BACKGROUND
"Legalists in our churches today warn that we dare not teach people
about the liberty we have in Christ lest it result in religious anarchy.
The Christian who lives by faith is not going to be a rebel.
Quite the contrary, he is going to experience the inner discipline of God
that is far better than the outer discipline of man-made rules."
Warren Wiersbe
Galatians 1-4 deals with doctrine. Galatians 5-6 deals with practically living that doctrine out in our lives.
Christ has set us free. We do not need to fall back into the Law. We can stay free and stand firm in that. We do not have to worry that this will lead us back into ungodliness because if we walk by the Spirit (5:16), we will be led into a life of love and service. The Greek word, peripateite, is in the present imperative and means to "keep on walking" which implies it is a moment-by-moment choice on the part of the believer. It requires yielding to the Holy Spirit's control in everything rather than yielding to the old nature that we inherited from the fall of Adam.
The remainder of the chapter goes into specific sins of the flesh contrasted with the fruits of the Spirit. If one habitually indulges in sins of the flesh, it gives evidence that they are not a child of God. The fruit of the Spirit of God working through the life of a believer in union with Christ (John 15 is the key) will be evident. I read that these qualities can be grouped in this way:
In the mind and heart - love, joy, peace
In the actions towards others - patience, kindness, goodness
In general conduct - faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
If we belong to Christ, the evil passions of the flesh have been crucified. Since we have life in the Spirit, we can walk by the Spirit, and we can walk in unity.
REFLECTION from 2023
I don't know why I did not write a reflection on this chapter back in 2010!
My word for 2023 is JOY. My name means "Song of Joy." Actually, I think I am a pretty joyful person, but I wanted to dig deeper into this fruit of the Spirit. Somehow, the trackers on the internet knew this was my word for the year, and a book was recommended to me:
I think this was recommended to me because I had read this book last year:
Renovated by Jim Wilder
(I have read Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard four times, but The Joyful Journey book puts a missing piece in the whole pie! It put together the secular book I had read called Hardwiring Happiness and the Christ-centered book on a similar topic, Anatomy of the Soul.)
Then it led me to these books:
And a Life Model Works Study Group called Learning to Become a Full-Brained Christian.
On top of all this, a woman came and stayed with us who teaches on all of this. It was uncanny how many things came together, and I am very grateful for it.
These books are all about learning that we have a left brain and a right brain. These are descriptors of these:
LEFT (SLOW TRACK)• Conscious thought• Speech• Strategies• Problem solving• Logic• StoriesRIGHT (FAST TRACK)• Individual identity• Group identity• Emotional attunement to others• Assessment of surroundings (good, bad, scary)• Relational attachments (Wilder, Jim; Hendricks, Michel. The Other Half of Church, p. 20).
Most discipleship and church focus on the left brain rather than the right.
Wilder and Hendricks go on to say:
Our right brain governs the whole range of relational life: who we love, our emotional reactions to our surroundings, our ability to calm ourselves, and our identity, both as individuals and as a community. The right side manages our strongest relational connections (both to people and God) and our experience of emotional connectedness to others. And character formation. Don’t miss that. Character formation, which is a primary responsibility of the church, is governed by the right brain, not the left brain. If we want to grow and transform our character into the character of Jesus, we must involve activities that stimulate and develop the right brain. (p. 21)Left-brained discipleship emphasizes beliefs, doctrine, willpower, and strategies but neglects right-brain loving attachments, joy, emotional development, and identity. Ignoring right-brain relational development creates Christians who believe in God’s love but have difficulty experiencing it in daily life, especially during distress. In a left-brained community, we are taught Christian doctrine, but the doctrine has difficulty showing up in our instantaneous reactions:
• We are told not to lie but are not shown how to stop lying
• We are told to trust God with our money and not be greedy but are not shown how
• We believe that God loves us and that we can trust Him, yet our beliefs feel shaky when we are in distress. (p. 24-25)
I'm learning so much about the fruit of JOY and how it is fuel for our BRAIN!
Meditate on John 15. Here is a Lectio Divina in it.
Now, meditate on the Fruits of the Spirit. Think of a time when you experienced, in yourself or from another, these fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Relive some of those experiences in your mind and talk to God about them. Then, talk to a friend about it.
PRAYER
Lord, lead us on into liberty in Christ that frees us to love and serve others. Teach us to abide in You so that we might walk in the Spirit and not carry out the desires of the flesh. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Days 11-20 of the 30-Day Prayer Guide for ISIS are based on the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Another great way to apply this chapter is to pray through this guide. When I wrote this original post in 2010, they were a major threat. While downgraded as a threat, they are still active. Read this article for more information:
1 comment:
Well, that was fun. I just added a whole reflection 13 years later because I have a lot to say about JOY and the fruit of the Spirit!
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