“The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

The apostle Paul in Gal 5:22-23.

There is no law against these things, although they need careful definition, especially when an international movement is redefining words as part of its campaign to undermine the Christian worldview.

I made two recent blogposts about the Holy Spirit’s teaching and Jesus’ teaching about the godly.  Now I turn to the apostle Paul.

Paul is a succinct writer because he had so much to say.  Hand-picked by Jesus Christ to bring the Gospel to the nations, the writings of Professor Paul, and his travelling companion Dr Luke, compromise the majority of the Christian New Testament.  Not only did Paul travel around the Roman world preaching the Gospel and founding Christian churches, but his letters are still read by millions of people every day throughout the world.

As the foremost student in the school of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, he turned from rabid persecutor of Christians to foremost preacher of the Christian Gospel, whereby he is a powerful witness to the truth of Christ’s resurrection.  Paul knew intimately the views and experience of those on both sides of the debate. As the professor of Christian systematic theology and as the evangelist extraordinaire of his day, the Lord’s providence enabled him to explain in his letter to the Hebrew Christians how Jesus fulfilled the sacrifices in the Jewish ceremonial law of the Old Testament, and then in his letter to the Gentile Christians in Rome he encapsulated the theology of the Christian Gospel.

Christian theology

Christian theology is so profound that the apostle Paul used his own shorthand terminology in his letters. These shorthand phrases were probably well-polished and more fully explained in his sermons.  When explaining how Christian teaching applies to Christian behaviour, particularly in the practical section at the end of his epistles, he continues to use many shorthand terms and phrases.  This is a huge subject and sometimes Paul simply listed the topics as they came rapidly before his fertile mind, and these Pauline lists were probably expanded in his many sermons.

Christian behaviour

When it comes to Christian behaviour, the Pauline lists grow long and I can only touch on what are deep topics.    In one of his earliest epistles he gives two lists Gal 5:19-23 describing the difference between the fleshly life of the unconverted person and the spiritual life of the godly.  This typical Pauline list explains the elements that need to be coalesced into a coherent whole to see the life of the godly.

Gal 5:19-21 is quite long, describing the sinful behaviour seen in the ungodly, and then Paul continues with a shorter list of the behaviour of the godly.

“The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

Some of my readers might wonder how this differs from the mild-mannered individuals whom they meet from day to day.  Paul goes on to explain: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” Galatians 5:24.

The godly are not mild-mannered weaklings.  They are warriors – at war with sinful self, sinful flesh and the world’s opinions and behaviour. They are crucifying the flesh – and they are winning at the personal level.  “We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us,” declared the apostle in Rom 8:37.  The next phase in the Christian warfare is to win at the national level, and then the international level.

Here in Gal 5:24, Paul illustrates Jesus’ teaching on self-denial.

“Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Matthew 16:24

The godly deny themselves in order to be of benefit to others.  Do you? or do you indulge your own interests to the exclusion of others?

The godly do not only live in the Spirit but they also walk in the Spirit:

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Galatians 5:25-26

Do you?  “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them” Ezk 36:27.  Does this describe you? This describes those who are justified from their sins through Jesus Christ. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” Romans 8:1, or to quote Paul in the current context:

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

Galatians 5:16

Paul goes on to apply these Christian sentiments: “Let us not be vain glorious, provoking one another, envying one another” Gal 5:27. 

Is this your idea of the godly? 

Godly churches

Indeed, Paul continues his application in Gal 6:1, which is routinely ignored by many churches.  Christian pastors and overseers should take the initiative to restore the fallen, but it does not often happen. There is plenty of scope for Christian improvement, personally and collectively. 

Self-examination is not simply about our own state in the sight of God but it is also about our behaviour 2Cor 13:5.  Nor is it about ourselves only, but about churches collectively Act 17:11.

In conclusion

Between the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul, we have plenty to digest and to apply to ourselves and to the Christians around us, for self-examination concerning the godly, their character and their behaviour.

You can examine yourself in the same manner with the writings of the godly Psalmist, whose Psalms show us the experience of the godly par excellence.  Then you can read the epistles of the apostle Peter, then James, the apostle John, Jude, and the other biblical writers, beginning with Moses at the beginning of the Bible.  Then you can work your way through the Old Testament with Solomon in the book of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes, or Isaiah, such as: “The Lord says: to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My Word” Isa 66:2. The unified testimony of the Old and the New Testaments bears witness to the teaching of the one Spirit of God to His own work in the lives of the godly 2Cor 4:13.

The character, speech and behaviour of the godly is all over the Bible for those who care to examine themselves by it. It shows what a transformation the Holy Spirit can make in your life.

Links:
17 Aug 2024: what the Holy Spirit teaches the godly.

5 Oct 2024: Jesus’ teaching about the godly.

28 Oct 2024: the apostle Paul’s teaching about the behaviour of the godly.

18 Nov 2024: God the Father’s teaching His children.