This is an opportune time for the church to reflect on the fruit of the Spirit, as deep, angry partisanship and polarization have become defining aspects of American life. Take a moment now to read the Apostle Paul’s words in Galatians 5:13-25.
The sobering words of warning that preface Paul’s discussion of the fruit of the Spirit fairly leap off the page, given their startling relevance: “If you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don’t get eaten up by each other!” What does it mean to be disciples of Jesus Christ in the midst of this fray — to walk by his Spirit and embody his life? Paul’s discussion in Galatians 5 prompts careful reflection on the contours of Christian life — on fruit of the Spirit that nurture and build up community and, by way of contrast, “works of the flesh” that are destructive of it.
This issue of the Presbyterian Outlook is the first in a series of three that invite consideration of each of the fruit in turn. So, by way of introduction, to provide a sense of the big picture, let me highlight a few key concepts to bear in mind as you engage each of them — concepts that frame Paul’s entire discussion.
Freedom
In Paul’s view, freedom is a central characteristic of the Christian life. The emphatic affirmations he makes in Galatians 5:1 and 5:13 are pivotal and summarize the argument of the entire letter: “For freedom Christ has set us free” and “you were called to freedom.” Freedom is the reality of the Christian’s situation before God and therefore before the world. But to what does Paul refer when he speaks of “freedom”? Given the prominence of this concept in current public discourse, in the heated rhetoric of fellow citizens who perceive infringement of personal freedoms, it is very important that we not misunderstand or misconstrue Paul on this point. The freedom of which he speaks is not freedom of speech or choice or self-expression. Neither is it the absence of economic, social or political oppression nor the right to do as we please. The freedom of which the apostle speaks is a divine gift, grounded in the liberating work of God in Jesus Christ. We are free because God in Christ has set us free.
When we speak of Christian freedom, we should also recognize that from Paul’s perspective there is no such thing as an autonomous individual. Human beings are creatures, contingent beings, and as such are always subject to some lordship — if not the lordship of God the Creator, then that of some other, unworthy lord. (Bob Dylan captures this reality in a memorable song: “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”) The human problem is that we have chosen for ourselves other lords who are not worthy of our allegiance and find ourselves in bondage to them; however, God in Christ has freed us from bondage to unworthy, tyrannical lordships (cf. Galatians 1:4; 2:19-20; 3:13, 23-28; 4:1-10). We live no longer as slaves, in bondage to tyrannical masters, either without or within, but as adopted children of God.
Paul is quick to note, however, that Christian freedom is not a possession but a reality in which we are to live. Indeed, if we do not live in that freedom, we may find ourselves in bondage to former masters. Thus, freedom, as commentator Sam Williams insightfully summarizes, “is not a good in itself. It is rather a means to the great good of human relationship. Freedom is not untrammeled personal autonomy. It is, rather, opportunity and possibility — the opportunity to love the neighbor without hindrance, the possibility of creating human communities based on mutual self-giving rather than the quest for power and status.”
Love
A second key concept is love — for the contours of the Christian life come into even clearer focus when the call to freedom is connected with an exhortation to love. In Galatians 5:13, Paul urges us not to use our freedom as an opportunity to indulge our selfish impulses, but to serve each other through love. Thus, it becomes clear that love is the proper exercise of Christian freedom. It is in serving one another in love that we embrace, concretize and give true expression to the freedom that has been granted us in Jesus Christ.
The exhortation to love, however, is so familiar to Christian congregations that it is liable to slide right by. The love of which Paul speaks is more than the warm feeling one has toward another. It seeks the well-being of others and is expressed in concrete efforts on their behalf — regardless of how we feel! A colleague of blessed memory comes to mind who was fond of observing, “It is such a relief to know that I don’t have to like everybody — I just have to love them.” Having been freed from fear and self-concern by the liberating work of Jesus Christ, we voluntarily extend ourselves and devote ourselves to the welfare of others.
Spirit
A third key concept is Spirit — for it ought not to be assumed that we extend ourselves to neighbors in love by the sheer strength of our own will or heroic efforts. In Galatians 5:16-25, Paul establishes that the Christian life of freedom and love is guided and made possible by God’s own Spirit — an eschatological gift of power. Indeed, the Spirit is a sign that the new age has dawned — that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has set the future in motion. To receive the Spirit is to walk into that future, right now, with power. So Christians are not left to their own resources, for the Spirit of God dwells within them and produces the love that has been commanded. Therefore, Paul exhorts us to live – or better, walk – by the Spirit as we navigate the challenges of daily life (Galatians 5:16).
But what does Paul mean when he contrasts “Spirit” (pneuma in Greek) and “flesh” (sarx) — juxtaposing “fruit of the Spirit” with “works of the flesh”? Paul’s understanding of “flesh” and “Spirit” is easily and frequently misunderstood. Modern ears are likely to hear “flesh” as a reference to the body or to sexuality; and modern translations do not help us when they render sarx as “lower nature,” “sinful nature” or as “physical desires.” Likewise, “Spirit” may be heard as a reference to something nonmaterial and ghostly, a reference perhaps to our “higher nature.” But these are not the associations that Paul has in mind.
To Paul’s way of thinking, “flesh” and “Spirit” do not designate two parts of human nature but rather represent two ways of living. Both “flesh” and “Spirit” are ways of characterizing the whole self in relation to God. “Flesh,” on the one hand, describes human nature as a whole when it is dominated by sin and thus has broken away from God. It denotes a self-centered existence, in which the entire perspective of the human being is turned in upon the self, which becomes the center of all values. The translation in the Common English Bible clearly conveys this with its rendering of “flesh” language in terms of “self-indulgence” in Galatians 5:13, and its reference to “works of the flesh” as “actions produced by selfish motives” in 5:19. Life in the “Spirit,” on the other hand, is life set free from bondage to self, sin and law. It denotes life in bondage to the Creator, life that freely acknowledges God’s lordship and God’s son Jesus Christ. Moreover, when Paul speaks of the “Spirit,” he refers not to a human spirit but to God’s Spirit. “Flesh” and “Spirit,” then, are each domains of power, spheres of influence in which one lives.
The radical opposition between these two ways of living, these two orientations, these two spheres of influence is sharply stated in Galatians 5:16-25. Indeed, human creatures are caught in a tug-of-war, a pitched battle, between the two. Paul boldly contrasts the chaotic works of the flesh (“actions produced by selfish motives”) with the fruit of the Spirit in hopes that we will be persuaded to entrust ourselves to the all-sufficient power of God. Notice Paul’s language: “Live by the Spirit,” he writes. “Be guided by the Spirit.” Let God’s Spirit reap its “fruit” in your lives. These are not new rules of the road. These are the “fruit” of life lived in the domain of the Spirit. In fact, Paul assures his readers that “those who belong to Jesus Christ,” those who have shared in his death in baptism, have been empowered to embrace a new way of life: They “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Community
Finally, as you reflect on fruit of the Spirit, attend carefully to the decidedly communal character of Paul’s exhortation. The Spirit is a gift to the whole Christian community (the use of you in 5:13-26 is actually plural y’all) — a community that makes visible in this world the Spirit’s gracious qualities. In the catalog of the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit,” this aspect of the Christian life clearly comes to the fore. Christian existence is essentially corporate in character. To Paul’s way of thinking, there is no such thing as a freelance Christian. Rachel Held Evans concurs when she notes in “Searching for Sunday” that “following Jesus is a group activity, something we’re supposed to do together.” Thus, the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit” are detailed in largely communal categories. They are “marks of a community under the sway of the Flesh contrasted with marks of a community under the leading of the Spirit,” as J. Louis Martyn wrote in the Anchor Yale Bible commentary on Galatians.
Paul draws upon a traditional catalog of virtues and vices in Galatians 5:19-23. Lists of this sort were popular in both Jewish and Hellenistic ethical instruction. But Paul has modified these traditional lists in significant ways. Most notably, Paul has augmented the chaotic “works of the flesh” with a long central list of eight “vices” that detail offenses against the internal peace of a community: “enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy.” These are sins against community. The self-centered orientation of the “flesh” manifests itself in ways that are destructive of koinonia (communion or fellowship).
The catalog of “fruit of the Spirit” is also social in nature, but it enumerates graces that nurture koinonia, that build up community and enable its people to deal with conflicts in a constructive way. Paul has no doubt seen to it that “love” heads the list, for it is, in his view, the chief Christian virtue (cf. 1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 5:13-14). The fruit that follow enumerate ways in which love finds expression. But note that the manifestations of love are not described as “works,” for they are not human accomplishments. Instead, they are described pointedly as the “fruit” of the Spirit — the result of the transforming power and presence of God’s own Spirit, which dwells within. They are manifestations of the gift of God in human lives.
No question about it: The vision of Christian life reflected in Galatians 5 is challenging, requiring imagination and risk as we make our way through our deeply conflicted landscape, discerning the concrete shape that freedom and love are to take in the midst of the fray that surrounds us. Because God has made us free, Paul trusts that God’s Spirit will guide us — stirring our imaginations and emboldening us for new risks of faith and obedience.
FRANCES TAYLOR GENCH is the Herbert Worth and Annie H. Jackson Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.
