Exegeteing and Resting in the Spirit!

I am in the middle of exegeteing Galatians 5:16-14 for school. For those of you people who are wondering what in the world “exegeteing” is, let me give you a definition courtesy of my Mac’s wonderful dictionary function.

ex e gete |ˈeksəˌjēt|
noun
an expounder or textual interpreter, esp. of scripture.

verb [ trans. ]
expound or interpret (a text, esp. scripture) : I am able to exegete the scriptures in ways that make sense.

ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: from Greek exēgētēs, from exēgeisthai ‘interpret.’ (for you Greek geeks out there!)

So as you can see, it is nothing perverted or some awful disease, but going verse-by-verse trying to interpret what the author is saying. The verses I’m looking at are Paul’s passage on the “works of the flesh” and “fruit of the Spirit”. It’s been interesting working with various different sources and digging in to what it mean’s to “live by the Spirit”.

The theme of living by and resting in the Spirit is something I’ve been learning this quarter. I don’t know if it’s because of the extremely rough quarter in the fall, or if God’s prepping me for something, but all of my classes have in one way or another touched on the subject and before I knew all this, the passage a chose for this exegetical project of mine, low and behold is about living by the Spirit. So, I think God’s been trying to teach me something.

In Galatians 5 Paul is explaining to the Galatians as to how they no longer need to strictly observe the Law or Torah as they once had to, but instead they have been set free because of Christ’s death and resurrection. In verses 16-24, Paul is warning the Galatians that Just because of the freedom they have in Christ doesn’t mean they can do anything that they want. We can’t give in to what Paul calls “the works of the flesh”, but urges them to live by the Spirit, which produces fruit.

Now, I would like to point out that it is not the FRUITS of the Spirit, but FRUIT (singular). This does not mean, that we might be given love, or joy, or peace, but that it’s a one package deal. When we live life in the Spirit, it’s an inside-out transformation that takes place allowing us to enjoy the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control the Spirit brings us. What an amazing though. It is through the Spirit we can experience these things.

May you all, my friends, live by and take time to REST in the Spirit.