Every Wednesday, 8:00 AM - 8:15 AM
The Fruit of the Spirit
By J.D. Greear
The gospel is the story of how we deserved the wrath of God. But instead of giving it to us, God, in his love, emptied himself of his divine glory and came to earth to rescue us by dying on a cross in our place. Looking at the cross crushes our pride because it shows us what we deserve; it ignites in our hearts passion for God because we see how good he is and what he did to save us.
It’s impossible to look at the cross and remain proud and self-centered, so when you abide in it, plant yourself in it, it produces a totally different set of things in you. Paul calls these the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16–26).
Love: We start to love other people because they are people, not because of what they can do for us.
Joy: We have a delight in God that goes above and beyond our circumstances.
Peace: We have a restful confidence that our Heavenly Father is present in and fully in charge of our lives.
Patience: We deal with our disappointments without lashing out in anger, even when people hurt us and let us down.
Kindness: We have a goodness that flows out of us toward others.
Goodness: We have integrity at our core.
Faithfulness: We have a commitment to God and others that’s based on loyalty, not whether or not there’s something in it for us.
Gentleness: We have a sense of humility about us, not entitlement.
Self-control: We have bodily desires, but they don’t rule us.
After he lists these, Paul says, “… against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:23 ESV). In other words, when a person is dominated by the fruit of the Spirit, they don’t need laws to constrain their behavior. They’ll act righteous because God has made them righteous. This is what the gospel produces. This is what it means to love God and others.
Note: This list came, in large part, from a list given by Tim Keller in his small group study on Galatians