Until recently, every time I came across one of Paul’s lists of the Fruit of the Spirit, I would pause and check them off like items at the grocery store. “Love, check. Joy, check. Peace, check. Patience, check -- just don't ask my sister.” I say “until recently” because my pastor has been going through the book of Galatians, and really preached to us what Galatians actually says instead of what we all thought it said when we skimmed through it.
Paul wrote the book of Galatians to the people of Galatia because some Christians came to the region from Judea and taught that to be saved they had to believe in Jesus PLUS follow some of the Jewish ceremonial laws. Paul writes to tell them this is wrong, and he tells them why it’s wrong. Only one thing saves you: faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus died for our sins, and there is nothing we can do to help Him save us. He did it all, once for all. So, what do you have to do to stay saved? Nothing! He took care of your sins, past present and future. The freedom we have in Christ is not just freedom from Hell, but freedom from the law, freedom from a to-do list. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say in 1 Corinthians chapters 6 and 10 that while not everything is profitable, “Everything is permissible.”
“But,” you argue, “James says, ‘Faith without works is dead’” (James 2:26, NKJV). And he's right. Of course he's right. You didn't think I was going to pull a Martin Luther and call James a heretic, did you? If your faith doesn't produce good works it is dead. The important question now is, what motivates a Christian to do good works? Is it fear? No. Is it obedience? Obedience is certainly not a bad thing, but that’s not our motive, either. We don’t do good works to stay saved, but because we are saved. Christians are motivated to do good works by the Holy Spirit.
Many Christians view the Fruit of the Spirit as their to-do list. Two misconceptions accompany that view. First, the Fruit of the Spirit is not a list of fruits: it’s a description of one fruit. The one fruit is described as being love, joy, peace, patience, etc., just like an apple is red, round, sweet, crisp, juicy. Second, it's the Fruit of the Spirit, not the Fruit of the Christian. If I am a farmer, and I plant a field of corn, it is not the field's corn. It's my corn. I am the farmer. I did the work. All the field did was lay there and get rained on. In the metaphor of the Fruit of the Spirit, we are the field, not the farmer. The Holy Spirit is the farmer. So, it's not a list, and it's not your non-list.
What does all this mean? It means you don't have to focus on rule-following. You don’t have to work at staying saved. All you have to do is love God. Your faith will have works because the Holy Spirit will produce His fruit in you.
