Paul will next list fifteen activities of the flesh and nine activities of the Spirit. The deeds of the flesh are what you would expect, things like sexual immorality, witchcraft, drunkenness, etc, plus a few that have nothing to do with the human body, like hatred, jealousy, ambitions, and factions. The first few sound like things even the world considers immoral, while the last few can be found in any good church membership. Paul's definition of "flesh" (not "sinful nature," as the NIV renders the word) includes obviously more than just the body. It means all of you, when acting independently of God's Spirit. The Spirit, on the other hand, brings things which we desperately need today, like joy and peace. Shame and unrest fill our lives because of our many standards and activities which those trying to "build the kingdom" put on us, and we could use a heavy dose of joy and peace.

But by far the most significant thing about these two lists is that Paul calls the activities of the flesh "works," while he calls the activities of the Spirit "fruit." What is the difference? Only the difference between two completely different worlds! If there is one word which describes how the flesh operates, it is the word "works." What we need to realize is that most of the things we have been doing for God are works, rather than fruit.

Did you know that the flesh wants to serve God just as much as the Spirit? Only the Spirit does it because the Father wants it, while the flesh does things for God in order to look better. When Paul told the Philippians of his former problem of having "confidence in the flesh"(Phil.3:4-6), he listed good religious things like observing the Law and serving the Lord (or so he thought at the time) by fighting what he thought were God's enemies. In other words, the opposites represented in the dichotomy of "flesh vs. Spirit" are not Evil and Good, but independence and dependence. What Paul is trying to say is that doing religious things for God is not the ultimate goal. The flesh can live for decades doing that very productively; as A.W. Tozer once said, "to tell the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern" (The Pursuit of God, p.46). Learning to live by the Spirit is God's goal, and it may not end up looking as "spiritual" as you think it should be. When Jesus first declared that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, the people he grew up with said, "but isn't this just Jesus, the carpenter's son?" (Matt.13:55-56) He seemed perfectly normal, saying and doing the same things as everyone else. His identity lay deeper than that. So what does living by the Spirit look like? How does it work? The answer is: totally differently from the flesh.

The Spirit doesn't "work," He bears fruit. When you bear the fruit of the Spirit, it will not be work to you, either. How does a tree produce fruit? By trying to get rid of an excess of life. During the winter a tree's sap drops inward and downward, to its roots, where it works on deepening and broadening the root system. This leaves the tree looking naked and dead, because the life is hidden underground. But when the spring comes, the sap begins to rise again in response to the heat from the sun, and it pushes upward and outward, forming new branches and growing new leaves. As the life rises up within the tree, it continues to push outward until there is no more room for the flowing sap to move. The tree is now so full of life that it has much more than it needs. Then the tree begins to form little pods all over its limbs, at every tip, to store and release this excess of life. As the sap continues to well up within the tree the pods grow and develop into fruit, until they become mature and drop off from the tree. What was the tree doing? Was it working to produce fruit because it knew it was "supposed to"? No, it was simply finding a way to release the abundant excess of life within it, and those around it benefitted greatly from the product of that release. But that is not work at all. That is the way it is with Christian growth.

We should not be constantly working to build the kingdom. In fact, we should not be working at all. Christ is our Sabbath, which means we should somehow be in a constant state of rest, and we have a command from God not to work as long as we are in him. When the life of Christ wells up within us until it cannot be contained any longer, and it has to come out, then we should share what we have with the Body of Christ (we meet together in order to share our excess of life). When there is no fruit, there is no need to try to make something happen. Can you imagine a tree deciding during winter that it should bear fruit at all times, so that it begins to drop dried up twigs and bark for everyone around to eat? Well that is exactly what it is like when a Christian thinks that he or she should be constantly doing spiritual things for God and for everyone around. We have a very "fleshly" understanding of Christian service, always coming up with work for everyone to do. Perhaps we feel an urgency for the second coming of Christ, and that we must hurry to get everybody saved before he comes. But the Scriptures say that when he comes, he is coming for something: he is coming for his Bride. She is being prepared for him even now, but She cannot be rushed beyond the necessary pace. We are in entirely too much of a hurry to be mature (now!) and to establish the kingdom of God (today!).

We need to learn that God works in seasons. Sometimes there is no fruit and we are all dried up. That is okay; his Life is digging deeper into us and is hidden from the world (and from us) during that time. But one day that Life will rise up again and seek outlets for its flowing. Then you will find yourself looking for ways to shake off the excess, giving to others from the abundance of Christ in your heart. Have you ever loved someone or given to someone effortlessly? Has it ever happened to you spontaneously, doing what you did just because you wanted to do it? Well, that is your standard. Never again should you force yourself to do spiritual things just because you think you should. That's the old way of doing things, and it belongs to the flesh. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom"(2 Cor.3:17). There is also love, joy, peace, and rest from all of your work (see Heb.4:9-11). Do you want to be a Sabbath observer? Then never work again, because you now live in Christ, your Sabbath! Those who are led by the Spirit are not under law. And we are led by the Spirit. "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit"(5:25), and never again return to fleshly ways of serving God. And don't be afraid of falling back into habitual sin, because if you live by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (v.16).

This is where we start: with freedom. There really are identifiable marks of a Christian, but they don't come by effort and work. They are the overflow of the indwelling Life of Christ. In Paul's last chapter, he will look briefly at that kind of life, but it will have nothing to do with "should's" and "ought's," because that belongs to the old way. You must begin with freedom and work from there.

Read Chapter Six of Galatians and we will look at it in the next section.