Your life should be more than a flurry of activity. You were meant to produce spiritual fruit. Paul uses the imagery of fruit trees to illustrate this. What you want out of a fruit tree is fruit. In the Christian life what we want is spiritual fruit.

Wouldn’t it be great if every time that you received a harsh criticism you returned it with a response of kindness? That is what it is like for the believer who has the fruit of the Spirit manifested in their life.

Wouldn’t it be great the next time you are wronged, instead of rage your response was patience? On top of that you experienced a sense of joy in your life even during the time you were wronged.

What if the next time you faced uncertainty instead of agitation and inward churning you had a sense of peace. We may not see much of this, but it is what we desperately need. Nothing will take your life of disorder and replace it with a sense satisfaction and harmony than when the Holy Spirit is working, bearing spiritual fruit in your life. The answer lies right here in this passage of scripture on spiritual fruit.

Galatians 5:22-26
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

When rightly applied everything you do will have meaning and purpose. The spiritual fruit of love, joy, and peace will be characteristics that fill your inward being. Patience, kindness and goodness will characterize your relationship with others. These inward and outward characteristics are the result of God’s Holy Spirit at work in you. You can experience a spiritual Cinderella story. A spiritual transformation that takes you from spiritual rags to abundant spiritual riches.

Spiritual fruit is different than a spiritual gift. When you come to Christ God gives you one or more gifts to use in the body of Christ. You are unique. God has gifted you in a special way. Not everybody has every gift. But the fruit of the Spirit should be manifested in every life.

Can you visualize it? Can you see your life bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit? Can you just imagine what your life would be like if the Holy Spirit really manifested His work in every area of your life? Everywhere you went you would be a source of God’s presence.

At a family gathering you would really be able to love your relatives. You conversations would leave other family members with a desire to know the Lord. This is when people movements happen along family lines. When love, joy and peace are produced through you your marriage will be a blessing to you and your spouse. You love with a deep love of the Lord.

The routine things at the barber shop or hair salon and a visit to the dentist or doctor office will become opportunities that change people’s lives because you will witness about Christ. Talking about Jesus will be flowing from you. That is what the Holy Spirit does, magnify Christ.

The People who see you at work day in and day out will notice there is something different about you. They will see you and they will wonder why you are different. When the opportunity arises they will seek you out and ask you why. They have seen your life so that makes your spoken explanation of the gospel powerful.

It happens and it could happen to you. This is what God desires in your life. This is what is available to you. You ask, how do I get that kind of victory? What must I do to have that kind of triumph?

Following the verse on the fruit of the spirit we find a step by step way to experience this fruit. There is a simple application to make this life lifestyle change available right now.

We must start by crucifying the sinful nature. This is another way to say repentance.

Galatians 5:24
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

We nail the sinful nature to the cross. Yes, your sinful nature was delivered a death blow when you came to Christ. But just a reminder that Jesus gave Satan a death blow when he went to the cross and rose again, but Satan still wreaks havoc. He still kills and steals and destroys.

The sinful nature is still a part of you until you are in heaven. Yes when we become a Christian we nail the sinful nature to the cross. But as it has been expressed, we try to take it down again.

We need to nail our sinful nature to the cross where it belongs. It is a beautiful word picture of real repentance. We are grieved when we think or do something that goes against Christ. We acknowledge it and turn from it as an act of the will.

Our lives are to be a living sacrifice. The problem of a living sacrifice is that it crawls off the altar. We deal over and over with the sinful nature that is the description in Galatians 5:15-16

Those who want the fruit of the Spirit must consciously crucify the sinful nature. This is our true repentance before God. What grieves God grieves you. It is a U-turn, an about face.

We are instructed to keep in Step with the Holy Spirit (Faith) Galatians 5:25. This would be a great life verse. We make a fresh faith commitment to Christ.

Galatians 5:25
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

We must order our lives by the leadership of the Holy Spirit. If you walk with somebody in step you don’t run ahead and you don’t lag behind. God’s purpose runs through history and we are called to keep in step.

There are plenty of illustrations of those who are out of step. One of them is Peter drawing his sword in Gethsemane. You can spend time praying that God will order your steps. When you are in step with God you will accomplish more. Ask the Lord to order your steps. Walk in harmony with God’s purpose and plan. This is faith.

We are to avoid conceit, pride, provoking and envying. We must stop these to avoid getting off track. Nail your sinful nature to the cross and keep in step with the Spirit. Your life will be exciting. You will find God will use you.

It can be a shocking discovery. It takes place in the slums of our big cities. It takes place in upscale suburban subdivisions. And it is taking place right now inside of your mouth. Maybe you have seen the mouthwash commercials that show the inside of a mouth magnified by one thousand times.

There is a war going on inside of you right now. There are germs inside of you working to harm you. But there are also antibodies working to protect your teeth and gums from their destructive properties.

You probably can’t read this now. You may just want to run to the nearest bathroom cabinet and grab the Listerine and start gargling. But don’t leave yet because I want to bring up something even worse going on inside you. There is an internal civil war and no mouthwash is going to help this. A spiritual battle wages within you.

Galatians 5:16-21
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The conflict

We hate to admit it but in our pulpits, our choir lofts, our Sunday school classes and all throughout our churches we have a bunch of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hydes. We have two natures and they are diametrically opposed. The sinful nature verses the spiritual nature. Each nature desires what is contrary to the other.

All Christians have this internal conflict. Those who do not know Christ do not have this internal conflict. They have only one nature. This is the sinful nature. The problem for them is that you cannot reform or discipline the sinful nature to meet God’s standards. The lost stand condemned before God.

When we come to Christ, place our faith in Jesus then the Spirit of Christ, The Holy Spirit in our heart. We are regenerated. From that point on we have a Spiritual nature. God has forgiven your sins, past, present and future, but the sinful nature still remains with us.

You have no doubt seen lot of cartoons that show the cartoon character with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other shoulder. That concept is mythical, but it does underscore the reality that there are two natures, one nature is the Spiritual nature and is about the things of God and the other is the sinful nature and is about the things against God.

All Christians have this internal battle. Who is winning, the sinful nature or the spiritual nature? When we see a life which manifests selfish ambition, pride, jealousy then it is the sinful nature prevailing.

When we see a life characterized by peace, joy and love then we know the spiritual nature is prevailing. Paul talks of his struggle in Romans 7:17-18 “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. But her in Galations he tells Galatians to live by the Spirit. And you will not satisfy the sinful nature”
One day we won’t have this sin struggle. When a Christian dies and goes to be with the Lord or when Jesus returns and the believer receives his glorified body we will have no sinful nature. But until then we must be constantly reminded to live the Spirit led life.

It’s our only way to be effective as a Christian. Our prayer life, Bible study and witnessing can be powerful if we do what the Scripture commands here, live be the Spirit.

There are two alternative extremes we must avoid, that of licentious living a sinful lifestyle and the other is legalism, living an empty rulebook Christianity. But living by the Spirit puts us in a whole different dimension, the spiritual dimension.

The problem is the sinful nature.

The sinful nature stays with you even after you are a new creation in Christ. You could join the most secluded fortified monastery and your sinful nature will be right there with you. You can’t get away from your sinful nature. It accompanies you to church, prayer meetings and spiritual retreats.

You can get yourself away from the things that feed the sinful nature, but you can’t get away from your sinful nature. The sin nature is within us, but doesn’t need to control us. It manifests itself in all sorts of ugliness. 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, witchcraft, orgies .

I wish that were the whole list, witchcraft, drunkenness and orgies. All and all most Christians do a good job staying away from these biggies. But it doesn’t mean we are Spirit filled Christians when we eliminate witchcraft and drunkenness form our lives.

Look at the others sins that are seen when the sinful nature prevails; discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.

Most of these sins we can mask over and look respectable to everyone except God. But it is sin. It goes against what the Bible says in Galatians 5:13. Do not indulge the sinful nature. If you do you’re losing the spiritual battle. You risk being ineffective as a Christian.

Someone will say something that has to be from their sinful nature and then guess what happens? Just about everything on this list of sins except for witchcraft and drunkenness well up inside me. Their sinful nature touched off my own sinful nature.

Look at Galatians 5:21 I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Should we question our salvation when immorality, selfish ambition prevail and in short when the sinful nature is in control?

2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you have Christ you have the righteousness of Christ. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. These sins indicate a spiritual problem. Not that you are not saved but that you are backslidden.

If you live in these sins ongoing and habitually then that is an indication it is more than a backslidden condition but that you never made a genuine commitment to Christ. If the sin nature is the only experience you have ever had and you have not experienced the Spiritual nature and its fruit then any profession of faith wasn’t real. You need to commit your life to Christ.

Are you ready for the higher plain living? It is available now. God wants you to have it. So I say live by the Spirit. Maybe you have seen spiritual fruit in your life but your living in the flesh and you know it. Get back to the Spiritual dimension, recommit your life. Live victoriously. So I say, live by the Spirit.

If God is to work it will be through a person allowing God’s Spirit to control them. You must acknowledge that the sinful nature is in control. You must ask Christ to be Lord of your life and ask God for the Spiritual nature to prevail. The solution is not the law; the solution is the Spirit of God.

There was a woman who was married to a domineering husband that demanded her to follow a list of duties. His demands were full of regulations and the marriage was drudgery for that woman.

Her husband died and she later remarried. This time her marriage was based on love. It was not like the one she previously had, a marriage of regulation which required a list of dos and don’ts. One day she found her old list that was written by her first husband and she read the list of all his demands.

When she read the list she was surprised to realize that she was doing everything her first husband demanded and more. She was now doing all of this willfully and even joyfully. That is the power of love.

In Galatians 5:13-15 we find the counterbalance to Grace. It is Love. Christ’s love keeps us from sinning. Christ’s love is more powerful than rules and regulations could ever be.  

Throughout the book of Galatians the theme has been the same. Have nothing to do with legalism or salvation by works. Avoid it like the plague. Avoid a system of living that earns favor of God through regulations, rules or human effort. Stand against all of that.

Salvation is an undeserved gift of God. Receive it freely. You will never earn your salvation. It comes only through faith in Christ because Jesus Christ paid it all. Your salvation is all by grace.

Galatians 5:13-15

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Freedom in Christ does not mean a freedom to sin. It is not a freedom to indulge in the sinful nature. It’s a freedom to obey Christ. It is a new kind of freedom that we never had before. If we are under grace then anything goes right? Wrong. Spiritual liberty is not liberty to sin. It is liberty from sin.

It is wrong when freedom is abused. Love is what balances grace. Spiritual liberty is not a license to indulge the sinful nature. Rather it is a call to serve one another in love. Read the Sermon on the Mount to discover that even though Christians are not under the law we are called to go beyond the law.

Live as free men. Don’t use your freedom as a cover up for evil (1 Peter 2:16). It was for freedom that Christ set you free. You were called to be free.

This is underscored in Titus 2:11-12: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.

The law of the OT is full of detailed regulations. We don’t fulfill the law by observing all those regulations. We fulfill the law when we put love into action. It’s true that love is all you need, but it must be Christ’s love. In Christ’s love you are related right to God and to each other. Observing the law’s regulations is external. Love is an internal principle.

Jesus silenced the Sadducees and Pharisees. (Mark 12:28-34) They could not argue against the principle of love. The great commandment is first to love God and secondly to love your neighbor. Your neighbor is your fellow man. The law is fulfilled when you serve one another in love. Love goes beyond the letter to the Spirit of the law.  

Paul is writing this letter because legalism had its foothold in Galatia. Legalism is the opposite of love. Legalism never promotes love. Legalism is self seeking, it’s petty, judgmental prideful.

Love does not seek its own. Love is not selfless, but legalism is. Love doesn’t keep account of wrong, legalism does. Because the church in Galatia were operating out of legalism instead of love it’s not surprising that the Galatians had infighting. Paul says they were acting like animals fighting and devouring each other.

In the movie the Lion King the hyenas have moved in and run the pride. They move in and bite and devour. All this infighting turns their paradise into a wasteland. It is what legalism does to a church. It is tragic when biting and devouring takes place in the church.

There is too much dog eat dog mentality in the church. It is a bad testimony. People want refuge from that in the church. Paul says your biting and devouring will destroy you. When you bite and devour you are destroying others and yourself. Serve one another in love. Only love can heal people’s wounds. You need the power of Christ. Let the love of Christ fill your heart. 

Love takes us beyond the law. With love we can really serve one another. This can’t happen until you know Christ by faith. Have you put your faith in Christ? Are you walking by the Spirit in faith, not by flesh? Let the love of Christ fill your heart.