Ok, bear with me, this message is a bit “The cart before the horse”. But hang in there, I think you will be blessed by what the Lord is doing here…
My Golden Text
Over the years, certain passages of Scripture seem to stay with us.
You read them, then you find yourself coming back to them. You hear something that reminds you of them. You face a situation that makes you see them differently. Before long, that passage becomes more than something you have read. It becomes something God is using to shape you.
For me, this year, that passage is Galatians 5:22–23.
I love this concept from our Sunday School curriculum: the “Golden Text” of the lesson or passage. Galatians 5:22–23 is my “Golden Text.” of the year!
Galatians 5:22–23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
This is one of the central passages the Holy Spirit has led me to as I approach the Word of God this year. And probably longer.
It affects what I am learning.
It affects what I am studying.
It affects what I am teaching.
It affects what I am listening for when I open the Bible and ask, “Lord, what are You showing me?”
But most importantly, it has become a mirror. James 1:23-25 says:
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
Because it is one thing to know Scripture.
It is another thing to allow Scripture to examine us and shape us.
I can ask myself:
Is there more love in me than there was a year ago?
Is there more joy?
More peace?
More patience?
More kindness?
More goodness?
More faithfulness?
More gentleness?
More self-control?
Those questions move Christianity out of the realm of simply knowing things about God and into the much more personal question:
If I belong to Christ and He is my Lord and Savior, what is Christ producing in me? Is there fruit from relationship with Him?
What the Fruit of the Spirit Shows Us
Paul calls qualities of God fruit here.
That matters.
Fruit is not attached to a tree with glue. An apple tree does not strain until apples suddenly appear. Fruit grows because something living is happening inside the tree.
Jesus used similar imagery when He spoke about our relationship with Him.
John 15:5
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Am I abiding in Him today? Am I abiding in Him in my relationship with my wife? Am I abiding in Him in the ministry He gave me?
The Christian life is not simply a self-improvement program where we try harder to become nicer people.
The fruit of the Spirit represents the qualities and virtues that God works in us through the Holy Spirit. Unlike physical fruit that grows on trees, these are spiritual attributes that grow in the life of someone who is living in alignment with God.
Karpos, fruit in the Greek, is singular.
Paul does not say:
“the fruits of the Spirit are…”
He says:
“the fruit of the Spirit is…”
That doesn’t necessarily mean every believer displays every quality at identical maturity. But grammatically, Paul presents the list collectively, all together, as the Spirit’s fruit.
God changes us from the inside out!
As we walk with Him, His Spirit begins producing qualities in us that increasingly reflect His character.
Joy is deeper than temporary happiness. Joy, or Chara in Greek, is a deep sense of contentment and well-being that comes from knowing Christ. It is not dependent on external circumstances but is rooted in the assurance of God’s love and presence in our lives. This joy helps us to endure challenges with hope. John 15:11: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jesus explains that following His words lets His personal joy live fully in us.)
It is a Spirit-produced gladness rooted in Jesus Christ.
That is why joy can coexist with hardship.
Peace, or eirēnē (I-ren-ay), can remain even when circumstances are anything but peaceful. It refers to a tranquility that comes from trusting in God. When we trust Him, we experience a sense of calmness even during storms and uncertainties. This peace protects our hearts and minds, keeping us centered on God rather than on the chaos around us. A peace “that surpasses all understanding”.
There is longsuffering: the ability to endure tricky situations and difficult people without giving up. We all know some difficult people. (Pause) The fruit is the ability to be patient, to endure without becoming bitter or angry. Patience allows us to wait on God’s timing and respond with grace to the challenges we face. The Spirit enables us to extend patience to others, just as God is patient with us. Imagine Jesus hanging out for 3+ years, discipling knuckleheads like Peter, James, and John. Leading and loving a betrayer who was an integral part of His circle? THAT is some loooong suffering!
There is kindness, which changes the way we treat people. Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
It is an attitude of tenderness towards others, treating them with care and respect even when we have been wronged.
The Spirit helps us to be kind in our interactions, reflecting Christ’s own kind nature.
There is goodness, which affects the choices we make. Goodness refers to moral integrity and doing what is right in God’s eyes. It is a desire to live in a way that honors God and benefits others. Goodness is not about self-righteousness, but about living in the light of God’s truth and showing compassion to those around us.
There is faithfulness, which makes us dependable and steadfast. It is about being loyal, trustworthy, and dependable. When the Spirit produces faithfulness in us, we are committed to God, His Word, and His people. This faithfulness is not based on circumstances, but on a deep conviction to remain steadfast in our relationship with God. Matthew 25:21 says “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.'” Jesus uses this parable to show that being dependable in small daily tasks leads to greater responsibility.
There is gentleness or meekness – Meekness is closely related to humility. It is a willingness to submit to God’s will and to place others’ needs above our own. Meekness is not about being passive, but about having a gentle and quiet strength that comes from trusting in God. It is the ability to remain calm and humble in the face of adversity. What happened to “Turn the other cheek”? Did we forget that as Christians? “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”.
And there is self-control, which means our desires do not have to become our masters. Self-control refers to temperance. It is the ability to control our desires, impulses, and emotions. The Spirit helps us to say no to things that would lead us away from God and to exercise discipline in every area of our lives. With self-control, we can resist temptation and live in a way that pleases God.
What did I miss Bible scholars???
In the passage, Paul begins somewhere else. He begins with what? He begins with love!
Why Love Comes First
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”
That word deserves our attention.
Paul does not present love as a sentimental accessory to Christianity. Love sits at the heart of the Christian message because love sits at the heart of who God is.
The Bible makes an extraordinary statement:
Mat 24:12
And because iniquity shall abound, the love, or agape, of many shall wax cold.
Is the way of the World today turning your heart cold, Christian?
The Bible makes another extraordinary statement:
1 John 4:8
“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Notice that Scripture does not merely say God has love.
It says:
God is love.
Love belongs to His very character.
That means genuine Christian love ultimately has its source in Him.
And that explains another remarkable statement John makes:
1 John 4:19
“We love Him because He first loved us.”
Christianity begins not with our pursuit of God, but with God’s love toward us.
We did not start the love story.
God did!
Before we ever understood Him, He loved us.
Before we ever sought Him, He loved us.
Before we ever cleaned ourselves up, He loved us!
And before we ever knew how desperately we needed saving, God had already acted.
That brings us to the most familiar sentence in the Bible.
“For God So Loved the World”
John 3:16–17
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Those opening words deserve to be slowed down:
“For God so loved the world…”
God loved.
God gave.
The two belong together.
Biblical love is not merely emotion. It acts.
God did not look at humanity’s brokenness from a distance and simply feel sorry for us.
He gave His Son.
And notice who God loved.
“The world.”
Not a world filled with perfect people.
Not a world filled with people who had earned His approval.
Not a world filled with people who deserved salvation.
God loved a fallen world.
A sinful world.
A rebellious world.
A world that desperately needed Him.
That is what makes the Gospel such good news.
But before we can fully appreciate the good news, we have to understand what went wrong.
Now we transition to Why We Need the Gospel
The Bible diagnoses the human condition with remarkable simplicity.
Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
That little word all leaves none of us outside the diagnosis.
Sin is sometimes misunderstood as referring only to the worst things people can do.
But biblically, sin goes much deeper.
Sin is falling short of God’s standard.
It is choosing our way instead of God’s way.
It appears in our actions, our attitudes, our motives, our words, our desires, and ultimately in our rebellion against the God who created us.
We often compare ourselves with other people.
(I used to think like this) “I am not as bad as that person.”
Maybe not…
But the standard is not somebody else.
The standard is God.
And when God is the standard, Scripture’s verdict is universal:
We have all fallen short.
That creates a problem we cannot solve by simply becoming more religious, moral, charitable, or sincere.
We cannot erase our sin by accumulating enough good deeds.
And this is where one verse gives us an amazingly concise picture of the entire Gospel.
If you want an easy way to share the Gospel, use Romans 6:23: The Gospel in One Verse!
Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There is an entire Gospel message packed into that one sentence.
Let’s walk through it.
Wages
“For the wages…”
Most of us understand wages.
You work.
You earn something.
You receive what is owed to you.
Your paycheck is not normally a gift from your employer. It represents compensation for work performed.
Paul deliberately uses that idea.
There is something humanity has earned.
Unfortunately, it is not something we want.
Sin
“For the wages of sin…”
Sin is our failure to live according to God’s perfect standard.
It is more than mistakes.
Mistakes can happen accidentally.
Sin involves the deeper human tendency to put ourselves where God belongs.
We say, in countless different ways:
“I want to live life my way.”
Sometimes that rebellion looks dramatic.
Sometimes it looks respectable.
But either way, it separates us from the God who created us.
Death
“For the wages of sin is death…”
Sin produces death.
Physical death is part of that reality, but Scripture points to something deeper.
Sin separates us from God, the very source of life.
And if nothing changes, that separation continues beyond physical death.
That is the bad news.
And if Romans 6:23 ended there, humanity would be in terrible trouble.
But thankfully, there is another word.
A tiny word.
Maybe one of the most beautiful words in the Bible.
BUT!
“For the wages of sin is death, but…”
Everything turns on that word.
We sinned.
But God!
We deserved judgment.
But God!
We could not save ourselves.
But God!
The Gospel does not pretend our sin does not matter.
Instead, God does something about it.
The first half of Romans 6:23 tells us what we have earned.
The second half tells us what God offers.
And they could not be more different.
Gift
“…but the gift of God…”
Notice the contrast.
Wages are earned.
Gifts are received.
That distinction is essential to understanding Christianity.
Despite popular belief, salvation is not God’s paycheck for good people.
It is God’s gift to sinners.
The Bible says:
Ephesians 2:8–9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
You cannot purchase salvation.
You cannot earn salvation.
You cannot accumulate enough religious points to convince God that He owes you salvation.
God offers salvation by grace.
Grace means God gives us what we could never earn for ourselves.
God
“…the gift of God…”
Where does salvation begin?
With God.
That takes us right back to John 3:16.
God loved.
God gave.
God did not wait for humanity to discover a path back to Him.
He came looking for us.
Paul describes it beautifully:
Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Notice when Christ died for us.
Not after we became worthy.
Not after we fixed everything.
Not after we stopped struggling.
“While we were still sinners.”
The cross is God’s demonstration of His love.
Eternal Life
“…the gift of God is eternal life…”
Eternal life certainly includes living forever with God.
But eternal life is more than simply endless existence.
It is restored relationship with God.
It means being forgiven.
Reconciled.
Made spiritually alive.
Brought into God’s family.
It begins when we place our faith in Christ and continues forever.
Christianity is not simply about where you go after you die.
It is about being reconciled to the God who created you, beginning now.
But how is that possible?
The final words of Romans 6:23 tell us.
Christ Jesus Our Lord
“…in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jesus is not one option among many in the Gospel.
Jesus is the center of the Gospel.
He did for us what we could never do for ourselves.
Jesus lived the righteous life we failed to live.
He went to the cross and died for our sins.
And He rose from the dead.
Paul summarized the heart of the Gospel this way:
1 Corinthians 15:3–4
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Christianity does not rest merely upon the teachings of Jesus.
It rests upon what Jesus did.
Christ died for our sins.
Christ was buried.
Christ rose again.
The cross tells us how serious our sin is.
But the cross also tells us how great God’s love is.
Jesus Himself said:
John 14:6
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Jesus does not merely point toward salvation.
He is the Savior.
The Gift of Eternal Life in Jesus
Put Romans 6:23 together and you can see the Gospel almost like two sides of a canyon.
On one side stands humanity.
Sin.
Death.
Separation from God.
And on the other side:
God.
Eternal life.
Between them stands one enormous word:
BUT.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What bridges that separation? “Jesus Christ Himself is the bridge.”
Not religion.
Not morality.
Not church attendance.
Not generosity.
Not trying harder.
Jesus Christ.
God’s love did not cause Him to pretend sin did not exist.
God’s love caused Him to provide the answer to it.
At the cross, God’s holiness and God’s love meet.
Sin is taken seriously.
Grace is freely offered.
The debt is real.
But Christ paid it.
The judgment is real.
But Christ bore it.
Death is real.
But Christ defeated it through His resurrection.
That is why salvation is called a gift.
A Personal Invitation
Maybe you have known John 3:16 your entire life.
Maybe you have heard Romans 6:23 before.
Or maybe Christianity is relatively new to you.
Either way, the central question is not simply whether you know these verses.
The question is whether you know Christ.
God loves you.
That does not mean God approves of everything we do.
Love does not require God to pretend our sin does not matter.
Quite the opposite.
God loved us enough to confront the problem we could never solve ourselves.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”
Jesus died for sinners.
Jesus rose from the dead.
And God offers forgiveness and eternal life through Him.
You cannot earn that gift.
You can only receive it.
That is what faith does.
Faith stops trusting in ourselves and places our trust in Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done.
So perhaps the question worth considering today is simple:
What am I trusting in to make me right with God?
My goodness?
My religion?
My church attendance?
My good intentions?
The fact that I am better than somebody else?
Or Jesus Christ?
The Gospel invitation is not “Make yourself good enough and come to God.”
It is:
Come to Christ because you cannot make yourself good enough.
Bring Him your sin.
Bring Him your failures.
Bring Him your questions.
Bring Him your brokenness.
Bring Him yourself.
And trust the Savior who died and rose again for you.
Back to the Fruit
And that brings me right back to my Golden Text.
Galatians 5:22–23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
There is something extremely important here that I do not want anyone to miss.
The fruit of the Spirit is not a checklist for earning salvation.
We are not saved because we finally become loving enough, joyful enough, peaceful enough, patient enough, kind enough, faithful enough, gentle enough, or disciplined enough.
That would turn the Gospel back into wages.
But salvation is a gift.
The fruit comes after life.
An apple tree produces apples because it is alive.
In the same way, spiritual fruit grows because God has given spiritual life.
We do not produce the fruit of the Spirit so that God will save us.
God saves us through Jesus Christ, gives us His Spirit, and then begins producing His fruit because He has made us new.
And strangely enough, we end exactly where we began.
With love.
The love God desires to produce in us begins with the love He first showed toward us.
1 John 4:19
“We love Him because He first loved us.”
God loved.
God gave.
Christ died.
Christ rose.
God offers eternal life.
We receive it by faith.
And then the God who saves us begins changing us.
Love.
Joy.
Peace.
Longsuffering.
Kindness.
Goodness.
Faithfulness.
Gentleness.
Self-control.
Not the price of salvation.
The fruit of salvation.
And it all begins with the God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”.
So, what now?
How to Apply This in Our Daily Lives
Recognize That Sin Has Consequences Sin is never harmless. Apart from Christ, sin separates us from God, and its wages are death.
Understand and Accept God’s Grace No matter how far you’ve gone or what sins you’ve committed, God offers you the gift of eternal life through Jesus. If you haven’t accepted this gift yet, today is the day to receive it. Acknowledge that sin brings death, but Jesus brings life. Romans 10:9-10 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Selah
Belief in the heart is essential because it reflects trust and reliance on God’s power, particularly His act of raising Jesus from the dead. This inner faith demonstrates genuine acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection, which is the foundation of true salvation. The combination of confession and belief ensures that faith is both outwardly expressed and inwardly genuine.
Live With Gratitude and Purpose If you are a believer, live with gratitude; you’ve been given an extraordinary gift! Don’t take God’s gift of grace for granted, and let your life reflect the change that Jesus has made in you. As someone freed from the wages of sin, you are called to live differently: walk in Christ’s righteousness, resist temptation, and when you fall, remember that God’s gift remains. His grace is still there to pick you up.
Romans 6:23 gives us the root, and Galatians 5:22–23 shows us the fruit.
Actually, before we wrap up.
This week, I want you to choose one attribute of the Fruit of the Spirit and ask God to grow it in you. I bet after today, you already have an idea or two of which attribute. If you’re married and don’t know which one, ask your spouse! 😉
To God be the glory! Amen!
