You ever heard of the cowboy code?   It’s the parable of the cowboy, to help a smooth, young novice navigate life on the trail.   Things like:

 Gene Autry’s first offered the Cowboy Code, including:

1.    A Cowboy never shoots first, hits a smaller man, or takes unfair advantage of someone else.

2.    A Cowboy works hard, never goes back on his word, and always tells the truth.

3.    A Cowboy is gentle with children, old people, and animals.

4.    A Cowboy always helps people in distress.

5.    A Cowboy keeps himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.

Will Rogers added a humorous twist to the code, including these truisms:

1.    Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2.    Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3.    Never miss a good chance to shut up.

4.    Always drink upstream from the herd.

5.    If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

6.    The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.

7.    Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

8.    Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back in.

9.    AND FINALLY:  After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring.  He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him . . . The moral:  When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut!

Some others have come along since:

1. If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, jus’ try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around. 
2. Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
3. Don’t name a cow you plan to eat.
4. Don’t worry about bitin’ off more’n you can chew; your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger’n you think. 
5. It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge. 
6. It’s better to be a has-been than a never-was. 
7. Don’t go botherin’ something that ain’t botherin’ you none. 

These are the words of wisdom designed to help a young fellah on the range learn the necessary virtues to help navigate a life as a cowboy.

In our text today, we see that Paul is developing a similar code of sorts for new Christians, to help them navigate life as a follower of Jesus Christ.   Paul established these early Christian communities throughout Galatia and Asia minor, and established them on the teachings of Jesus, who Paul has proclaimed is “raised from the dead.”   Those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, Paul asserts, are ready to participate in a new life offered by the Christ, not only in this world but raised with Christ for all of eternity.

After Paul establishes these communities of believers in Jesus as the Christ, apparently others have come telling the Gentile Christians that they are not followers after all, for they have neglected to be circumcised into the Jewish Covenant first.   Only as they are circumcised, and embrace the Jewish law of Moses, will they truly be Christian.

This makes Paul furious!   He, a Jew, in fact a Pharisee knows where this will lead.   If the Gentile Christians submit to circumcision, they will be enslaved, just as he and others have been, to the law.  The whole law.   And there is no salvation through the law, Paul maintains, because it is humanly impossible to remain pure and perfect each of the Jewish precepts. 

No, to believe in Christ, Paul maintains, is to be “free from the law.”   In other words, salvation comes not from doing everything that is right, but believing in Jesus as the Messiah, and being baptized into the Spirit of Christ, that begins to transform a person, inside out.   So that…each person is free from the law, to exercise the love of Jesus Christ for others, a love that grows out of the transformation that takes place in a person as they submit their lives to the Lordship of Jesus the Christ.

In his tirade, he gets so wound up, that in the first part of the fifth chapter, (the part we didn’t dare read to you all this morning) he says, “I wish those who are telling you to get circumcised would just go and cut everything off themselves!”

He’s mad.   But he’s also trying to make sure the early Christians hear what is important.   He’s trying to tell them what a life in Christ looks like, so that in grace they can become the Kingdom people Christ calls them to be.

And as he does so, he offers some guidelines, some rules.  Things to avoid.  These Paul calls works of the flesh, or desires of the flesh.  And he lists them…the things that bring devastation and hurt not only upon oneself but upon others.   Things like fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and carousing.  To be free does not mean freedom to do whatever one desires, especially not if it brings harm to others.   Because that is not the way of love.  

The way of love is what Paul wants them to embrace.   And for now, he feels he must admonish them to live lives filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  These he calls the “fruit of the spirit.”

            In the end, he hopes that these things that best represent a life in Christ will begin to grow from their transformed lives, like fruit.  That for now, they must learn how to behave as followers of Christ, until their transformation begins to produce fruit, that is a DESIRE to live as a person who “belongs to the Messiah.”    As this occurs, the new Christians are free, no longer worrying about whether they are fulfilling a do’s and don’ts list, but living as they are free to do, desiring to live a life filled with love, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, and self-control.  Hear it?  The evidence is in the fruit.  

Tom Wright, a Bishop in the Church of England, writes “This is the issue faced by every criminal released from prison:  ‘shall I use my freedom to go and commit more crimes?’”   

Or, are they ready to be rehabilitated, that is, doing what is good, acceptable and right until such time that they actually begin to desire what is good, acceptable and right.  For they are free to do so, and free to reject their former ways that brought devastation and harm to themselves and to others.

More humdrum and ordinary were the real fruit trees in the orchard.  They didn’t look spectacular, but when properly nourished and cared for, produced delicious fruit year after year after year. 

         The desires of the flesh can be garishly spectacular.    But in the end, they can and will consume us, and others, leaving dry and worthless devastated lives behind.     The fruit of the Spirit is of course, a good not only for the one in which it is produced, but for many, many others who partake of its sweetness and nutrition. 

And of course, by using the image of fruit, Paul wisely asserts that these are the very things that are born out of a life in the Spirit of Christ.  Kindness not forced.  Patience not demanded.   Peace not to avoid threat.  Generosity not out of guilt or coaxing.  You see?    But when the fruit begins to grow, then kindness comes out of a kind heart.  Peace out of friendship.  Patience out of a desire to put the needs of another first.  Generosity out of gratitude.   Love out of a heart of love—love for oneself, one’s God, and one’s neighbor.  

Fruit.   Growing from inside.  Ripening.   Sweetening.   When one does what is best because one desires what is best.

The Cowboy way or the Cowboy code is taught and prescribed for those who are not yet cowboys.   So that they will know what is good.   What is helpful.   What is best for one’s well being.   Until…they begin to actually become a Cowboy.  As they do, something happens.   They begin to embody the right way of living, and desire to do so.  And the fruit of doing so blossoms and grows naturally.

The same is true for a Christian, I believe.   And the old apostle Paul thinks so as well.   At first, he’ll have to lay it out.   Tell them what to avoid and what to embrace.  For these new Christians are tender and new and must avoid the ensnarement of desires of the flesh.  He does so that they will learn what to avoid.  So that they will learn what is good.   What is helpful.   What is best for them.   Until….they begin to actually become the Kingdom people Paul knows they can be.   When there is evidence that they indeed do belong to Christ Jesus.  Then, something happens.   They begin to embody the right way of living and desire to do so.   And the fruit of doing so blossoms and grows naturally.   Fruit.   Of the Spirit.   When you want what’s best for you.  For others.   For the Kingdom of God.   May that transformation come for each of us…for all of us.  

Thanks be to God.