Paul and the Spirit’s fruit.

In Galatians, Paul discussed his experiences with certain legalists who believed you can’t be a true Christian unless you first followed the Law. For this reason, they were particularly insistent upon circumcision—if a man couldn’t follow that command, he clearly wasn’t dedicated enough to God. Paul’s attitude about them was pretty blunt: “I wish those people who are upsetting you would castrate themselves.” (Ga 5.12 KWL)

But even though Paul was against legalism, a lot of Christians miss the point of Galatians, as well as Paul’s other writings. The opposite of legalism is grace. But grace is not at all the same thing as lawlessness. Just because we aren’t saved by obeying the Law—instead, we’re saved by God—doesn’t mean we ignore the Law, dismiss the Law, or cancel the Law. For Jesus clearly stated anyone who teaches such a thing “will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Mt 5.19 NLT) Yeah, they’ll be in the Kingdom, but just barely: “Like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.” (1Co 3.15 NLT)

For this reason Paul spelled it out to the Galatians: We can’t expect to inherit the Kingdom if we have zero respect for the principles of the Kingdom.

For you were invited to freedom, fellow Christians. Only it’s not the freedom to start indulging one’s flesh, but to serve one another, in love. The entire Law is fulfilled in one saying: “You will love your neighbor like yourself.” (Lv 19.18) When you bite and devour one another, don’t you see how you’ll consume one another?

Walk in the Spirit, I say. Never give in to fleshly desire. The flesh desires anti-Spirit things, and the Spirit anti-flesh things. They oppose one another. When you want to do something, it won’t let you. If you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not led by Law.

The works of the flesh are obvious in anyone who is the following: Promiscuous. Unclean. Unethical. Idolatrous. Drug-hooked. Hate-filled. Argumentative. Overzealous. Angry. Partisans. Dividers. Heretics. Envious. A stoner. A partier. And other people like these. I warn you of them just like I warned you before: Those who do such things won’t inherit God’s Kingdom.

The Spirit’s fruit is: Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faith. Gentility. Self-control. The Law isn’t contrary to any such thing, and those who belong to Christ Jesus, crucified the flesh with its disasters and desires.

—Paul, Galatians 5.13-26 KWL

“If you’re led by the Spirit,” Paul pointed out, “you’re not led by Law”—you don’t need to be led by the Law, because instead of following God indirectly through his commands, you’re following him directly. And when you’re following him directly, you’re going to reflect his character. All the fruit of the Spirit reflect the Spirit’s character. They’re part of the nature of God. God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentility, and self-control. God’s true followers are too.

Those who don’t follow the Spirit—who wrongly misuse the freedom God grants us—are producing the works of the flesh. Go take a look at my article on it, and notice (and it might frighten you to notice) how often we see these works among people who claim they’re Christian.

Here’s one of the deficiencies of the Law. You can follow the Law perfectly—and still indulge in several of the works of the flesh, and still be unfit for the Kingdom. As my weed-smoking friends are so quick to point out, nothing in the bible forbids marijuana. As my wine-drinking friends are eager to point out, wine is okay in moderation—although not all of them are all that moderate. You can follow the Law quite well, yet be angry, envious, divisive, argumentative, overzealous, hate-filled… even promiscuous. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 girlfriends, yet the bible only gets on his case because they led him to idolatry, (1Ki 11.3) and not because he was having sex with a thousand women.

So in many ways, pursuing the fruit of the Spirit, and rejecting the works of the flesh, is actually stricter than the Law. There are loopholes in the Law. There are none with the Holy Spirit. He knows your heart. You can’t claim your righteousness by how well you follow the Law, as so many people can and do. The rich young ruler who came to Jesus to ask what more he needed to do: He had the Law covered. (Mk 10.20) He knew that; he only wanted Jesus to confirm it and endorse him. Jesus didn’t correct him about deficiencies in the Law. What he did say was, “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” (Mk 10.21 NLT) Which the ruler couldn’t do: He loved his wealth too much. He could follow the Law, and follow it very well. But he was disqualified from the Kingdom because he didn’t want to put his treasure into it. His flesh got in the way of producing fruit of the Spirit. It’s a common problem the rich have, which is why it’s so hard for them to enter the Kingdom. (Mk 10.23-25) The Law is easier. That’s why legalism is far more popular among Christians. Especially wealthy Christians.

As is cheap grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer defined cheap grace as “the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner”: Forgiveness without repentance, Christianity without self-discipline, a relationship with God despite unthinkingly violating that relationship in every way we can imagine. As a result, we have fruitless Christians who figure Jesus set us completely free, and as a result we need do nothing for God. Nothing whatsoever. Why this makes sense to them, I don’t know: It’s as if the governor has offered us a pardon for murder, so we figure we’re free to keep right on murdering. They take God for granted, dismiss his commands as out of date… yet they expect to live in a Kingdom that is entirely based on his will. Doing what, I’d like to know: They’re gonna hate it. They’re gonna wind up asking to go outside.

Neither legalism, nor cheap grace, was what Paul taught. Like his Lord, Paul taught we Christians are meant to produce fruit. If we don’t, we’re unfit for the Kingdom. Period.