Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

-----

Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Sunday, August 31, 2025

SOAP 12/21 - Walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5.13-25)

 

SOAP 12/21
Walking by the Spirit
Galatians 5.13-25

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT 5

For the next 21 days, let's commit to feeding yourself spiritually by reading and reflecting on a passage of Scripture each day using the S.O.A.P. method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). Keep a brief daily note of what you learn and how you might apply it, and at the end of the 21 days, share your biggest takeaway with someone else. 
Walking by the Spirit
Galatians 5.13-25
Freedom Shaped by Love
Paul contrasts two ways of living: gratifying the flesh, or walking by the Spirit. Freedom is not license for self-indulgence but the capacity to love and serve one another. The works of the flesh destroy community, while the fruit of the Spirit builds it up in love, joy, peace, and virtue. This passage defines the Spirit-filled life as a visible, ethical reality that flows from freedom rightly ordered.

Galatians 5.13-25 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Greek Word Study

  • ἐλευθερία (eleutheria) – “freedom” (v. 13). Not libertinism, but freedom ordered to love and service.
  • σάρξ (sarx) – “flesh” (vv. 16–17). Not the body per se, but disordered desires, ego-driven existence opposed to God’s Spirit.
  • καρπός (karpos) – “fruit” (v. 22). Organic metaphor: virtues grow naturally when rooted in the Spirit.
  • πνεῦμα (pneuma) – “Spirit” (v. 16, 18, 22, 25). Divine breath, empowering life, relational presence guiding believers.
  • στοιχῶμεν (stoichōmen) – “keep in step” (v. 25). Military/communal term: walking in ordered harmony with the Spirit.

Historical Situation

Galatians (c. 48–55 CE) addresses churches troubled by Judaizing teachers who insisted Gentiles adopt circumcision and the Mosaic law. Paul argues fiercely that justification is by faith in Christ, not by works of the law. In this section, Paul clarifies: freedom in Christ does not mean moral chaos, but Spirit-led life. The “flesh” represents self-destructive habits and communal breakdown, while the Spirit generates a radically different ethos marked by love.

Observation through Three Lenses

1. Traditional (Catholic / Orthodox / Protestant Mainstream)

Tradition reads this as a treatise on Christian virtue and moral formation. Freedom is safeguarded through charity: the law fulfilled in loving one’s neighbor. The contrast between works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit resonates with ascetic disciplines and monastic spirituality, where passions are tamed so virtues can flourish. The fruit of the Spirit are not mere emotions but cultivated habits of grace, nourished in sacrament, prayer, and community. Thus, life in the Spirit is communal, sacramental, and oriented toward holiness.

2. Evangelical (Conservative Protestant)

Evangelicals emphasize the sharp conflict between flesh and Spirit as the battleground of discipleship. Freedom is the release from law’s condemnation, but also the empowerment to walk in holiness. Evangelicals stress personal transformation: the works of the flesh are marks of the unregenerate life, while the fruit of the Spirit evidence true salvation. “Keeping in step with the Spirit” becomes a call to daily surrender, Bible immersion, and holy living. Evangelicals often highlight the radical assurance: life in the Spirit is proof one belongs to Christ.

3. Process Theological (Relational, Whiteheadian)

Process theology interprets this not as dualism of flesh vs Spirit, but as the tension between self-enclosed existence and open, relational becoming. “Flesh” symbolizes destructive patterns of ego and alienation, while “Spirit” is God’s ever-present lure into harmony, compassion, and joy. Where tradition frames this as ascetic formation and evangelicals as moral battleground, the process perspective heals by reimagining fruit not as proof of salvation but as the organic blossoming of life aligned with divine relationality. The Spirit is not a coercive power but a persuasive presence cultivating love, peace, and creativity within the web of relationships. We are called to love all, but not to unlove ourselves through medieval church practices of exclusion, isolation, or harm.

Application through Three Lenses

1. Traditional

Do I cultivate the fruit of the Spirit through prayer, sacrament, and disciplined virtue? This passage reminds me that holiness is not accidental but formed by grace working through community and spiritual practice.

2. Evangelical

Am I daily crucifying the flesh and walking in step with the Spirit? This passage challenges me to examine whether my life shows the fruit of the Spirit, as evidence that I truly belong to Christ.

3. Process Theological

Do I see the Spirit’s fruit as the gentle unfolding of God’s love within me? This passage heals by reframing discipleship not as a struggle against myself (my "flesh") but as a shared journey with God.  Love, joy, peace, and patience are not imposed or achieved through ‘crucifying the flesh,’ but blossom naturally as I open myself to God’s ever-present invitation into deeper relationship and harmony.

So then, the Spirit’s fruits unfold gently, like love awakening within me. Discipleship is not a self-imposed battle upon my flesh and body, but a shared journey of grace and healing with the God of love and gentleness. Love, joy, peace, and patience do not come by force or demand, but blossom as I open to God’s quiet invitation into harmony through the shared giving of Self to Community by whatever means I am gifted.

Processual Sidebar

Much of traditional and evangelical teaching has indeed carried a theology of self-loathing: treating the body as an enemy, the self as worthless, the human as “a worm” in need of crushing or disregard. This produces not humility but shame... A shame which spills outward into harm of others (if I despise myself to honor God, I will learn to despise others too).

Process theology offers a profound corrective:

  • Fleshly embodiment is not a curse - God necessarily clothes us with flesh and spirit which is a blessing, not a curse. The curse lies in the frailty of the body. In the Incarnation, Jesus is likewise embodied as a holy act of God; Jesus did not despise God's work, rather he invested his life in the love and ministry of others.

  • Love of self is not pride - it is the necessary foundation for loving others. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:14) assumes that self-love, rightly held, is part of divine intention. To love ourselves is not arrogance but alignment with God’s own delight in creation. Only when we learn to honor the life God has given us can we truly love our neighbors.

  • Self-love is not anything like moralistic self-help (MTD) -  it’s not “be nice, feel better, earn approval.” Instead, it’s relational participation with God in becoming whole, creative, compassionate.

  • The Spirit’s fruit emerges not from self-hatred or self-policing but from relational attunement with God’s lure toward harmony. We are not to live in ascetic denial to ourselves in monkish practice. Nor lean into legalistic forms of religious practice to make ourselves more holy than what God has given to us in fleshly form, nor Christ has purchased for us through his incarnate atonement.

This means process discipleship is neither ascetic self-denial nor therapeutic self-indulgence, but relational self-acceptance: respecting our embodied existence as God’s ongoing creation, loving ourselves as God loves us, so that our "properly loved-love" may flow outward into community.

Prayer

Spirit of life,

You have set me free not for self-indulgence but for love. Teach me to walk in step with You, turning from destructive habits and opening myself to the fruit of compassion, joy, and peace. May my freedom become service, and may my life bear fruit that reflects Your renewing presence in the world.

Amen


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)