God’s Word for You

Galatians 5:22-23 The fruits of the Spirit

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, August 9, 2024

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Love (ἀγάπη). This is the word agape, the Bible’s unique word for a kind of love that was unknown to the Greeks. The translators who brought the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek used this word in the Song of Solomon. There are many different “love” or “passion” words in Greek, for romantic love, the love of a soldier for his commander, the love of a master for his pets, and so on. But since they didn’t understand the love of God for man, a love that expected nothing in return, they used their blandest term, agape, for such love. Throughout the New Testament, this is the love of God, the love man does not deserve. “When the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, he saved us—not by righteous works that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:4-5). Professor Gerhard adds: “Love is not the cause, not the beginning, not the fulfillment, but the effect, the sign, and the consequence of our being made alive (in Christ), and for this reason it is called ‘the fruit of the Spirit’” (On Justification through Faith §123).

Joy (χαρά). Perhaps this word’s full meaning is best supplied in the Lord’s parable of the talents, where the true reward is to “come and share your master’s happiness” (Matthew 25:21). It is the opposite of every kind of sorrow: “when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration” (Esther 9:22). It is Christian joy that has no sinful desire lurking beneath; no sin of taunt, or arrogance, or any other ill feeling beyond pure and unadulterated happiness. It is the joy of being rescued, saved, of hopelessness turned to hope and then certainty. We pick this fruit of the Spirit and devour it with delight, because it is one of God’s eternal blessings, for there will no longer be any curse (Revelation 22:2-3).

Peace (εἰρήνη) is the end or absence of war. Peace sinks in like wellness after suffering, and a time of peace brings joy (Acts 9:31). The message of the gospel is truly a message of peace, which comes only through Jesus Christ (Acts 10:36). The wicked and the unbeliever do not know and cannot know peace (Isaiah 59:8; Romans 3:17). One of Paul’s blessings was: “May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way,” and this followed the famous warning about the coming of Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 3:16).

Patience (μακροθυμία) or “longsuffering” lets the godly person bear up with troubles, adversity, injury, and even scolding. Patience “makes us patient to wait for the improvement of those who have done us wrong” (Luther). The devil knows that he can’t overcome certain people by force, and so he plays a longer game. He pesters us with temptations because he knows that we are weak and that many of us can’t stand much for very long. So he repeats his temptations again and again. Sometimes they grow more intense, but a Christian will often notice his foul breath behind these things and resist all the more. Sometimes he finds he can succeed with the tiniest little temptation where a bold attack fails. “To withstand his continued assaults we must be longsuffering and patiently wait for the devil to get tired of his game” (Luther).

Kindness (χρηστότης). True followers of Christ will be gentle, mild, courteous, kind, and soft-spoken. But, someone might say, that doesn’t sound like Paul! Does it not? Paul mixed strong words, clear words, with a gentle and patient spirit, to proclaim the truth. For kindness doesn’t mean that we never point out a wrong, but that we do point out errors and sins with the good of the person at heart, not to beat them down into grief or despair, but to bring about a change of heart through repentance and faith in Christ.

Goodness (ἀγαθωσύνη). A rule that one of my Greek professors taught is that nouns like this one (agathosyne) that end in -syne have an active force; they are nouns that imply doing something. So the simplest definition of “good” is a person who is willing to help others in their need. This is the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:33-35), and David’s friend Jonathan (1 Samuel 23:16), and also Boaz, who went out of his way to help the foreign girl, Ruth (Ruth 2:14-16, 3:16-17). We show our faith and give thanks to God by loving and helping our neighbor, which is God’s will even in the law (Exodus 23:4-5,9).

Faithfulness (πίστις). Since this is a list of the Spirit’s fruits, Paul cannot and does not mean saving faith in Christ, but rather faithfulness toward one another, and even faith in one another, which is general human trust, and taking things “in the kindest possible way (interpreting charitably all that he does)” (Small Catechism, SC I:16). “Naturally,” Luther teaches, “the possessor of such faith (in people) will be deceived, but he lets it pass. He is ready to believe all men, but we will not trust all men.” What kind of life would this be if one person could not believe any other person? To do so, to trust others, is truly a gift of the Holy Spirit. Faithfulness also means being reliable toward those who depend upon us, not only our families, and a minister’s congregation, but also those creatures that God has placed into our lives for us to care for. “The righteous man sees to the needs of his animal” (Proverbs 12:10).

Gentleness (πραΰτης). This is simply the ability not to be quick to get angry. There are plenty of things that happen every day that will get us angry if we are not careful. This leads many crass and brute men to curse and swear constantly, as if by spitting their foul words in every sentence they ward off potential evil and danger by making even the demons clap hands over their ears. But the Christian overcomes his anger with gentleness. Christ displays his awesome deeds in gentleness (Psalm 45:4), and the heroic wife speaks in gentleness and humility.

Self-control (ἐγκράτεια). Paul ends his list with this fruit of the Spirit, since its opposite is virtually everything in the previous list of sins (5:19-21). When Paul preached a sermon on self-control (along with righteousness and the coming judgment) before Felix the governor of Judea, it was too much for Felix, who became afraid. He sent Paul away for two whole years, leaving him in prison until the next governor came (Acts 24:25-27). Self-control is also known as temperance, but such things cannot be forced on people. One of the many failures of Christianity in our country has been the regular attempt to force people, Christians or not, to behave in Christian ways. The idea is always that God will be happier (they claim) if we behave the way God wants. They completely distort the role of sanctified living, flipping the shirt inside-out so that justification comes last instead of first, and hoping in their misguided way that God will be just fine with people who don’t trust in Christ, but who put all their faith and hope in keeping the law. They are no different than the mad, gospel-twisting Judaizers of Galatia. They have nothing to do with the holy Christian church, which is the true communion of saints.

All of these fruits of the Spirit are good works, and “there is no law against such things.” This is not just a quip or a wink from Paul, although it is treated that way sometimes. No, Paul is showing that these things, which are not against the law, are necessarily works of the law, “that is,” says Professor Gerhard, “commanded by and in harmony with the law. Therefore the works of the reborn are also excluded from the act of justification” (On Justification by Faith §152).

It is long past time to talk about the word “fruit,” which is p’ri in Hebrew (Genesis 1:12, 4:3), and karpós (καρπός) in Greek. It’s not just an edible product of a tree or vine with seeds inside, or whatever modern and narrow definition of “fruit” many of us have in our minds. Lawyers make up those definitions, not the Holy Spirit. The Spirit calls any product of a plant its fruit, whether grass or grain or papyrus or an apple tree. The whole dandelion, root, stem, stalk, leaf and flower is its fruit; every single part of that humble and much-hated little flower of my front yard reminds me that the whole life of the Christian is the fruit of the Spirit. All good works, large, small, praised, misunderstood, or forgotten about, are fruits of the Spirit. “Just as the fruits of grasses and trees spring forth from that natural spirit which animates grasses, trees, and other living things, so also the good works of the reborn come as very sweet and very God-pleasing fruits from that heavenly Spirit, who urges believers onward.”

None of these things produces salvation; salvation produces all of these things. In this way—in many ways—faith cooperates in the works of Christians. In what ways? One is through knowledge. “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing comes through God’s Word” (Romans 10:17). So the Christian mind is always thinking, “Are you pleasing God with what you’re doing? Is this truly a good work?” The light of the Word of faith answers these questions.

Another way is with respect to confidence. The Gospel tells us that we are reconciled to God and are adopted as his sons (Galatians 4:4-6), and faith believes this, and believes that for the sake of Christ, we and our works please God. For while “whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23), the things that we do from faith please our gracious heavenly Father.

Another thing to keep in mind is that faith (along with God himself dwelling in us) is a cause of our good works, imperfect though they will be. Our good works are the fruit of righteousness (Philippians 1:11), but some of them are small and fragile, like the tender firstfruits (Exodus 23:16) and some of them are the very best we can offer, like the first wool from shearing sheep (Deuteronomy 18:4). But whatever our works may be, root, shoot, stem, stalk, leaf, flower, or heavy and tasty fruit indeed, let it be always for the glory of God and done in his service, and for the good of our neighbor. “All of what we have and do pleases God not because of some merit or worthiness of ours, for it is all corrupt, but because of the gift of faith, because we believe in Christ.”

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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