Daily Scripture: Galatians 5:13-23
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Read additional translations at Biblegateway.com or youversion.com
Reflection Questions:
As we end our study of the seven deadly sins, we return to this great passage. Here Paul describes the vast spiritual freedom Christ offers each of us. We can live free of the deadly sins by finding our true selves, led by God’s Spirit, and bearing the Spirit’s fruit. “Against such things there is no law.”
- What have you learned during this series about yourself and your spiritual journey? What changes will you make in order to put your life more fully under the Holy Spirit’s direction? Which of the fruits of the Spirit do you most want God to grow in you during the rest of 2009?
- Like Jesus, Paul quotes Leviticus 19:18 (“Love your neighbor as yourself”) as summing up all of the law. How do the deadly sins keep you from that kind of love for your neighbor? How do the fruits of the Spirit create a way of life in which it is increasingly natural for you to love your neighbor?
Read Darren Lippe’s insights on today’s scripture at gpsinsights.wordpress.com
Weekly Prayer:
O God, thank you for valuing me, even when I struggle to value myself. Help me to love myself as you have loved me. Give me contentment in being the person you’ve made me to be, and in serving you and others the ways I am gifted to do. Then, help me to love my neighbor as I love myself. I thank you that your ways are so much higher and greater than mine. Amen.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.
