Life in the Spirit: Fruit of the Spirit

By: Kristen Neighbarger Published on: 20/09/2023

Last week, I dug into Paul’s words immediately following his list of the qualities of the Fruit of the Spirit when he says: Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless. Galatians 5:23 (TPT) There’s still one more paragraph at the end of Galatians 5, though, and as I was reading all these hate-filled comments from the religious folks on Instagram, these words resonated in the back of my mind. Paul ends this section of his letter to the Galatians with these words: Keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus Christ have already experienced crucifixion. For everything connected with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Messiah. If the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives. So may we never be arrogant, or look down on another, for each of us is an original. We must forsake all jealousy that diminishes the value of others. Galatians 5:24-26 TPT As Paul explains, if we belong to Christ, all remnants of our selfishness and our life dominated by self have already been crucified with Christ. As a result, our life source is the Holy Spirit, and we are called to allow the Holy Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives. Every aspect of our lives.