The lutheransermons's Podcast

Study of Galatians Part 21 - Galatians 6:5-10

Last week, we heard Paul describing how the Galatian Christians (and we) can live out our lives in the Holy Spirit, using the fruit He provides for our relationships with the people around us. He warned about what we should not do - become conceited and self-centered, with envy of and conflict with others (Galatians 5:15,26).

Rather, living out “the law of Christ,” the law of love, we are to bear each other’s burdens and help “restore” those who are drifting spiritually. At the same time, we are to act in “a spirit of gentleness,” of meekness, as we help others, always “watching” and “testing” ourselves, knowing that we, too, could be tempted and stumble, and living with humble repentance for our own faults (Galatians 6:1-4).

And as Galatians 6:5 says, we need to remember that as we help one another, we each finally “carry our own load.” No one else can believe for us and no other human being can save us, and we cannot save ourselves. But we are not alone. God Himself is with us, and He sent His only Son, the God/man Jesus, to forgive and save us, and He sent His Holy Spirit to bring us to faith in Christ and keep us in that faith, through Word and Sacrament. Finally, what we do as Christians is motivated by God’s love at work in us and not by laws and rules that we are told we must do for salvation. That is the primary emphasis that we have been hearing again and again in Paul’s letter.

At the same time, Paul does use the whole Word of God, including the law, to show the Galatians (and us) where we can be in danger and are called to repentance. In Galatians 6:7-8, Paul warned that people should not think that they can mock God by continually doing “the works of the flesh” described in Galatians 5:19-21, without concern and without repentance. That lifestyle is sowing seeds that lead to “corruption,” a word that is translated in other places as “destruction.” See the very dramatic description of where such “sowing” to fleshly desires can lead in 2 Peter 2:12-14.

In contrast, “sowing to the Spirit” leads finally to receiving the greatest gift of the Spirit, which is “eternal life” (Galatians 6:8). Such “sowing,” using the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23) also produces much good in this life as God gives us “opportunities” to help and serve others and especially “those who are of the household of faith,” fellow believers. Some of this good we do, by God’s power, may be tiring and may not seem to accomplish much, but we are called “not to give up,” for God will bless these efforts “in due season,” according to His timetable (Galatians 6:9-10).

In Galatians 6:6, Paul also reminded the Galatians who were “taught” the true Word of God to “share all good things” with those who were “teaching” them. Some think that confusion created by the false teachers was causing the Galatians not to give needed help to any of their teachers. Though Paul sometimes refused help in certain circumstances, he clearly saw a Biblical basis for giving support to teachers of the Word. See Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:3-12 and words of Jesus, such as Matthew 10:10 and Luke 10:7-8. See how grateful Paul himself was, also, for various kinds of help from the Christians at Philippi, in Philippians 4:10-16.

In the context of what Paul was talking about, doing good for others, Galatians 6:6 is likely also referring less to “financial help” than to encouragement in the Word that even “teachers” need, too. “All good things” that Christian teachers bring us center in God’s love and forgiveness and the hope we have in Christ Jesus. It is not always easy to be a faithful schoolteacher or pastor or Bible class leader or parents teaching their children, etc. These teachers need the same prayers and encouragement for their lives, as we do, and to keep hearing God’s Word and the Good News of salvation in Christ alone shared with them, too - maybe even from us.

Imagine what might have happened if Galatian Christians took to heart what Paul wrote in this letter and tried to share even with the false teachers what was right and true, according to God’s Word! And if you are a “teacher of the Word” in some way, be open to being taught, through God’s Word and encouragement and advice of others. We all have room for learning more from our Lord through His Word.

This brings us to one last thought from this lesson. Don’t get confused. All the talk about doing good and doing the right things is exactly what God wants us to be doing. But that does not mean that this is the way that we finally earn our salvation. We already have our salvation through what Jesus has accomplished for us and through being brought to faith in Him by the Holy Spirit. That is why Paul called “eternal life” what we reap and receive through the Holy Spirit (Galatians 6:8). It is God’s gift to us. Good works are simply our way of thanking and praising Jesus for His perfect goodness for us - and a way of actually helping others, and as a response to how Jesus first has helped and saved us.

Next week, in what will hopefully be our last lesson on Galatians, we will see Paul again taking us back to boasting only in Jesus and His saving work on the cross for us. Also, if any of you have suggestions about what you would like to study next, let me know. The Lord’s continued blessings and strength!

Preparing for Worship - October 23, 2022

We’ll begin today with the Gospel lesson, Luke 18:9-17, which is central to understanding the primary message of the Scriptures and helps us with the other readings this week. Last week, we heard Jesus teaching us to keep praying and not lose heart. This week we hear Him saying that not all prayers are good and acceptable prayers, though, as we hear His parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Both men are in the Temple in Jerusalem and praying to God. The Pharisee offered a typical prayer of a Pharisee of his day, focusing on all the good he had done for God and others. Surely God would reward his very good behavior by bringing His deliverance of His people soon. It was human achievement that earned God’s favor and blessing, he thought. In contrast, the tax collector had nothing good to offer God. All he could do was humbly confess his sins and throw himself and his trust upon God and His mercy and forgiveness. Jesus clearly said, then, that the tax collector alone went home justified, counted acceptable in God’s eyes purely by God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness to him, as a gift. 

A brief story follows, where the disciples don’t want Jesus bothered by those bringing unimportant little children to Jesus to be touched by Him. The children could offer nothing to Jesus. They could only receive His mercy and love and blessing. Yet Jesus wants them brought to Him and says everyone needs to come in the same way as a little child, dependent entirely on Him and His free gifts and mercy for them.

In the Old Testament lesson, Genesis 4:1-15, two men, Cain and Abel, also approach God, but the offering of only one is accepted. We don’t know all the reasons why, but both Cain and his offering were not acceptable, as his heart was not in the right place. That is evident from his anger about God and his refusal to repent of his sin, crouching at his door, and his willingness to kill his brother, Abel, in vengeance for God being unfair to him. Cain is unhappy with everything God does, yet God still does show mercy to him, in not allowing others to kill him. It seem from what Jude, verse 11 says, Cain never did repent and return to the Lord for His mercy.

The Psalm is Psalm 5. We don’t know what was going on in David’s life, as he groans and cries out and prays to the Lord for His help. He does trust in the “steadfast love” of the Lord in all his troubles, though. He “fears the Lord” and knows that the Lord will lead him in “a straight way” and spread His “protection over him.” David mentions nothing that he can offer to God, but he knows that God is righteous, as he “takes refuge in Him.” The same is true for all “who love His Name” and “bow down” to Him in faith

In the Epistle lesson, 2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18, Paul is in prison in Rome and knows his death is near. At times, every other human being deserted him, but God has not. Paul has been far from perfect, but God will give him a “crown of righteousness” because he “has kept the faith.” The same will be true for all who have trusted the Lord and “loved His appearing” - His appearing first to bring salvation to the world and His promise of appearing again to “bring Paul (and us) safely into His heavenly kingdom.” He is faithful and keeps His promises, purely by His grace, given to us, too, as a gift.

Study of Galatians Part 20 - Galatians 5:26-6:4

Last week, we completed a look at the nine-fold “fruit of the Spirit,” through which the Holy Spirit keeps us in faith and enables us to live with greater faithfulness toward the Lord and greater “meekness” (gentleness) and “self-control” in our relationships with the people placed around us (Galatians 5:22-25). This is all in contrast to the sinful “works of the flesh” described in Galatians 5:19-21. What does this mean for our everyday lives?

Paul began with a negative example of what should not be happening (Galatians 5:26). “Let us not become conceited,” he said. Note that when he said, “Let us not,” he is including himself, as well as everyone else to whom he is writing, including us who still read his word, the Word of God, today.

Paul describes temptations that threaten us all. The word “conceited” was sometimes translated very literally as “vainglorious.” That meant that we should not be glorying in ourselves, when there is only false vanity and empty pride in us. A “conceited” person is one who thinks too highly of himself and is very self-centered, at the expense of others. Such a person wants to compare himself with others and always come out on top, as better than and superior to others.

That attitude can lead to “provoking one another” and “envying one another,” Paul warned. If we compare ourselves with others and think they might be doing better than us, that can lead to envy and jealousy toward others. It can also lead us to want to “provoke” them, challenging them and criticizing them and tearing them down, so that we can feel higher and better than they are. Remember Paul’s earlier words in Galatians 5:15, “If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

One commentator (Kretzmann) says that such negative attitudes and actions can be so hurtful and have caused “untold misery” even in churches. Some think that the new rules and regulations imposed upon the Galatian churches by the false teachers were causing rivalry among people and some feeling superior because they had been circumcised and were following old Jewish laws of “days and months and seasons and years” (Galatians 4:10), even though none of these rules and dietary rules, etc., were part of the New Covenant in Christ or the freedom from such things that Christ brought to believers. (See Paul’s comments in Colossians 2:20-23. Such humanly devised rules and laws may give “an appearance of wisdom” and of being holier than others, but are ultimately “of no value” in battling the real sins and works “of the flesh.”)

In contrast, as Galatians 6 begins, Paul spoke to his “brothers” (Galatians 6:1) in the faith and of the need for them “to fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). “Brothers” in this case seems to refer to all the fellow believers in Galatia, who were “of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). “The law of Christ” is “the law of love.” See John 13:34-35 and 15:12. James called it “the royal law… the law of liberty”(James 2:8,12).

Jesus put it very simply: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another” (John 13:34-35). Jesus fulfilled that law perfectly in our place, as He died for us to forgive all our sins (John 15:12-13 and Galatians 1:4 and 2:20, and 1 John 4:7-10). John therefore said, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).

That is what we now seek to do, as we live by faith in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit and the fruit He gives us. We are never alone, as the Lord is with us always, and we have fellow believers who try to help us, too, even if imperfectly. We are called to “bear one another’s burdens,” in the love of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

Paul was speaking particularly to the Galatian churches, as they saw people influenced by the false teachers or caught in any transgression. (The idea here is that someone has strayed from walking by the Spirit and has gotten into trouble - as when a vehicle goes off the road and ends up in a ditch and the driver needs help.) Those who are “spiritual” should seek to “restore” the person. The word “restore” is used for setting bones, mending nets, bringing factions together, etc., and we get our English word for an “artisan” (a skilled worker) from this word. Ultimately, the Lord is the “Mender” and “Healer,” but he can do His work through the Galatians and through us today.

Paul called upon the Galatians and us to know our limitations and weaknesses, though, as we try to help others. Never is this to be done with a self-centered attitude of superiority, as if we were so much better than others. Paul warned, “If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing (as we all are, apart from Christ) he is deceiving himself” (Galatians 6:3). Rather we are to help “in a spirit of gentleness” with meekness and humility, as given by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 6:1).

Likewise, we are constantly to be “watching ourselves,” lest we, too, are tempted. (I once heard of a man who sincerely, I think, wanted to do a “bar ministry," talking with people in drinking establishments. Over time, he supposedly became an alcoholic himself.) Instead, we are to be “testing ourselves and our own work and lives, also (Galatians 6:4). Then we realize that we, too, need repentance and forgiveness and have nothing to boast about, in ourselves. (See 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 and Jesus’ reminder about “specks” and “logs” in Matthew 7:3-5.)

Paul has more to tell the Galatians and us next week. Join us then.

Sermon for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost - October 16, 2022

Sermon for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Genesis 32:22-30

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon originally delivered October 20, 2013

Preparing for Worship - October 16, 2022

The Scriptures for this Sunday have to do with the importance of prayer for our lives and the need for persistence in those prayers, as well as in study of the Word of God.

The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis 32:22-30. Jacob had done much lying and deceiving in his life to get what he wanted. His brother, Esau, had been so angry with him that he wanted to kill him. Only one half-hearted talk with God of Jacob’s is recorded in Genesis until now. Jacob is returning home and is fearful of what Esau will do. He carries out his own plans, but finally, before our text, prays to God and asks for His help and deliverance. Then, in our text, he wrestles almost all night with a man who is actually the Lord. The Lord could clearly win, as He injures Jacob, but He allows Jacob to seem to prevail and Jacob ask for and receives a blessing and a new name from the Lord - Israel - which means “He strives with God.” (This reminds us that we, too, can strive with God  in prayer and by studying His Word and seeking His wisdom to understand and apply it to our lives.)

The Psalm is Psalm 121. The Psalmist looks to the hills and prays to the Lord for His help. The hills may remind him of the majesty and power of His Creator God. They may also refer to the hills of Jerusalem and the temple to which he can go and toward which he can pray to God. (For us, too, our churches remind us of God’s presence with us and the need to come and talk with Him in prayer and receive His good gifts that only He can give us.) Again and again the psalmist reminds us that the Lord is our “Keeper” and that He is the source and protector of our life, now and forever, and keeps us safe in times of evil in this world, until we come into eternal life.

The Gospel lesson is from Luke 18:1-8, a parable of Jesus calling us “always to pray and not to lose heart” in our praying. Jesus tells of a widow who appeals to a judge to give her justice where she has been wronged. The judge did not fear God and did not care about the needs of other people and just kept refusing her requests. She bothered him so much and so often that he finally gave her justice, just to get rid of her. Jesus asks: Will not God, who is just and does care about people, not respond in the right way to our prayers, as He knows best?  Therefore, keep praying and talking with the Lord and trust His plans. But, Jesus also asks: “Will there be faith on earth when He, the Son of Man, returns?”

The Epistle lesson answers that question. A time is coming, Paul says, in 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, when people will reject God’s sound teaching and not listen to the truth and will look, with “itching ears,” for people who will say what they want to hear, “to suit their own passions.” Does that sound like many in our own generation? At the same time, Paul says, God has provided His sacred writings, the Holy Scriptures. “All Scripture is breathed out by God .”It is the truth and is profitable for all the teaching that is needed, so that people can be “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Therefore, “Preach the Word,” Paul tells Timothy. And that Word of God, the Bible, the truth centered in Christ, is still available today, and some will still come to faith through the Holy Spirit, at work through that Word. Paul would still say today, “Study that Word and preach it, that more may know the truth in Christ and come to faith in Jesus.

Study of Galatians Part 19 - Galatians 5:22-25

Last week, we heard of the first three Christian virtues or qualities in the cluster of the fruit of the Holy Spirit - love, joy, and peace - given by the Spirit so that we may live with hope and confidence in our Lord and remain close to Him and His promises in Christ, by His power. Next is a listing of fruit that enables us to live in a good and proper way with the people God has placed around us (Galatians 5:22).

The first quality is “patience.” This word can literally be translated as “long-suffering.” Living and dealing with other people can be both joyous and very difficult, with suffering and trouble involved at times, suffering along with them and sometimes because of them. The Holy Spirit enables us to seek to have endurance and steadfastness toward them, in our contacts in both the best and worst of times. “Patience” is hard to have in the difficult times; yet the Holy Spirit keep pointing us to Jesus and how much patience and love He has had to have toward us - never leaving us nor forsaking us, and continually forgiving us, as we heard last week.

The Spirit strengthens us to carry on with “patience” toward others, along with the next two qualities - kindness and goodness. God is the one who has first been kind (gracious and good) toward us, though we did not deserve that kindness. Jesus taught in Luke 6:35 that the Lord is even “kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” That is what the Spirit wishes us also to be, as “sons of the Most High.”

Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:31-32, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander (the works of the flesh!) be put away from you, along with all malice. Be ‘kind’ (same word as in Galatians 5:22) to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” The pattern is always the same. The Spirit helps us remember what God has first done for us in Christ and helps us act in the same way toward others, as hard as it sometimes is for us to do.

Paul then adds “goodness” to “kindness” as the Spirit’s fruit in Ephesians 5:22. Someone once called Jesus “Good Teacher,” and Jesus responded, “Why do you call me good? No one is good (same Greek word) except God alone” (Luke 18:18-19). Jesus, of course, was also perfectly “good,” as the sinless Son of God, but He responds this way because the person questioning Him thinks he is only a “teacher” and not the good and sinless Savior.

“Goodness” (uprightness, doing the right things, generosity) is therefore an inner quality that only God has in the fullest perfect way. Yet the Spirit can work in us and bring out in us at least some of that “goodness” in action toward others. For that is what this word means: “goodness” is actually doing some good to and for others. Think about the words of James in James 2:15-16. If we see people in need and say, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled” and yet don’t do anything to help them, “what good (what benefit) is that?” The Spirit works in us to help turn our faith into “goodness” that actually does some good.

The last three parts of the cluster of the fruit of the Spirit are “faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:23). The first word is the word usually translated as “faith,” but in this context, along with other qualities, virtues, it means “faithfulness.”

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:13, about Jesus, even “if we are faithless, He remains faithful (same Greek word) — for he cannot deny Himself.” Jesus has perfect faithfulness toward His Heavenly Father and keeps all His promises. We struggle, at times, but Jesus, through the fruit of the Spirit, forgives us and strengthens us to be more faithful to Him and His Word and to other people around us.

The word “gentleness” often used to be translated as “meekness.” That word has taken on a very negative connotation, though, to many people. It has the sense of someone who is weak and always backs down and gets taken advantage of and stomped on by others. If you are old enough, you might remember people being called a “Caspar Milquetoast.” There was an actual cartoon series about such “A Timid Soul” who had that name, that ran from 1925-1953 in many newspapers. That “Caspar” was considered too gentle for his own good and  could never stand up for himself, and he was named for a meal of squishy toast in warm milk given to people who had a weak, upset stomach, to help with digestion.

In the Bible, though, this word for “gentleness” or “meekness” was used in a positive way by Jesus and is used to describe one of His great qualities. We would tend to think, “The strong and powerful (macho people) will inherit the earth.” Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5, as we heard last week). Jesus said of Himself, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle (meek) and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

“Meekness” in the Bible is connected with humility and courtesy toward and consideration of others. It especially means, as Martin Franzmann said, simply “trusting in the Lord above all and committing our way to Him and believing that He will vindicate us… and waiting patiently on Him and knowing that the steps of a man are from the Lord” and not from us and our scheming and plans. Franzmann pointed to Psalm 37 and particularly verses 39-40 (Franzmann, “Follow Me”, p. 37-38).

As others do with all this “fruit of the Spirit,” Franzmann pointed above all to Jesus and “His Messianic entry into Jerusalem with no means of power, no trappings of royalty, on a borrowed beast, with nothing and no one but God to depend on. He came as the meek King (Matthew 21:5), the meek Messiah.” He delivered the meek (who simply trusted Him by faith) by suffering and dying on the cross as a criminal, and only then receiving His mighty resurrection from the dead and return to glory. With “meekness” Jesus was actually the “Stronger Man” who defeated sin and Satan and death for us (Matthew 12:24-29). The Holy Spirit points us to all this and helps us to take up our own “yoke” of service to others, too, trusting that the Lord will ultimately judge with fairness and His mercy and rescue “the meek of the earth,” including us (Isaiah 11:1-5).

Finally, the Holy Spirt seeks to help us have “self-control” in all these things, helping us to hold our sinful passions and desires in check, by His power, and forgiving our failures, as we bring them to Him in repentance. Our old sinful nature was crucified with Christ on the cross (Galatians 2:20) and we receive personally the benefit of all that in our baptism and the gift of faith (Galatians 3:1-2, 24-26 and now 5:24).

The Holy Spirit is with us, too, in the daily battle of, as Luther says, remembering our Baptism and who we are in Christ and drowning those sinful passions and desires that trouble us. Paul put it this way in Romans 8:13: “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit, you keep on putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” In Christ and in the Holy Spirit, we do live, and we march in step with the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:25).

(Hopefully, next week, we will get to what this all means in more practical terms in our lives. The Lord’s blessings!)

Sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost - October 9, 2022

Sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Ruth 1:1-19a

2 Timothy 2:1-13

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon originally delivered October 13, 2013

Preparing for Worship - October 9, 2022

The Scripture lessons for this week show us God doing just what He wishes to do - helping people in all kinds of situations. He acts in love for us, too, and we are called to thank and praise and trust Him, in Christ our Savior.

The Psalm is Psalm 111. The psalms often praise God’s Word and teaching. This psalm especially praises God’s actions on behalf of His people. Notice how often His work, His “wondrous works” are mentioned. He is “gracious and merciful” and His work culminated in “sending redemption to His people” in the coming Savior. No wonder, then, that the psalmist wants to “give thanks to the Lord” with his “whole heart” in the “congregation” of believers and to continue to “study the works of His hands” and delight in them. (That’s what we do in worship, too!)

The Old Testament lesson is from Ruth 1:1-19. Naomi and family have moved from Israel to Moab during a time of famine. One disaster happens after another, and Naomi feels that “the hand of the Lord has gone out against her,” instead of His works helping her. Her Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, stands in support of her, though, and trusts her God, the God of Israel. She is even willing to go back to Israel, to Bethlehem, with Naomi. God is working for good in all this, and Ruth meets and marries a Jewish man, Boaz. From their family line comes David, who became king of Israel, and much later, the King of kings, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, born in Bethlehem. (If you want more detail, you can scroll back on the podcast to several lessons on the Book of Ruth.)

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 17:11-19, Jesus, that Redeemer, sees and heals, from a long distance away, a group of 10 people who had the dreaded disease of leprosy, as they cried out with a great prayer, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Only one of the 10, a non-Jewish person like Ruth, came back in faith to give thanks and praise to Jesus, who actually was the Son of God. Only to this man could Jesus then say, literally, “Your faith has saved you,” giving him both physical and spiritual healing.

Jesus came, though, to be the Savior of the whole world, as our Epistle lesson, 2 Timothy 2:1-13 tells us. Paul wishes that Timothy “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” as a younger pastor, and then find other “faithful men” who can teach others, too, about trusting in and “remembering Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the Offspring of David” and the Center of the Gospel. Paul is bound with chains, soon to die at the hands of the Romans. “But the Word of God is not bound,” and Timothy and others can still share that Word, so that more and more people, even down to our own day, can “obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” “God remains faithful” to His promises, and “He cannot deny Himself” and His saving plan, available to all people in the world. Through Him, we have come to faith and salvation, and anyone else can, too.

Study of Galatians Part 18 - Galatians 5:22-23

Last week, we spent much time thinking about a long list of “works of the flesh” - what our sinful nature, with which we were born, wants to pull us back into. It is part of the struggle we have now, as Christians, between the “new creation” we are as believers in Christ Jesus and our old sinful flesh and desires. The great good news is that we are forgiven and continue to be forgiven, as we are in faith in Christ, no matter what we have struggled with on that long list of “works of the flesh.” As Paul wrote, along with another long list of sins of the flesh, in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Paul had told the Galatians in Galatians 5:18, they were now “led by the Spirit,” who had brought them to faith in Jesus (Galatians 3:2-3) through “putting on Christ” in their baptism (Galatians 3:26-27) and through “hearing” the Good News of “Christ crucified” (Galatians 3:1-2). And, Paul assured them, God had not only brought them to faith, through the saving work of Jesus and the “life-giving” work of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:25- “We live by the Spirit”). (See also John 3:5-6, where Jesus says, We are “born of water and the Spirit” … “born of the Spirit” and are not just “flesh," but “spirit.”) God also provides His “new-born” Christians with “the fruit of the Spirit” who now lives in and with them (and us) (Galatians 5:22).

The “works” of the flesh are plural, are many and varied, as people do these evil things. The word for “fruit” of the Spirit is singular. It is the picture image of one cluster of fruit, every part of which is important. The listing in Galatians 5:22-23 is of a cluster of nine virtues, qualities the Holy Spirit seeks to produce in every Christian. Some commentators, including Lenski, think the virtues are listed in groups of three. The first three are vitally important for us all - love, joy and peace.

Listed first is “love.” There are several Greek words for different kinds of love, and this is the one for sacrificial Christian love. This is most clearly demonstrated for us in Jesus, who as God the Son limited Himself and became a real human man and sacrificed everything, including His life, for us and our salvation, out of love for us, while we were still weak, ungodly, sinful enemies of God, who deserved nothing from Him. (See these words used about us in Romans 5:6-11 and yet how God still “showed His love for us” in sending His Son for us “to save us from the wrath of God and reconcile us to Him” and “justify us by His blood” and give us new and eternal “life” through His resurrection from the dead.) That is the love of Christ for us that Paul is constantly talking about in all his writings, including Galatians. Our hope is in Christ and His love.

The next “fruit” is “joy.” This is the joy and confidence we have because of the grace of God already given to us and how blessed we are in Christ, on very happy days, but also in times of trouble. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say: Rejoice.” Paul was not perfect, but this “fruit of the Spirit” was evident in his life many times. See 2 Corinthians 6:4-10. Paul wrote of the many good and bad things he had been going through; and yet he was “always rejoicing” - or at least trying to do so. The only perfect one, again, was Jesus, who taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12), “Blessed are the poor in spirit… those who mourn… the meek… those persecuted for righteousness’ sake… when others revile you…  Rejoice and be glad.” Jesus even said, in Matthew 5:48, “You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

Obviously, none of us is perfect. It is also very hard to have joy when bad things are happening, in our own lives and in the lives of loved ones, and when we hear the news in the world and even in our own community. Lenski says, though, “Pessimism is a grave fault.” But we sometimes think: How can I help not being pessimistic, when so many bad things are happening? Maybe that is part of our problem, for which many of us, including me, need repentance. We focus on the news and other social media and our own weaknesses and failings and all the grumbling and troubles we hear and failures of leaders and politicians, no matter what their names are; and we forget and neglect to spend more time also focusing on good news and “counting our blessings” and especially listening to and reading God’s Word, through which the Holy Spirit works to bring us the good fruit of love and joy in Christ that we need so much.

We also know Christian people who have been through hard times and have kept faith in Christ and found renewed joy even in their struggles, just as Paul did. Talk with those you know. If we think about it, we have all been through difficult periods in our lives, too, and the Lord has helped us through, as we remembered and leaned upon His promises.

The Lord has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And we know that eternal life in heaven awaits us. Not even death or anything else can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:34-39). All that can renew our joy, too, and help us in times of pessimism. And we seek to come to the Lord, when we fail, for His mercy and forgiveness. “If we confess out sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

That also brings us to the third “fruit of the Spirit” - “peace.” “Peace” does not mean the absence of war or trouble in our lives. Jesus Himself was very realistic, as He also lived in this very sinful world for our sake. He said, “In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace” (John 16:32-33).

Jesus also promised just what Paul was talking about in Galatians 5:22-23 - the coming of the Holy Spirit to bring the fruit of faith that we all need. Jesus said, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit does that for us through the Word of God, which He inspired the Biblical writers like Paul to write down for us.

Jesus went on to say, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). This peace with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit gives us “wholeness” and “well-being” (what the Old Testament word for peace, “shalom,” means.) Paul called it “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, which guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” It means that we can talk over anything now with our Heavenly Father in prayer, as His dear children, even in “anxious” moments and times of “suffering” (Philippians 4:6-7 and Romans 8:14-17).

If you go back now to Galatians 5:22-23, note that Paul added these words: “Against such things there is no law.” All this “fruit of the Spirit” was a gift from God for the Galatians and for us, too. We are all free in Christ to enjoy God’s love and peace. We are taken care of by our Lord already, through Christ, without worrying about more things we must do to try to earn God’s real favor and blessing for ourselves. We are free to think less about ourselves and to use more of our time and energy in this life to help others find the same love and joy and peace in Christ.

The list of the other six in the cluster of “the fruit of the Spirit” are virtues and qualities by which the Holy Sprit enables us to help and serve others. We will look at these next week and then hear Paul talking about what that would mean for us and others, in a practical way in our lives. The Lord’s continued love and joy and peace be with you all, in the days ahead.

Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost - October 2, 2022

Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon originally delivered October 6, 2013