By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25
“This seems a very odd statement that Paul makes at the very end of his list. We might feel like exclaiming, “Well, of course not! You don’t pass laws against kindness! There are no laws prohibiting love, joy, and peace!” So what does Paul mean here? Is he just stating the obvious, something nobody would disagree with?
It seems very probable that Paul is quoting a proverbial saying that goes back to Aristotle. In one place, after Aristotle had discussed a whole list of different qualities of a virtuous man, he wrote exactly the same Greek words that Paul uses here. And many commentators think that the word our Bible translates as “against” (the Greek word kata) would be better translated “concerning,” or “in relation to.”
In other words, what Paul (and Aristotle) meant was something like this: “In relation to these things, there is no law”… That is, these qualities are character virtues; you can’t legislate to make people behave this way. People will do these things because of who they are, not because there are laws that compel them to.”
Christopher J. H. Wright in Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness (Downers Grove: IVP, 2017) 154-155.
Sophie and I made it safely to London. We rested well across the Atlantic, and thankfully, both of us feel great! When this meditation posts we should be somewhere between London and Cairo.
When I open my talks on generosity in the coming days I am leading with today’s Scripture. In every context, whether America or Egypt, I inspire people to live by the Spirit. Not only is there no law against the virtues the Spirit produces in our lives, but as Wright notes, no law could create such beautiful behavior in people. It’s the Spirit’s work in us. Thus, our fruit witnesses to our Christian faith and blesses those around us.
Anywhere in the world, and especially places where people are disinterested in the gospel, the most generous thing we can give, symbolically speaking, is a “basket of fruit” that only the Spirit can produce.