James Nisbet Commentary - Galatians 5:22 - 5:22

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James Nisbet Commentary - Galatians 5:22 - 5:22


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

A GREAT CONTRAST

‘The works of the flesh … the fruit of the Spirit.’

Gal_5:19; Gal_5:22

What a contrast there is presented to us in these few lines! The works of the flesh against the fruit of the Spirit! From the one the higher nature of man turns in utter abhorrence, while the other commends itself to God and man.

I. Present-day sins.—I think we must be arrested by the solemn and awful fact that some of the sins of which the Apostle speaks are with us to-day. We must admit that there is amongst us much idolatry, many factions and divisions, hatred, heresies, and envyings. Now that is a consideration of the gravest importance. Why is it the Church in the course of its two thousand years of existence has not done more, for although we rejoice over the triumphs of the Gospel, as we look round there must be a note of sorrow. Look at the darkness of Africa! Look at the teeming millions of Asia still in the grip of heathenism! Nay, do not look so far. Look at Christendom itself, and one must admit that there is even in the Church of Christ much that makes the brain reel and the heart turn sick. How is this? To answer this aright we must remember that Christ never originated a party; He was not a Master of a system; yet He set in motion a force that has stood for two thousand years through a storm of persecution, and through all the great advancements and changes of passing ages, and still to-day is the greatest moral force of the world. What was the secret of it all? His life was His theology; He came bringing a higher conception of manhood and the Godhead; a new reverence of God—the God of Love.

II. Christianity in the world.—If this is truly the secret of the power of Christ, so must it be the power of Christianity in the world to-day. It is not in the customs of the Church; the power of the Church is in the lives of the men and women who are living as Christ did. The Church is the casket, the men and women are the jewels; the Church is the body, the individual lives of the members of the Church are the soul. That is the thing we need to be reminded of. We are overburdened with the idea of the desirability of great organisations, but it is the life that counts; and as the life of the Christian is the power of the Church, so the lives of men and women should be the ultimate desire of the Church. Christianity is not the knowledge of Church history, but a true development of the joy and peace of the Christian spirit.

Rev. J. C. Banham.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

KNOWN BY THEIR FRUIT

The Apostle had his Master’s authority, not only for this teaching, but for the figurative language in which it is conveyed. ‘By their fruits,’ Christ had said, ‘shall ye know them.’

I. This fruit contrasts with the produce of the sinful nature.—The Apostle lays stress upon ‘the flesh,’ by which he evidently intends the corrupt, sinful nature of men. The flesh and the Spirit are contrary; so are the works of the flesh to the fruits of the Spirit. The catalogue of sins here introduced must have appeared most just to the observation of men lately delivered in some cases from the debasement of heathenism. The contrast is one as real, if not so striking, in our own days.

II. This fruit can only be accounted for by the new life and the new influences of the Spirit.—For the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Life and the Spirit of Holiness. It is a supernatural growth which yields these unaccustomed fruits. The sunshine ripens, the showers swell the fruit which God destines for His own glory. It has the flavour and the fragrance of heaven.

III. This fruit is sweet, serviceable, and acceptable, not only to God, but also to man.—The practical virtues here described are such as relate to a man’s intercourse with his fellow-men, and such as contribute to his own true development and well-being. Its abundance will enrich and bless this earth, and will promote the glory of the Divine Husbandman. ‘Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.’



CHRISTIAN JOY

‘The fruit of the Spirit is … joy.’

Gal_5:22

The end of religion is not penitence, it is not contrition, it is not conviction of sin; it is something better than all that. The end of religion, to which it is all working, is joy. Jesus Christ Himself ‘for the joy which was set before Him endured the Cross.’ So, again, St. Paul, in prison chained to a soldier, with many disappointments and trials, yet he said, ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice.’

What does Christian joy consist in?

I. The first joy is the joy of being forgiven.—Are there some who do not know the joy of being forgiven? They certainly cannot know that joy until they have known the pain of penitence. Look into your consciences and see what is on your conscience. Only in this way can you work towards the joy of being forgiven.

II. There is the joy of companionship.—Part of the joy of Christ was that He was not alone, and the only moment when He was in real agony of spirit was when the Father’s face seemed to be blotted out from Him, and He cried, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ Christ bore that in order that no one might ever be forsaken.

III. There is the joy of service.—I am never tired of repeating those beautiful words of Bishop Phillips Brooks: ‘It is not when the ship is fretting her side against the wharf that she has found her true joy, but when she has cut the rope which binds her to the wharf and is out upon the ocean with the wind over her and the waters under her; it is then that she knows the true joy a ship is made for as she plunges across the sea.’ Can you not see what is meant? It is not when a man is fretting his sides against the wharf, as it were, of his own self; it is not when he is saying, ‘What will people think of me?’—that is not the full joy a man is made for; but when he has cut the rope that binds him to himself and is out upon the ocean of loving work for God and man, with the wind of the Spirit over him and the water of humanity under him—then he knows the true joy he is made for.

IV. There is the joy of growth.—How lovely it is to think of the Church as a beautiful garden, and the Holy Spirit coming down upon it like dew and making all the plants grow. It is a lovely thing, of course, to see flowers grow, but it is still lovelier to see boys and girls growing up in a family and all their character developing; they seem sometimes to get more loving, more unselfish, like the beautiful flowers, every day under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That is the joy of growth.

V. There is the joy of strength.—‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’ You know those beautiful pictures by Mr. Watts of Sir Galahad riding forth to battle with his armour on, full of the joy of strength; or that other picture of ‘Aspiration,’ where the young knight looks across the field of life with his spear and shining armour. That is the joy of strength. And there ought not to be a young man or woman present who has not got the joy of strength. We are not meant to be miserably weak people, driven about by every wind of doctrine and beaten down by temptation. We are meant to be young knights, going forth in all the glorious strength of the Holy Spirit, conquering and to conquer. We must ask for the joy of strength.

Bishop A. F. Winnington-Ingram.

Illustration

‘It was said by a great writer that the goodness of work was in proportion to the joy of the workman. I come across, for instance, some parish priest who has toiled in East London for thirty years unnoticed and unknown. Do I find him depressed? I find him tired, weary, old before his time, but find a joy upholding him. You will remember Matthew Arnold’s beautiful words:—

‘ ’Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead

Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green,

And the pale weaver through his windows seen

In Spitalfields, looked thrice dispirited;

I met a preacher there I knew, and said:

“Ill and o’er-worked, how fare you in this scene?”

“Bravely,” said he, “for I of late have been

Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread.”

O human soul! so long as thou canst so

Set up a mark of everlasting light,

Above the howling senses’ ebb and flow,

To cheer thee and to right thee if thou roam,

Not with lost toil thou labourest through the night!

Thou mak’st the heaven thou hop’st indeed thy home.’