The Tale of Two Motivators

I was looking at the passage in Galatians where Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit. He starts out with something against which to contrast the fruit of the Spirit -- "the deeds of the flesh." If you are "of the flesh," this is the "fruit" you will expect to see. And he has a long list of that "fruit" -- things like immorality, sensuality, idolatry, anger, and more (Gal 5:19-21). Then he says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is ..." and gives another list (Gal 5:22-23). Besides being a shorter list, it is also a qualitatively different list. The first list is a list of deeds and the second is a list of character traits. Now that's interesting.

Gun opponents tell us, "Guns are killing people!" Gun advocates counter with "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." And you would have to concede the point. No gun pulls its own trigger. The gun is the tool and the hand wielding the tool did the deed. Of course, that would be traced back further to the brain that was controlling that hand. And, further, we'd have to take into account what the influences were on that brain. I mean, someone who kills another for gain is a murderer, but someone who kills another to save lives is a hero. So it's not guns; it's the motivator that is the issue. That's what is expressed here in the fruit of the Spirit. The flesh produces sins. The Spirit produces character traits which, in turn, will produce ... not sin.

Guns don't kill; a failure to love does. In a similar way, the Spirit produces in the believer character traits that express themselves in good attitudes and actions. But we aren't better because we act differently. We are better because the Spirit is working. By the same token, people don't do bad things because they're worse. They do bad things because they are controlled by the flesh. Therefore, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Gal 5:25), because "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24).