I would encourage a serious reader of the letter to read Galatians 5:1-6:18 together first, in order to catch a flow of the exhortation in the form of pastoral counsel that Paul offers. In particular, note how what Paul has said thus far prepares the way to present his notion of Christian liberty.
In the world of scholars, the presence of these last two chapters, for some, suggests that Betz is wrong to say that Paul uses the rhetoric of the courtroom in this letter. Such rhetoric does not have a practical appeal at the end. It might suggest that something other than the image of Paul presenting case to a jury is in play.
The whole of Galatians forms a coherent, progressive argument by Paul against the influences of a group of law-oriented opponents. These teachers insisted that Christians were obligated to keep the Mosaic Law. While theologically rich in their own right, the first four chapters of Galatians are really a series of examples and citations about the Law and the gospel leading up to the climax of Paul's argument in chapters 5 and 6. If this is true, then we have moved beyond the idea that Paul now offers an ethical imperative based upon the fundamental theological point established in the first four chapters. We have moved toward viewing Chapters 5 and 6 as the goal of this letter. As we shall see, then, the point of what God has done in Christ is to transform human lives. In Chapter 4, Paul says he is so direct and urgent in his letter because his desire is that Christ takes form in them. He longs for the oneness in Christ to become real in them. The danger of this view is that it can open the door to a bad case of perfectionism and legalism. Yet, the danger of not moving this direction is that all that baptism and faith in Christ do is resolve your eternal destiny. We need to be willing to take the risk of emphasizing that all of this reflection on who Christ is has the goal that you and I experience transformation. The negative examples and fierce arguments Paul had leveled against the missionary opponents (who had apparently gained considerable influence over the Galatian Christians) now give way to Paul's positive concluding remarks. Paul has given hints of what he wants. He wants to see Christ formed in them, which explains the urgency and occasional harshness of the letter. He wants to see them to unite in Christ. Thus, this chapter begins with Paul drawing a quite specific conclusion from his previous four chapters of discourse. No one should force the Galatians to submit to circumcision. The insistence of his opponents that the Galatians observe this ritual flies in the face of Christian freedom. They are in danger of exchanging the slavery of heathenism for the slavery of Judaism. Clarifying the scope of this freedom is what directs and informs the rest of the letter.
The theme of Galatians 5:1, the beginning of a segment that continues to verse 12, is that of a warning that his readers need to stand firm in their Christian liberty, thereby rejecting the way of circumcision and Law. 1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Here is the goal of the discussion in the first four chapters. If we have a proper grasp of what God has done in Christ, then we will have genuine, Christ-given freedom. Freedom is a perilous, fragile gift. Freedom can also fragment community. Paul is warning readers against an exclusively individualist concept of freedom. "I've got mine," becomes the slogan of a society in centrifuge. Paul appeals for a churchly, communal sense of responsibility. Christ's gift to all his disciples is true freedom. Is freedom a fine thing in itself? Is freedom a fine thing because Christ has won it? Asking such questions enters the realm of philosophy. Is something worthy because God determines it so, or is it worthy naturally, and God acknowledges it as well and works toward its perfection. It seems more likely to me that what Paul is doing acknowledging a legitimate human desire for freedom and liberty, and therefore lifting it up as something life in Christ brings. In any case, Paul addresses the Galatians as those who have received this liberty. As he sees it, to give up the freedom that Christ has won, and thereby giving up justifying faith, is the temptation into which false teachers have led these people and won some success among them. As he puts it in verse 9, a “little leaven” leavens the entire lump. What we learn is that circumcision in this passage and Jewish feasts in 4:10 are to become obligatory, according to these false teachers.[1] Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. I have avoided the identification of the opponents of Paul as Judaizers, for it has led to an equation of Judaism with nomism. Torah-observance in and of itself becomes a desire to make oneself acceptable before God, and Paul is thereby rejecting Judaism itself. However, recall that Paul has already affirmed “the whole law” as encapsulated in the command to mutual love. The problem, then, is not with “law”/torah itself (any more than that all “slavery” is problematic), but rather with the “self-indulgence” that is the core of nomism. If one’s focus in observing God’s gracious “instruction” is exclusively to secure blessings for one’s self rather than to be in just and loving relationship with God, others, and the whole of creation, then one is ultimately following one’s own “desires” rather than being “led by the Spirit” who is the revealer of God’s “instruction,” torah, “the whole law.” I want to discuss what this liberty might mean. While it appears Paul has set up an absolute contrast between slavery and freedom, he seems to have a much more nuanced position. The contrast is with the idea of servitude overcome in Christ. This servitude consists in bondage to a law of God that humanity has misunderstood and misused, a law to which humanity ascribes divine authority and makes every effort to observe. Of course, in practice, humanity does not recognize in it the voice of God. Such bondage does not allow humanity to receive genuine revelation.[2] The imparting of liberty is not simply opposing freedom of choice, but offering genuine direction that brings liberty. Such liberty is human sanctification.[3] Of course, to extol “freedom” in American churches cannot help but call to the minds of those who attend the rallying of the colonists for independence. To set it directly in contrast to “slavery” certainly tempers the celebratory mood with necessary humility regarding our national forebears. Some of them wanted to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves, but refused to extend it to others. Martin Luther thought of this last chapter as an exposition of the Christian liberty to which Paul hoped that the Galatian churches would return. He did not think Paul is referring to civil liberty. Rather, he refers to the liberty of conscience that comes from Christ. One is no longer fearful of the anger of God, and therefore has liberty. Times have changed. I think the modern person no longer lives with such a fear. The liberty Luther thought one could have only in Christ the modern, secular person comes by quite naturally. Of course, for Luther, reason cannot properly appreciate this gift.
Galatians 5:13-25, a segment that extends to verse 26, has the theme of warning against corruption of the flesh and an invitation to bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:13-6:10 are urging the Galatians to have their lives directed by the Spirit.[4] If they live no longer by the Law, they must now live by the Spirit. To do so is to fulfill the Law through love and its attending graces. The flesh, however, has a different effect in the lives of people. Paul's dominant rhetorical strategy is urging the Galatians to have their lives directed by the Spirit. In order to convey this message, he uses several commands, exhortations, warnings and promises.[5] Paul shows that freedom from the Law does not mean freedom from moral obligation.[6] However, it becomes clear that Paul does not bring another legalistic demand upon Christians, but rather, clarifies life in the Spirit.
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Having identified freedom as Christ's gift to his followers, Paul now carefully defines just what kind of "freedom" this is and what it requires. God has called them to freedom. What will this freedom look like in a human life? Thus, Paul cautions only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence (σαρκί), for such a life would be one form of slavery. “Flesh” is that self-regarding human nature corrupted at its source, with its unchecked appetites and propensities, which result in the works of the flesh he will soon list. Some of the friends of Paul might even suggest that the Law is the best antidote to the works of the flesh. In contrast, Paul is moving in the direction of describing the freedom that comes in the Spirit. However, freedom will look like love and service, for genuine freedom learns that one must through love become slaves. For Paul, freedom is not the opposite of slavery, but rather a matter of what one serves. Christian freedom means the participants in the community become slaves to one another. Now, he can speak of slavery in a positive sense of practical love to each other, which is the law of Christ. Service that relationally directs itself toward others “through love” Paul can positively refer to as “slavery.” Paul directs the attention of his Galatian audience out of their self-absorption and reminds them that one’s response to the neighbor measures loving service - not the self. Many commentators have noted how Paul's complex relationship to the law that we see here. Paul emphasizes the power and priority of Christ's freedom and love over the letter of the law. Yet, he uses a popular encapsulation of the law itself to demonstrate correct behavior in those living within Christ's freedom. Some commentators have suggested that this reference to "the law" allows one to understand it as Paul's continued commitment to the "second table" of the Mosaic covenant - and the ethical/relational precepts spelled out there. Others claim Paul is stressing the difference between the concern of the opponents with doing the Law and his own urgings that Christians fulfill the law through love. Why should others be any more beneficial a master than one’s own self? Does not experience teach us that those who submit their own desires to the desires of others are often, if not perhaps universally, taken advantage of by them? 14 For the whole law (νόμος) is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love (Ἀγαπήσεις) your neighbor as yourself.” The very real potential for such abuse may be exactly why Paul immediately asserts that one can reduce the law to the command to love the neighbor as oneself. The true intention of the Law finds fulfillment in one set in love by Christ.[7] This notion seems to have some basis in the teaching and life of Jesus, which is why Paul can refer to it as the law of Christ. Paul and Jesus unite at the supremacy of love. In b.Sabb. 31a, we read of a Gentile coming to Shammai asking the rabbi to teach him the entire Torah while he stood on one foot. Shammai hit him with a rod that he had. When he went to Hillel, he responded, “What is hateful to you do not to your neighbor; that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.” Judaism had other attempts to summarize or organize the Torah into shorter topics or sayings. Yet, that command applied individually (“I must love others as I love myself”) of course cannot stave off abuse. Yet when applied communally where every “neighbor” whom one is to love is simultaneously a “you” who must also show love in return to the other who is reciprocally a “neighbor,” then there is both a freedom to act for others even as it establishes restraints by what we recognize as unloving when directed toward ourselves. Just as “slavery” has the potential to be both positive and negative in Paul’s view, so in the same way he can use the word “law” either positively or negatively. Clearly, Paul uses the “law” in a positive sense here. Most likely, he uses it in a way that corresponds to the use of the Hebrew word Torah within Judaism to refer to the “instruction” God provides through the Scriptures regarding how to live in relationship with the Divine, other people and all of creation.
In all of this, we can see the problem that Luther unnecessarily created for himself. He made such a sharp distinction between faith and love that there is legitimate concern that “faith” becomes only a matter of inner conscience, with little effect upon how one lives. In this, I think John Wesley had a better way of thinking, using these verses to say that Christianity is always faith working through love. I think it quite unnatural to separate them. However, Luther does say that reason takes offense at the brevity with which Paul treats the Law. Reason looks down upon faith and its truly good works. He defines such good works as serving each other by instructing each other, comforting the afflicted, raising the fallen, helping one’s neighbors, bear the infirmities of the neighbor, to endure hardship, toil, and ingratitude in church and world. It also means to obey government, honor parents, and patience at home. Reason does not consider such actions as good works, but in reality, they are excellent works. My neighbor is every person in need of help. Even those who have done me wrong remain human beings and therefore worthy objects of my love.[8] Calvin moves in this same direction, reminding us that the present question is not, in what manner we are free before God, but in what manner we may use our liberty in our relationship with others. A good conscience submits to no slavery; but no danger attaches itself to one who practices outward slavery, or one who abstains from the use of liberty. In a word, if “by love we serve one another,” we shall always have regard to edification, so that we shall not grow malicious, but use the grace of God for the honor of God and the salvation of our neighbors. 15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. When the restraints of verse 14 on freedom are not in place — when everyone is free to use others only as a means to satisfy his or her own personal desires — the result is that everyone is simply “consumed” by each other. All these attempts to explain Paul's reference here to "law" immediately after he proclaims Christian freedom we perhaps best understand by noting the particular example Paul offers this Galatian community in verse 15. Apparently, the Galatian community's division into opposing theological factions had generated combative spirits that drove them to "bite and devour one another." To those who claimed the continued primacy of the law, Paul's familiar distillation of all law to the single commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" must have been convicting. The law convicts all the backbiting factions of denying the very law they are seeking to follow.
Galatians 5: 16-21 and 22-26 divide human behavior into that of the "flesh" and that of the "spirit.” Traditional interpretations of these two ways have tended to take Paul literally. One understands flesh as the base, fallen nature of human flesh. Likewise, one understands the spirit as a literal reference to living within the power and the influence of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit. Some scholars suggest that such a reading is too simplistic. This interpretation reads flesh and spirit as redemptive historical terms. For Paul, fleshly existence was something that trapped all people until the events of Christ's death and resurrection. Those who hear and believe the news of Christ's resurrection, however, now enter into a new plane of existence - living in the Spirit. In this model, the Mosaic Law was part of the old fleshly system that existed before Christ's redemptive death. Thus, when Paul argues against being in the flesh he is not simply citing flesh as an inferior human condition, but as a past standard that has been overwhelmed by the event of Christ's death and resurrection. Those still in the flesh are the opponents whose teachings are causing confusion and dissension in the Galatian church. Those in the spirit are all those who live the light of Christ's redemptive acts. To live in "the Spirit" is to experience the crucifixion of one's own flesh (v. 24) and thus to enjoy the new freedom Christ offers.
In Galatians 5: 16-18, Paul offers a double contrast with the Spirit, first with flesh and then with Law. Flesh and Law are closely allied. The Law is no safeguard against the flesh, but rather provokes it. Flesh and Law move in the same element, the outward and material. 16 Live (περιπατεῖτε) by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires (ἐπιθυμίαν) of the flesh (σαρκὸς). "Self-indulgence" is not primarily sensual or bodily gratification, but the total resources of humanity without the Spirit. The way of the Spirit is the way of freedom and love. Love does not have external force or sanction, one that a nation or religion can impose. One cannot impose love of neighbor. It arises through the operation of the Spirit. 17 For what the flesh (σὰρξ) desires (ἐπιθυμεῖ) is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. The temptation is to go to Romans 7 and 8 for an exposition of this tension between flesh and Spirit. However, we may have a pre-Pauline anthropology here that Paul does not work out fully until his letter to the Romans. Thus, we cannot go to the Romans passage and assume that Paul is already thinking that way.[9] In a Reformed view, this passage shows the freedom of Christians in Christ and the solidarity of Christians with the rest of humanity in the struggle with the flesh. The Christian is not only free in Christ but also struggling with the continued presence of the flesh. Humanity is dead in its sins in all seriousness of a past that is unfortunately always present. Individuals are corpses awaiting the resurrection. Individuals engage in the conflict of the Spirit against the flesh. Such conflict does not mean peaceful co-existence, let alone cooperation. Even the Christian remains a rebel rather than a servant of the king. The liberation of humanity in Christ, the new birth, the conversion, the freedom, all takes place in Christ, not in the Christian. The individual remains useless as for as the good has concern. Individuals choose only the wrong. The Christian is a practical non-Christian. Freedom and bondage clash in one person. Such a view seeks to distance itself from the Roman Catholic notion of human cooperation in justification. In one sense, liberation is provisional, for the saints are still captives. The liberation is real, for if they are still prisoners, it does not count. The captivity is behind them, freedom ahead of them. All of this is in their fellowship with Christ.[10] 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Contrast the positive assessment of “law” in verse 14 to its juxtaposition to the Divine in verse 18. Here, Paul clearly identifies “Law” with the “desires of the flesh” that are “opposed to the Spirit” in verses 16-17. Whether the other use of “law” in this passage is positive or negative is somewhat difficult to say; that there is “no law against” love [v. 23b] seems to smack of sarcasm or at least irony since “love” sums up “the whole law” in v. 14. We learn that the age of the Spirit supersedes the age of Law. To exchange the freedom they now have for the Law would be to return to the slavery of stoicheia.
Galatians 5: 19-21 are a list of vices. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious. Fornication [πορνεία], which in the Greek and Roman world was so common that it became reprehensible only when carried to excess. Impurity [ἀκαθαρσία] suggests the spread of the corrupting influence of vice. Licentiousness [ἀσέλγεια] refers to wantonness, vice throwing off all restraint with no sign of shame or fear, without regard for self-respect or respect for others. Such behavior is shocking public decency. 20 Idolatry [εἰδωλολατρία] , sorcery [φαρμακεία] , showing the works of the flesh recognize false gods and tamper with the powers of evil. With Paul, worship of idols refers to any substitute for the worship of the true God. With Paul, sorcery refers to the drugs used in witchcraft. Enmities [ἔχθραι] refers to hostilities between individuals or communities, on political, religious, or racial grounds. Strife [ἔρις] refers to quarrelsomeness. Jealousy [ζῆλος] refers to the negative sense of this word, that of selfish jealousy. Depending upon context, one could translate as jealousy or envy. Anger [θυμοί] refers to outbursts of rage. Aristotle refers to the menace of uncontrolled rage that does not hear the voice of reason. He compares it to a pet dog who vigorously barks before discovering if the approaching person is friend or foe.[11] Quarrels [ἐριθεῖαι] refers to a mercenary spirit and selfish ambition. Dissensions [διχοστασίαι] refers to divisions. Factions [αἱρέσεις] refers to heresy. 21 Envy [φθόνοι] refers to the grudging spirit that cannot bear to contemplate the prosperity of someone else. Depending upon context, it could receive the translation of jealousy or envy. Drunkenness [μέθαι] refers to individual drunkenness or drunken orgies. Carousing [κῶμοι] refers to revelry, a word always used with drunkenness. He could go on in describing the works of the flesh, but he invites the reader to complete the list by saying and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. As Paul refers to the reign of God here, he refers to a future reality, the heritage of the people of God in the age to come. The gift of the Spirit is the guarantee or first installment of that heritage.
Galatians 5:22-25, a segment that actually extends to verse 26, focus on the Spirit. Here are the graces that exhibit the lifestyle of those who live by the energy and indwelling of the Spirit. Even if we continue to read verses 16-25 as literal references to flesh and Spirit, there remains an undercurrent in Paul's words of the continuing battle between law and freedom. Paul refers to the behaviors manifested by the flesh and the "works" of the flesh (v. 19) - i.e., activities brought about and fully realized by human actions and abilities. Those in the Spirit, however, experience the "fruits" of the Spirit (v. 22). Human endeavor cannot bring fruit to existence. Farmers can plow, fertilize and tend - but whether a crop succeeds in producing fruit is still the result of the divine gift of life. Likewise, it is through Christ's freely given sacrifice that those living in his Spirit can expect the presence of the Spirit's greatest fruits. While it takes a bit of a stretch to characterize every one of the vices listed in verses 19-21a as actions that abuse others for personal gratification, the “fruit of the Spirit” are virtues that exist essentially in relationship. The placing of “self-control” at the end of the virtues draws attention to this fundamental distinction between gratifying the self’s desires and restraining them — or indeed even putting them to death in verse 24.
22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love [ἀγάπη], the first fruit, not surprising, given that it fulfills the Law and defines the law of Christ. Love covers all the other fruits. If we exhibit the other eight fruits, we will learn to love. The second fruit of the Spirit is joy [χαρά],in which you brighten up a room with your cheerful attitude. You make others glad just to be around you, and your attitude gives hope to others. Your life is full of words of encouragement and of positive and forward-looking thinking. The third fruit is peace or well-being[εἰρήνη], from which we get the English word irenic], in which your manner is welcoming and embracing, nothing remotely hostile or angry, employing gestures that identify you as a person of goodwill. Others see you as a person whose waters are still and whose inner life is utterly without conflict. This attribute of the Holy Spirit speaks to one’s inner satisfaction, contentment and serenity. Peace is a quality that Jesus expressly gave his disciples. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). In our time, peace is difficult with social media and its shouting and shrieking, living in a world of litigation and agitation and in a culture of complaining and confrontation. It is hard to experience “inner satisfaction, contentment and serenity.” Some scholars think that we have three sets of three, and if so, love, joy, and peace form the first triad.
The fourth fruit of the Spirit is patience [μακροθυμία]. Patience is also a quality of God that we are to bring into our lives, regardless of how imperfectly we may practice it. Patience is a willingness to let others work and move at their own pace according to their skills and interests. Paul’s word choice here is one that means to be “far away from anger.” There is this little 4-year-old boy who is traveling with his mother. Like most kids his age, he is constantly badgering his mother with the same question: "When are we going to get there? When are we going to get there?" Like many mothers of 4-year-olds, she gets irritated and says, "We still have 90 more miles to go. So don't ask me again when we're going to get there." The boy is silent for a long time. Then he asks, "Mom, will I still be 4 when we get there?" A man's car stalls in heavy traffic just as the light turns green. All his frantic efforts to get the car started fail, and a chorus of honking horns behind him makes matters worse. He finally gets out of his car, walks back to the first driver behind him, and says, "I'm sorry, but I can't seem to get my car started. If you'll go up there and give it a try, I'll stay here and honk your horn for you." A patient person is one who is able — in almost a Stoic way — to remove oneself from irritation and anger, and instead to allow circumstances to evolve and move along. A patient person is the driver who is sitting in gridlock at 5 p.m., and who not only does not honk his horn or switch lanes a zillion times, but also waits, knowing that the traffic knot will untangle and that the time spent idling in traffic is an opportunity for prayer and planning. He is “far away from anger.” Patience is a virtue that evidently one can lose once you have it. We often refer to “losing our patience.” Usually, however, we can keep our patience if we lose other things. Sometimes in order not to lose patience, we may need to lose our expectations, lose our need to be right and lose our need to be in control. In the words of the Frozen song sung by Idina Menzel, we may need to “let it go.” Bishop Fulton Sheen notes that patience is power. Patience might look like inaction. Instead, the power of patience lies in the timing of one’s action. Patience waits for the right time to act, in the right way and in accordance with the right principles. The fifth fruit is kindness [χρηστότης], referring to another quality of God. You cannot just be kind in your heart; you have to show kindness to someone. We can look at kindness as the actualization of the next fruit of the Spirit. The sixth fruit is generosity [ἀγαθωσύνη[12], usually translated goodness] may suggest the idea of the intrinsic or essential aspect of a person’s goodness. This goodness is innate. A person with goodness is a “salt of the earth” kind of person. She is a person without a mean bone in her body, a person who is just pure goodness through and through. Therefore, goodness is a condition, a state, a quality. To think of kindness and goodness together, goodness without kindness could make a person sanctimonious, self-righteous prig.
The seventh fruit is faithfulness [πίστις] refers to dependability and loyalty. One loves and commits with no questions asked and that others can depend upon you to do the right thing. A faithful person is “full of faith,” that is, one is absolutely brimming with confidence in the faithfulness of God. One is like Abraham who, according to Paul in his letter to the Romans, “hoping against hope, … believed.” “He did not weaken in faith …” (Romans 4:18-19). A person demonstrating this quality contrasts easily with the wavering and doubtful person who does not know one’s own mind. The doubtful person lives with hesitation and fear, wondering what will happen next, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Our faithfulness is a virtue that blesses others. When we are faithful, others learn to lean and depend on us. To have a faithful friend is one of the rarest things. Moreover, we can be that person! The eighth fruit is 23 Gentleness [πραΰτης], which Aristotle says is a mean between an excessive tendency toward anger and incapacity for anger.[13] We empathize, put ourselves in someone else’s position, and treat them, as we would like to be treated. Gentleness is the absence of aggression or physical, psychological or emotional abuse. Gentleness is the absence of self-promotion. Gentleness is goodness and kindness with gloves on. Gentleness is a soft word and an understanding heart. Gentleness understands the concept of age appropriateness, allowing people to mature and make choices on their own. Gentleness is the absence of judgmental negativism and private slandering and gossiping. Paul emphasizes this only a few verses later when he writes, “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness” (6:1). It is the same Greek word. Gentleness is a “daily life” virtue that should be as common as other qualities essential to maintaining good relationships. Paul writes to Titus, saying that Christians should “be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone” (3:1-2). To the Ephesian church, he writes in a similar vein: “I … beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3). Gentleness also reflects the character of Jesus. We cannot be truly Christlike and not be gentle. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). It is the same Greek word. The ninth and final fruit is self-control [ἐγκράτεια] focuses our attention upon sensual passions rather than the previous virtue of gentleness. Such restraint and self-discipline identifies one as dependable and trustworthy. Such a person is seldom out of control, mastering emotions and habits, thereby not given to excess. Such a person is a rock and refuge for others when things seem to be falling apart at the seams. Such a person does not need to be right, does not need to have the last word, and does not always need to have what the heart desires right now. Such a person knows how to wait, control the tongue, and offer measured responses. Such persons manages emotions, sets boundaries, and establishes goals and objectives. Such a person will not embarrass self or others. According to the seventh book of Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle says such a person has strong passions but is able to control them, while the opposite type of person has the strong passions and has no strength to resist their temptation. Plato contrasts it to those who over-indulge in food and sex.[14]
There is no law against such things. Believers have no external law regulating outward behavior. The Spirit has replaced Law. Practicing such virtues is beyond the realm of Law to touch. One cannot legally enforce them. Aristotle uses a similar phrase to suggest that some persons surpass others in virtue, not needing a law to regulate their behavior, and in fact, they constitute a law or standard for others.[15] The mere recital of such Christian graces ought to make our hearts long to see them in self and in others.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Paul has made it clear that both flesh and Law are part of the pre-Christian order. The cross makes a clean break. Crucifying our desires is something that those who belong to Christ should do, certainly in the aorist with an allusion to the act of baptism, yet still as something they must still demonstrate in the present conflict with carnal desires, as shown in verses 16-17. The indicative seen in baptism meets the imperative life actually lived.[16] Quite literally at the heart of Paul’s argument in this passage is his conviction that what we truly “want” is to live in relationship with God and others, but the “flesh” opposes the leading of the Spirit “to prevent [us] from doing what [we] want” (v. 17; cf. Romans 7:7-25a). If we fail to recognize this deepest restlessness of our hearts, then our baser desires will distract us and enslave us. Belonging to Christ (v. 24) as a slave belongs to a master is ironically the means of our liberation in Christ (v. 1). We find freedom not in independence of the self, but in relationship. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. We have the indicative and imperative characteristic of Paul, that is, you are in the Spirit, so walk and live in the Spirit. Walking by the Spirit is the outward manifestation of living by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit is the root, and walking by the Spirit is the fruit.[17] The imperative of the call to new obedience is a summons to demonstrate the indicative of the new being in Christ, but it also has its eschatological presupposition in the future that God has promised and that one can expect. Yes, become what you are, but even more, become what you shall be.[18]
I came across an article about fruit, especially the new shape of fruit that was just interesting to me. Of course, fruit comes in many shapes and sizes. Some are spherical -- like oranges, blueberries and grapes. Others are oblong -- like mangoes and papayas. Still others are apple- or banana-shaped like ... apples and bananas. Some farmers, though, are challenging our assumptions about the shape of fruit. Watermelons, for example, no longer need to be the rounded oblong shape with which we are most familiar. Go to the right market, and you may find square watermelons grown by botanical artists. At a restaurant, the cucumbers in your salad might appear heart-shaped rather than round, due to the produce shaping of another farmer.
While amazing, forming produce into basic shapes like squares and hearts is just the beginning. One agricultural expert has developed a process where pears -- having long been pear-shaped -- can now arrive at your farmer's market in the shape of little Buddhas. They can shape the arms and facial features in such a well-defined way that the Buddha appears to be in a prayer-like, meditative state. These fruits look like beautiful little sculptures or carvings, but people use no knives to create them. Farmers grow these pears this way.
To grow square watermelons and Buddha-shaped pears, farmers use specially designed molds they attach to the fruit when it first appears. As the young fruit matures, it grows into the mold, taking on the shape of the inside of the tool. When the fruit is ripe, the farmer removes the mold. The fruit retains the shape of the mold, allowing the farmer to deliver a square watermelon, heart-shaped cucumber or Buddha-shaped pear to the market.
With or without the mold, producing fruit is no easy task. Because of our distance from the farm or orchard, many of us have lost our appreciation for just how difficult this process is. We simply go to the local grocery story and pick up whatever fruit we like, at a reasonable price. It is all right there before us and we can receive it instantly.
If you are acquainted with your New Testament, you have probably read the passage in the letter of Paul to the Galatians about the fruit of the Spirit in Chapter 5. Of course, there is no market where we can acquire the fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Instead, we need to become orchard keepers, cultivating these virtues within us.
I have long referred people to this passage for discernment of the will of God. If you are going down a path that produces the fruit of which Paul writes here, then we are broadly in the will of God. We can also apply it to the ministry of the church. Fruit growers use baskets. The church has organization, methods, and programs. Both are important and necessary. However, if the fruit crop fails and there is no life in the trees, you are not going improve matters by buying better baskets. It would be a shame to turn out the best baskets ever, but have a failure of the fruit crop. [19] I invite you to take up the challenge. The point of our life together is not to produce better baskets, but to produce the fruit of transformed human lives. In terms of your life right now, do your decisions lead to production of this fruit?
If we examine the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, we can see that while the former disrupt fellowship and friendship, the latter build it up. The work of God begins a season that bears fruits. Such a fullness of fruit will need a sequence of seasons, both sowing and reaping. There will be new beginning which in each case are radical. One will also find weeds on these fields, and these will be a threat to the good seed. There will also be unskillful cultivation and lack of seriousness in caring for the good seed. There will be set backs to its growth. It will always be necessary that the good work of the Holy Spirit that has begun should begin again. One cannot be a Christian if one is not willing to move forward according to the direction of the Holy Spirit, constantly marching into a small portion of the land that God will show us. Christian life is a daily penitence, a constant stretching after the new possibilities that life offers, a never-resting striding in the light of the divine invitation and command that constantly encounter the individual afresh.[20]
Freedom is far more difficult to live than many of us think. Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “Liberty is a food easy to eat but hard to digest.” St. Augustine said that the minor liberty we have is the liberty to do as we choose. The major freedom we have is to choose rightly, so that we are in reality what God intended us to be.
Sometimes, we think we are free when we do whatever we want to do. Yet, we often observe that people make choices toward their destruction. Is that freedom? Well, yes, but one might also call it slavery. When we are self-indulgent, fulfilling our every whim and desire, we have actually become a slave to our darkness and our impulses toward self-destruction.
- A psychologist might tell us we are the products of our parents and limited by their emotional health.
- An economist might say we are products of our economic class, limited in our options by the wealth or poverty into which we were born.
- A sociologist might say we are products of our neighborhood or ethnicity, shaped and limited by cultural traditions and norms.
The Bible tells us instead that we are free from those forms or molds. Christ has set us free for freedom. We do not have to be the same shape as all the other watermelons on the vine or all the other pears on the tree. Circumstances do not limit us beyond our control. There are no forms around us restricting us, forcing us into some unnatural shape.
In a surprising way, we are free when we learn to bear the fruit of a well-lived life. Developing such qualities means we realize that life is not about us. The loving and caring relationships we have determine the quality of our lives.
The beautiful thing about bearing the fruit of the Spirit is that it becomes an effective witness for Christ in a secular age gone increasingly cynical about life. It becomes an “apologetic of virtue,” a demonstration to others of the effectiveness of the work of God in our lives.
It seems as if the public promotion of atheism goes in spurts. It will be quite “in” to say you are an atheist. Especially since 9/11, atheism has seemed like an attractive option.
• Richard Dawkins The God Delusion has sold 8.5 million copies, spending a year on the New York Times Best Seller List.
• Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great became a number-one New York Times Best Seller.
• Bill Maher’s film Religulous was the highest-grossing documentary of 2008.
New Atheism is hot and lucrative. It lumps every religion together. Further, the “atheist” rarely looks seriously at the harm done by secular forces in this world, such as communism, fascism, and other ideologies. They do not call for the abandonment of politics or political ideology because of their misuse, but they are sure are willing to do so with religion. Newsweek named Rabbi David Wolpe’s “#1 Pulpit Rabbi in America.” Wolpe’s book Why Faith Matters is his response to the new atheism movement. Quite honestly, here is a book I wish I had written. He is not bombastic with his opponents. He has debated some of them and has a good relationship with them. However, he thinks their discussion of religion has completely missed the positive benefits of religion. The book is decidedly not a “philosophical” defense of “religion.” Rather, he writes about how God, or belief in God, changes the lives of people. He cites the apologetic power of religion’s gifts to society: interdependent community, a sense of social responsibility, a commitment to charity, believing in God.
One way to think of this approach is as an apologetic of virtue. The word “apologetic” does not refer to the need to apologize. Theologians can provide an “apologetic” for the Christian faith, meaning a defense of the faith. A “virtue apologetic” suggests that the strongest argument for Christianity is other Christians. Christians as individuals and gathered into communities are to be signs of the redemption God is bringing to this world in Christ. We are often a weak sign. Our light flickers and dims due to our mistakes, sins, and copying of the values of the culture. Yet, we as individuals and communities of faith have the power to be(rather than make) a strong argument for the Christian faith.
The virtue apologetic crystallized for Wolpe early in his ministry career. In a story of inadequacy relatable to many clergy, he tells of a family calling him to the hospital bedside of an elderly woman to offer final prayers for the dying. He took her comatose hand but felt like a fraud. Who was he to shepherd a soul to the edge of the next world? Dutifully, he proceeded to pray familiar words anyway, letting their power carry him. Talking to his wife about it afterward, Wolpe confessed his feelings of inadequacy. “You’re right,” she said. “You’re unworthy. Anyone would be unworthy doing such a thing. That is okay, though. It is not you doing it. It’s being done through you.” Wolpe writes, “That was a pivotal moment for me. Suddenly it became clear to me that we bring light into this world not as a source but as a prism — it comes through us. As electricity requires a conduit, so spirit moves through human beings to touch others in crucial moments. As soon as I stepped out of my own way, the prayer felt real. I could believe in blessing when I felt that it did not depend on me.”
Novelist Edith Wharton, in her poem “Vesalius in Zante,” put the same idea this way:
So knowledge come, no matter how it comes!
No matter whence the light falls, so it fall!
Truth's way, not mine--that I, whose service failed
In action, yet may make amends in praise.
Fabricius, Cesalpinus, say your word,
Not yours, or mine, but Truth's, as you receive it!
You miss a point I saw? See others, then!
Misread my meaning? Yet expound your own!
Obscure one space I cleared? The sky is wide,
And you may yet uncover other stars.
For thus I read the meaning of this end:
There are two ways of spreading light: to be
The candle or the mirror that reflects it.
I let my wick burn out--there yet remains
To spread an answering surface to the flame
That others kindle.
Turn me in my bed.
The window darkens as the hours swing round;
But yonder, look, the other casement glows!
Let me face westward as my sun goes down.
The most powerful apologetic for Christianity is the changed lives of its adherents and the way they love their neighbors through their transformation. We are God’s first option on evangelism. It is a consistent biblical theme:
• Genesis 12: The family of Abraham obeying God will lead to all nations receiving blessing from God.
• Matthew 5:16: Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your God.
• 1 Peter 2:12: Live lives that silence the false accusations of pagans.
In Letter VII, friends told Plato that a man in the city had been spreading slanderous charges against him. Plato’s answer: “I will live in such a way that no one will believe what he says.”
Wolpe tells of a season where he lost his faith, bolstered by the writings of an “old atheist,” Bertrand Russell. A graphic Holocaust documentary introduced him to “evil and a world without God’s protection.” Russell became a logical, witty guide to a world that was merely the product of blind forces. Wolpe was enamored with the philosopher until he began reading biographical works that showed how depraved his life was: four broken marriages, alienated from his children, unabashed about his infidelity. Despite Russell’s brilliant mind, the fruit of his philosophy made a far more compelling argument. Claiming, “It was better to be Russell’s reader than his wife or child,” Wolpe stumbled back into faith through the apologetic of virtue.
Have we not we all met the Christian who is so compelling to us that his or her presence inspires our faith? Further, have we not also met that sister or brother whose words, actions or attitudes cause us to doubt our faith?
Preaching Professor Tom Long tells a true story that comes out of the little Georgia country church where he grew up. The older folks of that congregation loved to tell the story repeatedly. They laughed over it and shook their heads, and maybe they embellished a detail or two in the retelling. The tale took place on a certain Sunday night in October of 1938. This was back in the days of Sunday-evening prayer services. The preacher was right in the middle of his sermon when a man named Sam — a member of the congregation and well known to everyone — burst through the church doors, trembling with fear. It took him a moment to catch his breath, but then he blurted out, “It’s the Martians! They are attacking the earth in spaceships! Some of ’em have landed in New Jersey!” Now, Sam was not a man given to flights of fancy; nor was he fond of practical jokes. He was a straight-arrow sort of person. From the look in his eye, and his earnest tone of voice, it was clear he believed every word he said. The poor preacher did not know what to do. He had never imagined, in his wildest dreams, that someone might interrupt his sermon one day with news of an interplanetary invasion. The preacher just stared at Sam, open-mouthed. The congregation stared, too. “It’s true!” said Sam. “I swear it. I heard it on the radio.” What Sam had heard, of course, was Orson Welles’ now-infamous Mercury Theater of the Air radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. It was a fictional story, meant to sound like a real radio broadcast. It fooled an awful lot of people. The announcer said at the beginning it was only a story, but if you tuned in a few minutes late, you missed the context and were very likely to think it was a real, “we interrupt this program,” sort of news bulletin. After a few moments of awkward silence in the church, one of the oldest members of the congregation got up to speak. He was a farmer, a plainspoken “man of few words.” “I ’spect what Sam says ain’t completely true. But, if it is, I know this. We are in the right place here in church. I say we go on with the meetin’.” And so, they did.
[1] Barth (Church Dogmatics, IV.1 [61.4], 639-640).
[2] (Church Dogmatics I.1 [12.1] 456).
[3] (Church Dogmatics IV.2 [66.2] 531).
[4] Tolmie
[5] Matera
[6] F. C. Bauer (Paul, 1875 English Translation, p. 275).
[7] Gutbrod (TDNT, IV, 1076).
[8] Reason takes offense at the brevity with which Paul treats the Law. Therefore reason looks down upon the doctrine of faith and its truly good works. To serve one another in love, i.e., to instruct the erring, to comfort the afflicted, to raise the fallen, to help one’s neighbor in every possible way, to bear with his infirmities, to endure hardships, toil, ingratitude in the Church and in the world, and on the other hand to obey government, to honor one’s parents, to be patient at home with a nagging wife and an unruly family, these things are not at all regarded as good works. The fact is, they are such excellent works that the world cannot possibly estimate them at their true value. … My neighbor is every person, especially those who need my help, as Christ explained in the tenth chapter of Luke. Even if a person has done me some wrong, or has hurt me in any way, he is still a human being with flesh and blood. As long as a person remains a human being, so long is he to be an object of our love.
[9] Betz
[10] Barth (Church Dogmatics IV.2 [65.3] 496-98, 533).
[11] (Nichomachean Ethics, 7.1149a3).
[12] It occurs only four times in the New Testament, and it’s rarely if ever found in secular Greek.
[13] Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics, 2.1108a).
[14] Plato (Republic, 3.390B-C).
[15] Aristotle (Politics 3.13, 1284a).
[16] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology Vol III, 253).
[17] F. F. Bruce
[18] Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 162.
[19] --Vance Havner, When God Breaks Through: Sermons on Revival (Kregel Academic, 2003), 60.
[20] Barth (Church Dogmatics IV.4, p. 39).
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