"Crucified with Christ""Lesson Six :  Walk  by t he Spirit"".------=--------------,""The Fruit of the Spirit As  the  harvest  approaches,  even  the  ob­ server who has never farmed a day in his life can tell how the crop is doing.   Is the corn thick  and  tall,  or  is  it  lifeless  and stunted after the summer's drought?  Do the orchard boughs  hang  heavy  with  fruit, or  are  they baren as a result of the hailstorm last May? The truth is plain to see.In the same  way, the worldly  observer  who has never served Christ for a day of his life can tell what kind of Christians we are sim­ ply by looking at us.   ""OJtsider"" and ""stupid"" are  not synonyms;  if  we are  hypocrites  or sanctimonious Pharisees,  the people around us  have  little  difficulty   in  discerning   the truth.  They know who we are from the fruit we bear.Paul describes some  of our most important fruit in Galatians 

-23.   To the Christian who is looking for an excuse to be useless, these fruit are vague and undefined.   ""What am  I  supposed  to  do?'  he asks_ disingenu­ously,  hoping  to receive no answer.   How­ ever;  to the committed  child of God,  these two verses describe the bounty of a spiritual harvest  more  completely  than  any  list  of specific commands  ever  could.    The  com­mand to love, for instance, is not a minimum we must fulfill   It is a divine ideal to which we  aspire.     We  have  only  loved  enough when we have loved as much as Jesus.If we are truly committed to bearing this sort of fruit for  God, it  will be obvious.   People may not know precisely  what we believe or where we go to church, but they  will know that we are children of God.   As  the Scrip­ture bears  this fruit in  our  lives,  it  will not prove  infertile.   Instead, it will take root in the hearts and minds of others, so that it will bear a harvest of souls on the last day.  May all of us produce fruit like this!""Galatians 5:1-12""1.   What does Paul state about the Galatians in Galatians 5:1? What should they not do as a consequence?  How does""this relate to the previous discussion?""2.   According to Galatians 5:2,what consequence do the Ga­latians face if they receive circumcision?  What further consequence does Paul address in Galatians 5:3?  Accord­ing to Galatians 5:4, what's the basic problem here?""Should this teach us anything? If so, what?""3.   By contrast, how does Paul describe true Christianity in Galatians 5:5?  How does he support this statement in Galatians 5:6?  How is this different from what the Gala­tians are doing?   If Paul is so worked up about circumci­sion, why does he say here that it means nothing?""4.   What does Paul ask in Galatians 5:7?  How does his state­ment in Galatians 5:8 show what prompted the question? How has Paul proven Galatians 5:8 to be true? "5.   What does Paul reveal in Galatians 5:9?  What is he refer­ring to?  What should this principle teach us?  "Galatians 5:13-24""1.   What does Paul say about the Galatians in Galatians 5:13?  What should they  not do as a result?  What""should they do instead?  How does he justify this statement in Galatians 5:14?  What does this mean?""2.    What other possible course of action does Paul highlight in Galatians 5:15?  What can easily  happen if they""pursue this course of action?  How large a danger is this in today's church?  How can we ensure that  it doesn't  happen?""3.   What command does Paul give in Galatians 5:16?  What will not happen if they do this?  How can we put this into practice?""4.    How is this consequence explained by Galatians 5:17?  What negativeresult of walking by the Spirit does he describe?  What positive result is set forth in Galatians 5:18?""5. In Galatians 5:19-21, what does Paul discuss?  What things does he list in this category?  Is this an exhaus­tive list?  How do we know?  What will happen to those who  practice these things? By contrast, what is the topic in

160928 Galatians Lesson 7 Chapter 6 What Will I Reap

Both Galatians and Colossians are part of the body of writings by the apostle Paul contained in the New Testa-ment.  Although the process of dating Scripture is always an imprecise one, it appears most likely that Galatians was written about A.D. 50, between his first missionary journey and his visit to Jerusalem in Acts 15, in an effort to  help  the  Christians  he  converted  in  the  cities  of  Lystra,  Derbe,  Iconium,  and  Antioch  of  Pisidia.    Colossians was most likely written 10 or 15 years later, at the behest of the evangelist Epaphras when he and Paul are in captivity together in Rome.  It is a companion letter to the book of Philemon.At first glance, Galatians and Colossians appear very different.  Underneath these apparent differences, though, both  books  sport  the  same  basic  message.    Both  books  are  meant  largely  as a rebuttal  of  false  teachers,  and some of the same problems appear in both.  Even more fundamentally than that, however, both books are oriented squarely toward Jesus.  Galatians emphasizes the Christ as the Redeemer from the curse of the Law; Colossians portrays Him as the transcendent Son of God in whom all true knowledge is hidden.  Paul argues that the child of God must reject all false doctrine in order to maintain his connecti