FRUIT

Flesh & Spirit

Galatians 5:16-24

  • If we don’t want to carry out the desire of the flesh then we must walk by the Spirit
  • The desire of the flesh is AGAINST the desire of the Spirit. They work in opposition to each other
  • If you are led by the Spirit then you are not under the law.

Deeds of the Flesh

  • Sexual Immorality : (Porneia) Surrendering or selling off of sexual purity
  • Impurity: Unclean, impure motives
  • Indecent behavior: Shocking conduct, rejecting restraint & indulgent behavior
  • Idolatry: Image worship
  • Witchcraft (Pharmakeia) Drug related sorcery, use
  • of spells / magical arts
  • Hostilities Hatred (opposite of love)
  • Strife Ready to quarrel, having an affection for dispute
  • Jealousy Burning emotion (boiling over). Zeal for good or bad
  • Outbursts of anger Heated up, breathing violently, passionate outburst, strong impulses
  • Selfish ambition Self seeking, placing self interest ahead of what the Lord desires
  • Dissensions Wrongly & pointlessly separating people into factions
  • Factions A personal choice, individual nature of a divisive opinion
  • Envy Displeasure for another’s good. energizes someone with an embittered mind
  • Drunkenness deep drinking
  • Gluttony Greedy appetite. Binge eating/drinking
  • Carousing Drunken feast, sexual immorality, partying

Deeds of the Spirit

Fruit: 

True partnership with Christ.  Living in union with Christ.  The Lord living His life through ours to yield what is eternal.

  • Agape love:  What does God prefer?
  • Joy: Delight, aware of God’s grace
  • Peace: All essential parts joined together, peace and wholeness of mind, health and welfare,

God’s gift of wholeness

  • Patience: Long passion, waiting sufficient time before expressing anger
  • Kindness: Goodness, excellence, uprightness, useable, well fit for use, useful kindness, meeting real needs…in God’s way and timing
  • Goodness: Intrinsic, a personal / unique quality and condition that comes from God. Spiritual and moral excellence
  • Faithfulness: (Pistis) God’s gift- He births faith in us, as we are yielded to Him, so we can know His persuasion, His will, what He prefers
  • Gentleness: A divinely balanced virtue that operates through faith.  Expresses power with reservation and gentleness.  Meekness – begins with the Lord’s inspiration and finishes by His direction and empowerment
  • Self Control: Proceeding out from within us but not by us.  Spirit control by the Lord’s power.

If we belong to Christ then we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Crucify, in the Greek, is stauroo.  This means to fence with stakes, to crucify.

  • We are dead to the flesh
  • The union with the desires of the flesh is destroyed
  • The power of the flesh to lead us into sin no longer has strength or victory
  • The raging fire of the flesh is completely extinguished and we (in Christ) hold the extinguisher

If we live by the Spirit then we are to walk in the Spirit.

  • We experience the power and love that is God’s gift of true life
  • We stay in line, keep in step, remain in Him – in the rhythm and flow of His life in us

1 John 2: 15-17 - Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever.

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 - Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

  • Don’t let the craving for food & drink become your master and subsequently slaves to sin.

Proverbs 25:28 - Like a city that is broken into and without walls So is a person who has no self-control over his spirit.  {restrain passions or suffer the consequences of temptation because your defenses are weak} – further sin & destruction awaits you.

Romans 7:23 & (8:1-2) – {serving 2 masters} but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts.  Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Romans 13:14: - But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Mark 7:21-22: - For from within, out of the hearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery, deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

  • Practice sexual purity in thought and deed.
  • Don’t steal, regardless of value.
  • Don’t murder / hate.
  • Desiring more things, lusting for a greater number or temporal things that are beyond what God says is eternally valuable.
  • Don’t use people’s own greed to manipulate or use them.
  • Practice restraint, self control and don’t practice indulgence.

Philippians 3: 18-19 - For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who have their minds on earthly things.

Titus 1: 12-16: - One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this reason reprimand them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

Ecclesiastes 6:7: - All a person’s labor is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not satisfied.

Zechariah 7:4-6: - Then the word of the LORD of armies came to me, saying, “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? And when you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?