RD35

The fruit of the Spirit appears as a result of living a Godly life. When we live a life pleasing to God and in obedience to His word, and when we are always connected to Jesus our vine we begin to produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The spirit melts us, moulds us and matures us and gradually we will begin to show the fruit of the sprit in our lives. The theological term could be sanctification. It is a process of becoming Holy and set apart for God. A person who does not display the fruits of the spirit even though he has been a Christian for many years may not have fully given his life to Jesus.

Patient Forbearance is an important personal character element because we live in a world with different kinds of people in it. Not everyone thinks and acts in a godly manner or like how we want them to be. So it is important that we learn to bear with each other. Only when we are patient with different people will we be able to give them Christ. If there is no peace in our families and Christian community we will not be able to pray and enjoy spirit filled fellowship. We will be constantly under stress and anger which will give way for the enemy to get into our relationships. Peace in the family and church will lead to unity and growth. More people will be drawn towards Christ by seeing the peace of Christ in us.

When we love, we have peace and the joy. We cannot have peace of mind when we dislike or hate someone, we will be constantly under stress and anger and this will also steal away our joy. To love God and our neighbor is a command from God. When we are obedient to God we are close to him and he fills us with His Spirit and gradually we show all the fruits of the spirit in our life.

Some Christians resist accepting Paul’s statement because it is a difficult thing to do - to crucify the flesh and not gratify it. They will think such a life will be boring and without any fun to live. They may reword Paul's statement saying, good works will wash all your sins and will take you to heaven.

Sins of the Mind, Sins of the Body, Sins of the Heart. Sins against God, Sins against fellow Humans, sins against God’s creations and sins against myself.

These verses teach us that when we are led by the spirit we can live a sinless life. The Holy Spirit frees us from sinful nature and restrains us from doing activities which gratifies our flesh or leads us into sin. For this we have to live a life which is rooted in the word of God and we have to be connected to God at all times in prayer. Our walk with the Holy Spirit has to be a continuous one to live a sinless life. Both the flesh and the Spirit have desires which drive and motivate them. The flesh desires us to act like a god to ourselves; the Spirit points us to serve the true God in love and faithfulness. Such people who claim that it is impossible not to sin have not given up wholly the desires of their flesh. They are disobedient to God and fail to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The flesh is weak and always in a battle with the spirit. The moment we go away from god’s word and a prayerful life then the flesh wins over the spirit and causes us to sin.

Yes we keep seeing Christians acting as lawless people. Spirit led Christians live a life pleasing to God and being obedient to the laws of God and brings Glory to His name. They have crucified their flesh and act as the spirit leads them. Backbiting and rudeness will soon destroy the congregation. Such a congregation is in sin and not led by the spirit of God.

The Cross offended the Jews because Jesus was crucified on it and Jesus was the messiah prophesied in the scriptures. Secondly because of the death of Jesus on the cross grace reigns and not law. We are made right with God by Christ’s death and not obedience to the law.

Faith in Christ is now the identity. Circumcision of the Heart. Living a sprit led faith in loving actions. Acting in loving ways towards other in the Christian community.

Grace is God's favor. Without God's favor on us, we are left to our own devices, to try to cobble together our own righteousness based on righteous deeds that stem from mixed and often corrupt and selfish motives. “Fall from Grace” here mean losing the status of being a son of God when we choose to follow the law and reject Christ. Obedience to Law to attain salvation than believing in the works of Christ on the cross has occurred that has caused this fall. Any time a Christian believer thinks he has to do something or follow certain laws to attain his salvation he falls from this grace. We are saved by faith in Jesus and not our works.

Paul is in agony. Like a parent he once did his best to get his children walk in the right paths. But now he grieves like a parent to see his kids, the Galatians, since they've turned away from the basics of the gospel, the grace of God. When Christ is formed in a person, he is filled with the Holy Spirit. He is attentive to the voice of God and deeply repents for all his sins, never to go back to the old ways again. A person who is formed like Christ has the character of Christ in Him and matures day by day in his Christian walk. As his foundation is firm on the rock of Christ no storm or external influence can shake his life. He displays the fruits of the Holy Spirit as he is the branch of the vine called Jesus Christ. His flesh dies and he is no longer the old person but Christ lives in him. The process involved is repentance, surrender, forgiveness, listening to God, feeding on the word of god, doing His will. Endurance, perseverance in testing, Dying to Flesh, discipleship, freedom in Christ, victory in Christ, Salvation.

When observed thoughtfully celebrating different worship days are not wrong. Galatians observed different days as a legal obligation or as mantle of righteousness . The Galatians became acceptable to the Jews when they followed the customs of Judaism. They thought by doing so they became righteous in the eyes of god too. When we celebrate certain days to remember the goodness of God and our festivities are in line with the word of god, then we are blessed by the special days in our era. When these special days become ritually binding upon us and through observing them if we think that we become righteous then observance of such days can become legalistic. If we think that by observing special days we become acceptable into Christianity then it become legalistic.

The spirit filling in us demonstrates we are full sons of God because we are no longer slaves and in the spirit we can cry out to our father as our own. The spirit of God testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. By crying out to God calling him Abba in aramic meant, one did not have to uses formal words but could uses familiar expressions with God, meaning He is our father and He understands us. The significance of being heirs of God, means we can come before God like Jesus. We need not be afraid to come before our father and be on guard always like slaves or step children. We are the adopted sons of god, co-heirs with Jesus Christ, sons of God in the same sense that Jesus is God’s son, when like Jesus our aim is to do the will of God.

The Jews were enslaved to the Mosaic Law and certain traditions. The gentiles were enslaved to the Jews and to pagan traditions. To redeem means to buy, to deliver someone or to liberate. Adoption bestows full status of son on a person. The adopted son will be a full heir to all that his adoptive parents possess. At the death of the parents, their estate passes to him, to his children, and to his children's children. We are adopted by God, and so what Christ inherits, we inherit. Our status in God’s family is full. We are seated with Christ in heavenly realms, the place of honor as Son and Heir.

God had waited for the right time to send His son on earth. God’s timings are perfect, what may seem long to man , may not be the same in God’s view. In the First century, God’s timing was right because, the time was right religiously, culturally, commercially and politically.

Yes Jewish Christians regarded Gentile Christians as second class citizens because they were not circumcised. The basis of our unity is baptism is Jesus Christ, accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In Christ we are at the same level. What Paul does say is that we all have the same status before He is saying we are all equal in Christ! Praise God! This radical verse erases the supposed superiority of men over women, of one race over another, of one class over another. We are one, since we are all joined to Christ by baptism. Our new identity is in him, not in our personal distinctions Depends on each congregation, there may be or may not. Classification on financial status, family status or different races and cultures may still be prevailing. We should live in love with everybody in our congregation and respect each other knowing Christ is living in everyone of us and we are all of equal status in the eyes of God.

The Purpose of the Law was to restrain people from doing unrighteous acts and be holy in front of God because God is Holy. The law helped people identify their wrong acts as sin and to show them their utter need to depend upon God to redeem them from the sin. The law was to lead to us Christ to be justified through faith. No the law was not intented to justify a person but to lead us to Christ to be justified through faith. It was unlawful to sin and one had to bear consequences. It showed what wrong things were considered as sins. It reveals acceptable and unacceptable behavior, conduct, and actions desired by God.

Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. He bore upon himself our sins and died for us. The Gentiles receive the promise of the spirit by faith in Jesus Christ.

The Galatians had received the Holy Spirit by their faith and not by law because they had asked for the Holy Spirit in faith. Pauls argument was clear that the Galatians received the Holy Sprit long before the Judaizers came trying to get them to observe the mosaic law and the Holy Sprit worked miracles among them by faith and not because they observed law. The Galation Church was a newly formed church, there was no law when they started and they believed in the works of Jesus Christ on the cross and were saved. They had strong faith because of which the Holy Spirit was given to them and the Holy Spirit was powerfully working in their church with signs and wonders. But they were easily misled by the law keeping Judaizers. Through prayer and staying rooted only in the word of God can we regain this environment in our congregations. As Paul says it is by faith we can receive the Holy Spirit and not by law. We must have full faith in the works of Jesus which has saved us from eternal fire. I should change my life first in line with the word of God and then Like Paul we should stand up for the truth and also encourage others in the congregations without diluting the word of God, and wake up others from their sleep.

Abraham was justified by faith. Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. We are Abraham’s spiritual Children, when we too believe in the Lord and have faith.

The old person which I was has been crucified with Christ, which means all my sin and old ways of the world which I was clinging to have died and I am now a new person. Now it is the resurrected Christ who lives in me and I am His. Though I live, the new man that I am will live depending on Christ alone. The life of chirst motivates me. Because the old person of me is dead with Christ I am now a new creation, created in the likeness of Christ. The death of Christ on the cross has showed me that there is no hope of salvation by the law; I am therefore as truly dead to all expectation of justification by the law. Through him alone I live - enjoy a present life, and have a prospect of future glory

If circumcision is necessary for salvation, then Christ died for nothing. In the days of Paul the Jews were preaching a wrong gospel and they themselves believed that following the law was needed for one’s salvation. So the issue of the sufficiency of the messiah’s death was so important. In Luther’s days also law was preceding the works of Christ. It is the same today in many churches, the issues which the early church faced in Paul’s days is still faced by many congregations. People are confused especially new with the issue of their salvation.

It is hard to take the gospel to different peoples without wrapping it in our own cultural practices because we only want to see what we have always seen and done and we think that our culture, traditions and language is the best one which God has selected. We are more confident when we preach the gospel wrapped in our culture. The danger is that we will not be able to reach to many people with the good news of Christ because they may not be ready to give away with their cultures with which they were brought up. Or the once who have been converted may start believing that just because they have accepted another culture they are saved. We can avoid cultural faux pas in our church’s missionary by following the leading of the Holy Spirit and by prayer. If we study the word of God, God’s word will have a solution to every kind of problem. The missionaries should stick on to only preaching the word of God, and eventually God will reveal to each one what should he or she be giving up which is not pleasing to Him.

Open discussions are always good for any congregation. These were differences that were affecting the whole body of Christ and where everyone was involved. So Paul must have confronted Peter publicly. Moreover Paul was very bold and was not ashamed when it came to Christ. I am sure that he had privately tried to reason the whole situation out. But the influence of the "men from James" was too strong. The Jewish Christians saw how God accepted the Gentiles and understood the saving grace of Jesus. Thus showing them that keeping rituals or obeying law could not save them. If he didn't publicly confront the situation, the mission to the Gentiles would shrivel up and die. It would be no different than it had always been. The Gentiles benefited as they would not be treated as second class Christians anymore and knew that they could be saved by accepting Jesus as their Lord. It was a risky thing for Paul.

Peter was in Antioch to teach the gentiles and mingles freely with the new believers. Peter was one of the pillars of the Jerusalem church (2:9). He had experienced a vision of God's acceptance of the Gentiles, preached the gospel in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea (Acts 10), and then, defended to the church in Jerusalem his action to baptize them on the grounds that the Holy Spirit had led him to do it (Acts 11). Later he withdrew from them to eat only with the jews out of fear of being smeared by the law-keeping Jews who threaten to ruin his reputation as the leading apostle of the Christian movement. Peter had a fluctuating mind, when the wind turned against him. His mind had fluctuated when Jesus was on trial by denying him three times. He should have know better because he was with Christ all the time and was one of the pillars of the Jerusalem church. Barnabas was a Greek-speaking Jew who had been born in Cyprus. He had been the first to defend Paul and his gospel before James and Peter in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1-10). Later, he had been sent by the Jerusalem church to instruct the new converts in Antioch (11:22). But now, with representatives from James present to make sure that the Jewish law was being upheld, he, too, was "led astray." He looked at the reputation of the men who were zealous law-keepers, rather than the principle at stake. But perhaps it was part of Barnabas' nature to find common ground where he could. He just saw it as the loving thing to do, so as not to offend these visitors from Jerusalem. The visitors from Jerusalem were zealous law-keepers. These men were strict in their observance of the kosher laws. Yes I have feared law and traditions most of the time. When we recover from our senses we have to repent and ask pardon from God and turn to the right ways.