Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in
All Questions
Question 7
David asks the group to “pretend…you are Origen or Irenaeus” and read Galatians 5 with a lowercase spirit, making “fruit of the spirit” primarily the fruit of the human spirit; what new meaning does that produce in the passage, and what risks or gains come with interpreting it that way?
Another way to ask: If you read Galatians 5 as if “fruit of the spirit” mostly means the fruit of the human spirit, what new meaning do you see? What are the dangers and benefits of reading it that way?

Direct Answer Reading Galatians 5 with a lowercase “spirit” reframes the passage as describing a conflict between our God-given human spirit and our fallen flesh, with the soul choosing which to follow; “fruit of the spirit” becomes what the human spirit produces when it leads. The gain is explanatory power for real-life experience and certain biblical cases; the risk is uncertainty, since Bercot admits we “actually…don’t” know for sure in that passage.

Support from Transcript:

  • He instructs listeners to hear a “lowercase S…our human spirit” in Gal. 5:16–17: “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.”
  • He explains early Christian meaning: “our human spirit and our human flesh are in conflict,” even after new birth.
  • He ties v.18 to his model: if our soul is “led by our Godly Spirit…then we no longer need to be under the Mosaic Law.”
  • He explicitly says Christians can show “works of the flesh,” and he lists examples seen “in otherwise born-again Christians.”
  • He draws major implications: it explains how Job/Zacharias/Elizabeth lived blamelessly pre–new birth; explains why Christians sometimes live fleshly; and explains why non-Christians can show “love…self-control.”
  • He admits interpretive risk: regarding whether it means Holy Spirit, “Actually, we don’t,” but argues 2nd-century readers were “in a better position” than Reformers.
Discussion Follow-ups How do we hold Bercot’s “we don’t know” humility together with strong practical conclusions? If the Holy Spirit and human spirit “work together,” how would you teach Galatians 5 without collapsing one into the other?

Jumpstarter 7 of 10
Back Questions Next