Evidence of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-26

The Holy Spirit maintains several important responsibilities in a believer's life. At the moment of salvation, he comes to dwell within us and regenerates us with new spiritual life (1 Cor 6:19; Tit 3:5). By doing so, he seals us until Christ completes his redemptive work in glorification (Eph 1:13-14). He guides us in our understanding of Scripture (John 14:26), which he inspired by accurately relaying God's infallible message to prophets and apostles (2 Pet 1:21). He helps us in prayer by interceding on our behalf to the Father when the words for prayer escape us (Rom 8:26-27).

One of his most critical roles is to affirm the reality of Christ's saving work in our lives. He does this through his subjective witness in our hearts (Rom 8:16). He also does this by empowering us to produce the fruit of a righteous life. The way we can tell a person is truly saved is by their personal testimony of faith in Christ coupled with a lifestyle patterned after the love and righteousness of Christ.

Last week, we diagnosed what the flesh produces. When our sin nature takes the wheel and determines our moral choices, the result is always destructive, unbridled godlessness. A person who persistently makes such choices has no inheritance in God's kingdom and needs a strong warning before he reaches the end of that path.

In this passage, we will examine the evidence of a Spirit-led life. He produces in the believer a starkly different result than the flesh: the nine fruits of the Spirit we have come to know so well. When we see these fruits present in a Christian's life, they do not just demonstrate the good moral character of that person. They provide evidence of how the Spirit is working in that person to produce Christ-likeness.

The Spirit gives evidence of his influence through our character.

Main Thought

Life presents us with an abundance of indicators when something is wrong. Steam coming from the hood of your car indicates the engine is overheating. Slow internet speed indicates you have a weak wifi connection. We know when things are not working properly. We don't notice when things operate as they should. In the Christian life, we have indicators when things are working smoothly. The Spirit gives evidence of his working and influence through our character. When we walk in step with him, we show the reality of Christ's salvation in our hearts. That change impacts how we live and treat others.

Evidence of the Spirit's Influence in a Believer

Paul warned the Galatians about fleshly behavior because such behavior is a consequence of not walking in the Spirit. A believer who exhibits these behaviors should repent of his wrong choices and submit himself to the Spirit's influence anew. But the person who claims to be a believer while persisting in unrepentant fleshly indulgence shows that he is not truly a believer.

Now that he has delineated the works of the flesh, Paul lays out the evidence of the Spirit's influence in a believer. These fruits are the natural production of a Christian indwelt by the Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is God and indwells all believers, he can enable all believers to produce these fruits. Before we learn what these fruits are, let's take note of a few observations:

None of these fruits are natural to us.

Outside of Christ, we cannot show genuine love, longsuffering, or self-control. We can exhibit these behaviors to an extent, but not in a way pleasing to God. Instead, we naturally tend toward fleshly, indulgent vices that bring destruction and moral corruption to our lives.

We need to walk in the Spirit to produce these fruits.

Walking in the Spirit requires us to trust his leading and submit to his empowering. When that is the regular pattern of our Christian life, he helps us to bear these fruits. They exhibit themselves through divine enablement rather than human effort. At the moment when we must exhibit these virtues in our lives, we can cooperate with him so he produces them.

We will not produce these fruits equally all the time.

Paul does not have an unrealistic expectation that believers will always experience victory in these areas of Christian virtue. Many of us have grown in maturity in some of these virtues. But we will always need growth in at least one, if not more, area of Christian living. The fruits of the Spirit give us a target to aim at, a destination to pursue. We should always seek to improve in these areas by God's grace.

This is not an exhaustive list of the Spirit's fruit.

As with the works of the flesh, Paul does not say everything that could be said about this topic. Nine godly virtues are listed, but consider how many fruits Paul does not include. If we cross-reference another NT passage about the Spirit's influence in our lives, we could add several more fruits - the corporate ministries of Spirit-filled singing, gratitude, and submission (Eph 5:19). This list of virtues in Galatians, along with other traits, should characterize our lives when we walk in the Spirit.

Notice how Paul distinguishes the works of the flesh from the fruits of the Spirit. "Works" carries a more technological connotation; we think of it as the result of processes or systems. Yielding to our flesh requires no miracle, only our human cooperation with sinful urges. Paul adopts an illustration from the natural world (fruit) to describe the natural result of walking in the Spirit. When our lives are in step with him, he produces the fruits of a holy life. Like fruit, those virtues are not the result of a man-made system, but a divine enabling that produces life.

These virtues also share many commonalities, which seems to be prominent in Paul's mind as he labels this list the "fruit of the Spirit" and not "fruits of the Spirit." While a person controlled by the flesh does not necessarily manifest all of its works, a person controlled by the Spirit will produce all of his fruit. As we noted before, we all will not produce each of the fruits equally. But when we are redeemed and Spirit-indwelt, our desires and actions will be inclined toward the loving, godly, and righteous desires of the Spirit. He brings about all of these virtues at once rather than piece-by-piece.

Many scholars have noted how Paul groups these nine virtues into three sets of triplets - 1) love, joy, peace, 2) longsuffering, kindness, goodness, and 3) faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We don't need to decipher the meaning of these groupings. Each trait is unique in its own way, though they all flow together and build on each other. Let's examine each fruit individually and mark how they show evidence of a Spirit-led believer.

• It is no accident that love is the first of the Christian graces on Paul's list. He could have simply written "love" and left the rest for the Spirit to apply. Some scholars suggest that Paul included a grammatical mark after "love" to identify it as the root virtue. Indeed, the other virtues are all outgrowths of love. When we walk in the Spirit, he enables us to love as God loves so we exhibit all other Christian graces as well.

Love is at the center of everything we do as Christians. It speaks of our primary motivation behind every act of service - to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matt 22:37). Love involves more than having good, positive feelings about God. It means placing his interests and desires above our own in our daily decisions. It involves building a relationship with him every day. I can love him this way because he loved me by dying for me (Gal 2:20)

Love also speaks of our deep responsibility to put the well-being of others above our own. Again, this is not just having a good feeling about another person. It is not affirming everything a person does or believes. To love another is to put their best interests before your own. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matt 22:38). As Paul has already said, we must love one another as God's people because a loving mindset guards us against unbridled, fleshly living.

• Flowing out of our love for God and neighbor is joy. When our horizontal and vertical relationships are in proper alignment, we can more readily rejoice. We do not rejoice as Christians because God has promised us a life without suffering. We do not rejoice so that we can ignore the harsh realities of life. Joy is a deep-seated hope in God that no matter the circumstances, he will (and has) triumph in the end.

Joy does not depend on pleasant circumstances or desirable outcomes. Instead, it relies on the hope that God will bring his plan to fruition. Ultimately, our joy comes from the salvation that he won for us on the cross and his final victory over Satan's forces that we look forward to in the future. Joy does not always look like a smile; we can rejoice amid tears and agony as well. As we rely on the Spirit, he helps us to experience the joy of the Lord no matter what we face.

• The Spirit also produces the fruit of peace. This is a firm, inward reality of well-being. It is related to the Hebrew concept of shalom, meaning "wholeness." Like joy, peace is not dependent on our outward circumstances. It is certainly not the absence of conflict. When the love of God fills our hearts after salvation and his joy governs our minds, our lives and our relationships can be at peace.

In our chaotic world, peace is one of our most important mental and emotional needs. Through salvation, God meets this need because we cannot know peace without having peace with God first (Rom 5:1). In our daily lives, we can have that same peace governing our hearts and minds as we rely on him (Phil 4:7). If we want the harmony and wholeness of God directing our choices, then we need to experience his peace by walking in the Spirit.

• Patience (longsuffering) in the Christian life is not simply the virtue of waiting. In our relationships with others, it is the ability to endure long even when under duress. No matter how impertinent or impossible another person may be, Christ expects us to be longsuffering. This is how he treats us; no matter how often we return to our sin, he patiently waits for us to return to him. We should treat fellow believers with the same deference and understanding. We can do that under the Spirit's control.

• Like love, kindness is best understood in our relationships with other people. It involves our initiative to be helpful and benevolent toward others. In this sense, showing kindness does not just mean showing emotion or sentiment. Kindness ensures that every word and action is covered in God's goodness and motivated by God's love. Walking in the Spirit will lead us to perform acts of kindness for our families, church members, and even unbelievers without any thought of repayment. We show kindness because that is the heart of God.

• Goodness and kindness are very much twin virtues. It is difficult to distinguish them in any meaningful way. In this context, goodness may well mean generosity. The Greek word only appears a few times in the NT, and Paul is the only author who makes use of it. One interesting note is that goodness is the only virtue referenced elsewhere specifically as a fruit of the Spirit, along with righteousness and truth (Eph 5:9). To show goodness is to contribute and even sacrifice for the welfare of others. The Holy Spirit provides that motivation and mindset when we submit to his leadership.

• The next virtue is faithfulness. Paul has already used this word in its various meanings. It can refer to the message of the Christian faith (Gal 1:23) or the act of believing by which a person receives the gift of salvation through Christ (Gal 2:16). In this context, it refers to the character quality of reliability or faithfulness. Can other people depend on you to keep your word, be on time for appointments, and see a task through to the end? The Spirit enables us to be dependable people that reflect the faithful, reliable character of our God.

• Gentleness, or meekness, is a difficult word to define. I love how one commentator described it: "a submissive and teachable spirit toward God that manifests itself in genuine humility and consideration toward others."1 Gentle and humble are good companion words to this idea. Though, we should not entangle with this virtue any lack of passion or a feeble demeanor. To be gentle is to be like Jesus, for he is "meek and lowly in heart" (Matt 11:29). A gentle person can exercise passion and strength, but they know how to control it. The Holy Spirit will equip us to control our urges and abilities.

• Some Christians may have difficulty with the next virtue, self-control. We may think that the word "self" emphasizes our ability to control our impulses. But in this context of the evidence of the Spirit's working in our lives, we know the opposite is true. A self-controlled person has his desires and passions in check, especially those of a sexual nature (cf. 1 Cor 7:9). The Holy Spirit enables this control so that our passions do not rule our lives and ruin our relationships.

Paul's final word on these fruits encourages us that Spirit-led believers are not under the law. When you walk in step with him, you do not live under the law's demands. No one can enforce a law that demands love, patience, faithfulness, or self-control. But when you walk in the Spirit, you don't need such a law in the first place. To submit to his will and live under his control means these godly traits become the pattern of your life. In this sense, walking in the Spirit is freedom from the law.

All of these virtues together constitute the fruit of a Spirit-led, Spirit-enabled Christian life. Do these fruits mark your Christian walk? Do you have a reputation for exhibiting these behaviors? We will all struggle to exemplify these qualities perfectly. But some measure of these traits should be evident in our lives. If they are noticeably absent, we would do well to reexamine our understanding of the gospel. When we see them on the display in the life of a professing Christian, it is a helpful and needed confirmation of the Spirit's working in their hearts.

Two Final Thoughts on Walking in the Spirit

Up to this point in the passage, Paul has set forth the constant struggle between the desires of the flesh and the Spirit. Though the flesh rages to bring us under its control, the Spirit dwells within us and he has the advantage in the fight. If we submit to our flesh, we produce a life of godless, unrestrained, sinful behaviors. If we submit to the Holy Spirit, we produce the fruit of love, godliness, and righteousness.

Before Paul closes his thoughts on this topic, he includes two important reminders and several applications for believers. Knowing the conflict that confronts us every day, we may be tempted to accept defeat when it seems inevitable. In verse 24, Paul confronts this defeatist mentality by reminding us of our position in Christ and the flesh’s disadvantage.

Paul has used this language before of people who belong to a certain category: those who are "of faith" and those who are "of the law" (Gal 3:9-10) People still bound to the law fall under its curse. Those who have believed on Christ are free from that curse, redeemed by Christ's sacrifice. By his sacrifice, those same people belong to him and experience new life in him.

Simultaneous to our experience of new life in Christ is death to our old selves. Paul cherished this fact because his death to his old self meant freedom from the demands of the law and freedom to live by faith in Christ (Gal 2:20). When Christ makes you his own, your old self, represented by the flesh, is crucified. Not only does the Spirit come to indwell you at salvation, but his antagonist is put to death. The flesh no longer has to control your decisions. Its passions and desires do not have the same power they once did when you were not saved. Those desires were crucified at the cross.

We have difficulty accepting this fact because it so often does not match our experience. But it is true nonetheless. It is as true as when you transition from a challenging work situation to a more desirable one. Imagine you worked for a demanding manager or supervisor who expected you to clock in 30 minutes early, delegated a heavy load of responsibilities on you, and never considered you for a promotion or raise. He was a difficult man to work for.

Imagine your company went bankrupt and everyone lost their jobs, including you and your supervisor. Once you leave that job and transition to a new job with a new manager, the old one has no say over what time you show up, what responsibilities you have, or your position in the new company. Your relationship with him is dead, not only because you don't work for him anymore, but because he does not have a job anymore either.

Your relationship to the flesh is dead because the flesh and its desires are dead. You do not work for the flesh anymore because Christ put him out of a job. It can still hold power over you when you give in to its urges, but you are not obligated to yield. Instead, you can assert your position in Christ as his adopted child and depend on the spiritual reality that the flesh is dead with its desires. It cannot make you do what it wants or even make you want to do what it wants. Christ has redeemed both your actions and your desires.

Paul follows this encouraging truth with another important reminder: now that you live in the Spirit, walk with him. By granting you the Spirit's indwelling presence, God birthed you into his spiritual family; you now enjoy spiritual life. This new reality implies an exhortation to obey: since you have the Spirit, keep in step with him. If your car is filled with gas, drive it. If the stove is attached to the gas line, turn it on. The Holy Spirit makes his power and motivation available to you to live for God; all you must do is follow him.

Applications to Our Relationships

Paul uses this encouraging message to shine a light on relationship problems within the Galatian church. We know they had problems with divisions among themselves at fellowship gatherings; even renowned men like Peter and Barnabas fell into that trap (Gal 2:11-13). For the majority of the letter, Paul has corrected and disciplined this church with his words by showing them that legalism creates wide rifts and exclusive groups within the body of Christ.

Walking with the Holy Spirit is the cure for the troubles that legalism and license produce in a church. Specifically, when we submit to his leadership, we do not have exaggerated self-conceptions. Paul warns Spirit-led believers against becoming conceited or boastful, thinking too much of ourselves. This kind of pride is at the root of many of the problems Christians face with each other. When we esteem our opinions or choices more highly than the welfare of others, we will be led astray into either self-righteous legalism or unrestrained fleshly living.

Conceit gives way to needless provocations. The Greek word used here speaks of challenging someone to a fight or an athletic competition. It is the result of a boastful heart left unchecked that has to vindicate itself to everyone else. Along with this fleshly behavior, Paul warns against envy, which he has already shown is evidence of the flesh's control in our lives (Gal 5:21). Envy describes an intense desire to want something outside of your possession, whether material or immaterial (i.e. position, status, power).

These behaviors within the Galatian church tore at their fabric of unity. These same fleshly patterns threaten the social fabric of every church that does not walk in the Spirit. We must heed Paul's two-fold exhortation: let us walk in the Spirit, but let us not be conceited. A selfish, proud perspective opposes the working of the Spirit in a church. If we want to enjoy the unity he brings to a fellowship of believers, then we must submit to his leadership and die to our self-interests so that the love of others becomes our rule of life.

Paul's teaching on the Spirit in this passage shows us that the Holy Spirit entered our lives so we could bless others. After making his theological case against legalism, Paul warned against the opposite threat of license. To defeat these threats to the life of the church, we must submit to the Spirit as the warrior and love as his weapon. Fully yielded to the Spirit's control, I cannot give in to sinful lusts, especially those which harm my relationships with fellow members of God's family. Instead, I can walk in holiness and love so that my sinful urges are kept in check and God's law of love is fulfilled in my life.