I want to do some studies on the the Fruit of the Spirit. Ever since the Bible study I did on John chapter 15, I have been thinking and praying about the Fruit that Jesus says we can bear if we remain connected to Him as our True Vine. In my recent Bible studies the theme of being "connected" as a branch is to a tree or vine has come up again and again. I feel that God has something further to say to me on this subject, more that He wants me to see. I am eager to see what it is!
I turned to Galatians 5 and started reading from the beginning of the chapter, which talks about the impossibility of trying to serve the Law and Faith at the same time. Paul says they cancel each other out. You can't try to uphold all the ordinances of Jewish Law and still claim all the spiritual benefits of Salvation by Faith in Christ. They are mutually opposed. He goes on to compare it to our worldly nature (the Flesh) and our spiritual nature (the Spirit). In the picture above, the verse Galatians 5:17, sets the stage for our study on Spiritual Fruit. "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do."
We are created with an earthly body housing a heaven-sent Spirit. As soon as we were born, our earthly needs began to assert themselves and our parents were most likely up all hours making sure those needs were met. Our bodies never lose their need for food, water and comfortable surroundings. But we are born with another need that any parent can tell you is just as powerful: the need for Love. This isn't a physical need, it is a spiritual one. If you only attend to the physical needs of a baby, by providing bottles, diapers and dry warm clothes, but not the spiritual need for Love by picking up and cuddling, then you will not have a happy contented baby. So we have a dual nature and once we accept Jesus as our Savior, we intensify a conflict that already exists between our physical selves and our spiritual selves.
By accepting the gift of salvation, we put more emphasis on the spiritual part of our lives. It does not mean that the physical nature is gone, but it is given second place. In verses 19 -21, Paul shows how evident the "works of the flesh" are. He lists quite a few of these in order to contrast them with the "Fruit of the Spirit" later in verses 22-23. He ends the list of works with this warning: "I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." Before Jesus, we had all these desires in ourselves. Perhaps we did not act on them because of legal or moral restrictions, but they were there all the same. Now with God's Holy Spirit living in us, there is more weight on the spiritual side of our nature. Paul puts it this way in another letter: "Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit." (Romans 8:5 NIV) As christians, we have a new focus. If we don't, if our minds are still focused on those things of the "flesh" on Paul's list, then we are not actually followers of Christ and have no place in His Kingdom.
We are in a war within ourselves, because while we live our lives here on earth, we do so in a physical body with all of it's needs and desires but with a spirit that longs for the things of God. As christians, our sinful nature, though subdued, is still present and temptation will still arise. And that tendency will cause conflict and the conflict will become a stumbling block to our spiritual desires at times. (as it says at the end of verse 17 "...to keep you from doing the things you want to do.") So before we tackle the question of Spiritual Fruit, we need to first be aware of this conflict. We need to keep in mind that, contrary to our old habits, our focus now is first and foremost on the "Kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). Then we can turn our hearts and minds to finding out more about the fruit of the spirit. And by finding out what Jesus can produce in us, we can grow more and more into what our Father created us to be. We were not created to be spiritual beings who have been enslaved to a physical nature. God intends for us to be physical creations who have been empowered by His Spirit to live above their earthly limitations!