English · KJV

Galatians 5:23

“The Fruit of the Spirit”Galatians 5:22–26

King James Version
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
Meekness G4236, temperance G1466: against G2596 such G5108 there is G2076 no G3756 law G3551.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
Meekenesse, temperancie: against such there is no lawe.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law;

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
8 Greek words
  1. πραΰτηςprautēsgentlenessG4240N-NSFNoun Nominative Singular Feminine
  2. ἐγκράτεια·egkrateiaself-controlG1466N-NSFNoun Nominative Singular Feminine
  3. κατὰkataagainstG2596PREPPreposition
  4. τῶνtōn[the] [things]G3588T-GPNDefinite article Genitive Plural Neuter
  5. τοιούτωνtoioutōnsuchG5108D-GPNDemonstrative pronoun Genitive Plural Neuter
  6. οὐκouknoG3756PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  7. ἔστινestinthere isG1510V-PAI-3SVerb Present Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  8. νόμοςnomoslawG3551N-NSMNoun Nominative Singular Masculine
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

The fruit of the Spirit ends with meekness and temperance, and Paul says that against such there is no law, because these qualities fulfil what God’s law always required.

“Meekness,”

praiótēs, humble strength under control, gentle with others and trusting God.

“temperance:”

enkráteia, self-control over desires and impulses, the last of the nine.

“against such there is no law.”

These qualities break no law of God or man. They are what the law always aimed at, and the law’s condemnation has nothing to say against those who live them.

Passage studyGalatians 5:22–26

The Fruit of the Spirit

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Summary

After listing the works of the flesh, Paul names what the Holy Spirit grows in a believer: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. He calls it one fruit, a single character grown by the Spirit, and adds that “against such there is no law.” Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, so since the Spirit has given us life, we are to keep in step with him. Paul closes with a warning for the church itself, against craving empty glory, provoking one another and envying one another. The fruit he describes is the character of Christ, formed in his people by his Spirit.

Why Paul calls it one fruit

The verse opens with “But”, and that word sets what follows against the list just before it, the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19–21. Paul calls those many sins erga, works, in the plural. What the Spirit produces he calls karpós, fruit, in the singular, even though nine qualities follow. The nine belong together as one harvest, the way a healthy tree bears many pieces of fruit from the same life. They are facets of a single character, and the Spirit grows them together in the person he lives in.

Fruit is what a living thing naturally produces, and this fruit grows from the Spirit’s presence in us. The works of the flesh come from fallen human nature. They are self-centred, they break lives apart, and they lead to death. The fruit of the Spirit gives life, and it is the visible evidence that God’s grace has truly changed a person. Paul uses the same picture in another letter: “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). He also gives the Colossians a list much like this one, telling them to put on “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering”, to forgive one another as Christ forgave them, and “above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3:12–14).

The Spirit here, pneûma, is the Holy Spirit. The word first means a current of air or breath, and from there it comes to mean spirit. Here it names the Spirit of God, who comes to live in every believer at conversion and makes these qualities grow.

What Paul was answering in Galatia

Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia, a region of Asia Minor, probably around AD 49 to 55. Teachers usually called Judaizers had come among them, insisting that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved (Galatians 2:1–10). Paul answers that we are justified by faith in Christ, apart from the works of the law (Galatians 2:16). He calls the Galatians to stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made them free (Galatians 5:1), and he says that this freedom is an opportunity to serve one another by love (Galatians 5:13).

The Galatians were pulled two ways, back toward the law and out toward the licence of their pagan past. Paul’s answer to both is life by the Spirit, who produces righteousness and love: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The flesh and the Spirit are set against each other within the believer (Galatians 5:16–18), and the whole of Galatians 5 turns on that contrast. Jews and Greeks alike prized qualities like the ones in this list. Paul names them as the work of God’s Spirit, a life higher than any moral philosophy could reach. The Galatians were also struggling with division among themselves, which is why the passage ends where it does.

The nine qualities the Spirit grows

Love, joy and peace

The first three look first toward God and the inner life. Love, agapē, is the selfless love that comes from God, and it is often counted first because the rest flow from it. Joy, chará, is a deep gladness rooted in God, and it stands firm whatever our circumstances are. Peace, eirḗnē, is wholeness and harmony, peace with God within and peace with others around us.

Longsuffering, gentleness and goodness

The next three turn outward toward other people. Longsuffering, makrothymía, is patience that bears long with difficult people and trying times and leaves retaliation aside. Gentleness, chrēstótēs, is kindness, a gracious and generous spirit shown in what we do. Goodness, agathōsýnē, is moral uprightness put to work, the integrity that wants to do what is right and helpful.

Is “faith” here saving faith?

The Greek is pístis, the usual word for faith. It means persuasion and conviction, above all reliance on Christ for salvation, and it can also mean constancy in that faith or the body of gospel truth itself. In this list of qualities lived out day by day, it means faithfulness: being trustworthy, reliable and loyal, a person who keeps their commitments to God and to others. That reading fits the qualities around it, and it is how most students of Scripture take the word here.

Meekness and temperance

The list ends in the next verse. Meekness, praiótēs, is gentleness and humility, strength held under control. It is teachable, patient in suffering and gentle in correcting those who are wrong or hostile, and it rests on trust in God. It is the opposite of arrogance and self-assertion. Temperance, enkráteia, is self-control, mastery over our desires, passions, impulses and reactions so that they serve God’s will. It is how the Spirit frees us from slavery to our appetites and gives us strength to resist temptation and live a pure and disciplined life. Peter names temperance among the graces believers are to add to their faith (2 Peter 1:5–7).

What “against such there is no law” means

Having named all nine, Paul says, “against such there is no law.” The word for law, nómos, means a rule or regulation, and in Galatians it usually means the law of Moses, God’s righteous standard, which exposes sin and condemns it. Paul says, “I had not known sin, but by the law” (Romans 7:7). Love, joy, peace and the rest are good in themselves, and they break no law of God or man.

Paul’s few words say a great deal. These qualities are more than allowed. They are what the law was aiming at all along, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). A life the Spirit is shaping this way is guided from within, it fulfils the law through love and self-control, and the law’s condemnation has nothing to say against it. Paul’s call to think on whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report (Philippians 4:8) points the same way. This is also why the freedom Paul defends in Galatians is safe. Those who walk by the Spirit are free from the law’s curse, and the life the Spirit grows in them is the very righteousness the law described.

Christ’s people have crucified the flesh

Verse 24 explains how believers can bear this fruit and resist the works of the flesh. “They that are Christ’s” are those who belong to him. Christós means anointed, the Messiah, and to be Christ’s is to be his possession and to be identified with him, with our allegiance moved from self and sin to him. That belonging comes first, and the rest of the verse rests on it.

The flesh, sárx, can mean the physical body. In Galatians it means human nature as it is apart from redemption, with its weakness, its passions and its bent toward sin, set against God and his Spirit. It shows itself in sinful indulgence, and also in the self-reliance and legalism Paul is fighting in this letter.

To crucify, stauróō, comes from the word for a cross and means to fasten to one. Used figuratively, it means to put passion and selfishness to death. Crucifixion was a brutal and agonising death that Paul’s first readers knew well, so the picture speaks of a complete and painful break with the old life. The verb is in the aorist tense, which speaks of a completed action, and Paul says this has already happened, from the time a person came to belong to Christ. What the believer does now is live in what is already true.

Romans says the same: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6). This is the teaching of Romans 6 as a whole, where believers die to sin with Christ and rise to a new life. The crucifixion of the flesh is our share in Christ’s own death. God made him to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), and on the cross he bore our guilt and broke the rule of sin. His resurrection life is the power by which we “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4), for “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

The affections and the lusts

Paul names what is crucified along with the flesh. The affections, páthēma, are strong emotions, passions and impulses, here the unruly ones that rise from the flesh. The lusts, epithymía, from a verb meaning to long for, are strong cravings, a word Scripture often uses for desire set on what is forbidden or evil. John speaks of “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). The affections are the broader impulses and the lusts are the sharper cravings that grow out of them, and both have lost their power to rule a believer.

Does a crucified flesh mean the end of the struggle with sin?

The rule of the flesh is broken, but its presence remains with us in this life, so the struggle with sin goes on. Paul says that “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7), so we are no longer its slaves, and yet we still feel the pull of old desires. So the Christian life is a daily walk in the Spirit, choosing to live by who we now are in Christ. Paul’s word for this is reckoning: “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). He also tells believers to mortify their members which are upon the earth (Colossians 3:5), and to put off the old man and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:22–24). Day by day we act on what God has already done.

Living by the Spirit and keeping in step with him

The verb live, záō, means to be alive, to have life. “If we live in the Spirit” speaks of the new birth, the life the Holy Spirit gives when a person is made a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The “if”, ei, assumes the fact, with the sense of “since we live by the Spirit”. This is true of every believer.

From that fact comes the call, “let us also walk in the Spirit.” The verb, stoichéō, means to march in rank, to keep step, to conform to a standard. It pictures orderly, disciplined progress in line with a leader. The Spirit who gave us life also leads us, and our daily conduct, choices, words and thoughts are to keep in step with him. The little word “also”, kaí, ties the two together, so that the life we have received and the way we live match. It is the same walk Paul describes to the Colossians: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Colossians 2:6).

This walk depends on God’s power at every step, and we take the steps ourselves. Paul puts the two side by side: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). The Spirit is the one who gives life and also the one who guides daily living, and walking in the Spirit means continually yielding to his leading and relying on his strength.

Vain glory, provoking and envying

Paul ends the chapter with a warning for the church. Vain glory, kenódoxos, is made of kenós, empty, and dóxa, glory or opinion. It describes a self-conceited person who craves honour and praise that are hollow, seeking his own applause in place of God’s approval. Provoking, prokaléomai, is in the middle voice and means to call someone out to oneself, to challenge them, and so to irritate them. It is the spirit of rivalry that dares others into a contest and stirs up quarrels, often to belittle them. Envying, phthonéō, means to be jealous, to resent another’s possessions, achievements or blessings and even to wish them loss.

Twice Paul writes “one another”, because these sins do their harm between people and tear at the fellowship of the whole church. The Galatians were divided over the law, and a dispute like that easily breeds a competitive, self-righteous spirit. In the Greek and Roman world, honour and shame drove much of life, and people worked hard to raise their standing. Paul calls the church to a humility that runs against all of that: “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3). Love “envieth not” (1 Corinthians 13:4), and Paul tells the Romans to walk honestly, “not in strife and envying” (Romans 13:13).

This verse is the mirror image of the fruit. Love, peace, longsuffering, kindness and self-control are the very things that drive out pride, contention and jealousy, and all glory belongs to God alone. Where the Spirit is growing his fruit, a church lives in peace with itself.

The fruit is the likeness of Christ

Every quality in this list was seen in full in Jesus. He showed love in laying down his life, for “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). He showed longsuffering in his suffering, “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again” (1 Peter 2:23). He called himself “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29), and his meekness was strength under God’s control. He was oppressed and afflicted, “yet he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7), and he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). He showed temperance in the wilderness, where he resisted every temptation of the devil (Matthew 4:1–11).

Jesus also stands opposite every sin of verse 26. He said, “I seek not mine own glory” (John 8:50), and he glorified the Father on the earth (John 17:4). He made himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:5–8). He taught peace and commanded his followers to love their enemies (Matthew 5:44), and he came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Against him there was no law at all, for he lived without sin and fulfilled the law’s righteous demands from his very nature.

He lived his earthly life in dependence on the Holy Spirit, from his conception by the Spirit (Luke 1:35) to the Spirit’s descent on him at his baptism (Matthew 3:16), and he returned to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). The Spirit who lives in believers is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), and God’s purpose is to conform us to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). So the fruit of the Spirit is Christ’s own character being formed in us, as we are “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It all depends on our union with him, the true vine, for “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit” (John 15:5).

Growing in the Spirit’s fruit

Because the fruit belongs to the Spirit, growth in Christlikeness comes from abiding in Christ and yielding to his Spirit, more than from sheer willpower. We still choose and act. We starve the desires of the flesh by refusing to indulge them, and we give ourselves to what the Spirit uses to feed us: God’s Word, prayer, worship and fellowship with other believers. We can do this in freedom, because the power of sin is already broken and guilt has lost its tyranny over us. We pursue righteousness from a changed heart that wants to please God.

Paul’s two lists also give us an honest way to look at our own lives and see whether the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit is showing. The fruit grows over a lifetime, and the Spirit keeps working on what is still unripe.

Verse 26 brings all of this into our life together. Every gift and achievement we have comes from God, so we can be content and thankful for our own, and glad for the gifts of others. When a brother or sister succeeds, we can celebrate with them and encourage them, and when there is conflict, we can settle it with grace. A church like that shows a watching world the reality and beauty of God’s transforming grace.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Galatians 5:13–26. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 14 verses
Passage under commentGalatians 5:13–26
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details

In the latter part of this chapter the apostle comes to exhort these Christians to serious practical godliness, as the best antidote against the snares of the false teachers. Two things especially he presses upon them: -

I.That they should not strive with one another, but love one another.

He tells them (Galatians 5:13) that they had been called unto liberty, and he would have them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free; but yet he would have them be very careful that they did not use this liberty as an occasion to the flesh - that they did not thence take occasion to indulge themselves in any corrupt affections and practices, and particularly such as might create distance and disaffection, and be the ground of quarrels and contentions among them: but, on the contrary, he would have them by love to serve one another, to maintain that mutual love and affection which, notwithstanding any minor differences there might be among them, would dispose them to all those offices of respect and kindness to each other which the Christian religion obliged them to. Note,

1.The liberty we enjoy as Christians is not a licentious liberty: though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet he has not freed us from the obligation of it; the gospel is a doctrine according to godliness (1 Timothy 6:3), and is so far from giving the least countenance to sin that it lays us under the strongest obligations to avoid and subdue it.

2.Though we ought to stand fast in our Christian liberty, yet we should not insist upon it to the breach of Christian charity; we should not use it as an occasion of strife and contention with our fellow Christians, who may be differently minded from us, but should always maintain such a temper towards each other as may dispose us by love to serve one another. To this the apostle endeavours to persuade these Christians, and there are two considerations which he sets before them for this purpose: - (1.) That all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, Galatians 5:14. Love is the sum of the whole law; as love to God comprises the duties of the first table, so love to our neighbour those of the second. The apostle takes notice of the latter here, because he is speaking of their behaviour towards one another; and, when he makes use of this as an argument to persuade them to mutual love, he intimates both that this would be a good evidence of their sincerity in religion and also the most likely means of rooting out those dissensions and divisions that were among them. It will appear that we are the disciples of Christ indeed when we have love one to another (John 13:35); and, where this temper is kept up, if it do not wholly extinguish those unhappy discords that are among Christians, yet at least it will so far accommodate them that the fatal consequences of them will be prevented. (2.) The sad and dangerous tendency of a contrary behaviour (Galatians 5:15): But, says he, if instead of serving one another in love, and therein fulfilling the law of God, you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. If, instead of acting like men and Christians, they would behave themselves more like brute beasts, in tearing and rending one another, they could expect nothing as the consequence of it, but that they would be consumed one of another; and therefore they had the greatest reason not to indulge themselves in such quarrels and animosities. Note, Mutual strifes among brethren, if persisted in, are likely to prove a common ruin; those that devour one another are in a fair way to be consumed one of another. Christian churches cannot be ruined but by their own hands; but if Christians, who should be helps to one another and a joy one to another, be as brute beasts, biting and devouring each other, what can be expected but that the God of love should deny his grace to them, and the Spirit of love should depart from them, and that the evil spirit, who seeks the destruction of them all, should prevail?

II.That they should all strive against sin; and happy would it be for the church if Christians would let all their quarrels be swallowed up of this, even a quarrel against sin-if, instead of biting and devouring one another on account of their different opinions, they would all set themselves against sin in themselves and the places where they live. This is what we are chiefly concerned to fight against, and that which above every thing else we should make it our business to oppose and suppress. To excite Christians hereunto, and to assist them herein, the apostle shows,

1.That there is in every one a struggle between the flesh and the spirit (Galatians 5:17): The flesh (the corrupt and carnal part of us) lusts (strives and struggles with strength and vigour) against the spirit: it opposes all the motions of the Spirit, and resists every thing that is spiritual. On the other hand, the spirit (the renewed part of us) strives against the flesh, and opposes the will and desire of it: and hence it comes to pass that we cannot do the things that we would. As the principle of grace in us will not suffer us to do all the evil which our corrupt nature would prompt us to, so neither can we do all the good that we would, by reason of the oppositions we meet with from that corrupt and carnal principle. Even as in a natural man there is something of this struggle (the convictions of his conscience and the corruption of his own heart strive with one another; his convictions would suppress his corruptions, and his corruptions silence his convictions), so in a renewed man, where there is something of a good principle, there is a struggle between the old nature and the new nature, the remainders of sin and the beginnings of grace; and this Christians must expect will be their exercise as long as they continue in this world.

2.That it is our duty and interest in this struggle to side with the better part, to side with our convictions against our corruptions and with our graces against our lusts. This the apostle represents as our duty, and directs us to the most effectual means of success in it. If it should be asked, What course must we take that the better interest may get the better? he gives us this one general rule, which, if duly observed, would be the most sovereign remedy against the prevalence of corruption; and that is to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16): This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. By the Spirit here may be meant either the Holy Spirit himself, who condescends to dwell in the hearts of those whom he has renewed and sanctified, to guide and assist them in the way of their duty, or that gracious principle which he implants in the souls of his people and which lusts against the flesh, as that corrupt principle which still remains in them does against it. Accordingly the duty here recommended to us is that we set ourselves to act under the guidance and influence of the blessed Spirit, and agreeably to the motions and tendency of the new nature in us; and, if this be our care in the ordinary course and tenour of our lives, we may depend upon it that, though we may not be freed from the stirrings and oppositions of our corrupt nature, we shall be kept from fulfilling it in the lusts thereof; so that though it remain in us, yet it shall not obtain a dominion over us. Note, The best antidote against the poison of sin is to walk in the Spirit, to be much in conversing with spiritual things, to mind the things of the soul, which is the spiritual part of man, more than those of the body, which is his carnal part, to commit ourselves to the guidance of the word, wherein the Holy Spirit makes known the will of God concerning us, and in the way of our duty to act in a dependence on his aids and influences. And, as this would be the best means of preserving them from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, so it would be a good evidence that they were Christians indeed; for, says the apostle (Galatians 5:18), If you be led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. As if he had said, "You must expect a struggle between flesh and spirit as long as you are in the world, that the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh; but if, in the prevailing bent and tenour of your lives, you be led by the Spirit, - if you act under the guidance and government of the Holy Spirit and of that spiritual nature and disposition he has wrought in you, - if you make the word of God your rule and the grace of God your principle, - it will hence appear that you are not under the law, not under the condemning, though you are still under the commanding, power of it; for there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Romans 8:1-14.

3.The apostle specifies the works of the flesh, which must be watched against and mortified, and the fruits of the Spirit, which must be cherished and brought forth (Galatians 5:19, etc.); and by specifying particulars he further illustrates what he is here upon.

(1.)He begins with the works of the flesh, which, as they are many, so they are manifest. It is past dispute that the things he here speaks of are the works of the flesh, or the product of corrupt and depraved nature; most of them are condemned by the light of nature itself, and all of them by the light of scripture. The particulars he specifies are of various sorts; some are sins against the seventh commandment, such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, by which are meant not only the gross acts of these sins, but all such thoughts, and words, and actions, as have a tendency towards the great transgression. Some are sins against the first and second commandments, as idolatry and witchcraft. Others are sins against our neighbour, and contrary to the royal law of brotherly love, such as hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, which too often occasion seditions, heresies, envyings, and sometimes break out into murders, not only of the names and reputation, but even of the very lives, of our fellow-creatures. Others are sins against ourselves, such as drunkenness and revellings; and he concludes the catalogue with an et cetera, and gives fair warning to all to take care of them, as they hope to see the face of God with comfort. Of these and such like, says he, I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that those who do such things, how much soever they may flatter themselves with vain hopes, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. These are sins which will undoubtedly shut men out of heaven. The world of spirits can never be comfortable to those who plunge themselves in the filth of the flesh; nor will the righteous and holy God ever admit such into his favour and presence, unless they be first washed and sanctified, and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Corinthians 6:11.

(2.)He specifies the fruits of the Spirit, or the renewed nature, which as Christians we are concerned to bring forth, Galatians 5:22, Galatians 5:23. And here we may observe that as sin is called the work of the flesh, because the flesh, or corrupt nature, is the principle that moves and excites men to it, so grace is said to be the fruit of the Spirit, because it wholly proceeds from the Spirit, as the fruit does from the root: and whereas before the apostle had chiefly specified those works of the flesh which were not only hurtful to men themselves but tended to make them so to one another, so here he chiefly takes notice of those fruits of the Spirit which had a tendency to make Christians agreeable one to another, as well as easy to themselves; and this was very suitable to the caution or exhortation he had before given (Galatians 5:13), that they should not use their liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. He particularly recommends to us, love, to God especially, and to one another for his sake, - joy, by which may be understood cheerfulness in conversation with our friends, or rather a constant delight in God, - peace, with God and conscience, or a peaceableness of temper and behaviour towards others, - long-suffering, patience to defer anger, and a contentedness to bear injuries, - gentleness, such a sweetness of temper, and especially towards our inferiors, as disposes us to be affable and courteous, and easy to be entreated when any have wronged us, - goodness (kindness, beneficence), which shows itself in a readiness to do good to all as we have opportunity, - faith, fidelity, justice, and honesty, in what we profess and promise to others, - meekness, wherewith to govern our passions and resentments, so as not to be easily provoked, and, when we are so, to be soon pacified, - and temperance, in meat and drink, and other enjoyments of life, so as not to be excessive and immoderate in the use of them. Concerning these things, or those in whom these fruits of the Spirit are found, the apostle says, There is no law against them, to condemn and punish them. Yea, hence it appears that they are not under the law, but under grace; for these fruits of the Spirit, in whomsoever they are found, plainly show that such are led by the Spirit, and consequently that they are not under the law, as Galatians 5:18. And as, by specifying these works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit, the apostle directs us both what we are to avoid and oppose and what we are to cherish and cultivate, so (Galatians 5:24) he informs us that this is the sincere care and endeavour of all real Christians: And those that are Christ's, says he (those who are Christians indeed, not only in show and profession, but in sincerity and truth), have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. As in their baptism they were obliged hereunto (for, being baptized into Christ, they were baptized into his death, Romans 6:3), so they are now sincerely employing themselves herein, and, in conformity to their Lord and head, are endeavouring to die unto sin, as he had died for it. They have not yet obtained a complete victory over it; they have still flesh as well as Spirit in them, and that has its affections and lusts, which continue to give them no little disturbance, but as it does not now reign in their mortal bodies, so as that they obey it in the lusts thereof (Romans 6:12), so they are seeking the utter ruin and destruction of it, and to put it to the same shameful and ignominious, though lingering death, which our Lord Jesus underwent for our sakes. Note, If we should approve ourselves to be Christ's, such as are united to him and interested in him, we must make it our constant care and business to crucify the flesh with its corrupt affections and lusts. Christ will never own those as his who yield themselves the servants of sin. But though the apostle here only mentions the crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts, as the care and character of real Christians, yet, no doubt, it is also implied that, on the other hand, we should show forth those fruits of the Spirit which he had just before been specifying; this is no less our duty than that, nor is it less necessary to evidence our sincerity in religion. It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. Our Christianity obliges us not only to die unto sin, but to live unto righteousness; not only to oppose the works of the flesh, but to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit too. If therefore we would make it appear that we do indeed belong to Christ, this must be our sincere care and endeavour as well as the other; and that it was the design of the apostle to represent both the one and the other of these as our duty, and as necessary to support our character as Christians, may be gathered from what follows (Galatians 5:25), where he adds, If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit; that is, "If we profess to have received the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, and endued with a principle of spiritual life, let us make it appear by the proper fruits of the Spirit in our lives." He had before told us that the Spirit of Christ is a privilege bestowed on all the children of God, Galatians 4:6. "Now," says he, "if we profess to be of this number, and as such to have obtained this privilege, let us show it by a temper and behaviour agreeable hereunto; let us evidence our good principles by good practices." Our conversation will always be answerable to the principle which we are under the guidance and government of: as those that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, so those that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit, Romans 8:5. If therefore we would have it appear that we are Christ's, and that we are partakers of his Spirit, it must be by our walking not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We must set ourselves in good earnest both to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life.

4.The apostle concludes this chapter with a caution against pride and envy, Galatians 5:26. He had before been exhorting these Christians by love to serve one another (Galatians 5:13), and had put them in mind of what would be the consequence if, instead of that, they did bite and devour one another, Galatians 5:15. Now, as a means of engaging them to the one and preserving them from the other of these, he here cautions them against being desirous of vain-glory, or giving way to an undue affectation of the esteem and applause of men, because this, if it were indulged, would certainly lead them to provoke one another and to envy one another. As far as this temper prevails among Christians, they will be ready to slight and despise those whom they look upon as inferior to them, and to be put out of humour if they are denied that respect which they think is their due from them, and they will also be apt to envy those by whom their reputation is in any danger of being lessened: and thus a foundation is laid for those quarrels and contentions which, as they are inconsistent with that love which Christians ought to maintain towards each other, so they are greatly prejudicial to the honour and interest of religion itself. This therefore the apostle would have us by all means to watch against. Note,

(1.)The glory which comes from men is vain-glory, which, instead of being desirous of, we should be dead to.

(2.)An undue regard to the approbation and applause of men is one great ground of the unhappy strifes and contentions that exist among Christians.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

4 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

4 quotes · AD 384–430
Post-Nicene
400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 384AmbrosiasterPost-NiceneSourceEPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.24.2
Paul did not mention more than ten excellent behaviors because he is referring to the fruits of the Spirit. These fruits embrace everything in the tablets of God’s covenant, in which no more than ten words of command are succinctly handed down.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on Galatians 5
He says not, "the work of the Spirit," but, "the fruit of the Spirit." Is the soul, however, superfluous? the flesh and the Spirit are mentioned, but where is the soul? is he discoursing of beings without a soul? for if the things of the flesh be evil, and those of the Spirit good, the soul must be superfluous. By no means, for the mastery of the passions belongs to her, and concerns her; and being placed amid vice and virtue, if she has used the body fitly, she has wrought it to be spiritual, but if she separate from the Spirit and give herself up to evil desires, she makes herself more earthly. You observe throughout that his discourse does not relate to the substance of the flesh, but to the moral choice, which is or is not vicious. And why does he say, "the fruit of the Spirit?" it is because evil works originate in ourselves alone, and therefore he calls them "works," but good works require not only our diligence but God's loving kindness. He places first the root of these good things, and then proceeds to recount them, in these words, "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law." For who would lay any command on him who hath all things within himself, and who hath love for the finished mistress of philosophy? As horses, who are docile and do every thing of their own accord, need not the lash, so neither does the soul, which by the Spirit hath attained to excellence, need the admonitions of the Law. Here too he completely and strikingly casts out the Law, not as bad, but as inferior to the philosophy given by the Spirit.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceOn Continence 9
He did not say “against these,” so that they would not be thought the only ones—though in fact even if he had said this we ought to understand all the goods of this kind that can be imagined. No, he says “against such things,” namely, both these and whatever is like them.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceEPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 49 [1B.5.22-23]
He has added “against such there is no law” so that we understand that those on whom the law must be imposed are those in whom these excellent behaviors do not already reign. For those in whom they reign are the ones who apply the law legitimately, since the law is not imposed on them with coercive intent, seeing that righteousness is already their overwhelming preference.… These spiritual fruits reign in one in whom sins do not reign. These good things reign if they are so delightful that they themselves uphold the mind in its trials from falling into consent to sin. For whatever gives us more delight, this we necessarily perform.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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