Life by the Spirit....Gal 5 & 6

So I finished reading Galatians today. Again I was not a huge fan of the book...I feel like it could be summed up a lot more quick than how much Paul writes...but hey that is just me. I guess I just felt that it was very repetitive.

Galatians 5 is what hit me the most in this whole book. There are two lists mentioned (which I will type out) because they are important. The first list is the acts of sinful nature, which are:

sexual immorality
impurity
debauchery
idolatry
witchcraft
hatred
discord
jealousy
fits of rage
selfish ambition
dissensions
factions
envy
drunkenness
orgies

The second list is if you live by the Spirit, which are:

love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
self control

I've heard this list read many times which is titled "the fruits of the spirit". I have it memorized but I'm not sure I've ever stopped to really ponder the list. I guess that is something I can do today. To ask myself the question...how much I am living by the first list and how much by the second list?

Another question I need to ponder is how much am I living for God because I love Him and how much am I living for Him because I feel like I have to and was taught to. (So living by the Spirit VS living by the law..) I guess we live more by the law than we realize.

Many times I do things because I feel like I am supposed to as a Christian. Again it comes down to my heart and if I do "good things" because I feel like I have to...it is useless. If I do good things because that is Christ living through me then it is good because I am doing it in love. Just thinking a lot lately about my heart and if I am doing things for the right reasons or not. Also pondering what living by the Spirit really means.

So that sums up Galatians...I know I only started at chapter 3...onto Ephesians!

Oh one more note...it is because of the book of Galatians that Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses....he realized that we are justified only by faith in Jesus Christ and not by works.

PS - somebody pointed out that they can't make comments on here...not sure how to fix that...anybody know?