Bible Studies
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 – Rotten Fruit
Key Verses: (NCV)
- 1: “We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So stand strong. Do not change and go back into the slavery of the law.” – Paul summarizes his argument by suggesting that once we turn to Christ we should not go backwards. Our lives are changed by our faith in ways never achievable by simply following the law.
- 13: “My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love.” – In our calling we are given a wonderful vision of God’s kingdom and a dream of what life on earth could be like. However, this does not provide us Carte Blanche to act self-righteously. Love for one another must be our guiding principle.
- 15: “If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.” – Like sharks in a feeding frenzy, anything in our path could be destroyed by our carelessness.
- 17: “Our sinful selves want what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against our sinful selves.” – A battle rages within.
- 19-21: “The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: being sexually unfaithful, not being pure, taking part in sexual sins, 20worshiping gods, doing witchcraft, hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people, 21feeling envy, being drunk, have wild and wasteful parties, and doing other things like these. I warn you now as I warned you before: Those who do these things will not inherit God’s kingdom.” – Paul is holding up a mirror that reveals the rotten fruit in our lives.
- 22-23: “But the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control.” – These are the guideposts that can be seen along our pathway to holiness.
- 25: “We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit.” – He will show us the way.
- Are you making excuses?
Closing Prayer:
Loving Father, thank you for today’s lesson from Paul. We have not been the Christians you are calling us to be. We have set aside love for passion. We have hurt people with our comments. We have been selfishly focused on what we think is the right way to building your kingdom and have not seen how you are working in other peoples lives around us. All the good that we have done has been for our glory not yours. We listen to your Spirit, learn a lesson or two, and then head off with our own agenda, pushing people aside and building walls. No wonder building the kingdom is difficult. No wonder that everything we try to do meets resistance. It is our rotten fruit that we carry with us wherever we go that gets in the way. It not only is a barrier, it destroys the good you have created. Forgive us Father for our blindness. Forgive us for our sins. Help us to be more aware of how our actions are being perceived in the world around us. Help us set aside our destructive tendencies – our rotten fruit. Fill us with your Spirit and lead us along your paths of righteousness so that you can produce the fruit of the Spirit through us. Help us to be more loving in everything we do. This is our prayer. Amen.
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