When Mark began his series about the fruit of the Spirit, he told us that we need to uproot those things that keep fruit from growing in our lives. Mark reminded us of Paul’s words in Galatians 5:16, that we should “live by the Spirit” so that we will not “gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
I’ve often wondered what the “sinful nature” is. Galatians 5 gives us a list of the ways that the sinful nature is revealed in our actions, and Mark pointed out that most of those sinful actions are, at their core, relational problems. Ultimately, our sinful nature can be summed up in one word: selfishness.
If we go all the way back to the garden, Adam and Eve were tempted by the fruit because it looked good, it promised to taste good, and it would give them wisdom; they sinned because they were focused on themselves and not on God. Throughout the rest of the Bible, we can see that sin was often caused by someone’s selfishness. Even in our own lives, we know that most, if not all, of our sins are related to selfishness.
So, if we want to “live by the Spirit” instead of our selfish, sinful nature, we need to be focused outside ourselves. Obviously, we need to be focused on God—how else can we live by the Spirit? But we need to be focused on others as well.
Throughout his writings, the apostle Paul refers to other Christians as “brothers”; Paul clearly thought of the church as family. In Galatians 5, Paul frequently encourages the church family to serve one another; in fact, that’s exactly how he told them to beat the sinful nature of selfishness. So, if our family wants to grow the fruit of the Spirit, we must focus on God and on others and work on it together, taking Paul’s advice from Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”