The Fruit of the Spirit and the Flesh

Faith is one of the fruits of the Sprit listed by Paul in Galatians 5:22. There are many Christians who agree that the fruit of the Spirit are all aspects of love.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:22-26

Crucifixion of the Flesh

Look at the sequence by which Paul presents the components of this text - it makes perfect sense. Paul lists the qualities that the Holy Spirit brings to our re-created Spirit in verses 22 and 23. He then goes on in verse 24 to say that the only way you can truly belong to Christ and to experience His presence in your life – is to deal with the flesh nature.

One way of seeing this is that this crucifixion of the flesh is something that we must do. This effort is open to interpretation: some would say that we have to control our conduct; some would say that we must guard our heart and maintain good attitudes and motives.

Whilst others would say that verse 24 is past tense, “have crucified the flesh”. We can link this to what we read in Romans 6:3-4. We were buried with Him through baptism into death. If we died with Him, so to speak, then we are Christ’s and we have crucified the flesh – because Jesus crucified our flesh for us.

The Living Bible renders verse 24 in the following way: Those who belong to Christ have nailed their natural evil desires to his cross and crucified them there.

The key to a wonderful Christian life is to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit and follow His direction in everything that you do. The Living Bible expresses this wonderfully in verse 25: If we are living now by the Holy Spirit's power, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

The Contemporary English Version puts it this way: God's Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit. To live in the Spirit means that as believers in Christ we have been born again, made alive together with Christ and the Holy Spirit lives in us. If we have the Holy Spirit in us now, we should live a life that expresses this truth, not just a mere sentiment. This is not a commandment, as such; this is a promise – hallelujah!

John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes says, regarding verse 25:
If we live by the Spirit - If we are indeed raised from the dead, and are alive to God, by the operation of his Spirit. Let us walk by the Spirit - Let us follow his guidance, in all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions.

Faith is a Fruit

This wonderful Spirit-filled and Spirit-led life that Paul describes is dependant on faith. But before we all go beating ourselves up because we feel we have not got enough faith, consider this: faith is a fruit of the spirit – it is a gift from God.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary connects the word faith in Galatians 5:22 to “believes all things” in 1 Corinthians 13:7, as well as to a general trustfulness:
faith — “faithfulness”; opposed to “heresies” [Bengel]. Alford refers to 1 Corinthians 13:7, “Believeth all things”: faith in the widest sense, toward God and man. “Trustfulness” [Conybeare and Howson].

Faith Comes By Hearing…

Contrary to what Word of Faith teaches: faith does not come from making continual , scriptural confessions. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God being preached. (Rom. 10:17). Of course, we cannot develop faith by merely being given rules, or even formulas and principles – we need to be told who we are in Christ – what He has already done for us.