14.02.2023
IBC Admin
"Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit let us also keep in step with the Spirit."
Gal 5:16–25
Most of us are familiar with that great portion of Scripture on the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” I think all of us aspire to have those qualities in our lives. Here the Scripture is alerting us to what a life looks like when we are filled with the Spirit of God. These are all qualities we esteem towards.
But right before the Apostle Paul gives us that encouragement, he writes this a few verses earlier, “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.” While we aspire to bear fruit in keeping with God’s Spirit, here we see our problem, our flesh that contends with the Spirit.
The word for flesh in the Greek is sarx, which occurs 150 times in the New Testament. It could also be translated as physical desire and is closely related with the idea of our sin natures. Here we are alerted to the reality that all of us are in a battle with a force within us that is “keeping us from doing the things God would have us do.”
What are the things that this sin nature or flesh keep us from doing? Instead of being filled with love, joy, peace and patience, right there in Galatians 5 we see the works of the flesh which are sexual immorality, strife, jealousy, conflict, anger, envy, and drunkenness.
God’s remedy for us is also outlined in Galatians 5. We are “walk in the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (vs. 1) How do we do that? The word walk here means to live our lives circumspectly or with great attention to how our attitudes and behavior reflect the things of God. We do that when we learn to reflect or glorify God. How do we gain that knowledge.
God in His goodness gives us the gift of His word and prayer, where we learn and gain knowledge about Him and through the power and agency of the Spirit. As we learn and grow in our relationship with God, we are then able to walk with Him. Only then can we be transformed and gain those qualities like joy, peace, patience and self-control.