But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
The Gospel Message was met with great enthusiasm by mostly Gentiles in the region of Galatia. Soon after Paul’s departure Jewish teachers came along insisting that Gentiles could not be Christian without first become Jewish Proselytes and keeping Jewish laws and traditions. The Galatian Christians willingly accepted this but when Paul heard of the movement he wrote His letter to them explaining that the Jewish National Life had nothing to do with Salvation. In other words, Christianity cannot be trademarked! It is not an offshoot of Judaism, it is eternal life made possible through faith in Christ’s final sacrifice.
On the night before Jesus died He spoke of the True Vine and the fruit it would produce. The above list is that fruit and what does fruit do? It feeds and the seeds fall and perpetuate continued growth and feeding. But, my favorite part of this verse is not the lovely attributes I remind myself of every time I have to take a deep breath and count to ten, it is the “Against such things there is no law.”
Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, are a package deal and the gifts just keep on giving. If we could give this world anything, Jesus it would be, but Jesus said, give this!
Making Fruit Salad,
Gretchen