Sermon Tone Analysis

Fruits of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22

 

Faith or Faithfulness

 

*INTRODUCTION*

Good morning.

We have been working our way through the fruits of the Spirit revealed to us in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians – and today’s subject is Faithfulness.

You will  be aware that the underlying topic of faith is a massive one that could occupy us for many weeks.

I will only be touching lightly on it.

However, our understanding of faith is pivotal to our understanding of our christian walk – can I encourage you to study the subject yourself!

Before I address our particular topic, I think it is wise to review the background to the listing of the Fruits of The Spirit.

*THE GALATIAN PROBLEM*

 

The Galatians were having problems with bad teaching and this was leading them to move away from the truth of the gospel.

In fact this was a problem that Paul had to deal with throughout his ministry and it explains Paul’s attention to the concept of salvation by grace through faith.

You see there was a cultural problem.

For all of their history the Jews had seen themselves as the chosen people of God – for a fairly good reason – as God had said that they were.

However, they saw it on racial grounds, passed down as an inheritance.

In fact, if a person who was not racially of the Jews wanted to worship God there was a requirement that they accept the law, demonstrated in men by circumcision.

There was a mark of racial separation.

Remember the racial hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans in Jesus time.

This was not just a philosophical belief, it was a very deeply ingrained concept.

It was fundamental to their position – the law is God’s love-gift to his people and by fulfilling its requirements they could attain the righteousness of God.

And so now the young church dominated mostly by Jewish christians – that is christians who were of the jewish race – had a problem.

They felt that it was necessary that a person first legally become a jew before that person could become a christian!

They just couldn’t abandon this concept.

/Acts 15:1/

/ /

/Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers:/

/“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved”/

 

 

It should be noted that in fact the reality of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ was not well understood in the young church – particularly in Jerusalem.

Don’t forget that we have all the New Testament writings – and years of theological analysis.

They had the teaching of some of the Apostles and not all of them were as theologically astute as Paul became through God’s calling.

And even Peter, who had been specifically called to the Gentiles strayed in his application.

Paul had visited the Galatians with Timothy and Silas soon after the issues were raised in Antioch, so you can be sure that Paul would have been most specific in his teaching of them – particularly has he had confronted the issue in Antioch..

So in Galatians 1:6 Paul exclaims

 

/I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all!/

 

I don’t think that Paul could have put his concern more clearly.

Paul goes on to establish some important points

 

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That anybody who is teaching a gospel other than that which they accepted should be eternally condemned.

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That Paul himself is not interested in men’s approval.

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That Paul himself was called by God.

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That Paul himself was accepted by the other Apostles and that they agreed that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Gentiles while they concentrated on the Jews.

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That he had to confront Peter for originally he had eaten with the Gentiles but due to perceived pressure from the ‘circumcision group’ had ceased doing so.

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That the difference in teaching was that the false teaching presented that justification could come from observing the law while the true gospel taught that justification comes from faith in Christ.

Paul then makes the basic statement of the whole epistle in 2:20

 

/I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!/

In the following chapter, Paul addresses the theological basis of the law and explains the history of it.

He establishes that the covenant that God made with Abraham

 

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Included the Gentiles as well as the Jews

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Was made with Abraham and The Lord Jesus Christ specifically

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Preceded and was not set aside by the law

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Is inherited by faith

 

This is fairly important for us as Gentiles – the word used for all who are not Jewish.

So now we are all sons of God, in 3:26

 

/You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise./

In Chapter 4, Paul establishes that we as sons, are children of the covenant  not children of  the law – and that as children of the covenant or promise we are free.

If we were children of the law we would still be bound by the law and would be slaves to it.

This point is again summarised in 5:5

/ /

/But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love./

/ /

 

Paul then goes on to talk about what that freedom means and what it doesn’t mean!

In 5:13

 

/… but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love./

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And he gives an instruction in verse 16

 

/So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature./

And by way of further teaching he lists for them some of the acts of the sinful nature and then the fruits of the Spirit.

Effectively then he concludes in 6:7 - 10

 

/Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.

A man reaps what he sows.

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers./

/ /

Some important lessons are here for us

 

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It is very important why we do things.

If we act to satisfy the law in the belief that following some prescribed rules for life will gain us righteousness, then we deceive ourselves – we are under the law and are condemned by it.

If we act in response to the Spirit we can claim righteousness as an inheritance as a child of God – we are under grace and redeemed by it.

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We need to actively pursue what the Spirit wants for us – to sow to please the Spirit.

We are not to be passive receptacles, like robots programmed to do the right thing – but active respondents to the moving of the Spirit within us.

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To do this, we need to be able to be moved by the Spirit and so must put aside our sinful nature.

This is to be a conscious act – and if you read other epistles such as Ephesians you will find numerous exhortations about this.

So being under grace rather than under the law does not absolve us of striving to live in the Spirit.

Paul makes it very clear that we are not expected to sit around waiting for the Spirit to move us but are to actively place ourselves where the Spirit can use us!

 

\\ *FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT – FAITH OR FATHFULNESS*

 

The word used in the Bible is either faith or faithfulness – depending on the translation you use.

But the greek word used is that used elsewhere in the Epistles for faith.

I expect that various translators use the alternative based on their understanding of the context.

We actually have two different meanings – although they are related.

A dictionary definition of the noun, /faith/, is – great trust of confidence in something or someone.

Of the adjective, /faithful/, the definition is - loyal, true or not changing any of the details etc of the orginal, not engaging in other sexual relationship.

And from there the noun, /faithfulness/, is – the quality of being faithful to someone or something.

When we talk about /faithfulness/ in normal context we think of words like

 

Fidelity, loyalty, piety, trustworthiness, dependability, constancy

 

That is, we think about the characteristic as a general characteristic rather than a specific one.

The emphasis is on the characteristic and the subject – the person exhibiting faithfulness.

When we talk about /faith/ in normal context we think of words like

 

Belief, certainty, confidence, conviction, dependence, reliance, sureness, truth

 

That is, we think about a specific trait rather than a general one.