Christians love the fruit of the Spirit. I frequently (almost daily) ask God to renew His Holy Spirit in me and I ask him to fill me with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). As Christians, we are called to be Christ-like and I can’t think of a better way to be Christ-like than to be full of the fruit of the Spirit and to exhibit the fruit to others.
But how often do we really think about Galatians 5:19-21? How often do you hear Christians quote the three verses listed above? Why do we skip over these three verses and go right for the “good” verses? The Holy Bible is the inspired Word of God. Each and every word is there for a reason and all the words are there because God wanted them to be there.
The apostle Paul penned these words over 1,950 years ago. He wrote them specifically to the Galatians, but they are words of wisdom for Christians of all ages. It is no accident that Paul wrote the words in Galatians 5:19-21 before he wrote the words in 5:22-23. God inspired Paul to write these words to warn us that we can’t be living for the flesh, selfishly for ourselves and be full of the fruit of the Spirit. The flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh (Galatians 5:17). You can’t have it both ways.
In verses 19-21, Paul lists the lusts of the flesh; the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. If you are entertaining your fleshly desires, you cannot be full of the “good” fruit. We serve Jesus Christ our Lord or we serve sin. Please notice Paul’s somber warning at the end of verse 21: those who do such things shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God. This is very serious folks. Who are you serving today? Are you serving Jesus our Master or have you foolishly put yourself on the throne and are you doing as you please?
Do not be deceived. If there has been no change in your life after you confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you really are not saved. If God isn’t sanctifying you, if He isn’t drawing you closer to Himself and convicting you of your sins, then you really need to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Salvation is supernatural. God changes you on the inside. He takes away your fleshly desires and gives you His desires (Philippians 2:13).
If you are reading this and are unsure if you have truly been saved, then please cry out to God to save you. Salvation is the free gift from God (Romans 6:23). If God is convicting you right now that you are lost and on the road to Hell (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9), please ask God to forgive you for sins. Ask God to grant you repentance and faith. Please understand that salvation is more than just saying a prayer when you were a child. Salvation is of the Lord. When God truly saves you, He will grant you repentance toward Himself and faith toward Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).
Repentance is a change of mind. Repentance is a change in direction. You stop running head first into the sins you used to love. You understand how wicked your sins are to our Holy God (Psalm 14:1). You turn away from your sins and turn to God (Acts 3:19). You stop trusting in your own goodness and rely solely on the goodness of Jesus to save you from your sins. You put your faith in Him alone (Galatians 2:16).
Then God will start sanctifying you and He will take away the fleshly desires listed in Galatians 5:19-21. Then He will start giving you the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. You don’t usually start exhibiting all of these over night. It takes time for God to mold you into the person He wants you to be for all of eternity. Please, repent and believe the Gospel today if you haven’t done so already.
Thank you Dennis. I found this very insightful and helpful. I like the your written style. I gave my life to the Lord in June of 2013. I find I am struggling a bit to come through some sadness in my life as a result of walking away from so many things in a short period of time. It can be overwhelming. I am 47 years old and I did not grow up with a faith or understanding of what it meant to believe in God and spent my life doing as I pleased. Today I was speaking with a mentor who has been appointed to me by the church I am attending. I explained to him that I was studying the word in hopes of brain-washing myself so as to draw closer to the Holy Spirit and break the sadness I have been experiencing. A friend of mine had given me a long list of scriptures that essentially identify who we are in Christ. They are conclusions drawn from specific scriptures. They are words you can speak over yourself to remind you who you are. ie: All begin with, “In Jesus’ name…..I am the son of God and a joint heir of God” Galatians 4:7. When I looked this verse up, I became curious about being the “Son of God” since I have been made well aware of John 3:16 and “God sending his only begotten son…” My mentor began explaining that we are no longer slaves. I stopped him and asked what that meant and he stated that we are no longer slaves to sin (the manifestations or things that are opposite of the fruit of the spirit) This had me curious to know what the opposites to the fruit of the spirit are. This being because I would like to remove those from my life. Thus I was brought to your sight, but not before I found another link that explained some of the emotions tied to the opposites. For example the opposite of “Love” was “Hate” and the opposite of “Joy” was listed as “Sadness” and the opposite of “Peace” was “Anxiousness”. With the exception of, “Hate” or “Hatred”, “Sadness”, and “Anxiousness” are not written by Paul in Galatians in those verses before the Fruit of the Spirit. Interestingly enough however, the emotions of “Sadness” and “Anxiousness” I believe are the manifestations of another popular opposite of “Love” which is “Fear”. So, where am I going with all of this? Not sure exactly other than expressing some thoughtful words to a complete stranger online who happens to be aiding in my search for truth, understanding and wisdom. I am also wanting to point out to you that you have listed “Faith” as one of the “Fruits”. In the versions of the Word I have been referencing, I do not see “Faith” on the list and it has me wondering where you got yours from. I have the link to the Blog post I found that offers another take on “Opposites of the Fruit”… In this New Year I commit to spending much less time in any of the following emotions: Fear, Hatred, Sadness, Anxiousness, Impatience, Guilt, Shame, Envy, Disgust, Annoyance, Anger, Helplessness, Powerlessness, Self Pity and Pride. The bottom line I suppose is we simply need to ask what kind of feeling comes up when we hear a word, if it is negative, chances are very good that the word is not of God. This leads me to consider that it can pretty much boil down to Attitude. My next step in Brain Washing is to incorporate the “BeAttitudes”. If you would like to connect offline, I would welcome that….just send an email to me Reason I state that is I am just not sure how I will be notified if you respond….this is a rare instance where I have commented on someone’s Blog that before today I did not know existed. Thanks for reading and once again for what you wrote.
If you don’t believe one saved always saved you will never be able to rest in Christ. All that He has accomplished is bb grace. The more you know this. The more you fall in Love with Him. And want to follow Him. The spirit He gave us is God working in us. The flesh profits nothing. It takes a life time to grow in Christ. Be patient with yourself. I believe are saved and being saved. Once you have been born again and become his child, an I am sure you are, He will never leave or forsake you
I prefer believing in eternal security (1 John 5:13) instead of saying once saved always saved. I was a false convert and I don’t believe that I was the only one who asked Jesus into my heart but hadn’t repented and surrendered my life to Jesus. Too many churches are looking for people to make a decision for Jesus because they believe once saved always saved, ie – I can do anything I want to including murdering someone because once saved always saved. A true Christian, someone who is born again will be a different person than they were before. Works don’t save us, but being saved changes us.