Litmus Test for Christianity

Galatians 5.13-26  "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. [14] For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. [15] But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. [16] This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. [17] For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. [18] But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. [19] Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, [20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, [21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, [23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. [24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. [26] Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another."

What is the Christian life? For many people Christianity is viewed as either licentiousness or legalism. In Galatians 5 God condemns both alternatives as fleshly, non-spiritual, not of Him. In verses 13 through 15 God condemns licentious or sinful living as incompatible with His way. There were a group of Christians (?) in the early Church who called themselves "Gnostics", and they believed that salvation in Christ freed you so that you could sin and pursue hedonism. There are many Christians (?) who follow this path today who feel like their action of "walking the aisle" and "publicly proclaiming Jesus through word and Baptism" gives them the authority to pursue guiltless sin. This is an aberration of the Christian life:

2 Corinthians 5:17  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Galatians 6:15  "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature."

That is absolutely not supported in the Scriptures. If you are saved, you are a "new creature" in Christ, a son of God, a child of the King. To profess Christ in order that you be free to guiltlessly sin ignores the creative hand of God in the true Christian's life.

There was also a group of Christians (?) who claimed that unless you followed the Law after salvation, your salvation was not true. These early Christians (?), actually converts from Judaism, believed that salvation was both a work of God and a work of man. They held that, unless you remained true to the tabooism of the Law, you would "lose your salvation".

Hebrews 9:11-14 "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

The Legalists ignored the fact that Jesus paid the penalty for all sin, and that He and He alone "obtained eternal redemption for us". By their blending of the Law with the Grace of the Cross they effectively blasphemed the pure offering that Jesus made. God hated and still hates the form of religion that sets man up as a god.

The Bible points out a third alternative, an alternative of Christian Living that is neither Gnostic nor Legalistic, and that is Life by the Spirit of God.

Galatians 5 gives us a wonderful resource to determine if we are living our lives by the Spirit of God, or by the flesh (Gnosticism/ Legalism). God wants us to know that we can examine the spiritual output of our lives, compare that output to this list, then use it (as a sort of litmus test) to determine our status in Christ.

Galatians 5.13  "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

The first test of the Christian, of the Church itself, is whether we are "called unto liberty" or whether we are called into the flesh. This is an all important consideration for each one of us today, "What's your motivation?". I want you to consider Jesus Christ today, our Lord and Savior. Philippians 2 tells us (along with other passages) that Jesus was the most liberated Man who ever walked the face of this earth. He descended from Heaven as eternal God and assumed the flesh of man. As eternal God He had every right to be worshipped, to be served. Jesus could have come to earth, and with one word established His throne on earth. He could have had, or forced, all of humanity to serve at His beck and call. He could have conquered the world with a thought, enslaved us, destroyed the heathen - but He didn't. No, Jesus assumed manhood then began to show us what greatness really is.

Jesus walked among man and served both man and God. He Who should have been served, who had every right to be served, served us instead. Christ was heir to great power, but instead used His liberty to show us Love. The Christian is the recipient of the great Love of God, and as we have received much, much is expected of us. As we have been given, we are expected to give. As we have been loved, we are expected to Love. Our liberty, purchased in the terror of the Cross, was bought at a great price by Jesus and given to us. Not so we could sin without guilt, but so we could be freed to serve as Jesus served.

What value do you place on your time on this earth? Do you think your time is worth $7.00 an hour, $10.00 an hour, $25.00 an hour? Now consider this - focus on this - what was Jesus' time worth? Would you pay Jesus $7.00 an hour, $25.00 an hour to work for you? Jesus placed no value on His time, on His love, for these things were priceless. How can you reimburse God for His time? You cannot, by money or tithe, pay Him for what He did for you. Time is, in reality, priceless, for each moment, once passed, cannot be reclaimed on this earth. Spend your time on this earth loving as Jesus loved - you are freed from the Law for that.
 

There was once two farmers, both brothers, who for some reason or the other had fallen into conflict with one another. One day a man came up to the older farmer's house, knocked on the door, and said "I'm a carpenter looking for a few days work. Do you have anything I can do?" The farmer pointed to a stack of wood and said, "My brother lives on that farm over there. Last week there was a meadow between us, but he took his tractor and cut a ditch to the river, making a creek between us. I want you to take that wood and build me a fence between us so I can't see him. That'll teach him!". The carpenter said, "I understand", and he went to work. All day he nailed, sawed and measured, and at sunset the farmer came out to see how the work was progressing. The farmer's jaw dropped! Instead of a fence, there was a bridge stretch across the creek, complete with handrails. The younger brother stood on the bridge, and with tears on his face crossed the divide to hug his brother.

You must be willing to put what you learn from Jesus into practice in your life. The Scribes were theologians of the first degree, Doctors of Theology. They knew everything about the Scripture from writing and writing it over and over again. Yet, though they knew the Scripture, they never applied it to their lives. Jesus always referred to the "theologians without substance" as:

Matthew 23:13-14  "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation."

Matthew 5:20  "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

"Hypocrites", two faced people. The Scribes and Pharisees had the abundant riches of the Gospel at their fingertips. They knew what God's Word said, but instead of applying that Word to their own lives they misused the Word to puff themselves up and tear others down. God expects us not just to study Jesus know His Word, but to PUT HIS WORD INTO PRACTICE in our lives. This is a tearing thing, a hammering thing, a fiery thing.

Galatians 5.13-15  "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. [14] For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. [15] But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."

It is an unnatural thing for a Christian to regard himself above Jesus or above his brethren. It is an unnatural and disruptive thing for the Christian to ignore the life of Jesus, to fail to emulate the life of Jesus in His life. When we bite and devour one another, we destroy the Church - these things cannot be under the banner of Christ. These things were not taught you of Jesus, but of Satan.

Only One among all of the human race ever walked this earth completely sinless, and that was Jesus Christ. The rest of us are, quite frankly, riding into Heaven on His coattails! If we say that we have not come from a background of sin, then we are calling God a liar. God sent Jesus to the Cross for the whole world, and that included you and me both.

Galatians 5:16  "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

Galatians 5:25  "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

There are two interesting words used in these texts to describe the Christian "walk" or way of life. In verse 16 God tells us to "walk" or PERIPATEO, to tread all around in or deport yourself in the Spirit. We, as Christians, should literally get to the point in our relationship with God where we are "wallowing" in the Spirit, covered up by the Spirit, our every action governed by the Holy Spirit of God. Yes, the relationship should grow in the life of every Christian to this state.

But in verse 25 we are told to "walk" in the Spirit, but this time the word STOICHEO is used. STOICHEO is a military term meaning "to march in (military) rank (keep step), i.e. to conform". This is significant. I know that in our present age not many men have had any experience with the military, and more's the pity. If more men were forcibly drafted into the military they'd learn how to be men, dedicated men, and not the double minded people that we have in our congress and in positions of leadership today. When I first went into the military I went to basic training. We all got off of the bus, stood on painted footprints on the tarmac, and the first thing the drill instructor tried teaching us was KEEPING IN STEP. Oh, how ridiculous we looked for the first two weeks! As we marched we had to discover coordination and rhythm, how to march in step with the fellow in front of us and not step on his heels, how to keep time with the people to our right and left. As we marched the instructor would yell "One, Two, Left, Right, Get in step!", over and over again. Eventually we got it, and we moved in union with one another and with the instructor. We were a cohesive unit.

The point is this: walking in the Spirit, walking as a Christian should walk, is a process not an automatic response. First, are you a Christian? Have you given your life to Jesus Christ (not Mary, the Pope, your Preacher, but to Jesus)? If so, then consider the illustration that Paul gives us on walking. When you were a baby you crawled from place to place. Your parents kept picking you up, holding you, and at a certain time they tried to get you to walk. You probably don't remember that time (I don't), but I'll tell you what I did with my kids. I put them on the floor, on their feet, and held the back of their shirts. They began taking tentative steps, one after the other, while I held them. After some time I released their shirts and it was up to the kids. They had to TAKE A RISK and step out on childlike faith. At first they fell frequently, and I always tried to catch them before they hit the floor. This scared them, and they often cried, but soon they stopped and we tried it again. Again and again, over weeks, perhaps a month, we went through the exercise. My kids had to try, to TRY, and to step out on faith. Daddy thought they could do it, and guess what? One day, they did! Walking is a process that starts on the day you give your life to Jesus, and continues as you take risks for God.

If you are not walking in the Spirit then you are walking by the workS of the flesh. If you're walking in the Spirit them you're producing the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5.22-23  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

How can you know that God is at work in your life? Because He gave us a litmus test, a means of looking at our lives and determining our spiritual condition. This litmus test is the "Fruit of the Spirit".

The "Fruit" or KARPOS of the Spirit is a single unit of works that God the Spirit produces in the believer's life. Note that these are not called FruitS, but "Fruit" - Paul uses the singular word here. The Fruit of the Spirit are not a bunch of evidences that have no relationship to one another, but each of the nine virtues are presented as one unit. These virtues together have a harmony that produces the one singular Fruit. This is in direct contrast to the "workS of the flesh", plural. These non-virtues are disharmonious, scarring and destroying the Christian walk, whereas the Fruit are singular and harmonious. You cannot mimic the harmony of the Fruit of the Spirit, for they are a cohesive and unified whole.

There are people in this world who have love, love for their mates, love for their family, love for their neighbor in general. They may also be joyful,  and at peace with themselves but be short tempered with others. You can have love, joy, and peace, but if you are impatient with others (without long-suffering) the Fruit of the Spirit is not evident in your life. You can show love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith,  Meekness, temperance - and yet lack gentleness, and you are devoid of the Fruit. We must possess all nine virtues in harmony with one another to have the Fruit of the Spirit. Look, the Christian today is often indistinguishable from the average heathen, and this is not God's way. The Christian is supposed to be on a higher plain than the heathen. Many believers (?) today have just enough religion to make them irritating, but do not have a relationship with God. Now that we are saved we are called to walk in the Spirit, to pursue God. We should be like the Psalmist:

Psalms 18:33  "He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places."
 

At an exhibit in Del Mar, California, a man took a glass beaker and demonstrated the temper of that glass. He took the beaker, and holding it by the neck, drove a nail into a board with it. The glass didn't break. Then the man took a steel marble and dropped it into the bottom of the beaker - and the bottom busted out. As Christians, as the Church, we can resist the strongest of Satan's blow from without. But just one small force on the inside can destroy the individual, destroy the Church, and drive harmony away from our lives.

Is your feet like hinds' feet? Are you walking on top of the world, living in the joy of the Christian walk? Or is your existence boring, mundane, apathetic? You have, if you are a Christian, all the resources of Jesus Christ at your disposal, if you'll commit to them. This Church has grown, and continues to grow in Christ. I bid you, come and grow with us. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then today is a great day to come to Him. If you have become mundane in your walk, if you are not producing the Fruit of the Spirit, repent and return to Christ. Come!