
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. —Galatians 5:22-26
The same
The Holy Spirit’s
The Holy Spirit is given to us not so we can be more spiritual, but so we can become more
While we may have chosen to follow Jesus,
We need to
The Problem of Individualism
In a profoundly individualistic culture, we misunderstand scriptures written to a much more
We tend to read biblical teachings as applying only to
As a society, we think that we can separate our individual good from the
When Paul says “you” in the New Testament, it’s most often plural—“
Jesus created a
The New Testament is the story of
We cannot understand the kingdom of God if we think salvation is only about “
“The slogan of the Church’s life is ‘not without the other’; no I without a you, no I without a we.” —Archbishop Rowan Williams
We cannot experience wholeness outside of the
The Fruit of Community
Many Christians are familiar with the fruit of the Spirit as a list of
The Galatians wrestling with what it means for Jews and Gentiles to be the church
He contrasts life in the Spirit with life in the flesh. (Galatians 5:16-17)
“‘Flesh’ is the realm of autonomous fallen humanity, living at odds with God.” —Richard B. Hays, New Testament Scholar, Duke University (1948-2025)
In Paul’s list of works of the flesh, eight of the vices are
The fruit of the Spirit are gifts given for the building up of the
Paul is not telling the Galatian Christians to act a certain way, but
We cannot
To live in the community of the Spirit requires us to crucify
“For those of us who live in the modern, Western world, the Spirit brings freedom from bondage to ourselves, freeing us for love of others and from that widespread contemporary perversion of our humanity—narcissism.” —Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon
Table Manners
When the church gathers, a
Jesus did much of his ministry at
Meals teach us much of what it takes to live together: gratitude, contribution, sharing, and making sure everyone has
The central meal of Christian life is
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.
At the table, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we who are many become
Action Steps
Pray for the
Ask the Holy Spirit, “Where are you
My additional notes: