can even make it religious — but we cannot make it please God. So the seeker after holiness in the flesh may starve or punish his body. That merely pleases the flesh and puffs him up with pride... No one can make a crucified thing better or sanctify it... The only remedy is the walk in the Spirit, with the flesh in its true place — "no confidence in the flesh."
Kelly names the power for this. It is not restraint but occupation with Christ, which "fills the soul, by the energy of the Spirit, with all that is good."
The verse states a fact about every Christian. So each of us should ask whether it fits.
We do well to ask whether we have really arrived at this, which is the proper attitude of the Christian. Have we definitely put the sentence of death on the flesh?... Is this what we profess to have done as Christians — but are we living up to our profession? A very serious question which we must each answer for ourselves. Let us give ourselves time for conscience to answer!
- Cross — Galatians applies the cross three times: to the law (2:20), to the flesh (5:24), to the world (6:14).
- Verdict — God judged the flesh at the cross. The believer crucified it by consenting to that judgment.
- Past tense — Paul says it is done, not being done. Faith knows the old nature was nailed to the tree and is finished with before God.
- Distinction — Crucifixion is finished. Mortifying the members is the daily work, since you cannot put to death what is already dead.
- Result — You can make the flesh moral or even religious, but never pleasing to God. The remedy is walking in the Spirit and occupation with Christ.
If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit.
Paul has just set the works of the flesh against the fruit of the Spirit. Now he draws the conclusion: the Spirit who gives the Christian life should also set the pace of the Christian's conduct.
The opening word does not put anyone's standing in question. It states the ground on which the appeal rests.
This "if" suggests no doubt, for they who answer to the call of God are made alive by His word, and live both in and by the Spirit. If otherwise, we are dead still in our natural selves. The apostle's exhortation is here, as always, grounded on a state that is assumed. None but Christians can be justly invited to a Christian walk, since a person's behaviour is, or ought to be, a proof of what he is.
The order matters. The walk does not create the life; it matches a life the believer already has.
It is certain that we live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Well, then, let us walk by the Spirit. Our walk must certainly match our life. A bird cannot have its life in the air and yet all its activities under the water. A fish cannot have its life in water and yet its activities on land. Christians cannot have their life in the Spirit and yet their activities in the flesh.
The words "keep in step" carry a picture.
We live by the Spirit. We walk by the Spirit. We are led by the Spirit, and by the Spirit we keep in step. The word means to walk in a line, as a line of soldiers. If each soldier went his own way, and only walked when he chose, there would be no line at all. But the soldiers are under authority, and obedience to that authority produces the line of soldiers, and all must keep in step. The Holy Spirit has authority over us; if we hear and heed Him, then we will walk in line — we will keep step.
Pridham reads the word the same way, and then names what settles the direction.
Let us keep the order of the Spirit, Paul says, if we live in Him. We once walked in a path of our own, when our ignorance cut us off from the life of God. Let our ways now match the light in which we live. We walk as we are led. If we forget that we are not our own but Christ's, we will be led by the deceiver into the ways of sin.
This is where the Galatians slipped.
Every believer lives in the Spirit, for He is the source of the new life the believer has received. To walk in the Spirit is to accept in practice His gracious leadership and control in all the details of life down here. From this the Galatians had slipped, through the harmful teaching they had listened to.
So the walk is not optional, and it has definite marks:
Certainly. To question it would be antinomianism, or organised unholiness. We are called to walk in the Spirit by the faith of Christ, in confidence in His care, in habitual self-judgment, and in obedience to the word.
The flesh has not been removed from the believer.
The Spirit is in us, as well as the flesh. Not only has the strong delivering arm of the Lord brought us out of being "in the flesh," but the Spirit of God Himself lives within us. He is mightier than the inclinations of our evil hearts. It is our privilege and our responsibility to walk in the Spirit — not in our own poor strength, and not by the force of our own resolutions.
The next verse turns at once to conceit, provocation and envy. That is no change of subject — it is the direct alternative to keeping step with the Spirit, and it is what a return to law actually breeds.
The law feeds rather than destroys vain glory, because the law makes us think of self. When rightly used, it is most useful for convicting of sin, not for producing righteousness.
- Life — the "if" is not a doubt. Everyone born of God already lives by the Spirit, and the appeal rests on that fact.
- Match — the walk must answer to the life. A bird does not live in the air and act under water, and a Christian cannot live in the Spirit and act in the flesh.
- Step — "keep in step" pictures soldiers in a line. The Spirit has authority, and we walk as He leads.
- Power — the flesh is still there. But the Spirit within is mightier than our inclinations, so the walk rests on His strength, not on our resolutions.
- Detail — His leadership reaches the ordinary details of daily life, through self-judgment and obedience to the word. Going back to law only feeds self-importance.