§24 The Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–26)
5:22 / Paul now turns to the fruit of the Spirit. The designation of the manifestations of the Spirit as “fruit” speaks volumes about Paul’s understanding of the ways of life he has been contrasting throughout the letter. Life lived in the flesh (“sinful nature”) is a life of work (“acts”), a life that strives and strains for the protection of self and often consequently for the domination of others. Life in the Spirit, on the other hand, blossoms, and the word “fruit” gives the sense that the characteristics Paul lists in verses 22 and 23 are the result of a healthy rooted state such as comes from living in Christ. Note that “fruit” is in the singular, and so the following qualities are various aspects of the generative power of the Spirit. Most of these aspects of the fruit of the Spirit are characteristics Paul elsewhere attributes to God. For Paul the fruit of the Spirit generates godly characteristics in the believer.
The first characteristic is love, which Paul has identified with Christ (2:20) and with the life of those in Christ (5:6, 14). The next is joy, which is not the same as happiness. Joy is not a state in which most of the circumstances of one’s life are satisfactory, but rather is life rooted in the Spirit (Rom. 14:17) and in God (Rom. 15:13). Peace, like joy, stems not from the external circumstances of one’s life but from the God of peace (Rom. 15:33; 16:20; Phil. 4:9). Patience has the sense of forbearance and is a characteristic of God (Rom. 2:4; 9:22) in which believers share (cf. 2 Cor. 6:6). Kindness is another feature of God’s character (Rom. 2:4; 11:22) that should characterize the people of God (2 Cor. 6:6). Goodness has the sense of “generosity” or “uprightness.” Paul uses it as a high compliment (Rom. 15:14) and recognizes that only through God’s power can believers exhibit such a virtue (2 Thess. 1:11). Faithfulness is another feature of God’s character (1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 2 Cor. 1:18; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 3:3). It is also one of the chief characteristics of Christ (2:16; 3:22).
5:23 / Gentleness has the meaning of “humility,” “courtesy,” or “considerateness.” It is the most appropriate and constructive attitude to have in relating to others (cf. Gal. 6:1). Paul speaks of Christ as having this quality (2 Cor. 10:1). Self-control—the mastery of one’s own desires, or, as Plato puts it “a man being his own master” (Republic 430e; trans. Jowett; cf. Republic 390b)—was a major ethical goal in the philosophies of the ancient Mediterranean world. Xenophon defends Socrates as a man of self-control in word and deed and extols self-control as “the foundation of all virtue” (Memorabilia 1.5.4 [Marchant, LCL]). Paul also recognizes it as a worthy goal (cf. 1 Cor. 7:9; 9:25).
The fruit of the Spirit cannot be produced or prohibited by law. Life in Christ will result in character that fulfills the law apart from the law (cf. 5:14).
5:24–26 / This is so because those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Such belonging is the means by which believers can live righteously. Earlier Paul said that he understood himself to “have been crucified with Christ” so that it was no longer he who lived but Christ who lived in him (2:19–20). This sharing in Christ’s death results in justification (2:21). Justification results in a new status in God’s sight and a new way of behaving. Through belonging to Christ (cf. 3:29) believers participate in the death of Christ and so, as Paul puts it in Romans, “we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we might no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom. 6:6).
Paul now ties together what he has been saying: since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Paul has directed believers to “live by the Spirit” (cf. 5:16) and claimed that they are “led by the Spirit” (5:18). Now he shifts the emphasis by stating that the basis of their life is that they are those who “live by the Spirit.” On this basis he calls them to be guided by the Spirit. By means of the Spirit the Galatian believers are to enact the life they already have in the Spirit. The NEB translates it this way: “If the Spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct our course.”
Finally, Paul warns his readers not to become conceited, provoking and envying each other. At first this exhortation appears to belong more properly with 5:19–21. It may be, however, that Paul emphasizes these vices after his exhortation to keep in step with the Spirit because they are the most detrimental to a Spirit-led life. Conceit can be detrimental to participation in the Spirit (cf. Paul’s warning against conceit, Phil. 2:3). Provocation is contrary to an essential feature of life in the Spirit—unity (cf. 1 Cor. 12:4–13). Envy can also be the basis of disruptive, aggressive, and destructive behavior. These three traits may be particular problems for people who are contending for recognition of their spiritual gifts and for the upper hand in spirituality (cf. 1 Cor. 12–14). Paul includes himself in his exhortation to keep in step with the Spirit and in the following exhortation (v. 26).
5:23 / The statement against such things there is no law has a parallel in Aristotle. In Politics he writes of those who are exceptionally virtuous that “against such people there is no law” (3.13.2 [1284a]; my translation). Longenecker suggests that this sentiment may have had a proverbial status in the ancient world to express “actions that surpass all legal prescriptions and are therefore beyond any legal accounting” (Galatians, p. 264).
5:24 / Dying to passions was a goal of the ancient philosophies. We find it also in writings of Philo. For instance, Philo commends “the light of Isaac—the generic form of happiness, of the joy and gladness which belongs to those who have ceased from the manner of women [Gen. 18:11] and died to the passions” (On the Cherubim 8 [Colson and Whitaker, LCL]). See also Philo, On Husbandry 17. Plato writes:
This then is why a man should be of good cheer about his soul, who in his life has rejected the pleasures and ornaments of the body, thinking they are alien to him and more likely to do him harm than good, and … after adorning his soul with no alien ornaments, but with its own proper adornment of self-restraint and justice and courage and freedom and truth, awaits his departure to the other world, ready to go when fate calls him. (Phaedo 114–115a [Fowler, LCL])
The goal Paul presents is not peculiar to him, although the means—dying with Christ—is uniquely Christian.
5:25 / Unlike the word translated “live” in v. 16 (lit. “walk”), the Greek word zōmen translated live in this verse lit. is “live.” The nuance is somewhat different in each case: in v. 16 the word gives the sense of continual active participation in the Spirit; in v. 25 it indicates the basis of one’s life.
The phrase keep in step with the Spirit contains the verbal form of the word “elements” (stoichōmen) encountered in 4:3 and 4:9. In its verbal form it has the sense of walking in a straight line and so of conducting oneself appropriately. The same verb occurs in Gal. 6:16, being translated as “follow.” Here it means walking, by means of the Spirit, in the path set by the Spirit.