It is God who works in us to will and to do his good pleasure. Why do we beginning with the Spirit but are now trying to attain our goals by human effort?

After Paul makes his list of sinful desires, he follows it with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. The fruit of the Spirit are not inherent in us but worked into us by the Holy Spirit. They are what the Spirit works into us. Thorn bushes do not produce oranges. Weeds don’t produce apples. And “natural humans” do not produce the fruit of the Spirit.

Reading about the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians reminds us of something very important: We don’t have goodness inherently deep inside us that we just need to fan into a flame. Galatians 5:17-21 tells us that inherent in us is hate, discontent, envy jealousy, meanness, slander, control freak, sexual immorality, impurity, discord, and orgies. The flesh produces one kind of desires and the Spirit produces another kind—and they are opposed to each other.

It is God who works in us to will and to do his good pleasure. Why did we beginning with the Spirit but are now trying to attain our goals by human effort?

Unfortunately, some Christians treated the fruit of the Spirit like the Law—expectations that we should strive to attain. But that doesn’t seem to be the point of Paul’s list in Galatians. They are the work of the Spirit not us. And this is a message of great hope, not pessimistic resignation. The fruit of the Spirit is what we can hope God does to us. The fruit is hope for the work of God in us…not duty. The fruit of spirit is anticipation of what God may do to us…not moral expectation with the threat of punishment. The fruit of the Spirit is God killing parts of us to transform them—cutting in order to heal—destroying for the purpose of rebuilding…. the fruit is not your dedication to your pious intentions.

How do you conjure love when you hate your ex-boyfriend…or the person who slanders you…or yourself-absorbed roommate? How do you make yourself joyful when you are paralyzed by fear and insecurities? How do you summon peace when you are flooded by worries about your past or present or future? How do you make your self patient when your anxiety wakes you up at night or you can feel the anxiety in your body? How do you invoke kindness when there are so many people who act like your enemy? How do you strive for gentleness when you know that the meek are treated like doormats? How do you stir-up goodness when badness erupts so naturally and feels more immediately fulfilling? How do you enact self-control when you desire for pleasure is so out of control?

You can’t do any of these because the fruit of the Spirit is the work of the Spirit not our action plan for managing sin and achieving holiness. Our will is impotent. What we need is not some assistance by the Holy Spirit mixed with our spiritual elbow-grease. We need the Spirit to transform us. The fruit of the Spirit is the hope that God may do what he claims to do: to restore that which has been destroyed and to show up in your weakness with his strength.

© 2006, Justin Holcomb.