“The Life of Faith, Part 2: “Bearing the Fruit of Love” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, June 29, 2025, Year C / Pentecost 2 / Proper 7 (12) – Galatians 5:1, 13-18, 21-25 • Leviticus 19:9-18 (not in lectionary).

THEME:  Live life in the Spirit and the fruit it bears will attract others to the faith.

 
Has anyone here ever lived in New Jersey? As I think you know, we lived in New Jersey for 20 years.  Among the other life

adjustments that living there required, we had to get used to two things:  crowded roads and crazy drivers. We lived 25 miles due

west of the Holland Tunnel leading into Manhattan. When I was not taking the train into the city, I would drive. Let’s just say that

driving in rush hour around New York is not for the faint of heart.

The kind way of putting it, is that it forces you to recalibrate your expectations of your fellow human beings.  Driving brings out the worst in them. There are some unwritten rules of the road. They are crucial for survival. First, turn signals are never used. It is the sure sign of an out-of-towner.  Second, regardless of speed, if there is more than a car length of space between you and the car in front, someone will cut you off, so your brakes had better be in good shape. Finally, the primary mode of communication among drivers consists of horns and hand signals.  And the vocabulary is limited and rude.

Being so close to other cars, you have the opportunity for a close-up inspection of bumper stickers. On more than one occasion, I was chagrined to see Christian symbols and bumper stickers on cars being driven in a way that would suggest that Satan was behind the wheel.  The lesson I learned from that is that bumper stickers do not always give an accurate picture of the driver. They are an outward sign, and like all external symbols, they are no guarantee of the inner disposition of the bearer, or the way they really live. And that is the message that Paul is sending to the Galatians.

As you remember from last week, the Galatians have been swayed by Jewish Christian evangelists. They insist that the Gentile Galatians must become circumcised in accordance with the Jewish law. This, the evangelists say, will allow them to enjoy the new life God promised to Abraham.  Paul vehemently disagrees. We can understand why the Galatians might be tempted, can’t we? Circumcision is a physical sign, and physical signs are clear. They are like a bumper sticker on a car. They convey, to ourselves and to others, who we think we are and what we consider important.

But Paul is himself a circumcised Jew. He knows all too well that outward signs are no guarantee of the inner disposition of our hearts. And, even more important, they are no guarantee of our behavior toward others. For Paul, how the Galatians act toward one another is the true measure of their new life in Christ. Paul knows this firsthand.  He is living this new life. He writes, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  

The distinctions of the old life are no longer paramount. As Paul writes, “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  Christian unity is the hallmark of the new life that he wants for the Galatians. It is a life of freedom, the freedom to love one another as widely and as well as God has loved them. Just as Jesus does, Paul sums up the ethics of this new life by quoting Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But the reality of human sin is such that unity and freedom cannot co-exist by themselves, at least not for very long. They require nothing less than love, and not just the sort of love that exists among friends.

New life in Christ requires self-giving love. This is what the Greeks called agape. It is the kind of love that God showed us in Jesus Christ. This is why Paul says, “Circumcision counts for nothing.  Faith working through love is everything.” 

To drive his point home, Paul offers the Galatians a picture of two diametrically opposed ways of living. The first is to live according to the Flesh. Life in the flesh is all about self-indulgence. It is centered on the gratification of our own desires, without consideration for others.

The second way of life is to live according to the Spirit. Life in the Spirit is all about living with others, and for others. It is motivated and measured by God’s love for us in Christ, and it is empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit. It is easy to distinguish between these two ways of living. As the proverb says, “You will know them by their fruit.”  Living in the flesh inevitably leads to hedonism and self-destruction. It leaves a trail of conflict, pain, and suffering in its wake. Life in the Spirit, however, is different, very different. The hallmark of this life is love, and love produces joy. What follows from that is peace, inspired by kindness and maintained by generosity. That is because it comes from faithfulness. Discerning what God has done for us in Jesus Christ shapes the way we love others, and the way we live with them.

It is a life of self-control, but that does not mean that we have to squelch or deny all our desires. Life in the Spirit tempers and orders our desires.  The Spirit guides us to desire the right things in the right amounts, things that are appropriate to the will of God.  Does living in the Spirit eliminate conflict? Absolutely not. Conflict is part and parcel of intimate relationships between human beings. Conflict will still happen, but it will be resolved in a way that keeps relationships intact.

Living in the Spirit is certainly a blessing. But it is not only a blessing to us, it is the single most powerful attraction to others who are considering the faith. It is no secret that the church has been shrinking for at least the better part of the last century. Since the 60’s, younger generations have fallen away from formalized religion. But that is changing. 

Recently, members of Gen Z – which is comprised of those born after the year 2000 – have begun returning to church. And, whereas in the past women have been more likely to become active adult members in the church, now young men are leading the return to the life of faith. They see the images of toxic masculinity being portrayed in our politics and our culture and they want nothing to do with that. They want something else. That something else is what Paul is holding up to the Galatians: life in the Spirit.

But here is the challenge for you and me.  We claim the label of Christian.  The question, however, is not what we call ourselves. The real question is how we live our faith. You have heard the old expression “actions speak louder than words.” So very true.

Do our inner disposition and our treatment of others, especially those whom Jesus called the least and the lost, communicate faithfulness to Christ’s command of love? In other words, are we bearing the fruit of the Spirit? That is what others are looking for in us, as they consider the life of faith.

It is not unlike the way that children size up adults. Social research confirms what we all know from experience. Children are keenly tuned into their environment. They have an acute awareness of the people around them. They have an innate ability to sense genuine kindness and warmth. Because of that, they gravitate toward those who project warmth and kindness. 

Think of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, or Kris Kringle in the Miracle on 34^th Street.  Or, if animated movies are your thing, think of Belle in Beauty and the Beast, or Olaf in Frozen. All of these have an inner disposition of a loving heart, expressed in actions of loving kindness. This proves irresistible to others.

Friends, that is what life in the Spirit is like. The love, joy, kindness, peace, patience, generosity and gentleness are the irrefutable evidence of the irresistible power of God’s love, present in the Holy Spirit.  If I may say so, we do this pretty well around here, but there is always room for improvement in our lives, and especially in our world. Do you know someone who is looking for this kind of life? I think we all do.

We do not need to put a Christian bumper sticker on our car to attract them. We DO need to make sure that our hearts and our actions communicate that we are living life in the Spirit, and bearing the fruit this produces.  

May it be so.

Amen.