Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 5:16

[This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

16 26. The spiritual life of liberty inconsistent with the indulgence of the works of the flesh

16. This I say then ] After affirming the great law of Christian perfection in Gal 5:14 and pointing out the effects of its violation, St Paul proceeds to shew how alone the former may be obeyed and the latter escaped. The controversies and heartburnings from which the Galatian Chruch was suffering were due to the lusts of the flesh (comp. Jas 4:1-2). There was only one means by which the tyranny of these lusts could be resisted and broken by the guidance and power of Him Who is the Spirit both of love and of liberty.

Walk in the Spirit ] R.V. ‘Walk by the Spirit.’ This is differently explained, (1) by, or according to the rule of the Spirit, comp. Gal 5:18 ; Gal 5:25; Gal 6:16; (2) by the guidance of the Spirit; (3) by the help of the Spirit; (4) spiritually. For each view something is to be said grammatically. All together do not exhaust the fulness of the expression. The points to be noted are ( a) The antagonism between the Spirit the Holy Ghost in all that He is, and works and produces, and the flesh with its appetites and works. ( b) The absolute certainty of victory over the flesh to all those who walk in or by the Spirit. Unspeakably great as is the blessing of pardon and justification by faith, it would be an incomplete blessing but for the assurance of this verse. Freedom from condemnation cannot satisfy the conscience which God’s Spirit has touched without the assured hope of victory over the lust of the flesh. Walking denotes activity. The metaphor is very common in St Paul and in St John. To walk in truth, in darkness, according to the flesh, &c., are familiar instances. The word in the original is not the same as in Gal 5:25, where not mere activity, but deliberate movement is intended.

ye shall not fulfil ] The strongest negation possible. ‘Ye shall in no wise fulfil.’ Blessed assurance!

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

This I say then – This is the true rule about overcoming the propensities of your carnal natures, and of avoiding the evils of strife and contention.

Walk – The Christian life is often represented as a journey, and the word walk, in the scripture, is often equivalent to live; Mar 7:5. See the notes at Rom 4:12; Rom 6:4, note; Rom 8:1, note.

In the Spirit – Live under the influences of the Holy Spirit; admit those influences fully into your hearts. Do not resist him, but yield to all his suggestions; see the note at Rom 8:1. What the Holy Spirit would produce, Paul states in Gal 5:22-23. If a man would yield his heart to those influences, he would be able to overcome all his carnal propensities; and it is because he resists that Spirit, that he is ever overcome by the corrupt passions of his nature. Never was a better, a safer, or a more easy rule given to overcome our corrupt and sensual desires than that here furnished; compare notes, Rom 8:1-13.

And ye shall not fulfil … – Margin, Fulfil not – as if it were a command. So Tyndale renders it. But the more common interpretation, as it is the more significant, is that adopted by our translators. Thus, it is not merely a command, it is the statement of an important and deeply interesting truth – that the only way to overcome the corrupt desires and propensities of our nature, is by submitting to the influences of the Holy Spirit. It is not by philosophy; it is not by mere resolutions to resist them; it is not by the force of education and laws; it is only by admitting into our souls the influence of religion, and yielding ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. If we live under the influences of that Spirit, we need not fear the power of the sensual and corrupt propensities of our nature.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Gal 5:16

Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Flesh versus Spirit

A Galatian Christian might argue that the religion of Christ had not wrought for him the deliverance which he had expected; that whereas he had been taught to believe in the Almighty power of Christ, and of Christs grace, he found that there yet abode within him another power of a wholly different kind, a power antagonistic to the grace of Christ, a power constantly inclining him to evil. How was he to account for this state of things? was it that Christs gospel was ineffectual; or that he had not rightly apprehended it?

I. The abiding presence of the law of sin in the believers soul. Scripture everywhere assumes and asserts this (Jam 3:2; 1Jn 1:8).

II. Its hostility to good. Compromise is impossible. If sin be false to everything else, it must be true to its own nature; it must be hostile to that principle which aims at its destruction.

III. Note certain features in the action of sin.

1. It is secret.

2. It is constant.

3. It is subtle.

Seeks to discover the weakest parts in the souls defences; to deceive and beguile the soul, and so lead it captive.

IV. The maintenance of the spiritual life.

(1) The spirit acts upon the soul as the Revealer of spiritual truth; and

(2) as the Giver of spiritual power.

(3) There must be co-operation on our part. No tampering with evil. A circumspect walk. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.)

Twofold nature of man

Mans nature presents two sides. On the one hand the body, with all its physical needs, desires, impulses; on the other hand that spiritual nature which distinguishes him from the animal creation. These two sides are often found in collision, warring against each other; the question is, how shall they be adjusted, and which ought to rule? The two extremes of crushing out one or the other entirely, are both wrong. The Christian method does no violence to any true part of human nature. It respects all parts; but gives special emphasis to the highest, not by crushing out the lower, but by bringing it into proper subordination, so that there shall be harmony, due proportion, and complete unity.

I. The spiritual nature must have the first place. It is the most noble, and therefore the most worthy of attention.

II. The spirit is to be the directing and ruling element. It is to sway the body, not the body to sway it.

III. The physical nature is to be allowed to exercise its natural rights, but under the guidance and control of the spiritual. How practical is all this! St. Paul does not content himself with taking up a merely negative attitude. To have simply forbidden this or that, or to have told his readers that they were to exercise a restraint upon their passions, would have been at best only a partial and an unsatisfactory way of dealing with their danger. He was far too true a master of the human heart to fall into the error that nothing more than prohibition was needed. If man is to be saved from evil thoughts, habits, passions, he must be given definite and positive duties to fulfil. This is true both of

(a) the body, and

(b) the mind, as well as

(c) the soul.

Be up and doing. Dont be idle. Let your life have definite aims; your heart and mind definite impulses, desires, principles. In this way will you be better able not only to resist what is evil but to grow in what is best. (A. Boyd Carpenter, M. A.)

The appeal to the spiritual nature

Such is St. Pauls method, and it is the one which treats man with the greatest respect, and is calculated to effect the desired end most completely. Man is not a machine to be regulated only by external influences. He has reason, will, conscience, love; in a word, a spiritual nature. To appeal to this spiritual nature, to place it in its proper position of authority and rule, is to treat man as man, and to do so with the greatest hope of success. Law alone will not succeed unless there is a response from within. Self-restraint will not be sufficient. What is needed is the creation of an inward power of good; a self-acting principle that shall love and will and strive after what is highest and best, and from the innermost citadel of the spirit rule every thought, word, act. This is what St. Paul advocates when he says, Walk in the Spirit. He contends for voluntary service as against enforced; for spiritual obedience as against the mere living by rule. It is the life of love and purity and wisdom that he advocates as the life, as against the impulses, desires, passions of the physical nature. And in doing this he not merely respects man as spiritual, he not merely points out the superiority of the spiritual, but he seeks to base thought and word and deed, and the whole tenor of the life, upon a heart loving what is good and hating what is evil. Service, with St. Paul, is spiritual, free, spontaneous, high-minded. The higher desires and spiritual forces for what is good not only check what is baser, but, influencing the whole manhood, lift up every faculty, power, impulse into a purer atmosphere. (A. Boyd Carpenter, M. A.)

The spiritual walk

In these words observe–

(1) A duty enforced;

(2) The consequent and fruit of it.

1. The duty is to walk in the Spirit, which is the sum of all Christian piety.

2. The motive is taken from the consequent and fruit of it: and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Let us fix the sense.

1. For the duty, to walk in the Spirit. Walking implieth the tenor and course of our actions, in all which we should follow the direction and inclination of the Spirit. Therefore by flesh and spirit is meant the old man and the new, and so by spirit is meant the renewed part, or the new man of grace in the heart (Joh 3:6, That which is born of the Spirit is spirit); that is, there is a work of saving grace wrought in our hearts by the Spirit of God, which new nature hath its motions and inclinations which must be obeyed and followed by us. And by flesh, is meant inbred corruption, or the old man, which is corrupt, with his deceivable lusts (Eph 4:22). Now, then, you see what it is to walk after the Spirit, to direct and order our actions according to the inclinations of the new nature.

2. For the consequent fruit of it: and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Here two things must be explained:–

(1) The lust of the flesh.

(2) Fulfil.

1. The lust of the flesh. By it is meant the inordinate motions of corrupt nature. The flesh doth not consider what is right and good, but what is pleasing to the senses, and craveth their satisfaction with much importunity and earnestness, to the wrong of God and our own souls; especially in youth, when the senses are in vigour, and lust and appetite in their strength and fury.

2. Ye shall not fulfil; that is, accomplish and bring into complete act, especially with deliberation and consent. Mark, he cloth not say that the lusting of corrupt nature shall be totally suppressed, but it shall not be fulfilled. The best of Gods children feel the motions of the flesh, but they do not cherish and obey them. The lusts of the flesh may be said to be fulfilled two ways–

(1) When the outward act is accomplished, or when lust hath conceived and brought forth (actual) sin (Jam 1:15).

(2) When for a continuance we obey the flesh, usually accomplish its motions without let and restraint, and with love, pleasure, and full consent of will; this is proper to the unregenerate. The flesh doth reign over them as its slaves; this is spoken of (Rom 6:12), Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Let it not have a power over you as slaves. The doctrine, then, is this: That the more Christians set themselves to obey the new nature, the more is the power of inbred corruption mortified and kept under.

To understand this point, let me lay down these propositions.

1. That there is a diversity of principles in a Christian–flesh and spirit.

2. That there is a liberty in a Christian of walking according to each principle, either the spirit or the flesh.

Application:

1. It showeth what necessity there is that we should look after conversion to God, or a work of grace wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, for the apostle supposeth they had the Spirit. There is no walking without living, for otherwise our motions are but the motions of puppets, not proceeding from internal life, but acted from springs and engines; no subduing the flesh without setting up an opposite principle.

2. Being renewed by the Holy Ghost, that is, having our minds enlightened and hearts inclined, we must obey this inclination; for life is not given us that we may have it, but that we may act by it, and do things suitable to that life which we have. Grace is not a sluggish, idle quality, but is always working and warring on the opposite principle.

3. Though at first we are pestered and encountered with the lusts of the flesh, which divert us from God and heavenly things, yet we should not be discouraged by every difficulty; for difficulties do but inflame a resolved spirit, as stirring doth the fire.

4. The carnal life is not of one sort. Some wallow in sensual pleasures, others have head and heart altogether taken up with the world and worldly things. Now if God hath put a new bias upon our wills and affections, we must show it forth by a heavenly conversation; for they that mind earthly things are carnal, and the great inclination of the new nature is to carry us unto God and the things of another world (2Co 5:5).

5. They are much to blame that complain of sin, and will not take the course to get rid of it by obeying the instincts of the Holy Ghost, or the motions of the new nature. The Lords spirit is a free spirit (Psa 51:12.), and His truth maketh us free (Joh 8:32).

6. How much we are concerned in all conflicts, especially in those which allow deliberation, to take part with the Spirit, and obey His motions rather than to fulfil the lusts of the flesh: otherwise, by consent and upon deliberation, you are unfaithful to Christ and your own souls. Your business is not to gratify the flesh, but to crucify it, to overrule sense and appetite, and cherish the life of grace (Gal 5:24).

7. It is of great use and profit to us to observe which principle decayeth, the flesh or the Spirit; for thereby we judge of our condition, both in order to mortification and comfort.

The increase of the flesh may be known–

1. By your backwardness to God. Grace is clogged when you cannot serve Him with sweetness and delight (Rom 7:18).

2. When the heart groweth careless of heaven, and your life and love is more taken up about things present than things to come.

On the other hand, the prevalency and increase of the Spirit is known–

1. By a humble contentedness and indifference to plenty, pleasures, and honours.

2. When your delight in God, heaven, and holiness is still kept up.

3. When the heart is kept in a preparation for the duties of your heavenly calling. (T. Manton, D. D.)

Walking in the Spirit, the preservative from the lusts of the flesh

I. We are to inquire what it is to walk in the Spirit. I scarcely need to observe, that the Spirit of God is always represented in the New Testament as the Author of all holiness in the hearts of Christians; whence the Christian dispensation is eminently styled the ministration of the Spirit.

1. And first I imagine, that a regard to all the great evangelical principles is implied in the words, walk in the Spirit. In the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians, in which the phrases of walking in the Spirit or after the Spirit are chiefly used, the apostle takes much pains to wean the Judaizing converts from a servile spirit of dependence upon the law, and to instil into them a spirit of liberty in Christ Jesus. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.

2. By walking in the Spirit may be also implied habitual dependence upon His help. To walk in the Spirit, therefore, is to acknowledge with the heart our own weakness and inability to serve God; to expect victory over sin only by the gracious operation of His Spirit.

3. To walk in the Spirit implies also, that we use the means by which the Spirit has promised to convey His influence, in the humble hope of thus receiving it. Bible-reading, attendance on the preaching of the gospel, reception of the Holy Communion, and especially prayer.

4. I observe, further, that to walk in the Spirit implies the exercise of a holy fear of Him; which will manifest itself by avoiding those things which would grieve Him, and by complying with His holy motions.

II. If we thus walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. This is the second point which I proposed to illustrate. There is a certain degree to which victory over the sinful desires of the flesh is obtained by every real Christian; and this degree is, perhaps, proportioned to that in which he walks in the Spirit. (J. Venn, M. A.)

How may we be so spiritual as to check sin in the first risings of it

I. The principle and root of sin and evil–the flesh with its lusts.

II. The opposite principle and root of life and righteousness–the Divine Spirit.

III. The terms and bounds of a Christians conquest, how far he may hope for victory–Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

IV. The method and way of conquering–Walk in the Spirit. The best expedient in the world not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh, is to walk in the Spirit; which what it imports, I come now to show.

1. Walk in the Spirit; that is, in obedience to Gods commandments, which are the oracles of the Spirit (see Psa 119:1-3).

2. Walk in the Spirit; that is, as becometh those in whom Gods Spirit dwells. As if the apostle had said, The part which ye are now to act, O ye Christian Galatians, it is that of new creatures–see that ye keep the decorum. Demean yourselves like the children of God who are led of the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14).

3. Walk in the Spirit; that is, Fulfil the counsels and advices of the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. But if these three rules are too general and remote, I shall now lay down some more particular and exact directions for checking the beginnings of sin.

Rule

I.

Before the paroxysm cometh, prepare and antidote thy soul against these lusts of the flesh, by observing these advices.

1. That notable counsel of Eliphaz to Job: Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace (Job 22:21).

2. Stir up spiritual and holy lastings in thy soul after the love and favour, the grace and image, of thy God; and thou shalt not fulfil the lastings of the flesh.

Rule

II.–Study thoroughly the unchangeable natures, the eternal laws and differences, of moral good and evil. The sum of this rule then is: Deeply possess and dye thy soul all over with the representation of that everlasting beauty and amiableness that are in holiness, and of that horror, and ugliness, and deformity that eternally dwell on the forehead of all iniquity. Be under the awe and majesty of such clear convictions all day long, and thou shalt not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

Rule

III.–Understand thyself; be no stranger to thy own breast; know the frame, and temper, and constitution of thy mind. See what grace is principally wanting in thee, which is weakest, in what instances thy greatest failure betrays itself, in which of thy passions and affections thou art most peccable, and what lastings of the flesh they are which give thee the frequentest alarms, and threaten the greatest dangers.

Rule

IV.–Get and keep a tender, conscience. Be sensible of the least sin. The most tender-hearted Christian–he is the stoutest and most valiant Christian. Happy is the man that feareth always: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.

Rule

V.–Keep an exact guard upon thy heart (Pro 4:23). Let the eyes of thy soul be open and awake, upon all the stirrings of thy thoughts and affections.

Rule

VI.–Be daily training and exercising all thy graces. Have them always in battle-array.

Rule

VII.–Be well-skilled in the clenchs of temptation. I mean, in unmasking the sophistry and mystery of iniquity, in defeating the wiles and stratagems of the tempter, and in detecting and frustrating the cheats and finesses of the flesh with its deceitful lusts (Eph 4:22; 2Co 2:11). No small part of spiritual wisdom lies in the blessed art of discovering and refuting sins fallacies and impostures.

Rule

VIII.–Withdraw thyself, if possible, from the occasions of sin. Be thou as the deaf adder to that great charmer: the best entertainment thou canst give him is, Get thee behind me, Satan!

Rule

IX.–Bind thyself beforehand With the severest of thy resolutions, not to trust thy judgment, when the temptation begins to get within thee. A man in passion is not himself.

Rule

X.–Awe them with the authority of thy reason and understanding. It is infinitely unbeseeming a man, that his lower appetites should grow mutinous and untractable, that the inferior and brutish faculties of our soul, should rebel against that sovereign faculty of reason. How soon doth the presence of a grave magistrate allay a popular tumult, if he comes in soon enough, in the beginning of the riot? God hath made reason the magistrate of the little world; He hath given it a commission to keep the peace in our souls.

Rule

XI.–If thy distempered affections and lusts slight the authority of thy reason, as thou art a man; bid thy conscience do its office, as thou art a Christian. Try to awe them with Gods written Word. Bring out of the register of conscience the laws of Him that made thee; oppose some clear text of Holy Writ, that comes into thy mind against that very lust that is now rising.

Rule

XII.–If all this effect nothing, then draw the curtain, take off the veil from before thy heart, and let it behold the God that searcheth it (Jer 17:10; Heb 4:13). Show it the majesty of the Lord; see how that is described (Isa 6:1-3).

Rule

XIII.–If these great real arguments be slighted, try whether an argument, ad hominem, drawn from sense, will prevail. Awe thy lusts with the bitterness of thine own experience. Consider how often thou hast rues their disorders; what dismal consequences have followed upon their transports, and how dearly thou hast paid heretofore for thy connivance at them.

Rule

XIV.–Labour to cure thy justings and affections in the first beginning of their disorders, by revulsion, by drawing the stream and tide another way. As physicians stop an hemorrhage, or bleeding at the nose, by breathing the basilic vein in the arm, or opening the saphaena in the foot; so may we check our carnal affections, by turning them into spiritual ones: and those either–

1. Of the same nature. For example: catch thy worldly sorrow at the rise, and turn thy mourning into godly sorrow. If thou must needs weep, weep for something that deserves it.

2. Turn thy carnal affections into spiritual ones of a contrary nature. For example: allay thy worldly sorrow by spiritual joy. Try whether there be not enough in all-sufficiency itself to compensate the loss of any outward enjoyment; whether there will be any great miss or want of a broken cistern, when thou art at the fountain-head of living waters; whether the light of the sun cannot make amends for the expiring of a candle. Chastise thy carnal fears by hope in God. Set on work the grace contrary to the lust that is stilting; if it be pride and vain-glory in the applause of men, think how ridiculous it were for a criminal to please himself in the esteem and honour his fellow-prisoners render him, forgetting how guilty he is before his judge. If thou beginnest to be poured loosely out, and as it were dissolved in frolic, mirth, and joviality, correct that vainness and gaiety of spirit by the grave and sober thoughts of death, and judgment, and eternity.

Rule

XV.–If this avail not, fall instantly to prayer.

Rule

XVI.–When thou hast done this, rise up, and buckle on the shield of faith (Eph 6:16). Go forth in the name and strength of the Lord, to do battle with thy lusts. Conclusion: Let me now persuade the practice of these holy rules. Let us resolve, in the strength of Christ, to resist these lustings of the flesh. Let me press this with a few considerations.

1. The more thou yieldest, the more thou mayest. Sin is insatiable; it will never sayenough. Give it an inch, it will take an ell.

2. It is the quarrel of the Lord of hosts in which thou tightest. A cowardly soldier is the reproach of his commanders. Thou hast a noble General, O Christian, that hath done and finished perfectly whatever concerns thy redemption from the powers of darkness.

3. The lusts of the flesh are thy greatest enemies, as well as Gods. They war against thy soul (1Pe 2:11). To resist them feebly, is to do not only the work of the Lord, but of thy soul, negligently.

4. It is easy vanquishing at first in comparison. A fire newly-kindled is soon quenched, and a young thorn or bramble easily pulled up.

5. If thou resistest the victory is thine (Jam 4:7). Temptation puts on its strength, as the will is. Cease but to love the sin, and the temptation is answered.

6. Consider what thou doest. If thou fulfillest the lusts of the flesh, thou provokest thy heavenly Father, rebellest against Him (and rebellion is as witchcraft, and stubbornness as idolatry), thou crucifiest Jesus Christ afresh, and puttest Him to an open shame. Is this thy love and thanks to thy Lord, to whom thou art so infinitely beholden? Canst thou find in thy heart to put thy spear again in His side? Hath He not suffered yet enough? Is His bloody passion nothing? Must He bleed again? Ah, monster of ingratitude! Ah, perfidious traitor as thou art, thus to requite thy Master! Again, thou grievest thy Comforter: and is that wisely clone? Who shall comfort thee, ii He depart? (John Gibbon, B. D.)

The renewed man

If, therefore, you would judge of the life in the soul by the command which is exercised over the body, you must bring into account the agency employed, as well as the result effected. You must calculate whether the non-fulfilment of the lust of the flesh be in consequence of a radical change of the heart, or nothing more than the proud device of a weak, and self-sufficient nature.

1. It is not necessary that a man should be what Scripture calls a renewed man in order to his effecting a vast reformation in his ordinary conduct. Reformation, indeed, will unavoidably follow on renewal; and when thus produced, will be far more vigorous and decided than when traced to any other origin. But Satan, yea, oven Satan, can busy himself with the reforming of a man; for has the devil nothing to do with self-righteousness? has he nothing to do with the substitution of morality for faith? There will, indeed, have been all this outward change if an individual has been renewed by Gods Spirit; but, alas! it is not true, that because there is a change there must have been renewal! For you should remember that there follows, in the chapter from which our text is taken, a catalogue of the works of the body; and this catalogue contains emulations, wrath, strife–though these may have seemed to be mental rather than bodily actions. We are bound, therefore, to set down as works of the body many works which are not wrought by the agency of our corporeal members. Pride, for example, is classed as a work of the flesh, though it passes ordinarily as a disease of the mind. We argue, therefore, that since a man may gratify his pride by the higher discipline which he exercises over appetite and passion, he may be fulfilling, in one sense, the lust of the flesh, whilst to others he may seem to be mortifying that lust. Pride is emphatically a sin of the devil, and, therefore, to trace the action of pride is to trace it to the devil. Thus, we think our first proposition sufficiently established. There may be a struggle with the lust of the flesh where there is no walking in the Spirit, and, therefore, well might the apostle fix our thoughts on the agency as well as on the result.–This I say, then–oh! be not content with the appearance of resistance to the corruption of nature without searching into the origin of that resistances this I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, then, and then only, shall you really and actually not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

2. We proceed to set more definitely before you our second position, that there can be no effectual non-fulfilment of the lust of the flesh–none such as shall prove spiritual–unless there be walking in the Spirit. It is unquestionable, as we have already admitted, that a man may mortify many deeds of the body. He may climb the mountains, and there, far away from all companionship with his fellows, the rock for his couch, and the wild fruits for his sustenance, he may live down the fierceness of passion, and win over carnal desires so effective a sovereignty, that though they have heretofore been most imperious in their cravings, they shall ever after yield obedience to the severer calls of the Divine law. We know of nothing that may more confound those who have embraced true religion–who prefer deliverance through the satisfaction of Christ–than the ready submission to every kind of toil and privation which is presented by the votaries of false systems of theology. But, whatever the appearance, there is no thorough mortification of the lust of the flesh unless it be with the heart that the mortification begins. Yes, when the flesh is covered with the ashes and torn with the stripes, may pride be abroad in its strength, and man be regarded by the Holy Spirit of God as cherishing that self-sufficiency which it is the first object of the gospel to eject, and which must be subdued ere there can be admission to the kingdom of heaven. And if it be thus true that the lust of the flesh Scannel be thoroughly unfulfilled unless the heart be overcome and brought into subjection, then no withstanding of the lusts can be that which proves a man quickened from the death of trespasses and sins, unless effected by the Spirit of God. As to outward conduct, a man may change it for himself, and, even as we have shown you, be assisted by Satan; but an internal change, the bringing order and harmony out of confusion and discord in the human soul, the crucifixion of the flesh, the renewal of the heart, can only be brought about by the Holy Ghost. See, then, whither you must turn for instruction and strength if you would live and not die. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Oh I not to be Christs, after Christ has taken flesh, and sorrowed, and suffered, and died in order to make us His! Oh! not to be Christs, though redeemed by Christ at the untold cost of His agony and His blood! And what is wanting to make us Christs? Just that we have His Spirit, that Spirit which is freely promised to all by whom it is earnestly sought. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Walking in the Spirit

As having a steady forward movement, as requiring not only an action of the will, but purpose, strength, and circumspection, the Christian life is very well conceived in figure as walking. Now, there are two ways or roads on either of which we may be walking–a way of life and a way or death. And the way of life is not easy to find. It is full of questions. The paths divide and diverge at all angles. We do not travel by trains. The apostle uses the more accurate word. It is a walk–step by step–an individual, personal thing, with free choice, continual effort, and an onward movement. If it is to be worth anything, if it is to come to anything noble here, or immortal hereafter, life is costly. We must pay; we must think; we must watch and work, and perhaps suffer. We are equal to it, not in our own strength, but by a Power given us from above. What is the Power? Where is the Guide? To have the life that is glorious and eternal–all its failures forgiven, and its end perfect–perfect victory and perfect peace–we must walk–in that way? We come back to St. Paul He answers, This I say then, Walk in the Spirit. He is positive and peremptory. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit. There is one way to take and follow. There is a guide for this life. Walking is living; it is our lifes movement forward in this world. But how that shall be in the Spirit is what we want to know more perfectly. And here, as often happens, we are helped by contrasts. Throughout all this writing to the Galatians, and through all his preaching of the gospel of Christ, we find this grand expounder of it pointing out two opposite forces in the nature of every man. He has various names for them–the law of the members and the law of the mind–the old man and the new man–but oftenest the flesh and the spirit. It is popular language: we all know well enough what he means, not because the terms are precise, but because we are all conscious of having in ourselves the two things–if not always at work or at war, yet always there, ready to start up at any time and renew their battle. Take notice, the New Testament never says that the worse force of the two is wholly evil, or the better one wholly good. The gospel does teach everywhere that the spirit in man is the natural organ of what is highest and best in him, while the flesh is the natural organ of what is lower–the one connecting with the spiritual world above us, the other with the world below. St. Paul does preach, plainly and with all his might, that there is a struggle of each of these two forces for the mastery, and that it is a desperate fight till the right one gets the upper hand and rules. There are only two ways anywhere. It is one thing or the other. If we are not living in the spirit, we are living as part and parcel of a material world, which then overgrows and stifles the spirit, absorbs all interests into its outside show and passional comforts, then runs down, perishes, and has no immortality but the lingering one of the second death. If it is inquired then, What is our spiritual life? it is that within us which feels God to be a Father, which seeks and follows what is good in itself, which chooses what is lovely in conduct and generous in judgment, which tests friendships by their purity, and pursuits by their righteousness, which has faith in the unseen, which worships, which is touched and sometimes enraptured by the beauty of holiness. The spirit is that in us which would rather suffer than do wrong, and rather be crucified than mistake Caesar for the Saviour or Mammon for its maker. It would choose truth before falsehood: no matter what bribe is put into the balance with the lie. It is that by which we forgive injuries, and confess our own sins, and are willing to be made poorer for the kingdom of heavens sake, and take in the glorious sense of the encomium on charity in 1Co 13:1-13. There is another contrast still. St. Paul, through all this passage, has in mind not only a comparison of the spiritual mind with the sensual and selfish mind, but of the life lived in the spirit and a life which looks somewhat like it, but at heart, under the surface, is a very different thing:–i.e., a life lived under a set of rules formed by external regulations, fashioned, pieced together, cut and dried by the law. You know how determined his assaults were always, in every sermon and every epistle, from his conversion at Damascus up to his martyrdom at Rome, on the system which sees nothing in religion but rule. The reason is that in a character shaped by outside rules you will never have anything deeper than an outside piety. It will not be character at all, but only the shell of it. The heart of love has not begun to beat, the Spirit of Christ has not begun to breathe in them. Whoever would be a Christian must be one heartily and cheerfully, not grudgingly or of necessity. The Christian life must spring and bubble up from within, not be fitted on from without. (Bishop F. D. Huntington.)

The positiveness of the Divine life

There are two ways of dealing with every vice that troubles us, in either ourselves or others. One is to set to work directly to destroy the vice; that is the negative way. The other is to bring in as overwhelmingly as possible the opposite virtue, and so to crowd and stifle and drown out the vice; that is the positive way. Now there can be no doubt about St. Paul. Here comes his poor Gatatian fighting with his lust of the flesh. How shall he kill it? St. Paul says not, Do as few fleshly things as you can, setting him out on a course of repression; but, Do just as may spiritual things as you can, opening before him the broad gates of a life of positive endeavour. And when we have thoroughly comprehended the difference of these two methods, and seen how distinctly St. Paul chose one instead of the other, we have laid hold on one of the noblest characteristics of his treatment of humanity, one that he had gained most directly from his Lord. I should despair of making any one see the distinction who did not know it in his own experience. Everywhere the negative and the positive methods of treatment stand over against each other, and men choose between them. Here is a man who is beset by doubts, perhaps, about the very fundamental truths of Christianity. He may attack all the objections in turn, and at last succeed in proving that Christianity is not false. That is negative. Or he may gather about him the assurance of all that his religion has done, and sweep away all his doubts with the complete conviction that Christianity is true. That is positive, and that is better. We see the same principle, the superiority of the positive to the negative, constantly illustrated in matters of opinion. How is it that people change their opinions, give up what they have steadfastly believed, and come to believe something very different, perhaps its very opposite? I think we all have been surprised, if we have thought about it, by the very small number of cases in which men deliberately abandon positions because those positions have been disproved and seem to them no longer tenable. And even when such cases do occur, the effect is apt to be not good, but bad. The man abandons his disproved idea, but takes no other in its stead; until, in spite of their better judgment, many good men have been brought to feel that, rather than use the power of mere negation, and turn the believer in an error into a believer in nothing, they would let their friend go on believing his falsehood, since it was better to believe something, however stupidly, than to disbelieve everything, however shrewdly. But what then? How do men change their opinions? Have you not seen? Holding still their old belief, they come somehow into the atmosphere of a clearer and a richer faith. That better faith surrounds them, fills them, presses off them with its own convincingness. They learn to love it, long to receive it, try to open their hands and hearts just enough to take it in and hold it along with the old doctrine which they have no idea of giving up. They think that they are holding both. They persuade themselves that they have found a way of reconciling the old and the new, which have been thought unreconcilable. Perhaps they go on thinking so all their lives. But perhaps some day something startles them, and they awake to find that the old is gone, and that the new opinion has become their opinion by its own positive convincing power. There has been no violence in the process, nor any melancholy gap of infidelity between. It seems to me that there is something so sublimely positive in Nature. She never kills for the mere sake of killing, but every death is but one step in the vast weaving of the web of life. She has no process of destruction which, as you turn it to the other side and took at it in what you know to be its truer light, you do not see to be a process of construction. She gets rid of her wastes by ever new plans of nutrition. This is what gives her such a courageous, hopeful, and enthusiastic look, and makes men love her as a mother and not fear her as a tyrant. They see by small signs, and dimly feel, this positiveness of her workings which it is the glory of natural science to reveal more and more. We find the same thing in the New Testament. The God there revealed to us is not a God of repression, or restraint, but a God whose symbols should be the sun, the light, the wind, the fire–everything that is stimulating, everything that fosters and encourages and helps. Such is the God whose glory we see in the face of Jesus Christ. The distinction is everywhere. Not by merely trying not to sin, but by entering farther and farther into the new life, in which, when it is completed, sin becomes impossible; not by merely weeding out wickedness, but by a new and supernatural culture of holiness, does the saint of the New Testament walk on the ever-ascending pathway of growing Christliness, and come at last perfectly to Christ. This is the true difference between law and grace, add the New Testament is the book of grace. And this character of the New Testament must be at the bottom in conformity with human nature. The Bible and its Christianity are not in contradiction against the nature of the man they try to save. Let us never believe they are. They are at war with all his corruptions, and, in his own interest, though against his stubborn will, they are for ever labouring to assert and re-establish his true self. And in this fundamental character of the New Testament, by which it is a book not of prohibitions but of eager inspirations, there comes out a deep harmony between it and the heart of man. For mans heart is always rebelling against repression as a continuous and regular thing. Man is willing to make self-sacrifices for a certain temporary purpose. The merchant will give up his home, the student shut his books, the mother leave her household for a time, to do some certain work. The world is full of self-sacrifice, of the suppression of desires, the forcing of natural inclinations; but all the while under this crust the fire is burning; all the time, under this self-sacrifice, there is a restless, hungry sense that it is not right, that it cannot be final; there is a crying out for self-indulgence. All the time there is a great human sense that not suppression but expression is the true life. And what has Christ to say to one, who, acting on this prompting of his nature, gives up restraint and tries indulgence? My brother, I can hear him say, you are not wholly wrong. Nay, at the bottom, you are right. Self-mortification, self-sacrifice, is not the first or final law of life. You are right when you think that these appetites and passions were not put into you merely to be killed, and that the virtue which only comes by their restraint is a poor, colour-less, and feeble thing. You are right in thinking that not to restrain yourself and to refrain from doing, but to utter yourself, to act, to do, is the purpose of your being in the world. Only, my brother, this is not the self you are to utter, these are not the acts you are to do. There is a part in you made to think deeply, made to feel nobly, made to be charitable and chivalric, made to worship, to pity, and to love. You are not uttering yourself while you keep that better self in chains, and only let these lower passions free. Let me renew those nobler powers, and then believe with all your heart and might that to send out those powers into the intensest exercise is the one worthy purpose of your life. Then these passions, which you are indulging because you cannot believe that you were meant to give your whole life up to bridling them, will need no forcible bridling, and yet, owning their masters in the higher powers which come out to act, they will be content to serve them. You will not fulfil your passions any longer, but the reason will not be that you have resumed the weary guard over your passions which you tried to keep of old. It will be that you have given yourself up so utterly to the seeking after holiness, that these lower passions have lost their hold upon you. You will not so much have crushed the carnal as embraced the spiritual. I shall have made you free. You will be walking in the Spirit, and so will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Is not this Christs method? Is not this the tone of His encouraging voice? Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin, but Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. It is the positive attainment and not the negative surrender. It is the self-indulgence of the highest, and not the self-surrender of the lowest, that is the great end of the gospel. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)

The spiritual walk

I. The point from which we have to start–Walk in the Spirit. In every walk there is a place from which we first proceed. The starting-point for every man in the spiritual walk is a state of unrenewed nature, an unconverted, unregenerated condition.

II. Let us now proceed to our second part: Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. We have seen the point from which, we now consider the course by which we are to walk–Walk in the Spirit. But here there must first of all be life in order to our obeying this exhortation. A dead man walks not, moves not, from whence he is. But to walk not only requires life, there must be strength, and willingness to exert strength. The sick man often cannot walk, the slothful man often will not; the spiritually diseased and slothful walk not in the Spirit; but the Holy Ghost infuses an energy into the soul of man. But in walking beside life, strength, and willingness, there must likewise be a constraining motive to induce man to walk in the road marked out for his path. The constraining motive in the spiritual walk is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer. But still there must be a road marked out for walking. There is one marked out for each of you by the Holy Spirit; there is a way, little trodden indeed by the multitude, but well known to all who have gone, and who are going to heaven. It is a straight and a narrow way; it has its difficulties.

III. Our third part yet waits. A walk, we have seen, has a point whence, a way by which, and now a place whither men are walking. The point to which the spiritual walk is intended to lead is perfect holiness, meetness for heaven, yea, heaven itself. (J. Hambleton.)

The spirit and the flesh

When St. Paul talks of mans flesh, he means by it mans body, mans heart and brain, and all his bodily appetites and powers–what we call a mans constitution; in a word, the animal part of man, just what a man has in common with the beasts who perish. To understand what I mean, consider any animal–a dog, for instance–how much every animal has in it what men have,–a body, and brain, and heart; it hungers and thirsts as we do; it can feel pleasure and pain, anger and loneliness, and fear and madness: it likes freedom, company, and exercise, praise and petting, play and ease; it uses a great deal of cunning, and thought, and courage, to get itself food and shelter, just as human beings do; in short, it has a fleshly nature, just as we have, and yet, after all, it is but an animal, and so, in one sense, we are all animals, only more delicately made than the other animals; but we are something more–we have a spirit as well as a flesh, an immortal soul. If any one asks, what is a man? the true answer is, an animal with an immortal spirit in it; and this spirit can feel more than pleasure and pain, which are mere carnal, that is, fleshly things; it can feel trust, and hope, and peace, and love, and purity, and nobleness, and independence, and, above all, it can feel right and wrong. There is the infinite difference between an animal and a ,,nan, between our flesh and our spirit; aa animal has no sense of right and wrong; a dog who has done wrong is often terrified, but not because he feels it wrong and wicked, but because he knows from experience that he will be punished for doing it: just so with a mans fleshly nature;–a carnal, fleshly man, a man whose spirit is dead within him, whose spiritual sense of right and wrong, and honour and purity, is gone, when he has done a wrong thing is often enough afraid; but why? Not for any spiritual reason, not because he feels it a wicked and abominable thing, a sin, hut because he is afraid of being punished for it. Now, in every man, the flesh and the spirit, the body and the soul, are at war. We stand between heaven and earth. Above us, I say, is Gods Spirit speaking to our spirits; below us is this world speaking to our flesh, as it spoke to Eves, saying to us, This thing is pleasant to the eyes–this thing is good for food–that thing is to be desired to make you wise, and to flatter your vanity and self-conceit. And where mans flesh gets the upper hand, and takes possession of him, 1t can do nothing but evil–not that it is evil in itself, but that it has no rule, no law to go by; it does not know right from wrong; and therefore it does simply what it likes, as a dumb beast or an idiot might; and therefore the works of the flesh are–adulteries, drunkenness, murders, fornications, envyings, backbitings, strife. When a mans body, which God intended to be the servant of his spirit, has become the tyrant of his spirit, it is like an idiot on a kings throne, doing all manner of harm and folly without knowing that it is harm and folly. This is not its fault. Whose fault is is it, then? Our fault,–the fault of our wills and our souls. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)

Walking in the Spirit

I. We are to walk in the spirit of God.

II. How are we to know that we have the Spirit?

1. Not simply by natural conscience.

2. By the effect of the Spirit on the Christian life.

3. By a life that has an uniform God-ward tendency.

III. The Spirit must influence our daily life and actions.

1. The Spirit comes to young and old.

2. The Spirit influences in different ways.

3. His operation is necessary.

4. His operation must be deep and permanent. (Canon Tristram.)

The life and warfare of the Spirit in the soul

I. The work of the Spirit in the believer.

1. We live in the Spirit.

(1) He begins the new life.

(2) Sustains it.

2. We walk in the Spirit. Activity the first symptom of life. This

(1) reminds us of our dependence on the Spirit.

(2) Implies our consistency. Deportment must harmonize with character.

(3) Is significant of progress.

3. We are led by the Spirit.

(1) An entire surrender to His authority.

(2) Following Him in the path of duty, we find the truest happiness and perfect safety.

II. The reasons why the believer should be urged to maintain it.

1. We shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

(1) We shall be kept from sin.

(2) We shall grow in grace.

2. We are not under law. Freedom from

(1) the law of sin;

(2) the law of death.

3. We shall be victorious in the great battle between the flesh and the Spirit.

(1) Indwelling sin is strong.

(2) The Spirit makes us conquerors. (J. Morgan, D. D.)

The marks of a Christian

I. He walks in and is led by the Spirit, i.e., he has–

1. A heart always open to Divine influence.

2. A life subordinate to Divine rule.

II. He conquers the flesh.

1. In the inward strife described here, and in Rom 7:1-25., the Christian is not under the law of the flesh, but subdues the corrupt nature and brings it into subjection to the Spirit.

2. He does this daily.

III. He brings forth the fruits of the Spirit. Examine yourself by the list (verses 22, 23).

The principles and method of Christian life

I. The practical principles of the Christian life.

1. The virtues which are God-derived and God-ward.

(1) Love, the tie which binds us to God as a Father.

(2) Joy, the glad emotion which makes music in the renewed soul.

(3) Peace, the summer calm which settles upon the conscience.

2. Those which refer to our fellow-men–longsuffering meekness.

(1) They are the counterpart of the Divine virtues.

(2) Are derived from the same spring.

3. These belonging to the general disposition and habit of the soul, Faith temperance.

II. The method by which we appropriate these principles and make them effective in our character.

1. Negatively: the apostle does not

(1) throw us back on our own will;

(2) hold up minute regulations and restrictions.

2. Positively: he tells us to walk in the Spirit.

(1) Not simply after a spiritual manner,

(2) by a mere Divine influence; but

(3) by personal power of the Holy Spirit.

III. Remember the true order of Christian life as here unfolded.

1. The bad is not overcome by mere abstinence from evil.

2. Be filled with the Spirit and evil will be overcome. (S. Pearson, M. A.)

The non-fulfilment of the lust of the flesh without the Spirit

I. When man trusts in anything he has done it cannot be Gods Spirit who leads to the doing of it.

II. No non-fulfilment of the lust of the flesh, which is not the result of walking in the Spirit, affords any proof of life in the soul.

III. The operations of grace may be closely imitated, though no change may have passed over the heart.

IV. In his endeavour to destroy men the devil may employ morality as well as villainy.

V. It is not enough for the mortification of the deeds of the body that the lusts of the flesh should appear unfulfilled.

VI. If, therefore, you would judge of the life in the soul by the command which is exercised over the body, you must bring into account the agency employed as well as the result effected. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Flesh and Spirit

Thou hast a double nature. Choose between the worst and the better that is within thee. Thou hast it in thy power to become the slave of passion, the slave of luxury, the slave of sensual power, the slave of corruption. Thou hast it also in thy power to become the free master of thyself, to become the everlasting benefactor of thy country, and the unfailing champion of thy God. (Dean Stanley.)

The Divine rule

Keep the spiritual nature uppermost. Give the spiritual man the advantage. Settle every account in the Spirits favour. It will not make everything convenient, or merry, or prosperous. There may be mistakes of judgment; life may seem like a strain of bad music pitched to a minor key; your ideals may not be attained. Never mind that. The voice rings out over all the contradictions and ruins, This I say then, walk in the Spirit. To be spiritually minded is life and peace–life now and peace at last. (Bp. Huntington.)

The Pauline ethics

are as stern and strict as those of any system which has ever been promulgated. The liberty on which he insisted was no cover, no apology, no defence for licence, for those wild and profligate excesses which the fanatics faith has sometimes permitted. The extravagances of the Adamites, of the Cathari, of the Anabaptists, have been quoted as a reproach on the genius of Christianity. In reality they are a homage to it. The claim of Christianity on the allegiance of men has been so strong that they who have repudiated its spirit have affected to call themselves by its name. The Israelites often fell into that idolatry which the law donounced, condemned, chastised. But there is no reason to think that they forgot their nationality in their sin. (Paul of Tarsus.)

Value of spirituality of mind

A beautiful flower–the wood sorrel–grows among the trees in some parts of England. It has shining green leaves, and transparent bells with white veins. When it is gathered roughly, or the evening dew falls, or the clouds begin to rain, the flower closes and droops; but when the air is bright and calm, it unfolds all its loveliness. Like this sensitive flower, spirituality of mind, when touched by the rough hand of sin, or the cold dews of worldliness, or the noisy rain of strife, hides itself in the quietude of devout meditation; but when it feels the influence of sunny and serene piety, it expands in the beauty of holiness, the moral image of God. (S. J. Wright.)

Entire consecration necessary

Suppose you were to buy a ouse and lot and an elegant residence, pay the money and get the deeds, and the day you were to go in the gentleman said, Heres the key to eight rooms, I have reserved two rooms. Didnt I buy the house? Yes Well, what do you mean? I want to keep four tigers in one room, and the other I want to fill with reptiles. I want them to stay here. You say, Well, my friend, if you mean what you say I would not have your house as a gracious gift. You want me to move my family into a house where one room is full of tigers and the other full of snakes. Many a time we turn over our whole heart to God, and when He comes in we have reserved some rooms for the wild beasts of pride and the hissing serpents of iniquity. Let me tell you, brethren, I wont ask God to come and live in a house that I wont let my family live in. Empty every room in the house, and then the heart is the centre of gravity to Jesus Christ, and He will come in and live with you. (S. Jones.)

How to overcome temptation

Flee youthful lusts. Fight not, but flee; or if fight you must, copy the old Parthians, who, seated on fleet coursers and armed with bow and arrows, shot from the saddle, flying as they fought. If you cannot flee, then in Christs name and strength face round on the foe, and make a bold stand for God; and the virtues of youth shall rebuke the vices of age, and hoary sin shall go down before you armed with Gods word, as did the Philistine before the young shepherd and his sling. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

How to vanquish sin

Prudence: Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances at times as if they were vanquished? Christian: Yes, when I think what I saw at the cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; also when I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it. (John Bunyan.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 16. Walk in the Spirit] Get back that Spirit of God which you have grieved and lost; take up that spiritual religion which you have abandoned.

Ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.] If the Spirit of God dwell in and rule your heart, the whole carnal mind will be destroyed; and then, not only carnal ordinances will be abandoned, but also the works and propensities of the flesh.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Walk in the Spirit; the apostle having, Gal 5:13, cautioned them against turning the grace of God into wantonness, by using their liberty as an occasion to the flesh; here he directeth them to the best means for the avoiding thereof, viz.

walking in the Spirit. Where by Spirit he doth not mean our own spirits, or the guide and conduct of our own reason; for the term Spirit, set (as here) in opposition to the flesh, is in no place of Scripture understood of any other than the Holy Spirit of God, which dwelleth in and influenceth believers, guiding them both by a rule from without, (which is the word of God, given by its inspiration), and by its inward motions and operations. Walking, signifieth the directing of their whole conversations. The phrases

in the Spirit, and after the Spirit, Rom 8:1, seem to be of the same import, uuless the alteration of the preposition signifieth, that Christians are not only to look to the word of God dictated by the Holy Spirit as their rule, and to listen to its dictates, but also to look up to the Holy Spirit for its strength and assistance; and implieth a promise of such assistance. The sense is: Let your whole conversation be according to the external rule of the gospel, and the more inward motions, directions, and inclinations of the Spirit of Christ, dwelling and working in you, and moving you to the obedience of that word.

And ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh; this doing, though the flesh be yet in you, and you will find the lustings and warrings of it, yet you shall not fulfil the sinful desires and lustings of it; that is, sin, though it be in you, shall not be in dominion in you; it shall not reign in your mortal bodies: Rom 6:12; Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16. This I say thenRepeatingin other words, and explaining the sentiment in Ga5:13, What I mean is this.”

Walk in the SpiritGreek,“By (the rule of) the (Holy) Spirit.” Compare Gal 5:16-18;Gal 5:22; Gal 5:25;Gal 6:1-8; Rom 7:22;Rom 8:11. The best way to keeptares out of a bushel is to fill it with wheat.

the fleshthe naturalman, out of which flow the evils specified (Ga5:19-21). The spirit and the flesh mutually exclude one another.It is promised, not that we should have no evil lusts, but that weshould “not fulfil” them. If the spirit that is inus can be at ease under sin, it is not a spirit that comes from theHoly Spirit. The gentle dove trembles at the sight even of a hawk’sfeather.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

This I say then, walk in the Spirit,…. The advice the apostle thinks fit to give, and which he would have observed, is, to “walk in the Spirit”, that is, either after the Spirit of God; making the word inspired by him the rule of behaviour, which as it is the standard of faith, so of practice, and is the lamp unto our feet, and the light unto our path; taking him himself for a guide, who not only guides into all truth, but in the way of holiness and righteousness unto the land of uprightness; and depending upon his grace and strength for assistance throughout the whole of our walk and conversation: or in the exercise of the graces of the Spirit of God; as in the exercise of faith upon the person and grace of Christ, of which the Spirit is the author; and in love to God, Christ, and one another, which is a fruit of the Spirit; and in humility, lowliness of mind, meekness and condescension; all which is to walk in the Spirit, or spiritually, and strengthens the argument for love the apostle is upon: and this he encourages to by observing,

and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh; he does not say there shall be no flesh, nor any lust of the flesh in them if they walk spiritually; or that the flesh should not act and operate in them; or that they should do no sinful action; all which is only true of Christ; and the contrary is to be found and observed in all true Christians, though ever so spiritual; but that they should not fulfil or perfect the lust of the flesh; should not give up themselves entirely to the power and dictates of the flesh, so as to be under it and at its command, and be obedient servants and slaves unto it; for, in this sense only, such that are spiritual do not, commit sin, they do not make a trade of it, it is not their constant employ or course of conversation.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ye shall not fulfil ( ). Rather, “Ye will not fulfil.” Strong double negative with aorist active subjunctive.

The lust of the flesh ( ). Bad sense here as usual in Paul, but not so in 1Thess 2:17; Phil 1:23. The word is just craving or longing (from , , yearning after).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Walk [] . Frequent in a metaphorical sense for habitual conduct. See Mr 7:5; Joh 8:12; Act 21:21; Rom 6:4; Rom 8:4; 1Co 3:3; Phi 3:18. Never by Paul in the literal sense. In the Spirit [] . Rather, by the Spirit, as the rule of action. Comp. Gal 6:16; Phi 3:16; Rom 4:12.

Fulfill [] . Bring to fulfillment in action. See on do the law, ver. 3.

The lust [] . Frequent in Paul, and usually in a bad sense; but see Phi 1:23; 1Th 2:17, and comp. Luk 22:15. The phrase lust or lusts of the flesh occurs also Eph 2:3; 2Pe 2:18; 1Jo 2:16. It means, not the mere sensual desire of the physical nature, but the desire which is peculiar to human nature without the divine Spirit.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

SANCTIFICATION AND VICTORY THRU THE SPIRIT

1) “This I say then,” (lego de) “Now I say;” This is his council for those who have liberty and freedom in Christ.

2) “Walk in the Spirit,” (pneumati peripateite) “in (the) Spirit, you all walk, conduct yourselves in the area of Spirit approved things and ways, Gal 5:25; Eph 5:15-18; Rom 8:14.

3) “And ye shall not fulfill,” (kai ou me telesete) “And you all will by no means perform,” Rom 6:12; Rom 13:14.

4) “The lust of the flesh,” (epithumian sarkos) “(The) lust of (the) flesh;” from which Christians are to abstain or draw back, shun, or avoid, 1Pe 2:11; 1Th 5:22.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

16. This I say then. Now follows the remedy. The ruin of the church is no light evil, and whatever threatens it must be opposed with the most determined resistance. But how is this to be accomplished? By not permitting the flesh to rule in us, and by yielding ourselves to the direction of the Spirit of God. The Galatians are indirectly told, that they are carnal, destitute of the Spirit of God, and that the life which they lead is unworthy of Christians; for whence did their violent conduct towards each other proceed, but from their being guided by the lust of the flesh? This, he tells them, is an evidence that they do not walk according to the Spirit.

Ye shall not fulfill. We ought to mark the word fulfill; by which he means, that, though the sons of God, so long as they groan under the burden of the flesh, are liable to commit sin, they are not its subjects or slaves, but make habitual opposition to its power. The spiritual man may be frequently assaulted by the lusts of the flesh, but fulfill them, — he does not permit them to reign over him. — On this subject, it will be proper to consult Rom 8:0

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

2.

Victory over the flesh Gal. 5:16-26

TEXT 5:1618

(16) But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. (18) But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

PARAPHRASE 5:1618

16 I command then, Walk according to the dictates of your spiritual part, and so you will not gratify the lust of your animal nature; particularly, ye will not gratify the sinful passions of envy, malice, anger, revenge.

17 Ye have great need to subdue the lusts of the flesh: For the flesh strongly inclines men to act contrary to reason and conscience; and these principles are often contrary to one another, so that he cannot always do the things which your better part inclines you to do. See Rom. 7:18.

18 But, to encourage you to subdue the flesh, know, that if ye habitually follow the dictates of your better part, ye are not under the curse of any law, so as to be punished.

COMMENT 5:16

But I say, Walk by the Spirit

1.

MacKnight uses spirit to indicate mans spiritual partthe mind and conscience enlightened by the doctrines and precepts of the gospel revealed by the Spirit.

2.

Walking in the Spirit places one above carnal ordinances.

ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh

1.

Fulfill means to satisfy.

2.

Satisfaction is the desire of the carnal man.

a.

the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. Rom. 8:7

b.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. Jas. 4:3

COMMENT 5:17

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit

1.

The definition of lust.

a.

Unholy desire.

b.

Unlawful desire.

2.

The working of lust.

a.

It burns. Burned in their lusts one toward another. Rom. 1:27

b.

It draws away. Each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Jas. 1:14

c.

It brings forth sin. Then the lust when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full-grown bringeth forth death.

d.

It is defilement. But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise dominion. 2Pe. 2:10

e.

It allures. entice in the lusts. 2Pe. 2:18

3.

The end of lust.

a.

Passes away with the world. 1Jn. 2:17

b.

Brings death. Jas. 1:15

and the Spirit against the flesh

1.

These beastly traits God is against.

2.

The Spirit seeks to constrain the flesh.

these are contrary the one to the other

1.

They do not attract, but repel.

2.

Mans being is always locked in mortal combat.

3.

A saint is not a piece of wood that has no feeling but is a combination that is in constant struggle.

that ye may not do the things that ye would

1.

Paul expresses it in Romans completely. See Rom. 7:15.

2.

The spiritual person is aware of the conflict within, while fleshly people do not care.

COMMENT 5:18

But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law

1.

A wise person would select the Spirit in place of the lust.

a.

No doubt law here refers to law of sin, not the Mosaic law.

b.

It is used in connection with a discussion of sin.

2.

Now if you make this wise choice, your choice frees you.

STUDY QUESTIONS 5:1618

694.

Is this exhortation to produce fruit of the Spirit?

695.

How can a person walk in the Spirit when he walks in a world of flesh?

696.

Can a person be so full of goodness that there is no room or time for evil?

697.

Can you walk in the Spirit and walk with the devils crowd?

698.

What does the word fulfill mean? Will a man get ulcers frustrating the flesh?

699.

How can a person have the mind of Christ instead of a carnal mind?

700.

What does Paul mean by flesh?

701.

Define the word lust.

702.

How do we know lawful desires and unlawful ones?

703.

What is the end of lust?

704.

Does he mean that the Spirit lusts too?

705.

Define contrary.

706.

Are men aware of this awful combat within them constantly?

707.

Is the saint more conscious of the warfare than the worldly person?

708.

Describe a life led by the Spirit.

709.

If we are led by Gods Spirit, are we leading our own lives?

710.

What law is meantlaw of Moses or of sin?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(16) Walk.Conduct yourselves: a metaphor very common in the writings of St. Paul, but not peculiar to them. It occurs three times in the Gospels, once in the Acts, thirty-three times in St. Pauls Epistles, once in the Hebrews, ten times in the Epistles of St. John, and once in the Apocalypse.

In the Spirit.Rather, by the Spiriti.e. by the rule of the Spirit, as the Spirit directs. The Spirit is here undoubtedly the Holy Spiritthe Spirit of God, not the spirit in man.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(16-26) To follow the guidance of the Spirit is to obtain a double release: on the one hand, from the evil appetites and passions of the flesh or of sensewhich is the direct antithesis to the Spiritand on the other hand, from the dominion of the Law. It is easy to tell which has the upper handthe flesh or the Spirit. The flesh is known by a long catalogue of sins, the Spirit by a like catalogue of Christian graces, the mere mention of which is enough to show that the Law has no power over them. Those who belong to Christ have got rid of the flesh, with all its impulses, by their union with a crucified Saviour. All the Christian has to do is to act really by the rule of the Spirit, without self-parade or quarrelling.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

16-18. Traces the inward struggle between the spirit and flesh, with the remedy. The remedy is given first, Gal 5:16, and last, Gal 5:18.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

16. This I say On this rule I lay special emphasis.

Walk in the Spirit As the true preventive of the internal strife of Gal 5:17.

Walk Live and act.

In the Spirit In obedience to conscience and Scripture enlightened by divine influence.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘But I say, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfil the longing of the flesh. For the flesh longs against the Spirit, and the Spirit longs against the flesh. For these are contrary, the one to the other, that you may not do the things that you would.’

But how different that is from being a Christian. For a Christian walks by the Spirit, and in accordance with His will. They have previously learned that Christ lives in them in His resurrection life (Gal 2:20), that they have received the Spirit (Gal 3:2), that they have been adopted as sons of God, receiving the Spirit of His Son into their hearts (Gal 4:5-6), that Christ is to be formed within them (Gal 4:19), that they wait for the hope of righteousness through the Spirit (Gal 5:5). Now Paul tells them that they must walk by the same Spirit.

He agrees that a battle constantly takes place in each Christian’s life, for we live in human bodies. We have fleshly desires. Our ‘flesh’ longs for things we should not long for, for position, fame, money, drink, sexual satisfaction however achieved, prominence and so on (or at least the desire for one or the other is always there deep down ready to break through). But, if we are Christians we also have within us the Spirit longing for righteousness. And these are at constant warfare, or seeking to be so. Both pull us in different ways. And Paul tells us that we must listen to the Spirit and ‘walk by the Spirit’. This means walking as He wants us to by His power, in full responsiveness to His promptings through God’s word and prayer. We must see Christ as living within us and let Him live through us.

On His side He has promised that He will enable us to overcome every temptation that besets us (1Co 10:13), and that He will work within us to will and do of His good pleasure (Php 2:13). And the fact is that we desperately need Him and the power of His risen life, for in every Christian’s life a great battle is taking place, and never more so than when it is not noticed. Thus we must ‘work out’ what God works in us, with greatest care (Php 2:12).

The reality is that the Spirit and the flesh are at constant loggerheads. ‘For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh’. The flesh constantly tugs at us like a tug-of-war team, seeking to drag us away from what the Spirit desires, for the flesh is earthly and thinks of what is earthly. In some the pull of the flesh may be weaker as a result of long experience of God but the flesh is ever willing to wait for the weak moment, so that it can strike, as the Serpent did in the Garden of Eden. On the other hand the Spirit seeks to draw us the other way towards the heavenly. ‘For these are against each other, to prevent you from doing what you would’. In other words, as Christians ‘what we would’ is to follow the Spirit, but the flesh regularly seeks to prevent us from doing so (compare Rom 7:14-25).

But Paul is not here saying that human flesh is, in itself, intrinsically evil. He is rather saying that that flesh contains desires and longings which have to be controlled. In the Christian the Spirit will constantly act as a powerful pull away from following fleshly longings. But the flesh will just as constantly and fiercely pull back. The Christian certainly wants to be pure, and loving, and good and righteous, (otherwise his profession must be in doubt), but there will always be something that is seeking to drag him down, ‘the pull of the flesh’. Thus he does not always behave in the way that in his best moments he wants to.

In some it will be greed for power or fame or status, in others it will be envy of those who have achieved such, in others the problem of a strong sex drive, or a drink problem, in others a sense of self-righteousness, a desire to be recognised as ‘good’. But it will be there in all, and never more dangerous than when not recognised. But the Spirit can enable us to overcome, not by our struggling to keep a set of detailed rules, (a sure way to fail), but by constantly looking to Him in prayer and through His word, and responding to His prompting. As it has been well put, ‘His word will keep me from sin, and sin will seek to keep me from His word’.

However, a word of warning from Paul. Very often there is only one way to fight the desires that arise within us, and paradoxically that way is to flee (2Ti 2:22), to engage in a strategic withdrawal. Being led by the Spirit involves being where the Spirit wants us to be, it also involves not being where the Spirit does not want us to be. If you carry the means of temptation with you, or go where such temptation will beset you, you cannot expect the Spirit to intervene. You have already said ‘no’ to Him.

‘That you may not do the things that you would.’ This refers to the power of the flesh to drag us down from what the Spirit is doing within us, for what the Christian ‘would’ is to fulfil all righteousness. Indeed if that is not his wish his position in Christ must be in doubt. The point is that the pull of the flesh is our enemy to be faced up to (often by fleeing) and to be overcome, for we are no longer after the flesh but born of the Spirit (Gal 4:29).

Are our eyes fixed on some object of pleasure that is enticing us to sin. Then what we must do is run. ‘Flee from youthful desires’. That is being led by the Spirit. Is Satan putting evil thoughts into our minds, and setting our thoughts on them? Then it will be no good running. Our thoughts will go with us. What we must do then is make use of the armour of God and the shield of the word of God. Is he suggesting false ways to us? Then we must ‘resist the Devil and he will flee from you’. The Spirit will always lead us in accordance with the word of God.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Spiritual: Walking in Our Liberties Gal 5:16-26 places emphasis upon the spirit realm where Paul explains how to walk in liberty by being led by the Holy Spirit. In this passage Paul explains the need to develop their inner spirit by learning how to be led by the Spirit and no longer yield to the lusts of the flesh (Gal 5:16).

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Gal 5:16 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit” Comments – We walk in the Spirit by conducting our lives under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Kenneth Hagin says, “Walking in the Spirit is walking in the fruit of the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is walking in love.” [111] The epistle of Romans defines this walk as “yielding yourselves unto God.”

[111] Kenneth Hagin, Love the Way to Victory (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1994, 1995), 28.

Rom 6:12-13, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God , as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

Gal 5:16 “and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” – Comments – Note that it does not mean that you will not feel fleshly desires or that you will not wrestle against those desires; because you will experience a battle. Instead, it means that the will of God and the spirit will win out over the flesh.

Gal 5:16 Comments – A key phrase in the epistle of Colossians is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Because the passage in Col 1:24-29 is a reference to the role of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s lordship over the Church, we may interpret this phrase to refer to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Because the theme of the epistle to the Colossians is the lordship of Jesus Christ, Paul phrases this in reference to the indwelling of Jesus Christ rather than of the Holy Spirit. In his epistle to the Galatians Paul will expound upon the role of the Church in Christ’s lordship by exhorting us to “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh,” (Gal 5:16). Thus, since Christ dwells in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are exhorted to be led by the Spirit as a way of allowing Christ to be lord over us. As we try to become better Christians, attempting to conduct our lives without sin, we find ourselves failing. When we wait upon God and move by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves able to walk above sin and selfishness. The Law could not bring perfection in our lives, nor can our best efforts apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Gal 5:17 “so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” – Comments – The doing is what you allow the members of your body to accomplish, do, or work. The wishing here is in one’s heart or spirit (Rom 7:22).

Rom 7:22, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:”

Scripture References – Note similar passages:

Rom 7:25, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Rom 8:13-14, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Gal 5:18 “But if ye be led of the Spirit” – Comments – One day, as I was praying and asking the Lord how to be led by the Spirit, so that I do not fall into temptation, The Lord showed me an illustration out of my own life to say that many temptations are obvious to us, and we do not need an unction to resist them. We have already received a word from God on many obvious temptations.

My experience in being led by the Holy Spirit is that often, in the early morning hours, I will be write down a number of things that the Spirit quickens for me to do that day. I call this a sort of to-do-list. Then, when I am at work, I will refer to this list of projects to do that the Spirit reminded me in the morning to do (Joh 14:26). This is one way that the Spirit works and leads us to set our day in order.

I do not necessarily “feel” an unction from the Holy Spirit during the day as I am working thru my to-do-list; but, I know that I am being led by the Holy Spirit from the morning unction. Therefore, being led by the Spirit does not always coincide with the unction to do the task. This is what the Scripture means when it says, “we walk by faith and not by sight” (2Co 5:7). However, there are those wonderful times when an unction is evident as we walk in this leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Joh 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance , whatsoever I have said unto you.”

2Co 5:7, “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”

Scripture References – Note similar verses:

Gal 5:23, “Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law .”

Rom 8:14-15, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

Gal 5:19-23 Testimonies of the Spirit and the Flesh Gal 5:19-23 will clear illustrate to us the vices of a person who is fulfilling the lusts of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21) and the virtues of the person who is being led by the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). The Galatian churches were being accused by the Judaizers of living a licentious lifestyle because they were not incorporating circumcisions and other devout practices of the Law. For this reason, Paul takes the time to clearly define a lifestyle of licentiousness by listing the works of the flesh, and he contrasts this by explaining the attributes of a devout Christian as he lists the fruit of the Spirit.

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Gal 5:20 “heresies” Illustration – The Sadducees and the Pharisees are biblical examples of heresies. Man created religious sects and denominations, not God.

Gal 5:20 “seditions, heresies” Comments The words “seditions” and “heresies” refer to “divisions,” and “religious factions,” respectively. Today, the church uses a neutral word called denominations. However, this actually refers to religious groups of Christians who are divided over the doctrines of the Scriptures. God is not divided; neither is His Word. Man created denominations, not God.

As a young seminary student, I was taking a second-year New Testament Greek class. In this course, we translated the entire book of Galatians from the Greek. When I came to these two words during my studies, I saw for the first time a Scriptural basis for the fact that man created denominations, and not God. God brings unity and love, not division (Eph 4:2-6).

Eph 4:2-6, “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

Thus, the answer to the question of which denomination is right, the answer is that God right. His Word has never been up for debate and argument. There is only one body of Christ, one Spirit to guide and teach us, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God overall, and there is only one doctrine in the Holy Scriptures.

Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:19-21 Scripture References The Works of the Flesh – Note similar passages on the works of the flesh:

Mar 7:20-23, “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

1Co 6:9-10, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

Eph 5:3-7, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.”

Col 3:5-9, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;”

1Ti 1:9-10, “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;”

Rev 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Gal 5:22 “But the fruit” Comments – The subject of the statement in Gal 5:22 is the word “fruit,” which is singular, while the direct object of this sentence is plural, listing the nine virtues of the Spirit. Creflo Dollar explains this to mean that the fruit (singular) refers to love, while the 9-fold virtues define the manifold attributes of love. He compares this to the makeup of a fruit with its various components of the skin, the meat, the seeds, etc. [112] We find a reference to the law of love in the preceding verse, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Gal 5:14) The love walk in the believer’s life is a walk where one is being led by the Spirit of God, which then produces the “fruit” of the Spirit of God as God lives in and through us.

[112] Creflo Dollar, Changing Your World (College Park, Georgia: Creflo Dollar Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program, 30 January 2009.

“of the Spirit is” Comments – The KJV interprets the word “Spirit” as a reference to the Holy Spirit. Kenneth Hagin believes that it actually refers to the human spirit. [113] He explains by saying that fruit grows on branches, which represents the believers, while the trunk represents Jesus Christ. The life of the branches comes from the trunk. The fruit of love is produced from our regenerated spirits because of the life that flows from abiding in the Vine (Joh 15:5). Therefore, if we feed our spirits upon the Word of God and exercise it, the fruit of love will grow and develop in our lives. None of these fruits starts out being fully mature. Love starts out in our lives as a tiny bud; but just like the fruit on the branch, it grows and matures as it is properly nurtured.

[113] Kenneth Hagin, Love the Way to Victory (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1994, 1995), 20-2.

Joh 15:5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

Another reason that this verse refers to the human spirit is because the fruit of the spirit is contrasted with the “works of the flesh.” Therefore, “walking in the spirit” is walking in the fruit of the spirit rather than the works of the flesh. We walk in the spirit when we are walking in love and the other fruits of the spirit.

“longsuffering” Comments – I once watched two birds feeding their babies that had hatched in a small hole in a tree. One bird flew up, but did not go into the nest. I wondered why. I was observing when the second bird emerged and flew off to find more food. This first bird was being kind and patient in waiting for the second bird to finish feeding the babies, since there was not room for both birds in the same hole. We could learn that lesson on waiting patiently.

Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Gal 5:23 “against such there is no law” Comments – There is no law against doing these good things that are motivated by the virtues of the fruit of the Spirit listed here. It is not against the law to do good deeds.

Gal 5:22-23 Comments – The Fruit of the Spirit – The fruit of the Spirit is referring to the outward evidences of someone who is being led by the Spirit of God, as Paul is exhorting his readers in Gal 5:16.

Scripture References – Note other similar passages on the fruit of the Spirit:

Eph 5:9, “(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)”

Col 3:12-17, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

1Ti 6:11, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”

Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Gal 5:25 “If we live in the Spirit” – Comments – That is, if our life is now a spiritual life, a spiritual rebirth of Jesus living in us now (Gal 2:20), then let us conduct our lives according to the prompting of God’s spirit, and not be led by our old nature and fleshly desires (Rom 7:6).

Gal 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Rom 7:6, “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Gal 5:25 “let us also walk in the Spirit” Comments – How do we walk in the Spirit? The rest of the book of Galatians describes how in practical living.

Gal 5:25 Scripture Reference Note a similar verse:

Col 2:6, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:”

Gal 5:26  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Gal 5:26 Illustration – A class of students is striving to make good grades on their pop quizzes so that they will be praised by one another. In the process, they are challenging and envying one another as they achieve and then boasting of their achievements.

Scripture Reference Note a similar verse:

Php 2:3, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The works of the flesh:

v. 16. This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

v. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

v. 18. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the Law.

v. 19. Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

v. 20. idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

v. 21. envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

The apostle here develops the topic which he announced in v. 13. His first point is a general exhortation to walk by the Spirit: Now I say, Walk by the Spirit, and the desire of the flesh you will not fulfill. The entire conduct of the believers is controlled by the power of the Spirit; He enters into their hearts and works in them by impelling and determining their walk. To walk by the Spirit, therefore, means to follow His leadership gladly, to put no obstacles in His way. By heeding the voice of the Spirit at all times and under all conditions, the believers will avoid doing the desire of the flesh. Christians indeed have their old evil nature to contend with at all times, their flesh being active to incite them to sins of every kind. But they do not yield to these temptations; they suppress every evil desire and inclination toward sin.

The apostle now substantiates his admonition: For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other that you may not do what things you would. In the heart of every Christian there is a continual battle, based upon irreconcilable antagonism between the spirit and the flesh, between the new and the old man. The flesh, the old evil nature, has only one desire, namely, to overcome the spirit, the regenerated nature, and to make the believer fall back into the service of sin and every form of ungodly conduct. On the other side, the spirit, the regenerated self of the Christian, defends itself against such attacks, desiring at the same time to overcome and suppress the old Adam, that he die with all sins and evil lusts, no matter whether they appear in a gross or in a fine form. The object of these two opponents in the believer’s heart is that he should not perform what he wants to do. The flesh tries to prevent him from doing good in any form, as he desires to do in the power of the Spirit. The spirit battles against the flesh, lest the Christian do that which is evil, what he desires to do after his evil nature. Both the flesh and the spirit are straining their utmost in this combat. See Rom 7:15-23. If the Christians now walk in the Spirit, then the victory is bound to come to their regenerated selves, and they will be able more and more to quench the lust of the flesh. This must be the final result, as St. Paul writes: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. The side of the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit, must remain victorious, and thus Paul proves his contention that the Christians are not under the Law, that it is impossible to bring them back into the bondage of the Law. He that walks in the Spirit and is impelled and led by the Spirit will look upon the will of God contained in the Law as the great ideal of a sanctified life, and he will therefore strive to live up to this ideal, not by coercion of the Law, not out of fear of punishment, not with the hope of reward or of earning salvation, but because it is his greatest joy and desire to do what pleases his heavenly Father.

The apostle now specifies some of the vices which flow from the service of the flesh, and which therefore should not be found in Christians: Manifest, however, are the works of the flesh; they are of such a nature that they cannot escape notice and that no one will deny their heinousness. Of such is adultery, marital unfaithfulness of the one or the other spouse; fornication, carnal intercourse of people that are not united in holy wedlock; uncleanness, sexual impurity in general; wantonness or sensuality, marked by shameless impudence and exuberance, all of these being sins of voluptuousness to which the ancient heathen were addicted openly, just as the modern heathen are. Of such is idolatry, to which the Galatian Christians were tempted to return by reason of the heathen festivals and banquets; and sorcery of every kind, the secret tampering with the powers of evil, including especially the use of remedies of witchcraft, both of which sins were prevalent in the Greek cities of Asia Minor in those days, Act 8:9; Act 13:8; Act 19:19. Of such is enmity, which causes people to observe a malevolent attitude toward their neighbors; quarrelsomeness, which continually seeks occasion to begin wrangles; envy, which grudges one’s neighbor all that he has and always seeks its own advantage and benefit; anger, in which the jealousy of the heart breaks forth; quarrels, the natural result of anger; rivalries and factions, by which people separate themselves and refuse to associate with one another; hatred, which refuses to tolerate one’s neighbor; and finally murder, the taking of a neighbor’s life, all of which are found also in the hearts of the Christians, making constant vigilance necessary. Of such is, in the last group, drunkenness or drinking bouts, the excessive use of intoxicating liquor; and revelry, or revelings, intemperance in partaking of both food and drink, bestial gluttony. And other things of the same category Paul adds; to which Luther remarks: “For who could enumerate the entire morass of carnal life?… He has indicated only a few, in order that the Galatians might not pretend to be ignorant how they might withstand the lusts of the flesh. ” Note: There is a solemn warning in this enumeration of vices also for the Christians for these latter days; for it is only too evident that the boundary between Church and world is being obliterated in many cases; the world is entering the Church because the church people are no longer withstanding the world.

With great emphasis Paul therefore says: Of which I now tell you in advance, just as I have said before, that they who make it a habit to do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. The apostle had given them this warning when he was present with them, and he here repeats his warning lest the judgment of the Lord come upon them for committing such crimes. Paul was not afraid to raise his voice in the endeavor to rouse the sinners before it might be too late. Because the flesh of the Christians is always active, therefore the warnings must always be repeated. Mark that he does not refer to such as are tempted to perform such heinous sins, but to such as actually give way to the temptation. All those that yield to the flesh and its desires, and live and walk in its sins, have their sentence of condemnation in advance: they cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Glory, heaven and salvation. Hell and damnation is their lot as children of wrath.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Gal 5:16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, &c. That is, “I have been cautioning you against that contentious temper which is so great a reproach to the professors of Christianity, and tends so much to the detriment of our common faith. But, that I may effectually guard you against this and every other evil, I have a charge to give you, and, in a word, I say, Walk in the Spirit, and at all times endeavour to conduct yourselves as under the influences of that blessed Agent, and in a way agreeable to the new nature that he has given you, and then ye will not fulfil the lust of the flesh; so that, if you be not yet delivered from the remainders of corruption, yet by his powerful suggestions, and by the gracious aids which you receive from him, you will be happily preserved from the predominancy of carnal and irregular appetites, so that the work of mortification and all the exercises of true godliness, will daily become more and more easy and familiar to you.” Instead of, ye shall not fulfil, some read, ye shall in nowise fulfil.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Gal 5:16 . With the words “ But I mean ” (Gal 3:17 , Gal 4:1 ) the apostle introduces, not something new, but a deeper and more comprehensive exhibition and discussion of that which, in Gal 5:13-15 , he had brought home to his readers by way of admonition and of warning down to Gal 5:26 . Hofmann is wrong in restricting the illustration merely to what follows after , a view which is in itself arbitrary, and is opposed to the manifest correlation existing between the contrast of flesh and spirit and the , which the free Christian is not to afford to the flesh (Gal 5:13 ).

] dative of the norma ( , Rom 8:4 ). Comp. Gal 6:16 ; Phi 3:16 ; Rom 4:12 ; Hom. Il . xv. 194: . The subsequent in Gal 5:18 is more favourable to this view than to that of Fritzsche, ad Rom . I. p. 225, who makes it the dative commodi ( spiritui divino vitam consecrare ), or to that of Wieseler, who makes it instrumental , so that the Spirit is conceived as path (the idea is different in the case of in 2Co 5:7 ), or of Hofmann, who renders: “ by virtue of the Spirit.” Calovius well remarks: “ juxta instinctum et impulsum.” The spirit is not, however, the moral nature of man (that is, , , Rom 7:22-23 ), which is sanctified by the Divine Spirit (Beza, Gomarus, Rckert, de Wette, and others; comp. Michaelis, Morus, Flatt, Schott, Olshausen, Windischmann, Delitzsch, Psychol , p. 389), in behalf of which appeal is erroneously (see also Rom 8:9 ) made to the contrast of , since the divine is in fact the power which overcomes the (Rom 7:23 ff., Rom 8:1 ff.); but it is the Holy Spirit . This Spirit is given to believers as the divine principle of the Christian life (Gal 3:2 ; Gal 3:5 , Gal 4:6 ), and they are to obey it, and not the ungodly desires of their . Comp. Neander, and Mller, v. d. Snde , I. p. 453, Exo 5 . The absence of the article is not (in opposition to Harless on Eph . p. 268) at variance with this view, but it is not to be explained in a qualitative sense (Hofmann), any more than in the case of , , and the like; on the contrary, has the nature of a proper noun , and, even when dwelling and ruling in the human spirit, remains always objective , as the Divine Spirit , specifically different from the human (Rom 8:16 ). Comp. on Gal 5:3 ; Gal 5:5 , and on Rom 8:4 ; also Buttmann, neut. Gr . p. 78.

] is taken as consequence by the Vulgate, Jerome, Theodoret, Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Estius, Bengel, and most expositors, including Winer, Paulus, Rckert, Matthies, Schott, de Wette, Hilgenfeld, Wieseler, Hofmann, Reithmayr; but by others, as Castalio, Beza, Koppe, Usteri, Baumgarten-Crusius, Ewald, in the sense of the imperative . Either view is well adapted to the context, since afterwards, for the illustration of what is said in Gal 5:16 , the relation between and is set forth. But the view which takes it as consequence is the only one which corresponds with the usage in other passages of the N.T., in which . with the aorist subjunctive is always used in the sense of confident assurance , and not imperatively , like with the future , although in classical authors is so employed. “ Ye will certainly not fulfil the lust of the flesh , this is the moral blessed consequence, which is promised to them, if they walk according to the Spirit.” On , used of the actual carrying out of a desire, passion, or the like, comp. Soph. O. R . 1330, El . 769; Hesiod, Scut . 36.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2082
WALKING IN THE SPIRIT, A PRESERVATIVE FROM SIN

Gal 5:16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

IN the Church of God, no less than in the ungodly world, there have always been found persons ready to foment divisions, and to kindle animosities between man and man. It was so in the apostolic age: it is so at this day: and it must of necessity be so, as long as tares are left growing amongst the wheat, or persons professing godliness suffer themselves to be led captive by a proud, unmortified, and contentious spirit. In the Galatian Church, persons of this description abounded: and to such a height did their contentions arise, that the Apostle was constrained to give them this solemn warning: If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another [Note: ver. 15.].

Now, how shall this propensity be counteracted? The Apostle tells us, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Let us consider then,

I.

The direction here given

Before we can enter fully into the passage before us, we must explain the terms which the Apostle uses to convey his sentiments. The whole context shews that there are two principles in the regenerate man; one which is called flesh, and another which is called spirit: the one comprehending all which we bring into the world with us, and which is common to the natural man; the other importing that better principle which is infused into the soul by the Spirit of God, when he quickens us to a new and heavenly life: as our Lord says, That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit [Note: Joh 3:6.]. Sin of every kind is the fruit of the former; and holiness of every kind is the offspring of the latter. Amongst the works of the flesh, the Apostle numbers idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies [Note: ver. 20.]: which shews, that we are not, when speaking of the lusts or desires of the flesh, to confine our views to sins which are acted in and by the body; but to take in all the corruptions of our nature, in mind as well as body. With this explanation, we shall the more easily see, that, to walk in the Spirit, we must walk,

1.

In a constant attention to the new principle infused into us

[I cannot give a more just idea of this new principle, which the Spirit of God imparts to us in our conversion, than by comparing it with the modern invention of the compass. Before the invention of the compass, mariners, in a dark night, were unable with any precision to direct their course. Whilst they were in sight of land, or had a view of the sun or stars, they could proceed with some degree of certainty: but, in the absence of these, they were altogether at a loss. But it is not so with mariners at this time. By the help of the compass they can by night steer the ship, as well as in the day; having constantly at hand, as it were, a sure directory. Now this is the difference between the natural and the spiritual man: the natural man has reason and conscience, which, to a certain degree, are capable of directing his path. But numberless occasions arise whereon they fail him utterly. The spiritual man has, superadded to these, a new and living principle abiding in him; a principle infused into him by the Spirit of God, and in exact accordance with his mind and will: and by this principle the Spirit himself guides him in all his way. The spiritual man, therefore, in every doubt or difficulty, should consult this divine principle within him; and see its bearings, and follow its directions. And as the mariner, whilst he observes his compass, consults also his chart and maps; so must we, whilst attending to the motions of this principle, consult also the directory which God has given us in the Holy Scriptures: and by means of these observations we shall be kept from any great aberrations from the way of truth. This process, however, must be continued throughout all our way: we must not only live in the Spirit, but must walk in the Spirit, every step we take [Note: ver. 25.] ]

2.

In a humble dependence on that Divine Spirit who has infused it

[The new principle within us may suggest what is right; but it cannot enable us for the performance of it: for all power to do the will of God, we must be indebted altogether to the Spirit of God. Our blessed Lord expressly says, Without me ye can do nothing [Note: Joh 15:5.]. There is no surer cause of failure than self-confidence and self-dependence. Peter, and with him all the other Disciples, declared that they would follow their Lord even unto death: but no sooner did the trial come, than they all forsook him and fled. And we, too, if we make resolutions in our own strength, shall learn, by bitter experience, that he who trusteth in his own heart, is a fool [Note: Pro 28:26.]. We must be careful, too, not to make any difference between matters of greater or lesser difficulty, as though we were competent for the one any more than the other. We must, in the whole course of our journey, depend on God alone: we are never, for a moment, to feel strong in ourselves, but strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might [Note: Eph 6:10.]: and in every step that we take, we must cry, Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe [Note: Psa 119:117.].]

To this direction the Apostle adds,

II.

Our encouragement to the observance of it

We have before shewn, that by the lusts of the flesh we are to understand all the motions of our corrupt nature: and from these we shall be preserved, if we follow the direction given us in our text. But here we must carefully distinguish between what is promised, and what is not.

1.

It is not promised that we shall not be tempted by the lusts of the flesh

[The carnal principle still remains with us after we are renewed; as the Apostle says, The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit, against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things ye would [Note: ver. 17.]. If, on the one hand, our spiritual principle keeps us from following the evil bias of our nature; so, on the other hand, the remainder of the carnal principle within us keeps us from following so fully as we could wish the dictates of our renewed mind. The Apostle Paul himself complained, that when he would do good, evil was present with him; and that, notwithstanding he delighted in the law of God after his inward man, he had still a law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, and at times bringing him, in some degree, into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members [Note: Rom 7:21-23.]. And we, too, shall find the same, even to our dying hour. But,]

2.

It is promised that we shall not fulfil them

[God will strengthen us by his Spirit in our inward man [Note: Eph 3:16.], and enable us to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts [Note: ver. 24.]. Weak as we are in ourselves, nothing shall be impossible to us, if we trust in Him [Note: Mat 17:20.]: he will give us more grace [Note: Jam 4:6.], and strength according to our day [Note: Deu 33:25.]. Whatever be our temptations, the grace of Christ shall be sufficient for us [Note: 2Co 12:9.]; and we shall be enabled to do all things through Christ, who strengthens us [Note: Php 4:13.].]

From this subject we may clearly learn,
1.

What is the great work we have to do

[The one employment which we have daily to attend to, is, to be putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and to be putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness [Note: Eph 4:22-24.]. We are here as in a great hospital, where the process of healing is going forward, and many are convalescent; but we need still to apply the same remedies; and we are none of us possessed of that measure of health which we hope to attain previous to our dismission. We follow still the prescriptions of our physician; and we hope, in so doing, to obtain, in due season, a perfect recovery ]

2.

The need we have of constant vigilance and exertion

[The old principle, as has been observed, still remains within us: and, if we be not constantly on our guard, it will regain its former ascendency over us. A stronger army, if the sentinels fall asleep, may be surprised and vanquished by troops that are far inferior: and we too, notwithstanding the power given us by the indwelling Spirit, shall surely be overcome, if we be not constantly on our watch-tower. We must be prepared to meet our adversary at his first approach. Our blessed Lord says, Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: and the sad consequences of sleeping on our post may be seen in the Disciples, when they failed to observe this important admonition [Note: Mat 26:41; Mat 26:43; Mat 26:56.]. Corruption will often put on the appearance of virtue, and Satan assume the garb of an angel of light [Note: 2Co 11:14.]: but if we be on our guard, we shall detect his devices; and if we resist him manfully, he will flee from us [Note: Jam 4:7.].]

3.

The security that is afforded us, if we be only faithful to ourselves

[God assures us of success, if only we follow his directions. If we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption: but if we sow to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting [Note: Gal 6:7-8.]. In two respects shall we be placed on a totally different footing from that on which we stood before: we shall not be judged according to the perfect law, which condemns us for the smallest act of disobedience; for, if we walk in the Spirit, we are not under the law [Note: ver. 18.]: on the contrary, our imperfect obedience shall be eternally rewarded: for God would deem himself unrighteous, if he were to forget any thing that we do for his sake [Note: Heb 6:10.]. With boldness, then, I say to every one amongst you, Be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and you may rest assured that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord [Note: 1Co 15:58.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(16) This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (18) But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

The Apostle hath very blessedly shown, within the compass of those few verses, what in all the other parts of his writing, when discoursing on the same subject, he hath most completely proved; namely, that when from the Adam-nature of the fall, a child of God is regenerated, and born again; the two natures of spirit, and flesh, do manifest themselves in this man, as plainly, as any two opposite, principles in nature, such as fire and water, light and darkness, good and evil. So that, while the child of God walks in the spirit, the lusts of the flesh are kept under: and, on the other hand, the reverse will be the consequence, where restraining grace doth not keep under, the clamorous demands of the flesh.

The general idea of a partial regeneration, both of soul and body, on the new-birth of a believer, is totally done away, by what God the Holy Ghost here speaks by the Apostle. And, if men would but take Scripture simply as it is, and not bring it by partial quotations, to suit any favorite opinion they themselves have adopted, they would be led, under divine teaching, from such plain words as Paul here useth, to see the truth, that the truth might make them free.

Here are brought into one view, flesh and spirit: the old man unrenewed, and the new man created in Christ Jesus. They are here said to be in direct opposition to each other. The flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And this to such a degree, that each finds the opposition. I pray the Reader, (and especially if conscious of his regeneration,) to remark this. For while every child of God who is regenerated, knows daily, to his sorrow, that his flesh is making everlasting war against his spirit, so that he cannot do the things he would; he ought to take the comfort from what the other side of the subject as plainly, and as fully brings, that through grace, the oppositions his renewed nature makes to the wishes of the flesh, prevents many times the gratification. So that by the way, (and I mention it on this account,) the child of God ought to take the comfort of it, and give God the glory, that the spirit hath its seasons of conquering also against the flesh; while he often mourns at the triumphs of the flesh over the spirit.

It is the language of Jesus himself, that what is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit, is spirit. Joh 3:6 . There is no work wrought by the Spirit on the flesh. It is the same as it was when born, and so remains till it returns to its original dust. For it is then, sown a natural body. 1Co 15:44 . Whereas, if it were renewed, or as some speak, in part renewed; that part, however small, or great, would be by so much spiritual. And how then could it become liable to corruption, and be sown at death a natural body? Moreover, the Apostle speaking of himself many a year after his conversion, that is, after his regeneration, declared, that in him, that is, in his flesh dwelled no good thing. Rom 7:18 . A thing impossible to have said, if any part of his body had been regenerated. And on what ground could the Apostle talk of changing at the coming of Christ the vile body of himself, and the Lord’s people, if God the Holy Ghost had, though but in part, taken away that vileness? Phi 3:21 . How much more agreeable to Scripture, to experience, and to the uniform confession of the faithful, as to the indwelling sin of the body, is it to suppose, that at regeneration, the spirit only is renewed, and the flesh remains unchanged: that while the Lord the Holy Ghost makes the spirit, which before was dead in trespasses and sins, perfectly alive in Christ, and as holy in Christ as it ever will be; the body still remains as carnal as ever, and will so remain, until after being sown in corruption at death: in the resurrection, this corruption will put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality? Reader! do not the everlasting struggles of flesh and spirit in the holiest of men, give in their united testimony, to these things?

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Ver. 16. This I say then ] For an antidote against abuse of Christian liberty. Set the Spirit, as Pharaoh did Joseph, upon the chief chariot of your hearts, and let all be at his beck and check.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16 26 .] Exhortation to a spiritual life, and warning against the works of the flesh .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

16 .] refers to Gal 5:13 repeating, and explaining it q. d., ‘What I mean, is this.’

, the normal dative, of the rule, or manner, after or in which: Meyer quotes Hom. II. . 194, : by the Spirit . But . is not man’s ‘ spiritual part ,’ as Beza, Rck., De W., al.; nor is ‘ after a spiritual manner ,’ Peile, nor will give the force of (Thdrt.): it is (as in Gal 5:5 ) the Holy Spirit of God : this will be clear on comparing with our Gal 5:16-18 , the more expanded parallel passage, Rom 7:22 to Rom 8:11 . The history of the verbal usage is, that , as and , came to be used as a proper name: so that the supposed distinction between . as the objective (the Holy Ghost), and . as the subjective (man’s spirit), does not hold.

] the natural man : that whole state of being in the flesh, out of which spring the practices and thoughts of Gal 5:19 .

] Is this (1) merely future in meaning, and a sequence on ., ‘and ye shall not fulfil,’ or is it (2) imperative , ‘and fulfil not?’ Ellic. in his note has shewn that this latter meaning is allowable, it being doubtful even in classical Greek whether there are not some instances of with the second person subjunctive imperatively used, and the tendency of later Greek being rather to use the subjunctive aorist for the future. And Meyer defends it on exegetical grounds. But surely (1) is much to be preferred on these same grounds. For the next and following verses go to shew just what this verse will then assert, viz. that the Spirit and the flesh exclude one another .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Gal 5:16-24 . MEN WHO REGULATE THEIR LIVES BY THE SPIRIT WILL NOT CARRY OUT DESIRES OF THE FLESH. FOR GOD HAS SET THESE TWO FORCES IN MUTUAL ANTAGONISM WITHIN OUR HEARTS FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF KEEPING DUE CHECK UPON THE WILL. SO IF YE BE GUIDED BY THE SPIRIT, YE ARE NOT SUBJECT TO LAW: FOR THE SPIRIT MASTERS UNLAWFUL LUSTS BEFORE THEY ISSUE IN ACTION: AND ITS FRUITS ARE SUCH AS NO LAW CAN CONDEMN.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Gal 5:16 . .: Walk by the spirit, i.e. , Regulate your lives by the rule of the spirit. You will not then fulfil the desire of the flesh.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Galatians

‘WALK IN THE SPIRIT’

Gal 5:16

We are not to suppose that the Apostle here uses the familiar contrast of spirit and flesh to express simply different elements of human nature. Without entering here on questions for which a sermon is scarcely a suitable vehicle of discussion, it may be sufficient for our present purpose to say that, as usually, when employing this antithesis the Apostle means by Spirit the divine, the Spirit of God, which he triumphed in proclaiming to be the gift of every believing soul. The other member of the contrast, ‘flesh,’ is similarly not to be taken as equivalent to body, but rather as meaning the whole human nature considered as apart from God and kindred with earth and earthly things. The flesh, in its narrower sense, is no doubt a predominant part of this whole, but there is much in it besides the material organisation. The ethics of Christianity suffered much harm and were degraded into a false and slavish asceticism for long centuries, by monastic misunderstandings of what Paul meant by the flesh, but he himself was too clear-sighted and too high-toned to give his adhesion to the superficial notion that the body is the seat and source of sin. We need look no further than the catalogue of the ‘works of the flesh’ which immediately follows our text, for, although it begins with gross sins of a purely fleshly kind, it passes on to such as hatred, emulations, wrath, envyings and suchlike. Many of these works of the flesh are such as an angel with an evil heart could do, whether he had a body or not. It seems therefore right to say that the one member of the contrast is the divine Spirit of holiness, and the other is man as he is, without the life-giving influence of the Spirit of God. In Paul’s thought the idea of the flesh always included the idea of sin, and the desires of the flesh were to him not merely rebellious, sensuous passion, but the sinful desires of godless human nature, however refined, and as some would say, ‘spiritual’ these might be. We do not need to inquire more minutely as to the meaning of the Apostle’s terms, but may safely take them as, on the one hand, referring to the divine Spirit which imparts life and holiness, and on the other hand, to human nature severed from God, and distracted by evil desires because wrenched away from Him.

The text is Paul’s battle-cry, which he opposed to the Judaising disturbers in Galatia. They said ‘Do this and that; labour at a round of observances; live by rule.’ Paul said, ‘No! That is of no use; you will make nothing of such an attempt nor will ever conquer evil so. Live by the spirit and you will not need a hard outward law, nor will you be in bondage to the works of the flesh.’ That feud in the Galatian churches was the earliest battle which Christianity had to fight between two eternal tendencies of thought–the conception of religion as consisting in outward obedience to a law, and consequently as made up of a series of painful efforts to keep it, and the conception of religion as being first the implanting of a new, divine life, and needing only to be nourished and cared for in order to drive forth evils from the heart, and so to show itself living. The difference goes very far and very deep, and these two views of what religion is have each their adherents to-day. The Apostle throws the whole weight of his authority into the one scale, and emphatically declares this as the one secret of victory, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.’

I. What it is to walk in the Spirit.

The thought which is but touched upon here is set forth more largely, and if we may so say, profoundly, in the Epistle to the Romans chap. viii.. There, to walk after the flesh, is substantially the same as to be carnally minded, and that ‘mind of the flesh’ is regarded as being by fatal necessity not ‘subject to the law of God,’ and consequently as in itself, with regard to future consequences, to be death. The fleshly mind which is thus in rebellion against the law of God is sure to issue in ‘desires of the flesh,’ just as when the pressure is taken off, some ebullient liquid will bubble. They that are after the flesh of course will ‘mind the things of the flesh.’ The vehement desires which we cherish when we are separated from God and which we call sins, are graver as a symptom than even they are in themselves, for they show which way the wind blows, and are tell-tales that betray the true direction of our nature. If we were not after the flesh we should not mind the things of the flesh. The one expression points to the deep-seated nature, the other to the superficial actions to which it gives rise.

And the same duality belongs to the life of those who are ‘after the Spirit.’ ‘To walk,’ of course, means to carry on the practical life, and the Spirit is here thought of not so much perhaps as the path on which we are to travel, but rather as the norm and direction by which we are to travel on life’s common way. Just as the desires of the flesh were certain to be done by those who in their deepest selves belonged to the flesh, so every soul which has received the unspeakable gift of newness of life through the Spirit of God will have the impulses to mind and do the things of the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit we shall also–and let us also–walk in the Spirit.

But let us make no mistakes, or think that our text in its great commandment and radiant hope has any word of cheer to those who have not received into their hearts, in however feeble a manner and minute a measure, the Spirit of the Son. The first question for us all is, have we received the Holy Ghost?–and the answer to that question is the answer to the other, have we accepted Christ? It is through Him and through faith in Him that that supreme gift of a living spirit is bestowed. And only when our spirits bear witness with that Spirit that we are the children of God, have we a right to look upon the text as pointing our duty and stimulating our hope. If our practical life is to be directed by the Spirit of God, He must enter into our spirits, and we shall not be in Him but in the measure that He is in us. Nor will our spirits be life because of righteousness unless He dwells in us and casts forth the works of the flesh. There will be no practical direction of our lives by the Spirit of God unless we make conscience of cultivating the reception of His life-giving and cleansing influences, and unless we have inward communion with our inward guide, intimate and frank, prolonged and submissive. If we are for ever allowing the light of our inward godliness to be blown about by gusts, or to show in our inmost hearts but a faint and flickering spark, how can we expect that it will shine safe direction on our outward path?

II. Such walking in the Spirit conquers the flesh.

We all know it as a familiar experience that the surest way to conquer any strong desire or emotion is to bring some other into operation. To concentrate attention on any overmastering thought or purpose, even if our object is to destroy it, is but too apt to strengthen it. And so to fix our minds on our own desires of the flesh, even though we may be honestly wishing to suppress them, is a sure way to invest them with new force; therefore the wise counsels of sages and moralists are, for the most part, destined to lead those who listen to them astray. Many a man has, in good faith, set himself to conquer his own evil lusts and has found that the nett result of his struggles has been to make the lusts more conspicuous and correspondingly more powerful. The Apostle knows a better way, which he has proved to his own experience, and now, with full confidence and triumph, presses upon his hearers. He would have them give up the monotonous and hopeless fight against the flesh and bring another ally into the field. His chief exhortation is a positive, not a negative one. It is vain to try to tie up men with restrictions and prohibitions, which when their desires are stirred will be burst like Samson’s bonds. But if once the positive exhortation here is obeyed, then it will surely make short work of the desires and passions which otherwise men, for the most part, do not wish to get rid of, and never do throw off by any other method.

We have pointed out that in our text to walk in the Spirit means to regulate the practical life by the Spirit of God, and that the ‘desires of the flesh’ mean the desires of the whole human nature apart from God. But even if we take the contrasted terms in their lower and commonly adopted sense, the text is true and useful. A cultivated mind habituated to lofty ideas, and quick to feel the nobility of ‘spiritual’ pursuits and possessions, will have no taste for the gross delights of sense, and will recoil with disgust from the indulgences in which more animal natures wallow. But while this is true, it by no means exhausts the great principle laid down here. We must take the contrasted terms in their fullest meaning if we would arrive at it. The spiritual life derived from Jesus Christ and lodged in the human spirit has to be guarded, cherished and made dominant, and then it will drive out the old. If the Spirit which is life because of righteousness is allowed free course in a human spirit, it will send forth its powers into the body which is ‘dead because of sin,’ will regulate its desires, and if needful will suppress them. And it is wiser and more blessed to rely on this overflowing influence than to attempt the hopeless task of coercing these desires by our own efforts.

If we walk in the Spirit, we shall thereby acquire new tastes and desires of a higher kind which will destroy the lower. They to whom manna is sweet as angel’s food find that they have lost their relish for the strong-smelling and rank-flavoured Egyptian leeks and garlic. A guest at a king’s table will not care to enter a smoky hovel and will not be hungry for the food to be found there. If we are still dependent on the desires of the flesh we are still but children, and if we are walking in the Spirit we have outgrown our childish toys. The enjoyment of the gifts which the Spirit gives deadens temptation and robs many things that were very precious of their lustre.

We may also illustrate the great principle of our text by considering that when we have found our supreme object there is no inducement to wander further in the search after delights. Desires are confessions of discontent, and though the absolute satisfaction of all our nature is not granted to us here, there is so much of blessedness given and so many of our most clamant desires fully met in the gift of life in Christ, that we may well be free from the prickings of desires which sting men into earnest seeking after often unreal good. ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,’ and surely if we have these we may well leave the world its troubled delights and felicities. Christ’s joy remains in us and our joy is full. The world desires because it does not possess. When a deeper well is sunk, a shallower one is pretty sure to give out. If we walk in the Spirit we go down to the deepest water-holding stratum, and all the surface wells will run dry.

Further, we may note, that this walking in the Spirit brings into our lives the mightiest motives of holy living and so puts a bridle on the necks and a bit in the mouths of our untamed desires. Holding fellowship with the divine Indweller and giving the reins into His strong hand, we receive from Him the spirit of adoption and learn that if we are children then are we heirs. Is there any motive that will so surely still the desires of the flesh and of the mind as the blessed thought that God is ours and we His? Surely their feet should never stumble or stray, who are aware of the Spirit of the Son bearing witness with their spirit that they are the children of God. Surely the measure in which we realise this will be the measure in which the desires of the flesh will be whipped back to their kennels, and cease to disturb us with their barks.

The whole question here as between Paul and his opponents just comes to this; if a field is covered with filth, whether is it better to set to work on it with wheel-barrows and shovels, or to turn a river on it which will bear away all the foulness? The true way to change the fauna and flora of a country is to change the level, and as the height increases they change themselves. If we desire to have the noxious creatures expelled from ourselves, we must not so much labour at their expulsion as see to the elevation of our own personal being and then we shall succeed. That is what Paul says, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.’

III. Such a life is not freed from the necessity of struggle.

The highest condition, of course, would be that we had only to grow, not to fight. It will come some day that all evil shall drop away, and that to walk in the Spirit will need no effort, but that time has not come yet. So in addition to all that we have been saying in this sermon, we must further say that Paul’s exhortation has always to be coupled with the other to fight the good fight. The highest word for our earthly lives is not ‘victory’ but ‘contest.’ We shall not walk in the Spirit without many a struggle to keep ourselves within that charmed atmosphere. The promise of our text is not that we shall not feel, but that we shall not fulfil, the desires of the flesh.

Now this is very commonplace and threadbare teaching, but it is none the less important, and is especially needful to be strongly emphasised when we have been speaking as we have just been doing. It is a historical fact, illustrated over and over again since Paul wrote, and not without illustration to-day, that there is constant danger of lax morality infecting Christian life under pretence of lofty spirituality. So it must ever be insisted upon that the test of a true walking in the Spirit is that we are thereby fitted to fight against the desires of the flesh. When we have the life of the Spirit within us, it will show itself as Paul has said in another place by the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us, and by our ‘mortifying the deeds of the body.’ The gift of the Spirit does not take us out of the ranks of the combatants, but teaches us to fight, and arms us with its own sword for the conflict. There will be abundant opportunities of courage in attacking the sin that doth so easily beset us, and in resisting temptations which come to us by reason of our own imperfect sanctification. But there is all the difference between fighting at our own hand and fighting with the help of God’s Spirit, and there is all the difference between fighting with the help of an unseen ally in heaven and fighting with a Spirit within us who helpeth our infirmities and Himself makes us able to contend, and sure, if we keep true to Him, to be more than conquerers through Him that loveth us.

Such a conflict is a gift and a joy. It is hard but it is blessed, because it is an expression of our truest love; it comes from our deepest will; it is full of hope and of assured victory. How different is the painful, often defeated and monotonous attempt to suppress our nature by main force, and to tread a mill-horse round! The joyous freedom and buoyant hope taught us in the gospel way of salvation have been cramped and confined and all their glories veiled as by a mass of cobwebs spun beneath a golden roof, but our text sweeps away the foul obstruction. Let us learn the one condition of victorious conflict, the one means of subduing our natural humanity and its distracting desires, and let nothing rob us of the conviction that this is God’s way of making men like angels. ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gal 5:16-24

16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Gal 5:16 “walk by the Spirit” A present active imperative, Paul urged the Galatians to live a life supernaturally and continuously controlled by the Spirit of God (cf. Eph 4:1; Eph 4:17; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:15-18). A primary idea in Galatians was that the Spirit is He who brings initial salvation. Thus, this verse meant that which was begun by the Spirit (cf. Gal 3:3), is also that which is perfected by the Spirit (cf. Rom 8:16-25). The related term “law of the Spirit,” Rom 8:1 and implied in Gal 5:18, is exactly the same as the “law of Christ” in 1Co 9:21 and Jas 1:25; Jas 2:8; Jas 2:12. The law of love serves others as well as self (cf. Php 2:1-4).

“and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh” The strongest negation possible in Koine Greek utilizes the double negative with an aorist subjunctive, which means “never under any circumstances.” This is found in this verse, followed by a very strong Greek word for “gratify.” The Christian life and eternal salvation are of supernatural origin. Believers are not only called to be savedbut called to Christlikeness (cf. Rom 8:28-29; Gal 4:19; Eph 1:4). The contrast between “flesh” and “spirit” is common in Paul (cf. Rom 8:1-11). “Flesh” [sarx] is used in two senses by Paul: (1) the physical body; and (2) mankind’s fallen, sinful, Adamic nature. Here it is obviously #2. See Special Topic: Flesh (Sarx) at Gal 1:16.

Gal 5:17 This contrast between the two ways of life is also found in Rom 8:1-11. Paul presented the two supposed ways of being saved: (1) human effort; and (2) God’s free grace in Christ. There are then two ways to live a godly life: (1) human effort (which is affected by the Fall) and (2) God’s free power in the Spirit. The Judaizers were asserting human effort in both salvation and the Christian life, but Paul asserted God’s supernatural provision in both.

Gal 5:18 “But if you are led by the Spirit” This is a first class conditional sentence, assumed true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purposes. Those who are led by the Spirit are not subject to the law (cf. Rom 6:14; Rom 7:4; Rom 7:6). This does not imply that Christians will not sin (cf. Romans 7 and 1Jn 2:1), but rather that their lives are not characterized by rebellion (cf. 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9).

“you are not under the Law” No article precedes “law” in the Greek text, so the word may have a wider connotation than just the Jewish law. Here, the law has the sense of a way of life used to approach God. Here again is the contrast between the two ways of being pleasing or acceptable to God: self-effort and God’s free grace.

Gal 5:19 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident” Many commentators see several distinct categories in this list of sins. However, there is a unity here based primarily on pagan worship excesses. People reveal their true selves in their actions and motives (cf. Mat 7:16; Mat 7:20; Mat 12:33). The results of the Fall are seen in our lifestyle choices.

The KJV adds the term “adultery” to this list. It is only supported by the Greek manuscript D, Codex Bezea, which is from the sixth century A.D. It is also included into some Old Latin and Vulgate manuscripts.

For “flesh” see Special Topic at Gal 1:16.

SPECIAL TOPIC: VICES AND VIRTUES IN THE NT

NASB”immorality, impurity”

NKJV”fornication, uncleanness”

NRSV”fornication, impurity”

TEV”immoral, filthy”

NJB”fornication, gross indecency”

This first Greek term [porneia] originally meant “harlot,” but it came to be used for sexual immorality in general (cf. 1Co 6:9). We get the English term “pornography” from this Greek word. The second term [akatharsia], “impurity,” is also a general term for sexual immorality, though originally used in the OT in the sense of ceremonial uncleanliness or moral uncleanliness. Paul intended the latter meaning.

NASB”sensuality”

NKJV, NRSV”licentiousness”

TEV”and indecent actions”

NJB”sexual irresponsibility”

This implied a public flaunting of sexual desires (cf. 2Co 12:21). This kind of sexual activity knew no bounds or social inhibitions. Pagan worship was characterized by sexual activity (as were some later Gnostic false teachers, cf. 1Ti 1:10; 2Ti 3:6; Tit 3:3).

Gal 5:20 “idolatry” This refers to the worship of anything in place of God (cf. 1Co 10:14; Eph 5:5; Col 3:5; 1Pe 4:3). It especially related to acts of worship to statues or inanimate objects.

“sorcery” This was the Greek term pharmakia from which the English word “pharmacy” is derived. Sorcery may have referred to the practice of using drugs to induce a religious experience. It was later used for magical practices of any kind.

NASB”enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions”

NKJV”hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies”

NRSV”enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions”

TEV”People become enemies and they fight, they become jealous, angry, and ambitious”

NJB”feuds and wranglings, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions”

This litany describes the attitudes and actions of angry, fallen, selfish people. Remember Gal 5:15; Gal 5:26.

“enmities” This word (echthra) describes the condition of being characteristically hostile toward people.

“strife” This means “fighting for prizes.”

“jealousy” This word (zlos) can have positive or negative connotation, but in this context it means “self-centeredness.”

“outbursts of anger” This Greek term (thumos) means “a sudden, uncontrollable outburst of rage.”

“disputes” This implies conflicts based on self-seeking or ambition which knows no bounds.

“dissensions, factions” These two terms go together. They describe a factious dogmatic division within a larger group, something akin to political parties (cf. 1 Tim. 5:15, 26). It is used to describe churches, like the Corinthian Church (cf. 1Co 1:10-13; 1Co 11:19; 2Co 12:20).

Gal 5:21 “envyings” A common Stoic proverb of the day said “envy is to grieve at another’s good.”

Some older Greek manuscripts add the word “murders” after the word “envy.” It is included in manuscripts A, C, D, G, K, and P, yet it is excluded in P46, , and B. It is also excluded in the writings of the early heretic Marcion and the early church fathers, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine. Scribes may have added it from Rom 1:29.

“drunkenness, carousing” These last two words describe the drunken orgies associated with pagan worship (cf. 1Co 6:9).

“and things like these” This phrase indicates that this list is not exhaustive but representative (cf. 1Co 6:9-10; Eph 5:5). As a warning, it may have reminded the Galatians of Paul’s preaching on a previous occasion. This verse, in tandem with 1Jn 5:16, is the source of the Roman Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sins. However, this interpretation is very dubious, in light of the overlapping definitions of the terms, as well as the fact that these sins are even committed by Christians. These verses warn that though Christians could sin in these areas and still be saved, if their lives are characterized or dominated by these sins, they have not really become new creatures in Christ (1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9).

“of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” One’s lifestyle choices reveal the heart. Those who are truly redeemed still struggle with sin, but their lives are not characterized by sin (cf. 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9). It is not that these sins cannot be forgiven or that true Christians do not commit these sins, but that in a true believer the process of Christlikeness has begun. The Spirit, who drew believers to Christ, is now forming Christ in them (cf. Gal 4:19; Joh 16:8-13). Jesus was very clear about the lifestyle of believers in Matthew 7, “by their fruits you shall know them” and John 15.

The “kingdom of God” is the subject of Jesus’ first and last sermons and most of His parables. The reign of God in men’s hearts now will someday be consummated over all the earth (cf. Mat 6:10; 1Co 6:9-10; Eph 5:5).

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Gal 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is” Paul described human effort as works of the flesh, but he described the Christian life as the “fruit” (cf. John 15) or product of the Spirit. He thereby distinguished human-focused religion and supernatural-focused religion. Obviously, the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are different. While spiritual gifts are given to every believer at salvation (cf. 1Co 12:7; 1Co 12:11), the fruit is another metaphor to describe the motives, attitudes and lifestyle of Jesus Christ. As the gifts are the distribution of the different ministries of Christ among the body of Christ, the fruit is the collective attitude of Christ in performing these gifts. It is possible to have an effective gift and not have a Christlike attitude. Therefore, Christlike maturity, which the fruit of the Spirit brings, gives ultimate glory to God through the various gifts of the Spirit. These are both brought about by the filling of the Spirit (cf. Eph 5:18).

It is also interesting to note that fruit is singular in this verse. The use of the singular can be understood in two ways: (1) love is the fruit of the Spirit, described by the varying terms that follow; or (2) it is a collective singular like “seed.”

“love” This Greek form for love, agap, was used in a unique way by the early church of God’s self-giving love. This noun was not used often in classical Greek. The church infused it with new meaning to describe God’s special love. Love here is theologically analogous to hesed (BDB 338), God’s covenant loyalty and love, in the OT.

“joy” Joy is an attitude of life that rejoices in who we are in Christ regardless of circumstances (cf. Rom 14:17; 1Th 1:6; 1Th 5:16; Jud 1:24).

“peace” Peace may mean

1. our sense of well-being because of our relationship to Christ

2. our new world-view based on the revelation of God that does not depend on circumstances

3. tranquility in our relationship with other people, especially believers (cf. Joh 14:27; Rom 5:1; Php 4:7)

Peace with God brings peace within and without (i.e., covenant brothers and sisters).

“patience” Longsuffering was proper even in the face of provocation. This was a characteristic of God the Father (cf. Rom 2:4; Rom 9:22; 1Ti 1:18; 1Pe 3:20). As God has been patient with us, we are to be patient with other people (cf. Eph 4:2-3), especially believers (cf. Gal 6:10).

“kindness, goodness” “Kindness” describes not only the life of Jesus, but His yoke (cf. Mat 11:30). Together the two terms describe a positive, open and accepting attitude toward others, especially believers (cf. Gal 6:10).

“faithfulness” Pistis is used in its Old Testament sense of loyalty and trustworthiness. It was usually used of God (cf. Rom 3:3). Here it describes the believer’s new relationship with people, especially believers.

Gal 5:23 “gentleness” Sometimes translated as “meekness,” praotes is characterized by a submissive spirit. It was a metaphor taken from domesticated animals. Gentleness was not included in the Greek or Stoic lists of virtues, because the Greeks saw it as a weakness. It is uniquely Christian (cf. 1Co 4:21; 2Co 10:1; Eph 4:2; Col 3:12; 1Ti 6:11; 2Ti 2:25; Tit 3:2). It was used of both Moses (cf. Num 12:3) and Jesus (cf. Mat 11:29; Mat 21:5).

“self-control” The capstone of the list, self-control characterizes Christlike maturity (cf. Act 24:25; Tit 1:8; 2Pe 1:6). This term was used in 1Co 7:9 for the control of our sexual drive and that may be alluded to here because of the list of the sexual abuses of pagan worship.

“against such things there is no law” There is a new inner law in the life of a believer which shows its presence by living in godliness (cf. Rom 6:19; Jas 1:25; Jas 2:8; Jas 2:12). This is exactly the goal of the new covenant (cf. Jer 31:31-34 and Eze 36:22-32). Christlikeness is the goal of God for every Christian (cf. Rom 8:28-29; Gal 4:19; Eph 1:4).

Gal 5:24 “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh” This is aorist active indicative which speaks of completed action in past time. This passage, and others which imply mystical union, can be interpreted within theological categories (cf. Rom 6:6). Throughout the book of Galatians, particularly Gal 2:20, “crucify” is used to characterize our relationship to the Law. Once we accept God’s free offer of grace in Christ as our only means of salvation, we decisively cut ourselves off from the evil of our fallen nature and the fallen world system. This personal decision of cutting ourselves off is the biblical metaphor of “crucifixion” as seen in Gal 2:20; Gal 5:24; Gal 6:14.

This is often characterized as “death to self.” God has made us individually (cf. Psalms 139) to serve Him and not ourselves (cf. Romans 6). This new life in Christ means death to the fallen, self-centered lifestyle of rebellious mankind (cf. Gal 2:20; Rom 6:11; 2Co 5:14-15; 1Jn 3:16).

For “Flesh” see Special Topic at Gal 1:16.

“with its passions and desires” The Greeks identified the body as the source of sinfulness because they did not have supernatural revelation about creation and the fall of mankind (cf. Genesis 1-3). Therefore, they blamed the morally neutral physical body as the source of evil. Believers understand from Paul that the body is morally neutral (cf. Rom 4:1; Rom 9:3; 1Co 10:18). Jesus had a real human body (cf. Joh 1:14; Rom 1:3; Rom 9:5). Its goodness or wickedness depends on how we use it, for God or for evil. Once we become believers, we must yield our fallen, self-centered tendencies to the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans 7 and 1Jn 2:1).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

in the Spirit = by spirit. App-101.

not. Greek. ou me. App-105.

fulfil. Greek. teleo. Compare App-125.

flesh. See Rom 6:12, Rom 6:19, Rom 13:14.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

16-26.] Exhortation to a spiritual life, and warning against the works of the flesh.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Gal 5:16. , but I say) He goes on to explain what he proposed at Gal 5:13.-, in the Spirit) See [Gal 5:18; Gal 5:22; Gal 5:25, ch. Gal 6:1-8] Rom 8:4, note.- ) ye shall not fulfil.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Gal 5:16

Gal 5:16

But I say, Walk by the Spirit,-The apostle here gives the general directions as to how to avoid the courses by telling them to follow the teachings of the Spirit as revealed through inspired men; cultivate in the heart the temper, the feelings that are in accord with the Spirit.

and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.-There are two distinct elements recognized as existing in man-the spirit and the flesh. The inward or spiritual man and the outward or animal man. The former connects man with God above, the latter with the brute creation below. The question is, which shall rule or control in man? The Holy Spirit through Paul says: I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. (Rom 7:22-23).

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Lecture 14

Liberty, Not License

Gal 5:16-26

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. (vv. 16-26)

The present section of this epistle brings before us the truth, in a very marked way, of the two natures in the believer. It is important to remember that when God saves us He does not destroy the carnal nature which we received at our natural birth. The new birth does not imply the elimination of that old carnal nature, neither does it imply a change in it, but rather the impartation of an absolutely new nature born of the Holy Spirit of God, and these two natures abide side by side in the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This explains the conflict that many of us have known since we have been converted. In fact, I need not have said, many of us, for all converted people know at one time or another something of that conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. Jesus said, That which is born of the flesh is flesh-that is, the old nature-that which is born of the Spirit is spirit-that is the new nature, and these two natures abide side by side until we receive the redemption of the body which will be at the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He will transform this body of our humiliation and make it like unto the body of His glory. Then we will be delivered forever from all inward tendency to sin. Until then we have to learn, and sometimes by very painful experiences, that the carnal nature, that old nature, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom 8:7).

That old nature is so corrupt, so vile, that it can never be sanctified, and the new nature is so pure, so holy, that it does not need to be sanctified. So there is no mention in Scripture of the sanctification of the old nature. What is it then that needs to be sanctified? It is the man himself, and he is sanctified as he learns to walk in accordance with the dictates of the new nature. He is directed by the Holy Spirit of God, for the believer is not only born of the Spirit but indwelt by the Spirit.

We are not to confound new birth by the Spirit with the reception of the Spirit. New birth is the operation of the Spirit of God. He it is who produces the new birth through the Word. We receive the Word in faith, we believe the Word, and the Spirit of God through the Word brings about new birth. The apostle James says, Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth (Jam 1:18). The apostle Peter says, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for everAnd this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you (1Pe 1:23, 25). And when I believe that Word I am born again; that is an inward change. It is the impartation of a new life; it is eternal life. But there is something more than that. It was always true in all dispensations, from Adam down to the day of Pentecost, that wherever people believed Gods Word they were born again, but the Holy Spirit Himself as a divine Person had not then come to dwell within them. Now since Pentecost, upon believing, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. He creates the new nature, and then comes to indwell the one who is thus born again, and as the believer learns to recognize the fact that the Spirit of God dwells within him, and as he turns everything over to His control, he finds deliverance from the power of inbred sin.

Notice how the apostle puts it here: This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust [or, the desire] of the flesh. It is so easy to fulfill the desire of the flesh. We must not link with that word lust the idea that it always means things base and unclean. The word itself simply means desire, and whatever the desire of the flesh is, it is always hateful to God. Here may be one who desires all kinds of carnal indulgences, and we have no difficulty in realizing the vileness of that, but here is another who desires worldly fame, the praise and adulation of his fellows, and that is also the lust of the flesh, or mind, and is as obnoxious to God as the other. Any kind of a carnal or fleshly desire is a lust, and if we would be delivered from walking according to these selfish lusts we must walk in the Spirit.

It is one thing to have the Spirit indwelling us and quite another to walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit implies that the Holy Spirit is controlling us, and we can walk in the Spirit only as our lives are truly surrendered to Christ. Somebody says, Well, then, I understand you mean to tell us that all believers possess the Holy Spirit, but that many of us have never received the second blessing, and are not filled with the Spirit. I do not find the term, second blessing, in Scripture, though I admit that in the lives of many Christians there is an experience that answers to what people call the second blessing. Many Christians have lived for years on a rather low, somewhat carnal, worldly plane. They love the Lord, they love His Word, they love to attend the ordinances of His house, they enjoy Christian fellowship, and seek to walk as upright men and women through this world, but they have never truly yielded themselves and all their ransomed powers wholly to the Lord. There is something they are keeping back, some controversy with God, and as long as this continues there will always be conflict and defeat, but when one comes to the place where he heeds the Word, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present [that you surrender, hand over] your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Rom 12:1)-when one makes that surrender there is indeed in the life what answers to a kind of second blessing; that is, the Spirit of God is now free to take possession of that believer, and operate through him and use him for the glory of God in a way He could not do as long as that man or woman was not wholly surrendered to the Lord. We speak a great deal about full surrender, and yet, I am afraid, some of us use the term in a very careless way. It is of no use to speak of being fully surrendered to God if I am still seeking my own interest. If I am self-centered, if I am hurt because people do not praise me, or if I am lifted up because they do, then the Spirit of God does not have His way with me. If Christ Himself is not the one object before my soul, if I cannot say, For me to live is Christ, if my great concern is not that Christ should be magnified in me whether by life or by death, then I am not yet wholly surrendered to Him. If I cannot say from the heart, Not my will, but Thine, there is no use in talking about being surrendered to Christ. The surrendered believer is no longer seeking his own but the things which belong to Christ Jesus. That is the man who walks in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

The conflict is shown in verse 17: For the flesh lusteth [or desireth] against the Spirit, and the Spirit against [or contrary to] the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other. It is not exactly, So that ye cannot do the things that ye would, for God has made provision that we might do the things that we would, but it should be rendered, So that ye may not do the things that ye would. Here is conflict in the believers breast. The flesh desires one thing, the Spirit another, and as long as there is not a full surrender to the will of God these two are in constant warfare, and therefore the believer may not do the things that he would. I rise in the morning and say, Today I will not allow that tongue of mine to say one unkind thing, one un-Christlike word. But some unexpected circumstances arise, and almost before I know it I have said something for which I could bite my tongue. The thing I never meant to do I did. And, on the other hand, things I meant to do I did not do. What does that tell me? There is conflict. The Spirit of God has not His complete right of way in my heart and life, and because of this conflict I may not do the things that I would. I am hindered, and my life is not a life of full surrender as God intended it to be. How many of us know this experimentally. Oh, the defeated lives, the disappointed lives, even of people who are real Christians, who know the blessedness of being saved by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and who long to glorify God, and yet are constantly defeated. Why? Because the Spirit of God does not have His supreme place in their lives.

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. We are not to think that the way of deliverance is by law-keeping. I may say, From now on I mean to be very careful, I will obey Gods law in everything. That surely will result in my practical sanctification. But no, I am disappointed again. I will find that the will to do good is present with me, but how to perform it is another thing, and so I have to learn that my sanctification is no more through the law than my justification. What then? He tells us, If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. If you yield to the Spirit of God, if He has the control of your life, if you are led by Him, then the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. And in order that we may not misunderstand, he brings before us the lusts of the flesh, that we may be able to drag these things out into the light, that we may see them in all their ugliness, so that if any of them have any place in our hearts and lives we may judge them in the presence of God. We often run across people today who say that they do not believe in the depravity of human life, but these are the things that come from the natural man; and even the believer, if he is not careful, if he is not walking with God as led by the Spirit, may fall into some of them.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest [they are evident], which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Maybe some of you think or say, I wish he would not use those words; I do not like them; they are nasty words. My dear friends, let me remind you, there is nothing the matter with the words; it is the sins that are expressed in these words that are so nasty. Many people who do not like the words are living in the sins, and God drags things out into the light and calls sin by name. There are people living in the sin of adultery who do not like to hear their wickedness called by name. Take the words of the Lord Jesus, Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery (Mat 5:32). There are those who are committing adultery according to that passage, and others who are contemplating it. If you have allowed yourself any unholy love, permitting yourself any unholy familiarity with one with whom you have no right to seek to enter the married relationship, you yourself are guilty in Gods sight of the sin that is mentioned here. Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness-that is, vile, filthy thoughts indulged in. You cannot hinder evil thoughts coming into your mind, but you can help indulging in them. Lasciviousness is indulging in thoughts that are unclean and vile and unholy. People sometimes come to me in great distress and say, Evil thoughts come to me, even when I am praying, and I wonder sometimes whether I am really converted or not. That is the flesh manifesting itself. These things may come to you, but do you indulge in them? A Welshman said, I cannot help it if a bird alights on top of my head, but I can help it if he builds his nest in my hair, and so you may not be able to help it if evil thoughts come surging into your mind, but you can help indulging in those thoughts.

Idolatry, putting anything in the place of the true and living God. Witchcraft. Oh, you say, that is outmoded. They used to burn witches. But what is witchcraft? It is a word that implies having to do with the dead, and I think that Chicago has a good many witches in it. Often while passing along the street I see such signs as Spiritualist medium, or something like that, people pretending to have traffic with the dead. That is witchcraft, and it is an abomination in the sight of God. Hatred. This is a sin which we all have to guard against. Scripture says, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer (1Jn 3:15). Hatred comes from the old nature. Variance-quarrelsomeness. There are many of us who would shrink from those first sins, but we are not very easy to get along with, we are dreadfully touchy, and this is as truly an evidence of the old nature, as those other works of the flesh. Emulations, a constant desire to excel other people, to get the admiration of others. Here is a preacher who has some little gift, and he is upset because some other preacher has greater recognition. Here is one who sings a little, and someone else who also sings excites more admiration, and there is trouble about it. Here is a Sunday school teacher, and some other teacher seems to be preferred before her, and she is in a frenzy and almost ready to quit her work. Trace these things back to their source and you will find they all come from the flesh, and therefore they should be judged in the sight of God. And then, wrath. That is anger. There is an anger that is holy, but that wrath to which you and I usually give way is very unholy. The only holy anger is anger with sin. Be ye angry, and sin not (Eph 4:26). The old Puritan said, I am determined so to be angry as not to sin, therefore to be angry at nothing but sin. And then strife, resulting in seditions. The two words are intimately linked together. All these things are sinful. Heresies, a school of opinion set up opposed to the truth of God. Envyings. Scripture says, Be content with such things as ye have (Heb 13:5). Someone has a better house than I have, someone else has a better car than mine, and I envy him. The Arab said, Once I felt bad and I complained because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet. There is not one of us but has far more than he deserves. Why should we envy anyone else? Suppose some people have magnificent mansions and I have only a hut.

A tent or a cottage, why should I care?

Theyre building a palace for me over there!

Be content, says the Spirit of God, with such things as ye have. When you reach that place life will be very much happier for you.

Murders. Think of putting murder with such sins as emulations and envyings! Many a murder has resulted from these very sins, and, you know, murder does not consist in sticking a knife into a man or blowing his brains out with a revolver. You can murder a man by your unkindness. I have known many a person who died of a broken heart because of the unkindness of those from whom they had a right to expect something different. God give us to manifest so much of the love of Christ that we will be a blessing to people instead of a curse to them. Then drunkenness. Surely I do not need to speak of this to Christians. This too is a work of the flesh. Then revelings. The world calls it having a good time in a carnal way. And such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Here he uses the present continuous tense: That they that are in the habit of doing such things, they whose lives are characterized by such things. If people are characterized by these things, they prove that they are not Christians at all. Real Christians may fall into them, but they are miserable and wretched until they confess them, but unsaved men revel in them and go on without judging them. These things come from the flesh. Now we have the opposite-the fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. You notice the word here is, fruit, for we do not read in the Bible of the fruits of the Spirit, but of the fruit. This ninefold fruit springs from the new nature as one is actuated by the Holy Spirit of God. Love, the very essence of the divine nature. Joy-Scripture says, The joy of the Lord is your strength (Neh 8:10). Peace, that is more than happiness, that is a deep-toned gladness that is unruffled and untroubled by all the trials of earth. Longsuffering, this leads you to endure uncomplainingly. Gentleness, some of us are so gruff and so rough, but the Christian should cultivate the meekness, the gentleness of Christ. Faith, in the sense of confidence in God. Meekness. We are not meek by nature; the natural man is always pushing himself forward. The spiritual man says, Never mind me, recognize others; I am willing to remain in the background. Wherever you find this pushing spirit you may know that one is still walking in the flesh. When you find the desire to give godly recognition to others you will find one walking in the Spirit. And then, temperance is just self-control, the whole body held under in subjection to the Spirit of God. Against such there is no law. You do not need law to control a man thus walking in the Spirit.

And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. It does not say, They that are Christs [should] crucify the flesh. They have done so when they put their trust in the Lord Jesus. They trusted in the One crucified on their behalf, and therefore can say, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live (Gal 2:20). It is a settled thing. If you have crucified the flesh, if you have recognized the fact that Christs crucifixion is yours, then do not live in that to which you have died. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. If we have this new life, if linked up now with our risen Christ, then let Him control our ways, let us be yielded to Him, let us walk in the Spirit, let us not be desirous of fame or glory, let us not seek anything that would lead to empty boasting, provoking one another, saying and doing things that may pain others needlessly, or envying one another.

Some of you may say, That is a tremendously high standard, and I am afraid I can never attain to it. No, and I can never attain to it in my own strength, but if you and I are yielded to the Holy Spirit of God and allow Him to make these things real in our lives, then we will indeed attain to the ideal set before us here, but it will not be ourselves, it will be Christ living in us manifesting His life, His holy life, in and through the members of our body. God give us to know the reality of it!

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Chapter 29

My Souls Greatest Trouble

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

(Gal 5:16-17)

Believers are men and women with two distinct, separate, warring natures: the flesh and the spirit. When God saves a sinner he does not renovate, repair, and renew the old nature. He creates a new nature in his elect. Our old, Adamic, fallen, sinful nature is not changed. The flesh is subdued by the spirit; but it will never surrender to the spirit. The spirit wars against the flesh; but it will never conquer or improve the flesh. The flesh is sinful. The flesh is cursed. Thank God, the flesh must die! But it will never be improved.

This dual nature of the believer is plainly taught in the Word of God. It is utterly impossible to honestly interpret this portion of Pauls epistle to the Galatians, the 7th chapter of Romans, and 1 John 3 without concluding that both Paul and John teach that there is within every believer, so long as he lives in this world, both an old Adamic nature that can do nothing but sin and a new righteous nature, that which is born of God, that cannot sin, that can only do righteousness. The Holy Spirits work in sanctification is not the improvement of our old nature, but the maturing of the new, steadily causing the believer to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and bring forth fruit unto God.

Every believer knows the duality of his nature by painful, bitterly painful experience. Ask any child of God what he desires above all things and he will quickly reply, That I may live without sin in perfect conformity to Christ, perfectly obeying the will of God in all things. But that which he most greatly desires is an utter impossibility in this life. Is it not so with you? Though you delight in the law of God after the inward man, there is another law of evil in your members, warring against you. You would do good; but evil is always present with you, so that you cannot do the things that you would. Even your best, noblest, most sincere acts of good, when honestly evaluated, are so marred by sin in motive and in execution that you must confess, All my righteousnesses are filthy rags!

It is this warfare between the flesh and the spirit more than anything else that keeps the believer from being satisfied with life in this world. Blessed be God, we shall soon be free! When we have dropped this robe of flesh we shall be perfectly conformed to the image of him who loved us and gave himself for us!

Faith in Christ

This I say then. If we would overcome the horrible propensity of our flesh to evil, if we would avoid biting and devouring one another like mad dogs, we must live not by the carnal rule of the law, which only stirs up sin, but by the gracious rule of the Holy Spirit.

Walk in the Spirit. The believers life in this world is often compared to a journey. The word walk is used in Holy Scripture as a synonym for live (Mar 7:5; Rom 4:12; Rom 6:4; Rom 8:1). Paul is talking here about God the Holy Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to live by faith in Christ. Those who walk in the Spirit walk with God, as Enoch did, trusting Christ alone for acceptance with the Holy Lord God. All who walk in the Spirit, all who trust Christ, have the witness and testimony of God within them that they please God, being accepted of God in Christ (Heb 11:5-6; 1Jn 5:10-13; Eph 1:3-6). This is what Paul declares in Rom 8:1-4.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

And ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Paul does not say that the flesh shall not be in us, or that the lust of the flesh will no longer burn within us. He says that living by faith in Christ, as we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is not stated as a possibility, but as a certainty. Believers do not live by the evil dictates of the flesh, but by the gracious rule of the Spirit. This is stated as a matter of fact. Paul is not here telling us that we might not fulfill the lust of the flesh if we can manage, by self-discipline and self-denial, to yield ourselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit. Rather, he is telling us that if we live by faith in Christ, if our lives are ruled by the Spirit of God, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Pauls subject has not changed. He is talking about Gods ongoing work of grace in the believer. He is telling us, as Edgar Andrews states, that the law and the flesh are co-conspirators against grace and the Spirit.

Flesh and Spirit

The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. As he uses it here, the word flesh does not refer to the physical body in which we live in this world, but to our fallen, corrupt, Adamic nature, the old man that still exists in saved sinners. It is that internal principle of corruption, the carnal mind, that is ever enmity against God (Rom 8:7). The flesh is flesh, nothing else, just sinful flesh. It can do nothing but evil. The Spirit is the internal principle of grace in regenerate men and women. It refers to the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. This is Christ in you, the Hope of glory (Col 1:27). This is that holy thing born of God that cannot sin (1Jn 3:9).

These are contrary the one to the other. They are enemies. The flesh, or the old man, the carnal I, in regenerate persons, wills, chooses, desires, and loves carnal things, which are contrary to the Spirit or principle of grace in the soulThe Spirit or the new man, the spiritual I, wills, chooses, desires, approves, and loves spiritual things, such as are contrary to corrupt nature. (John Gill). They are as contrary to one another as light and darkness or fire and water. They continually war against one another.

Because the flesh ever lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, ye cannot do the things that ye would. The believer would do perfectly good. That is our desire. Yet, we cannot do that which is good, because sin dwells within us. Our old nature of flesh would do nothing but sin, that which we hate. But the Spirit of Christ reigning within keeps the flesh from having its way (Rom 7:15-17; Rom 7:22-23.)

Two Armies

This is the lamentation expressed by Gods church in the Song of Solomon (Gal 6:13). What will ye see in Solyma? As it were the company of two armies. She is saying, There is nothing in me but conflict and confusion. In my heart two armies are at war. If you look upon me, you will see a raging battle, good fighting evil, light contending with darkness. I am a house divided against itself. This is a true and accurate description of the people of God. All of Gods elect experience constant warfare within, constant conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, so long as we live in this body of flesh. This conflict, this warfare causes us so much pain and trouble.

These inward conflicts are facts in every believers life. The believers life is not all sweets. It is not all joy and peace. Faith in Christ brings some bitter conflicts, which cause Gods child much pain, much toil, and many tears. The struggles between the flesh and the Spirit are evident enough to all who are born of God. To the unbelieving, unregenerate religionist, true Christians are confusing paradoxes. We are the happiest and the most mournful people in the world. We are the richest and the poorest people on earth. We are men and women who possess perfect peace; yet, we are always at war.

We see traces of this conflict throughout the Song of Solomon (Gal 1:5; Gal 3:1; Gal 5:2). We see these inward conflicts throughout the Psalms of David (Psalms 42; Psalms 43; Psalms 73). We see them dealt with and explained in Rom 7:14-25, and here in Gal 5:16-18. And we see these terrible inward conflicts in our own daily experience of grace.

The people of God throughout the centuries have had the same struggles that we now have. John Bunyan wrote a book about his conflicts of heart and soul, which he titled, The Holy War. Richard Sibbes wrote a similar book called, The Souls Conflict. Though we are born of God, Gods saints in this world have a corrupt nature within, which would drive us to sin. Yet, we have within us a righteous nature, which would draw us into perfect conformity and union with Christ. Between these two forces of good and evil there is no peace (1Jn 3:7-9).

Two Natures

This conflict is caused by and begins in regeneration. C. H. Spurgeon said, The reigning power of sin falls dead the moment a man is converted, but the struggling power of sin does not die until the man dies. A new nature has been planted within us; but the old nature is not eradicated.

Do not think for a moment that the old nature dies in regeneration, or even that it gets better. Flesh is flesh, and will never be anything but flesh. Noah, Lot, Moses, David, and Peter, like all other believers, had to struggle with this fact. We need no proof of the fact that Gods people in this world have two warring natures within beyond an honest examination of our own hearts and lives. Our best thoughts are corrupted with sin. Our most fervent prayers are defiled by lusts of the flesh. Our reading of Holy Scripture is corrupted by carnal passions. Our most spiritual worship is marred by the blackness within. Our most holy aspirations are vile. Our purest love for our Savior is so corrupted by our love of self and love for this world that we can hardly call our love for Christ love. From time to time we have all found, by bitter experience, the truthfulness of the hymn

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it!

Prone to leave the God I love:

Heres my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

My Hope

I am reasonably confident that I am loved and chosen of God (Jer 1:5; Jer 31:3), redeemed by the precious blood of Christ (Gal 2:20; 2Co 5:21), and born again by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:1-4). These things give me great joy, peace, and comfort. I have a good hope through grace regarding these things. I have some measure of confidence and assurance before God that these things are so, and that I am a child of God and an heir of eternal salvation. And I base that assurance upon the fact that I trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone as my Savior (1Jn 5:1; 1Jn 5:12-13; Heb 11:1).

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus name.

Yet, there is a terrible struggle within my soul, a tormenting trial in my spirit, a heavy burden upon my heart. I have a new heart and a new will, a new, heaven-bent nature, created in me by the grace of God, a nature that longs for and seeks after righteousness and conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. But I cannot do the things I would. I find a law in my members that when I would do good evil is present with me. I find in my soul iniquity, transgression, and sin far more hideous and ignominious than the most profane acts of ungodly men. I want to pray; but there is too much selfish lust in my prayers to call them prayer. I want to worship God; but there is too much pride in my worship to call it worship. I want to be completely free of earthly care, trusting God in all things, but there is too much unbelief and selfish resentment toward Gods providence to call my faith, faith, or my submission, submission. The envy that is in me is enmity against God. My lack of contentment is the despising of Gods providence. My worry is questioning Gods wisdom and goodness. My fears are the denial of Gods power. My covetousness is proud rebellion against God.

Progressive Holiness

I hear men talk of becoming less and less sinful and progressively holier today than they were yesterday. I hear men talking about what they call progressive sanctification. Their doctrine is that Gods children grow in righteousness and holiness until they are ripe for heaven. They teach that glorification is the end result of their own progressive attainments in personal holiness. If their doctrine is true, then, it is possible for men, by diligent self-denial and personal holiness, to eventually attain sinless perfection in this life.

Such doctrine, of course, is contrary to Holy Scripture (1Jn 1:8; 1Jn 1:10). Honesty compels me to acknowledge that such doctrine is totally contrary to all personal experience. I have, I believe, over these past 37 years grown in grace. My love, faith, commitment to Christ, and joy in the Lord have grown, increased, and matured by the grace of God. But, my sin has not diminished. My outward acts of sin are more restricted and controlled. But the inward evil of my flesh has not diminished. If anything, it is worse now than ever. Reader, Is it not so with you? With aching heart, I confess my sin. Though I am redeemed, justified, and sanctified in Christ, I am still a man in the flesh, full of sin. Do you not experience the same thing? Paul did (Rom 7:14-24). This is my souls greatest trouble. I wish it were not so, but it is. The fact is, we who believe God, we who walk in the Spirit, trusting Christ as our Savior, are people with two natures, two principles, warring against one another continually; and those two natures are the flesh and the Spirit (1Jn 3:9).

Davids Struggle

The thing Paul is talking about in Gal 5:16-17 is clearly displayed in the life of David, the man after Gods own heart. In Psalms 73 David describes before God the warfare and struggle of his own soul between the flesh and the spirit. When he looked over his own household, with all its troubles, and thought about the propriety and peace of the wicked around him, he said, My feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning (Psa 73:2-3; Psa 73:13-14). Then, he went into the house of God and understood their end. Then, he said, Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee (Psa 73:21-22).

Sinner Still

Taking Davids words as my own, I make the painful confession of my sin before God and before you who read these lines. It is my hope that by writing as I do in the first person, you can and will identify with what you are reading. Though I am saved by the grace of God, I am a terribly foul and sinful man. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee (Gal 5:22). I have had a few trials in my life. But the most painful, most difficult trial I have ever had to endure is one that I must endure so long as I live in this world. It is the ever-increasing realization and awareness of my sin.

David uses three words to describe his sin before God: foolish, ignorant, beastly. He says, I have behaved as a fool before God. This is a very strong word. It is the same word he uses to describe the atheist in Psa 14:1. It means one who forgets God and loves evil. Yet, David uses this word to describe himself. He even intensifies his foolishness So foolish was I. Then he says, I have been ignorant. My speech, my thoughts, and my actions betray my ignorance. How often we act like ignorant men and women! And David goes on to say, I have behaved like a brute beast before God. This word beast speaks of some hideous, monstrous, astonishingly wild creature. This is an accurate description of our flesh. The old man is a sinful, beastly, monstrous creature.

I would disclose my whole complaint,

But where shall I begin?

No words of mine can fully paint

A picture of my sin.

Like David, I most truly describe myself when I describe myself as a beast before God. Like the brute beasts of the earth, I am too much attached to this world. The hog, grubbing in the mud for its roots, cares nothing for the stars. The wild asss colt, roaming the hills, cares nothing for the angels of God. The ravenous wolf has no regard for eternity. Educate the beast, train it as well as you can, but it will have no regard for anything, but its natural appetite. How much like beasts I am! Is it not so with you? Are we not too fondly attached to the things of this world? Let us never be content with our beastly attachment to this world. But do not be so proud and foolish as to deny it.

I am like the wild beasts in this regard, too. I seem to have so little emotion and passion for heavenly things.

Look how we grovel here below,

Fond of these trifling toys;

Our souls can neither fly nor go

To reach eternal joys.

In vain we tune our formal songs,

In vain we strive to rise;

Hosannahs languish on our tongues,

And our devotion dies.

Dear Lord, and shall we ever live

At this poor, dying rate?

Our love so faint, so cold to Thee,

And Thine to us so great?

There is a beastly deadness, coldness of heart, and apathetic indifference about everything I do. My preaching, my repentance, my Bible reading, my praying, my singing, my worship, everything is so dead! Like brute beasts, we are terribly short-sighted. Our hearts and minds are too much concerned for the things of time, and too little concerned for the things of eternity.

And we may well compare ourselves to brute beasts because of our animal like passions. I will not go far into this dark path of our painful experience. I will say only enough to make you understand that this is the common experience of Gods elect. C. H. Spurgeon said, He that hath fellowship with God will sometimes feel the devil within him till he thinketh himself a devil.

When we honestly look within, we will find that there is nothing lovely to be seen. We are as brute beasts before God. There is no evil of which this sinful flesh is not capable. We are evil, only evil, and that continually. Were it not for the free grace and sovereign love of God for us, we could not live with ourselves. The characteristics of beasts rage within each of us. In my flesh there still remains the pride of a lion, the lust of the horseleech, the raging anger of a bull, the envy of a wolf, and the stubbornness of a jackass.

Old Nature Unchanged

Again, let us understand that the grace of God does not change our old nature. Grace gives us a new nature. But flesh is still flesh, undiluted evil, just as evil as it was before the Lord saved us. Old Adam is still old Adam, even though Christ is in the heart. Grace conquers Adam and grace rules Adam, but grace does not change Adam. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. This warfare and struggle within each of us is constant and perpetual. It will continue, until at last grace wins the victory, the flesh returns to the earth, and we are received up into glory. This is my painful, but honest confession of sin. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. This one thing I must acknowledge, I am carnal, sold under sinI know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.

A Believer Still

Though I am a vile, sinful man, I still trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a believer still. I still sing with David, Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory (Gal 5:23-24). I am sinful, shamefully sinful; but God is faithful, gloriously faithful. Therefore, trusting the Lord my God, I can say with joy and confidence, Nevertheless I am continually with thee. Notwithstanding all my sin, God is faithful! This is a glorious fact. If you are a believer, if you are in Christ, your sins shall never be charged to you, be they ever so great, ever so many, and ever so constant! And they will never separate you from the Lord your God (Rom 4:8; Rom 8:1; 1Jn 2:1-2).

Four Pillars

Here are four blessed pillars for your faith and mine.

1.First, the Psalmists asserts Gods perseverance. Nevertheless I am continually with thee.

God perseveres in his grace toward us. We are one with Christ. Not until the Lord God forsakes his own dear Son will he forsake us who are in his Son.

Near, so very near to God,

Nearer I cannot be;

For in the Person of His Son,

I am as near as He.

Dear, so very dear to God,

Dearer I cannot be,

For in the Person of His Son,

I am as dear as He!

Our position and relationship with the eternal God is as immutable as God himself. We are continually upon his mind, before his eye, in his hand, on his heart, and in is favor. We are accepted in the Beloved.

With His spotless garments on,

I am as holy as Gods own Son!

It takes very little faith, when you think you have many graces and many virtues, to say, I am accepted in Christ. But when a vile, wretched man, who knows his own evil heart and tastes the bitterness of his utter depravity, can look to God and say, Though I am a sinful beast before You, I trust Christ alone as my Lord and Savior, that is faith. Only as sinners do we need a Substitute!

Our security does not depend upon our faithfulness, but upon Gods faithfulness (Mal 3:6). It does not depend upon our perseverance, but upon our Gods. I want you to get this. May God help you to understand it and rejoice in it. I made this statement in a Bible conference more than 20 years ago. What an uproar I stirred! But I cannot tell you how this blessed fact comforts my soul! My relationship with the eternal God does in great measure determine what I do. But what I do in no way determine my relationship with God.

It is good, wonderfully good, for me to look up to my Father, my God, my Savior and say, Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. But here is something even better. I could be mistaken. But when God beholds my sin and says, Nevertheless, he is not mistaken. Read Psa 89:27-37.

Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

2.Second, David speaks of Gods unfailing help. Thou hast holden me by my right hand.

The right hand signifies strength. For God to hold me by my right hand implies that the hand of my strength is only weakness. He holds me by omnipotent grace. He has held me. He is holding me. He will not let me go!

He may, in his wise and good providence, allow me to fall; but even when I fall, he is holding me still.

3.Third, the Psalmists sings confidently of divine guidance for the future. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.

According to his wise decree, God orders my steps. By his written Word, God directs my path. By his Holy Spirit, God leads me in his way (Pro 3:5-6).

4.Then, fourth, he speaks with assurance of everlasting acceptance in glory. And afterward receive me up to glory.

Yes, old Adam shall soon be sent to the grave to rot because of sin; but God will receive his own up into glory (Eph 5:25-27; Jud 1:24-25; Jer 50:20; Psa 17:15). Did you ever notice what our Lord Jesus said to Peter immediately after telling his faithful disciple that before the rising of the morning sun he would deny his Savior three times? Here is the Masters very next word to that disciple

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Fathers house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Joh 14:1-3).

My Only Hope

My souls only hope of eternal glory is God my Savior. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever (Gal 5:25-26).

I have no hope in myself. My heart and my flesh faileth. There is nothing in me, nothing done by me, and nothing felt in my heart that gives me hope or commendation before God. My only hope of salvation and acceptance with God is God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. In simple faith, because I can do nothing else, this sinful man turns to Christ Jesus the Lord and casts himself upon a Substitute. Christ is my only Hope. And Christ is Hope enough. Christ is all the hope I have and Christ is all the hope I desire. Whom have I in heaven but thee? No one. And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Christ is all for cleansing, for pardon, for righteousness, for peace, for holiness, for sanctification, for acceptance. Jesus Christ alone is the Rock of my salvation and the Strength of my heart. He is the Rock upon which I am built. And he is the Strength, the Support, Comfort, and Assurance of my heart. God, as he is revealed in Christ, is my portion forever. Therefore, I will hope in him (Lam 3:21-26).

Do not ever expect to be free from sin in this world. Do not ever expect your brethren to be free from sin in this world. In the midst of your sin go on trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. He will not cast you off (1Jn 2:1-2). Give praise, honor, and glory to God your Savior. His blood is effectual. His grace is unchangeable. His love is unfailing. His mercy endureth forever!

Good Effect

Without question, our heavenly Father could remove all this evil from us, but he chooses not to do so. Why? The fact is, these inward conflicts do have some good effect. Hard as they are to bear now, in heavens glory we will look back upon these days of great evil with gratitude, and see the wisdom and goodness of God in all of our struggles with sin. Our struggles with sin help humble us and curb our pride. Our struggles with sin force us to lean upon Christ alone for all our salvation (1Co 1:30), and confess with Jonah, Salvation is of the Lord. Struggling hard with sin, we find that Christ is all indeed. Our struggles with sin cause us to prize the faithfulness of our God (Lam 3:1-27). Our struggles with sin upon this earth will make the glorious victory of heaven sweeter. And our struggles with sin make us rejoice in the fact that salvation is of the Lord.

I do not doubt that in eternity we will be made to see that God wisely and graciously allowed us to fall into one evil to keep us from a greater evil, or to make us more useful in his hands. Certainly, an honest acknowledgement of the sin that is in us, and of the fact that we are never without sin (1Jn 1:8-10) ought to make us gracious, kind, forgiving, and patient with one another.

Soon Over

Blessed be God, these inward conflicts will soon be over (Php 1:6; Jud 1:24-25). We shall soon drop this earthly tabernacle and shall be completely free from sin. We shall be perfect, personally perfect, at last. We shall be triumphant in the end. In that day when our God shall make all things new, the former things shall not only pass away, they shall be remembered no more! All the evil consequences of sin shall be forever removed. We shall be forever faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

Yet, so long as we live in this world we will be as the company of two armies. So I give you this word of admonition Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are the issues of life (Pro 4:23). Keep your heart tender. Keep your heart in the fellowship of Christ. Keep you heart full of the Word. Keep your heart in prayer. Keep your heart full of the cross. Keep your heart full of Christ and rest your soul upon Christ. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

I say: Gal 3:17, 1Co 7:29

Walk: Gal 5:25, Gal 6:8, Rom 8:1, Rom 8:4, Rom 8:5, Rom 8:12-14, 1Pe 1:22, 1Pe 4:6, Jud 1:19 -21

and: Gal 5:19-21, Rom 6:12, Rom 13:13, Rom 13:14, 2Co 7:1, Eph 2:3, Col 2:11, Col 3:5-10, 1Pe 1:14, 1Pe 2:11, 1Pe 4:1-4, 1Jo 2:15, 1Jo 2:16

ye shall not fulfil: or, fulfil not

Reciprocal: Gen 6:3 – My Eze 36:27 – cause Mat 26:41 – the spirit Joh 3:6 – born of the flesh Joh 15:7 – ye shall Rom 7:5 – in the flesh Rom 8:14 – led 1Co 13:2 – and have 1Co 15:50 – this 2Co 9:6 – I say 2Co 10:2 – we walked Gal 5:18 – if Gal 5:22 – the fruit Gal 5:24 – crucified Gal 6:16 – walk 1Th 2:12 – walk 3Jo 1:14 – Peace

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN WALK

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit.

Gal 5:16

It is important to observe that it is not the spirit of man that is here intended, but the Holy Spirit of God. The contrast is not between the flesh and the spirit in man, as e.g. in the passage, The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (St. Mat 26:41), but between the flesh, the sinful nature of man, and the Holy Spirit, the Third Person in the Godhead. Let us think of some of the characteristics of a walk in the Spirit? What are they?

I. A walk in the Spirit is a humble and a lowly walk.I know of no mark of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a human heart that is so indubitable as thisa broken and a contrite spirit.

II. A walk in the Spirit will be an upright and a straightforward walk.Those are striking words in the first of Ezekiel, where the wonderful vision of the cherubim is given to us. We read that they went every one straight forward: whither the Spirit was to go, they went: and they turned not when they went (Gal 5:12). There is a picture of the redeemed Church under the power of the Holy Spirit: it turns not as it goes.

III. A walk in the Spirit will be a tender and sensitive walk.I believe, if we may dare so to speak with reverence, that there is no being so sensitive as the Holy Spirit of God. He is compared to the gentle dove, which may be easily startled and frightened away; to the dew, which is easily absorbed by heat, and brushed away by the careless hand. There is nothing that we should more jealously seek to guard against than grieving Him.

IV. A walk in the Spirit will be a fruitful and useful walk.The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal 5:22-23)these are the marks that the Holy Spirit is doing His blessed work in our souls, these are the sure proofs that the blessed Comforter has come, and that He is diffusing His graces within our souls.

Rev. E. W. Moore.

Illustrations

(1) That was a true testimony given to a poor navvy by his companions, He cannot read, but we can read him. He was a living epistle, known and read of all men (2Co 3:2). His walk was upright and consistent before men. That will undoubtedly be the characteristic of a walk in the Holy Ghost.

(2) It is a solemn reflection that a man may grieve the Spirit long before any inconsistency is perceptible in his conduct. Outwardly his life may seem to be blameless, and yet God, Who knoweth the heart, may see that the communion he once enjoyed is lost; that heart-sin has separated between him and his God; that an inward declension has begun. Quench not the Spirit is a warning needed by us all. A little earth upon the fire will soon wellnigh extinguish it; a little neglect of fuel will soon weaken the flame; a little unfaithfulness in our lives will soon deprive us of that light and comfort of the Holy Ghost on which all our knowledge of Christ, all our understanding of heavenly things, all our progress in the Divine life depend.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Why is this walk in the Spirit so necessary?

I. It is necessary for continuance.It is a blessed thing to begin well, but it is not enough to have begun. We are called to a walk. It is not enough to have taken a step or two in the way; we must learn to continue, and it is the continuance which is the test of reality. The blossoms on the trees in early spring give promise of fruit; but many of those blossoms are shed; they do not all grow to maturity and perfection. And so it is in the case of professing Christians. There are some who begin and who appear to be running well, but Time will show, says the proverb, and the proverb is right.

II. It is necessary for conquest.Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. There is a terrible enemy who will seek to hinder this progress in the Divine life and knowledge, and the only way to meet him is by obedience to this injunction, Walk in the Spirit. It is not enough merely to be on your guard against evil; you must be occupied with good. It is not by negatives, but by positives that you will escape the corruption that is in the world through lust (2Pe 1:4).

III. It is necessary for communion.I believe all backsliding begins with neglect of secret prayer, secret communion with God, and we shall never pray as we should unless we are living in the Spirit. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities (Rom 8:26).

Rev. E. W. Moore.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

HOW THE CHRISTIAN WALK IS TO BE PURSUED

How is this walk in the Spirit to be pursued and enjoyed? There are three conditions.

I. Life.You must be born of the Spirit. You cannot walk in the Spirit unless you have life in the Spirit. That is obvious. This injunction is addressed to those who have the new life. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:25, R. V.).

II. Death.There is a deep verse here, the twenty-fourth verseThey that are Christs crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts, the flesh which lusts against the Spirit to prevent you doing the things that you would. But here, in Gal 5:24, that enemy is crucified. It is the aorist tense. It points to a definite transaction, a definite time when the flesh was crucified with its affections and lusts.

III. Faith.Deliverance can only come through faith. Life, death, and faiththese are the Divine conditions. Take it by faith that when Christ died those sinful affections and lusts and evil things were crucified with Him. Claim deliverance from them on the ground of His death, and you shall not claim it in vain. Christs crucifixion is great and deep; wondrous things were accomplished by it, which things the angels desire to look into.

Rev. E. W. Moore.

Illustration

Christianity, it has often been said, is not a thing of rules. It is comparatively poor in rules for conduct in particular cases; but it covers the whole field of human action by the maxim of the text. What disguises it tears off! what hypocrisies it unveils! It is a net of far finer mesh than the mere letter of the Ten Commandments. There is many a man who could say with the young man in the Gospel, All these have I kept from my youth up, but who will find himself hopelessly caught and convicted of imperfection and of sin by the finer texture of the law Walk in the Spirit.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Gal 5:16. , -Now I say, According to the Spirit walk. The first words are a formula introducing a further explanation, and refer back to the first part of Gal 5:13 – ; the intervening verses being suggested by the last clause of the same verse- . . . is not merely continuative, but points to the difference of theme. Had the apostle referred, as Gwynne supposes, to the immediately preceding verse, and merely proceeded with a specific and opposed injunction, would have been superfluous. It always introduces continued explanation: Gal 3:17, Gal 4:1. For , see under Eph 2:2. The dative is that of norm- , Rom 8:4 (Meyer, Usteri)-indicating the rule or manner. Winer, 31, 6; Gal 3:17; Rom 4:12; Php 3:16. Fritzsche regards it as the dativus commodi (on Rom 13:13), because in such a verb as the one occurring in this clause, nulla notionis eundi ratio habetur; and Hofmann similarly refers it to the power of the Spirit, like . Wieseler takes it as instrument, the Spirit being the path in which they walk. Similarly Gywnne-the Spirit, the agent, being regarded as the instrument. is the Holy Spirit; for it is the same Spirit that is spoken of in Gal 5:18; Gal 5:22, and therefore is not the spiritual part of our nature, nor the human spirit in unity with the Divine Spirit (Beza, Rckert, De Wette, Schott, Olshausen, and Brown); some epithet or addition would need to be added to the simple to give it such a meaning. Nor can the phrase be diluted into after a spiritual manner (Peile, and Theodoret who calls it ). The want of the article does not forbid the reference to the Holy Spirit; for came at length to be treated as a proper name. See under Eph 1:17.

Their whole course of life in thought and act, in all its manifestations, was to be in the Spirit who is the source of all good and gracious impulse. He is within believers the living, ennobling, and sanctifying power; and susceptibility of influence-of check and guidance-from Him, in all points of daily life, was to characterize them-

-and (so) ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. This translation is accepted by perhaps the majority of expositors. The clause is a conclusion following an imperative-do the one, and the other shall follow; the being consecutive. Winer, 53, 3; Mat 22:32; Luk 6:37; 2Co 13:11. See under Php 4:7. The double negative is intensive, as if it were . Lobeck, Phrynichus, p. 724; Winer, 56, 3. See under Gal 4:30. The aorist subjunctive is often employed in such negative utterances, especially in later Greek. Donaldson, Cratyl. 394; Krger, 53, 7, An. 6.

But another rendering has been adopted, and the verb is taken as an imperative-and fulfil not the lust of the flesh; the verse consisting in this case of an affirmative and a negative imperative connected by the simple copula. This is the view of Castalio, Beza, Koppe, Usteri, Baumgarten-Crusius, Ewald, and Meyer. The verb may indeed be taken in an imperative sense, there being apparently similar instances of such an imperative use of the second person subjunctive, and the aorist subjunctive being abundantly used in later Greek for the future. Gayler has given many examples from the classics, and a table of them from the Sept., p. 440, 1, etc. But there is no clear example of this construction in the New Testament, and there is often difference of reading in such cases as here. D3, E have , as if from the Latin versions, which give non perficietis. The context following plainly presupposes an assertion made, not a prohibitive command given, and assigns the reason for making it: If ye walk by the Spirit, ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh; for the two courses are incompatible-the one excludes the other. It is questionable if the use of will bear out the inference of Calvin-The spiritual man may be often assaulted by the lusts of the flesh, but he does not fulfil them. See the use of in Joh 8:44, Eph 2:3, compared with Rom 2:27, Jam 2:8. For , see under Eph 2:3; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychol. 5.6, die unaufgehobene Antinomie; Mller, die Christ. Lehre von der Snde, vol. i. p. 442, etc.

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Gal 5:16. This verse clearly indicates that such conduct as described in the preceding one is prompted by the lust or desires of the flesh. The opposite would be that prompted by the Spirit, which gives to God’s people the “rule of faith and practice” that belongs to the religion of Christ, as against that contained in the law of Moses, which the Judaizers were urging among the Gentile Christians.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Gal 5:16. Paul returns to the warning in Gal 5:13, not to abuse the freedom for an occasion to the flesh.

Walk by the Spirit, according to the rule and direction of the Holy Spirit who is the higher conscience and controlling principle of the Christian. Comp. Gal 4:6; Rom 8:2.

And ye shall in no wise fulfil the lust of the flesh. The Holy Spirit and the sinful flesh are so antagonistic and irreconcilable that to follow the one is to resist and defeat the other. The flesh is here, as in Gal 5:13; Gal 5:17; Gal 5:19, and often in Paul (also Joh 3:6), used in a moral sense, and designates the fallen, carnal, sinful nature of man. It is not confined to sensuality, but embraces also the evil dispositions of the mind (Gal 5:20). It must not be confounded with body; it uses and abuses the body as its organ, but the body is good in itself, and intended to become the organ of the regenerate spirit of man and the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. 1Co 6:19-20; comp. Gal 3:16; 2Co 6:16. (Comp. Excursus on Romans 7, and the elaborate discussion of Wieseler on Gal 3:13, pp. 442-455.) The antagonism between the carnal nature of man and the Holy Spirit of God is one of the fundamental ideas in Pauls psychology. The Gnostics and Manichaeans carried it to the extreme of dualism between mind and matter; but this is a heretical perversion. Pauls antagonism is moral, not physical, and rests on the recognition of the body as substantially Rood and redeemable by the same power of God which redeems the soul.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

“To prevent the fore-mentioned evils, as if the apostle had said, I advise and exhort you to walk had said, I advise and exhort you to walk in the Spirit, that is, according to the guidance and direction, according to the influence and motion, of the Holy Spirit speaking to you in his word, and then you never will fulfil the lusts of the flesh; that is, you will never accomplish and bring into complete act (especially with deliberation and consent) the inordinate motions of corrupt nature.”

Learn hence, That the more Christians set themselves to obey the new nature, and follow the motions of the spirit of grace, the more will the power of indwelling sin and inbred corruption be mortified and kept under. This expression, Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, may be thought to import and imply these two things:

1. That an inward principle of grace in the heart will give a check to sin in its first motions, and cause it oft-times to miscarry in the womb, like an untimely birth, before it comes to its full maturity; it shall never gain the full consent of a gracious person’s will, as it doth of an unregenerate person.

2. But if notwithstanding all the opposition grace makes to hinder the production of sin, if yet it doth break forth into act, such acts of sin are not committed without reluctance and regret, and are followed with shame and sorrow, yea, those very surprisals and captivities of sin at one time, are made cautions and warnings to prevent it at another time; and thus they that walk in the Spirit, do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Gal 5:16-18. I say then He now explains what he proposed Gal 5:13; Walk in, or by, the Spirit Namely, the Spirit of God: follow his guidance, exercise his graces, and bring forth his fruits: at all times endeavour to conduct yourselves as under his influence, and in a way agreeable to the new nature he hath given you. We walk by the Spirit, when we are led, that is, directed and governed by him as a Spirit of truth and grace, of wisdom and holiness. And we walk in the Spirit when, being united to him, or, rather, inhabited by him, we walk in faith, hope, and love, and in the other graces, mentioned Gal 5:22. And ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh Ye will not gratify any sinful appetite or passion, any corrupt principle of your nature or disposition, which may yet have place in you; such as envy, malice, anger, or revenge. For the flesh lusteth , desireth; against the Spirit Your corrupt nature, as far as it remains corrupt, and is unrenewed, has inclinations and affections which are contrary to, and oppose the operations and graces of the Spirit of God: and the Spirit against the flesh The Holy Spirit, on his part, opposes your evil nature, and all your corrupt inclinations and passions. These The flesh and the Spirit; are contrary to each other There can be no agreement between them: so that ye cannot do, &c. Greek, , , , that what things you would, or may desire, or incline to, these you may not do, that is, connecting it with the clause immediately preceding, though the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, yet the Spirit desireth against and opposes the flesh; that, being thus strengthened by the Spirit, ye may not do the things ye would do if the Spirit did not thus assist you. This seems to be the genuine sense of the passage. But if ye be led by the Spirit Of liberty and love, into all holiness; ye are not under the curse or bondage of the law Not under the guilt or power of sin.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Verse 16

Ye shall not fulfil; ye will not fulfil.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

SECTION 21. THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH.

CH. 5:16-26.

And I say, Walk by the Spirit, and the desire of the flesh ye will not fulfil. For the flesh desires against the Spirit; and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary, one to the other; in order that whatever things ye may wish these ye may not do. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under law. And manifest are the works of the flesh, which are fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of fury, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revelling, and the things like these: of which I forewarn you, as I forewarned, that they who practise such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self control. Against such things there is no law. And they that belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the emotions and the desires of it. If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

After pointing to Love as the disposition of heart from which flows human morality, in contrast to self-surrender to the flesh, which is ever a source of enmity, Paul now still further traces Christian morality to its divine source, viz. the Spirit of God, whom he contrasts with the flesh. For the love described in 20 is the love of the Spirit, Rom 15:30. Already Paul has taught that God gives to His adopted sons the Spirit of the only begotten Son to evoke in them filial confidence in God. He now teaches that the same Spirit will be the guide and strength of their life, neutralising in them the influence of the flesh and producing every form of moral good. In Gal 5:16-17, he states the contrast of flesh and Spirit; and makes it more conspicuous by turning in Gal 5:18-22 f, Gal 5:24-25 again and again (cp. Rom 1:24-32) from one to the other. Of this comparison the words Spirit and flesh in Gal 5:5; Gal 5:13 are forerunners. He then concludes 21 with a warning similar to, but milder than, the close of 20.

Gal 5:16. And I say: as in Gal 4:1 : cp. Gal 3:17. That Paul refers to the Spirit of the Son, is made quite certain by his constant teaching that He is the animating principle of the Christian life: cp. Gal 4:6; Rom 8:9; 1Co 3:16; 1Co 6:19. This constant usage renders the article needless: cp. Gal 3:3; Rom 8:13. And the absence of the article directs us to the Holy Spirit in His abstract quality as an inward animating principle: so Gal 5:5; Gal 5:18; Gal 5:25; and flesh and desire here.

By the Spirit: under His active influence, both guiding and strengthening; ideas involved in the word Spirit. So Gal 5:5; Gal 5:18; Gal 5:25; Gal 3:3; Rom 8:13-14; Eph 1:13; in all which passages the Spirit is much more than (Ellicott and Lightfoot here) the metaphorical path, manner, or rule of action. He is the divine Agent of all Christian action. [Cp. Rom 3:24, by His grace; 1Co 15:10; Eph 2:1; Eph 2:5.] The Spirit guides us along a path corresponding to His own nature: hence the companion phrase, according to Spirit, in Rom 8:4.

Walk: cp. 2Co 12:18; Rom 8:4. Allow the Spirit to choose your steps.

Desire is the chief feature of the flesh: Gal 5:24; Eph 2:3; cp. Rom 6:12. In virtue of their common constitution, our bodies yearn for various objects needful or pleasant. See note under Rom 8:11. And these longings of the flesh do not distinguish right from wrong. Consequently, to yield to them, leads inevitably to sin. As in Gal 5:13, the word flesh reveals the source of the contention condemned in Gal 5:15. See notes under 1Co 3:3; Rom 8:11.

Fulfil or accomplish: same word in Rom 2:27. It denotes the attainment of a goal or aim. Cognate word in 2Co 11:15, see note; Rom 6:21 f; 1Co 10:11; 1Ti 1:5. If the Holy Spirit guides our steps, then will the tendencies inherent to the constitution of our bodies be prevented from working out their otherwise inevitable results. (See note under Rom 8:17.) For the Spirit of God, if we yield to His inward guidance, will by His own infinite power defend us against the power of sin which seeks (Rom 6:12) to erect and maintain its throne in our bodies. Compare carefully Rom 8:13.

Gal 5:17. Supports Gal 5:16 by restating, and further expounding, the above contrast.

Desires against: absolute and mutual and active opposition of the flesh and the Spirit. The word desires is in itself neither good nor bad, and may therefore be supplied here as predicate of the Holy Spirit; as in Luk 22:15 it is predicated of Christ, and in 1Pe 1:12 of angels. Cp. 1Ti 3:1; Heb 6:11. The rendering lust (A.V. and R.V.) is therefore most unsuitable: for it cannot be predicated of the Spirit, and suggests an idea, viz. sin, not involved in the word. But since desire is a chief element in the practical influence of the flesh, and since in the flesh sin dwells and reigns, we read in the New Testament much more often of bad than of good desires. This implied desire of the Spirit makes the contrast of the two tendencies the more marked.

For these are opposed, etc.; supports the foregoing, by a restatement and further exposition.

In order that ye may not do: purpose of each of these opposing influences. If we wish to do a good thing, the desire of the flesh tends to lead us the opposite way: and conversely. This inherent tendency of the constitution of our bodies to hinder in us the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirits contrary purpose, are motives for following in all things the guidance of the Spirit; and are an assurance that if we do so this evil tendency will not in us attain its goal. The essential hostility of the two principles compels us to choose sides: and there can be no doubt what our choice should be. Thus Gal 5:17 supports Gal 5:16.

We have here no trace of blame; and therefore no hint that these words are true only of immature Christians such as Pauls readers undoubtedly were. And the general terms, the flesh and the Spirit, suggest a universal truth. See under Gal 5:24. The A.V. so that ye cannot do, etc., is a serious mistranslation. For it implies that the readers were not able to do what their better judgment approved; whereas Paul speaks only of opposite tendencies, leaving open the possibility of successfully resisting them.

Gal 5:18. Another reason for Gal 5:16.

Led by the Spirit: Rom 8:14 : parallel and equal to walk by the Spirit, but making more prominent the intelligent activity of the Spirit.

Under law: as in Gal 4:4-5; Gal 4:21; Rom 6:14 f; 1Co 9:20 : no longer held in bondage and condemnation under rules of conduct which we have already broken and are still unable to obey. This statement is proved in Gal 5:23.

Gal 5:19-21. Catalogue of the works of the flesh, interrupting the argument of Gal 5:18 to reveal by contrast the excellence of the fruit of the Spirit, which last proves that those led by the Spirit are not under law.

It is also a third reason for walking by the Spirit.

Manifest: conspicuous before the eyes of men: see under Rom 1:19. All can see for themselves that the following list is correct.

The works of the flesh: various fulfillments of the desire of the flesh, results of surrender to the influence of our bodily life. Cp. works of law in Gal 2:16, cp. Rom 2:15; of the Lord, 1Co 16:10; of God, Joh 9:3; Joh 6:28 f; of faith, 2Th 1:11.

Which are: more correctly to which class belong, implying that the following list is not complete. Similar lists in Rom 1:29; Rom 13:13; 1Co 6:9; 2Co 12:20; Eph 5:5; Col 3:5; 1Ti 1:9; Mar 7:21; Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15; 1Pe 4:3. We note four divisions.

(1) Sensuality, including fornication, intercourse with harlots; see under 1Co 5:1 : uncleanness; Rom 1:24; anything inconsistent with personal purity: wantonness; Rom 13:13; insolent and open disregard of all restraint. Same three words together in 2Co 12:21. The last forms a sort of climax.

(2) Idolatry: and the closely related sorcery, the practice of magical arts; same word in Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15; Rev 9:21; Rev 18:23; Exo 7:11; Exo 7:22.

(3) Various forms of discord. Strife, jealousies, outbursts of fury, factions: same words in same order in 2Co 12:20; see notes there and 1Co 3:3.

Parties: same word in 1Co 11:18, the Greek original of our word heresy. They who adopted error formed themselves in later ages, for the more part, into parties outside the Catholic Church.

Envy: Rom 1:29; Php 1:15; 1Ti 6:4; Tit 3:3; Mat 27:18, Jas 4:5 : mere vexation at others good; a much worse word than jealousy which (see under 1Co 12:31) has good elements.

(4) Drunkenness and revelling or riotous feasting: same words in Rom 13:13 : cp. 1Pe 4:3. [The plurals in this passage denote various outbursts of drunkenness, etc.]

And the like: added in a consciousness that even the above long list falls short of the infinite variety of sin.

This list begins with sins immediately prompted by the constitution of our bodies; then passes on to idolatry which rules men by gratifying their bodily desires; and to the collision with others which results inevitably from the selfishness of such gratification, and against which Paul has in Gal 5:15 just warned his readers; and concludes with another class of sins immediately prompted by the appetites of the flesh.

I forewarn, or say-beforehand: before the penalty is inflicted. Same word in 2Co 13:2.

Forewarned: on a previous visit to Galatia. Whether the second fore- contrasts Pauls former words with his words now or, like the first fore-, with their future fulfilment, is uncertain and unimportant. The previous word forewarn suggests slightly the latter reference. Paul reminds his readers that he is only repeating what he has said before.

Such things; reminds us again (cp. and the like just above and which sort of things in Gal 5:19) of the infinite variety of sin, reaching far beyond the long catalogue given.

Inherit the kingdom of God: become, in virtue of filial relation to God, citizens of the future and glorious realm over which, in a royalty which His children will share, God will reign for ever. Same words in 1Co 6:10; 1Co 15:50.

Gal 5:22-23. A fourth argument for Gal 5:16; also completing the argument of Gal 5:18.

Fruit: visible outgrowth of the unseen and mysterious vital force of the Holy Spirit. Cp. Rom 1:13; Rom 6:21 f; Eph 5:9; Php 1:11; Php 1:22; Jas 3:18. The change from works of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit accords with Pauls use of the word fruit only for good results. The various virtues following form, in organic unity, each promoting the others, the one fruit of the Spirit. Similar catalogues in Col 3:12; 2Ti 3:10.

Love: put first as the central principle of the Christian life. It is an outflow of the Spirit received through faith: Gal 3:14; Gal 5:6. And it links 21 to 20.

Joy: triumphant overflow of Christian gladness. Cp. joy in the Holy Spirit, Rom 14:17, 1Th 1:6.

Peace: probably, as suggested by the words following, (cp. Rom 14:17-19,) concord with others, in contrast to the discord of Gal 5:20.

Longsuffering: Eph 4:2; Col 3:12; 2Ti 3:10; 2Ti 4:2 : a long holding back of passion; slow to anger, Jas 1:19. A frequent attribute of God, Rom 2:4; Rom 9:22; as is kindness, Eph 2:7, a gentle mode of dealing with others.

Goodness: doing good to others, by methods not necessarily gentle; Rom 15:14; Eph 5:9; 2Th 1:11.

Faith: probably faithfulness, a disposition on which others can rely, as in Rom 3:3. For, in its usual meaning, viz., assurance that God will fulfil His word, faith holds a unique place as the means by which we receive the Holy Spirit and the entire fruit of the Spirit; and is therefore not likely to be classed as one among many elements of that fruit.

Meekness: absence of self-assertion; see under 1Co 4:21.

Self-control: Act 24:25; 2Pe 1:6; Sir 18:29, self-control of soul after thy desires go not, and from thy passions refrain. A cognate verb in 1Co 7:9; 1Co 9:25.

Against such things: in contrast to (Gal 5:21) those who practise such things, of whom the Law declares that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Now, since the Spirit produces as His fruit dispositions which the Law does not condemn, they who (Gal 5:18) are led by the Spirit are not under law. The law is no longer a burden under which they groan. Just so, upright citizens think nothing of the criminal law; whereas to those who break or wish to break it, the same law is a terrible reality. Thus Paul completes the argument of Gal 5:18 in support of Gal 5:16. This deliverance from the Law by fulfilment of it (Gal 5:14) was a purpose of the mission of the Son of God: Rom 8:4. The unexpected reference to the Law in Gal 5:14; Gal 5:18; Gal 5:23 reveals its large place in the thought of Paul.

Gal 5:24. Another argument in support of Gal 5:16, viz. that to fulfil the desire of the flesh is to renounce our own acceptance of the Christian life.

Belong to Christ Jesus, or literally (R.V.) are of Christ Jesus: 1Co 3:23; 2Co 10:7; cp. 1Co 3:4. They stand in special relation to Christ as His servants, disciples, members of His body, etc.

Crucified: as in Gal 2:20; Gal 6:14; Rom 6:6. Notice three crucifixions in this Epistle; of Paul, of the flesh and its desires, and of the world. Each of these implies the others. In each case crucified denotes death in virtue of Christs death on the cross and by union with the Crucified: cp. Gal 2:20 with Gal 5:19; Gal 6:14 with Col 2:20.

The flesh is dead, i.e. its life, or in other words its activity and power, has come to an end: see note under Rom 7:8, and compare carefully Rom 6:6 and my note. They have crucified the flesh, by their own act: for the destruction of the power of the flesh resulted from their own self-surrender and faith. See note under 2Co 7:1.

The emotions: same word in same sense in Rom 7:5 : elsewhere it denotes suffering, as in 2Co 1:5 ff. Compare our word passion, which combines both meanings. Objects around first produce in us emotions, in which the mind is chiefly passive, acted upon from without: these, taking practical and active direction towards the objects which produce them, become desires. Desires are a constant accompaniment of flesh so long as it has vitality: and emotions are the beginning of desires. Paul declares that, together with the flesh these emotions and desires have, by self-surrender to Christ and by union with His death, altogether lost their power.

The categorical statement of Gal 5:24, like Pauls statements about himself in Gal 2:20; Gal 6:14, can be no less than a description of the ideal and normal Christian life, i.e. of the life which God designs us to live and which He is ready to work in us from this moment by His own infinite power and in proportion to our faith. At first sight this statement seems inconsistent with Gal 5:17. For if the flesh has desire and purpose, it must be alive, whereas here Paul implies that it is dead. But this inconsistency is but the poverty of human language, which often compels us to state opposite sides of the same truth in terms apparently contradictory. Each statement admits an interpretation in harmony with the other. The flesh is still alive in the sense that it exerts upon us an influence towards forbidden objects which can be effectually resisted only by the presence of the Spirit of God within us. And this is a reason for following ever the guidance of the Spirit. On the other hand, if in all things we accept His guidance, this hostile influence of the flesh will be neutralised so completely that it will no longer influence our conduct or defile our thoughts. And, in view of this complete victory which Christ has gained for us by His death, and which God is ready to work now, in all who venture to believe His promise, by joining them to the Crucified One, Paul says correctly that to those who belong to Christ the flesh and its desires have passed away, that their life has altogether ceased. By so saying he greatly helps our faith to grasp and appropriate the victory here described. The discrepancy is not greater than that between Gal 2:20, I live in the flesh and Rom 8:9, ye are not in the flesh.

Notice that just as the flesh is the link uniting us to the material world around and the medium through which, by its susceptibility to material influences and by its desire for material objects, the world acts upon us, so it is also the link uniting the unsaved to sin and the avenue through which operate the evil influence and the domination of the material world. Christ died in order that by His death this link may be practically broken and this avenue closed, that by union with the Crucified we may be set free from this influence and bondage. Virtually, we were set free when Christ died: formally, when we joined His Church: actually, when, and so far as, we venture to believe that this inward crucifixion is already ours.

Gal 5:25. Concluding argument in support of Gal 5:16, which verse it recalls. It is a practical application of the foregoing doctrinal teaching.

By the Spirit: as in Gal 5:16; under the influence of the Holy Spirit acting upon us from within as an animating principle.

If we live by the Spirit: an assumed fact: for He is in us the breath of immortal life. Therefore, Paul says, we should allow Him to direct our steps. For, in proportion as we yield to His influence, will the life He imparts be rich. Similar thought in Rom 8:2 : for the law of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit guiding our action; and since He has made us free from the law of sin and of death, He is to us the Spirit of life.

Walk: different from the word in Gal 5:16, but found in Gal 6:16; Rom 4:12; Php 3:16; Act 21:24; all very instructive parallels. It calls attention to the path in which we walk.

Gal 5:26. Steps in which the Spirit will never guide us, a negative specific application of the doctrinal teaching of 21 and a transition to the positive specific application of the same in 22. This application was prompted doubtless by the disposition in the readers which suggested the similar application (Gal 5:15) of 20.

Vainglorious: Php 2:3, cherishing empty opinions about ourselves: further expounded in Gal 6:3. From this root spring as offshoots mutual provocation and envy. Paul warns against both root and offshoots. [The present subjunctive suggests that the vainglory was already creeping in.]

Provoking (or challenging) one another: a frequent outcome of envy, i.e. of vexation at the superiority of others.

SECTION 21 implies that the great contrast of flesh and Spirit so familiar to Paul, (cp. Rom 8:4-13,) a contrast underlying and pervading both the natural and the moral constitution of man, is also the basis of his moral probation. See notes under Rom 8:11; Rom 8:17.

The flesh is the visible side of man, animated matter. Mysteriously pervading it, preserving it from corruption and giving to it growth and well-being, is the invisible spirit. Thus in man meet and at every point interpenetrate, the seen and unseen worlds; the one destined to crumble soon into its original dust, the other created for endless life. We have thus the unseen world within us, actually present to our inmost consciousness. Now each of these elements claims to rule our entire action and to mould our inner life. And they are in absolute opposition. The flesh, acting upon us through desires aroused by material objects around, tends to beget various kinds of actions, many of them indisputably bad. Such actions will exclude us from the glory of the coming kingdom. But in absolute opposition to the flesh is the one Spirit of God, whom God has given to dwell in the hearts of His people, that thus their spirit may have (Rom 8:10) immortal life, and to be in them an all-wise guide. The Spirit is the living and divine seed from which springs a harvest of moral excellence. This excellence is all that the Law requires. Consequently, for those under His influence the Law has no terrors. And in proportion as they follow His guidance is the life which He imparts rich and strong.

The evil influences of the flesh are still a power against which the Christian must needs be ever on his guard. But his warfare is shared by the Spirit of God, against whom even the flesh is powerless. Consequently, the presence of the Spirit in our hearts has already in us put an end, as we abide in faith, to the rule of the flesh. We may therefore say that in us, through the death of Christ, the flesh itself is already dead, that our old selves and our old life have been buried in His grave. All this is abundant reason for complete self-surrender to the guidance of the Spirit. He will inspire that love which is fulfilment of the Law, and which alone will save Christian liberty from degenerating into hurtful licence.

Notice the massive simplicity and grandeur of Pauls double foundation of Christian morality. He lays down first the one precept of love, in the very words of the ancient Law, a precept including all others. But even this, if it stood alone, would but reveal our inability to do what God requires, and thus condemn us. Paul therefore invokes the Spirit, the seed divine from which grows, by its unseen and mysterious vitality, the fruit of love and of all virtue. A specimen of the superstructure this foundation is capable of supporting, Paul will erect for us in 22.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

Week Eleven: 5:16-26 A Walk In The Spirit Is A Must For The Believer

This text is a window to what Paul means in verses fifteen and twenty-six.

15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

There is still that contrast between law and grace, bondage and freedom going on. In this section he tells the reader that the flesh has a certain outcome in practical living, and that the spiritual has another, quite different outcome. What a contrast there is between these two.

I am sure that many will jump on this passage to say that the flesh and the spirit war with one another within us, but this is not what Paul is teaching. This is clear in what he says in verse twenty-four “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Notice the past tense and it is an aorist indicating a one time action, not a daily action as many suggest our spiritual life requires.

He begins with a simple statement that the believer is to walk in the Spirit and if we do we will not get into trouble with works of the flesh.

Gal 5:16 [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Walk is a word that means to be occupied with. When I go for an exercise walk, I am totally oblivious to the world. I am walking as fast as I can, I am concentrating on the sidewalk before me, I am watching for lunatic drivers that can’t get out of my way fast enough, and I am mostly concentrating on getting enough air into my lungs to stay upright. I am walking; I am occupied with this activity. It is my total concentration.

This is in the imperative thus a command rather than one of twelve choices in life. Many Christians live as though many of the things Scripture tells us to do are in the comparative – you know, compare the lot of them and pick out the easiest of them and go to town on your spirituality – not the thought of the Lord, He has left us with a certain lifestyle and we are expected to walk it.

Walking in the Spirit isn’t walking around with your head in the clouds with a saintly air about you; it is asking the Spirit to work in and through you to help you live as Christ lived – to be filled with the characteristics that are to follow.

Remember in the movies when someone is in the confessional and the priest hears that they are done – he says something like, “Bless you my child, go and sin no more.” No, that isn’t walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is a lifestyle that does not allow for sin, it does not allow for thoughts of sin, and it certainly does not allow for acts of sin. Walking in the Spirit is the opposite of fulfilling the lust of the flesh. The one is not compatible with the other. You can’t be spiritual and dabble in the little sins that you like to cling to, you are either walking with God or not.

The verb could be translated “keep on walking” and as you do so, there will be no possibility of you walking in the flesh – one does not go with the other, you will never see the Spirit of God and the flesh walking on the beach together. They may be on the beach walking in different directions, but never together walking the same way – take it to the bank, they won’t.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

5:16 {15} [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

(15) He acknowledges the great weakness of the godly, because they are but in part regenerated: but he exhorts them to remember that they are endued with the Spirit of God, who has delivered them from the slavery of sin, and so from the Law, inasmuch as it is the power of sin, so that they should not give themselves to lusts.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. Living by the Holy Spirit 5:16-26

Paul had told his readers that they should not live either under the Mosaic Law or licentiously. Now he gave positive direction and explained what the leading of the Holy Spirit means. He did this so his readers would know how to live to the glory of God as Christians.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The promise of victory 5:16-18

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Walking by the Spirit means living moment by moment submissively trusting in the Holy Spirit rather than in self.

"’Walk by the Spirit’ means ’let your conduct be directed by the Spirit.’" [Note: Bruce, p. 243.]

"To ’walk by the Spirit’ means to be under the constant, moment-by-moment direction, control, and guidance of the Spirit." [Note: Fung, p. 249.]

 

"Walking is a metaphor used from time to time in Scripture to denote spiritual progress. People in the first century could not travel as fast as we do, with our cars, planes, trains and the like, but even so, for them as for us, walking was the slowest way of going places. But even though walking was slow and unspectacular, walking meant progress. If anyone kept walking, she or he would certainly cover the ground and eventually reach the destination. So for the apostle walking was an apt metaphor. If any believer was walking, that believer was going somewhere." [Note: Morris, p. 167.]

We could translate the Greek present tense imperative "Keep on walking." To the extent that we do this we will not at all (Gr. ou me, the strongest negative) carry out our fleshly desires. This is a promise.

This does not mean that one must be constantly thinking about his or her dependence on God to be walking in the Spirit. It is, of course, impossible to be thinking about this all the time. Nevertheless we should be trusting in Him all the time. The more we think about our dependence on Him the more consistent we will be in trusting in Him and in walking by the Spirit.

"The contrary way of living is to fulfil the lust of the flesh. The flesh is the physical part of our being and stands accordingly for that which is opposed to our spirit as well as to the divine Spirit. Our flesh is characterized by lust, which stands for the strong, but sometimes evil, desires that are associated with bodily living." [Note: Ibid., p. 168.]

This is one of the most important and helpful verses on Christian living in the Bible.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 23

CHRISTS SPIRIT AND HUMAN FLESH.

Gal 5:16-26

LOVE is the guard of Christian freedom. The Holy Spirit is its guide. These principles accomplish what the law could never do. It withheld liberty, and yet did not give purity. The Spirit of love and of sonship bestows both, establishing a happy, ordered freedom, the liberty of the sons of God.

From the first of these two factors of Christian ethics the Apostle passes in Gal 5:16 to the second. He conducts us from the consequence to the cause, from the human aspect of spiritual freedom to the Divine. Love, he has said, fulfils all laws in one. It casts out evil from the heart; it stays the injurious hand and tongue; and makes it impossible for liberty to give the rein to any wanton or selfish impulse. But the law of love is no natural, automatic impulse. It is a Divine inspiration..” Love is of God.” It is the characteristic “fruit of the Spirit” of adoption (Gal 5:22), implanted and nourished from above. When I bid you “by love serve each other,” the Apostle says, I do not expect you to keep this law of yourselves, by force of native goodness: I know how contrary it is to your Galatic nature; “but I say, walk in the Spirit,” and this will be an easy yoke; to “fulfil the desire of the flesh” will then be for you a thing impossible.

The word Spirit () is written indefinitely; but the Galatians knew well what Spirit the Apostle meant. It is “the Spirit” of whom he has spoken so often in this letter, the Holy Spirit of God, who had entered their hearts when they first believed in Christ and taught them to call God Father. He gave them their freedom: He will teach them how to use it. The absence of the definite article in Pneuma does not destroy its personal force, but allows it at the same time a broad, qualitative import, corresponding to that of the opposed “desire of the flesh.” The walk governed “by the Spirit” is a spiritual walk. As for the interpretation of the dative case (rendered variously by, or in, or even for the Spirit), that is determined by the meaning of the noun itself. “The Spirit” is not the path in which one walks; rather He supplies the motive principle, the directing influence of the new life. Gal 5:16 is interpreted by Gal 5:18; Gal 5:25. To “walk in the Spirit” is to be “led by the Spirit”; it is so to “live in the Spirit” that one habitually “moves” (marches: ver. 25) under His direction.

This conception of the indwelling Spirit of God as the actuating power of the Christians moral life predominates in the rest of this chapter. We shall pursue the general line of the Apostles teaching on the subject in the present chapter, leaving for future exposition the detailed enumeration of the “fruit of the Spirit” and “works of the flesh” contained in Gal 5:19-23. This antithesis of Flesh and Spirit presents the following consideration:-

(1) the diametrical opposition of the two forces;

(2) the effect of the predominance of one or the other;

(3) the mastery over the flesh which belongs to those who are Christs. In a word, Christs Spirit is the absolute antagonist and the sure vanquisher of our sinful human flesh.

1. “I say, Walk by the Spirit, and you will verily not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” On what ground does this bold assurance rest? Because, the Apostle replies, the Spirit and the flesh are opposites (Gal 5:17). Each is bent on destroying the ascendency of the other. Their cravings and tendencies stand opposed at every point. Where the former rules, the latter must succumb. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.”

The verb lust in Greek, as in English, bears commonly an evil sense; but not necessarily so, nor by derivation. It is a sad proof of human corruption that in all languages words denoting strong desire tend to an impure significance. Paul extends to “the desire of the Spirit” the term which has just been used of “the lust of the flesh,” in this way sharpening the antithesis. Words appropriated to the vocabulary of the flesh and degraded by its use, may be turned sometimes to good account and employed in the service of the Holy Spirit, whose influence redeems our speech and purges the uncleanness of our lips.

The opposition here affirmed exists on the widest scale. All history is a battlefield for the struggle between Gods Spirit and mans rebellious flesh. In the soul of a half-sanctified Christian, and in Churches like those of Corinth and Galatia whose members are “yet carnal and walk as men,” the conflict is patent. The Spirit of Christ has established His rule in the heart; but His supremacy is challenged by the insurrection of the carnal powers. The contest thus revived in the soul of a Christian is internecine; it is that of the kingdoms of light and darkness, of the opposite poles of good and evil. It is an incident in the war of human sin against the Holy Spirit of God, which extends over all time and all human life. Every lust, every act or thought of evil is directed, knowingly or unknowingly, against the authority of the Holy Spirit, against the presence and the rights of God immanent in the creature. Nor is there any restraint upon evil, any influence counteracting it in man or nation or race, which does not proceed from the Spirit of the Lord. The spirit of man has never been without a Divine Paraclete. “God hath not left Himself without witness” to any; and “it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.” The Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of all truth and holiness. In the “truth as it is in Jesus” He possesses His highest instrument. But from the beginning it was His office to be Gods Advocate, to uphold law, to convict the conscience, to inspire the hope of mercy, to impart moral strength and freedom. We “believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life.”

This war of Spirit and Flesh is first ostensibly declared in the words of Gen 6:3. This passage indicates the moral reaction of Gods Spirit against the worlds corruption, and the protest which in the darkest periods of human depravity He has maintained. God had allowed men to do despite to His good Spirit. But it cannot always be so. A time comes when, outraged and defied, He withdraws His influence from men and from communities; and the Flesh bears them along to swift destruction. So it was in the world before the Flood. So largely amongst later heathen peoples, when God “suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.” Even the Mosaic law had proved rather a substitute than a medium for the free action of the Spirit of God on men. “The law was spiritual,” but “weak through the flesh.” It denounced the guilt which it was powerless to avert.

With the advent of Christ all this is changed. The Spirit of God is now, for the first time, sent forth in His proper character and His full energy. At last His victory draws near. He comes as the Spirit of Christ and the Father, “poured out upon all flesh.” “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. I will put My Spirit within you”: {Eze 36:25-27} this was the great hope of prophecy; and it is realised. The Spirit of Gods Son regenerates the human heart, subdues the flesh, and establishes the communion of God with men. The reign of the Spirit on earth was the immediate purpose of the manifestation of Jesus Christ.

But what does Paul really mean by “the flesh?” It includes everything that is not “of the Spirit.” It signifies the entire potency of sin It is the contra-spiritual, the undivine in man. Its “works,” as we find in Gal 5:20-21, are not bodily vices only, but include every form of moral debasement and aberration. Flesh in the Apostles vocabulary follows the term spirit, and deepens and enlarges its meaning precisely as the latter does. Where spirit denotes the super-sensible in man, flesh is the sensible, the bodily nature as such. When spirit rises into the supernatural and superhuman, flesh becomes the natural, the human by consequence. When spirit receives its highest signification, denoting the holy Effluence of God, His personal presence in the world, flesh sinks to its lowest and represents unrenewed nature, the evil principle oppugnant and alien to God. It is identical with sin. But in this profound moral significance the term is more than a figure. Under its use the body is marked out, not indeed as the cause, but as the instrument, the vehicle of sin. Sin has incorporated itself with our organic life, and extends its empire over the material world. When the Apostle speaks of “the body of sin” and “of death,” and bids us “mortify the deeds of the body” and “the members which are upon the earth,” {See Rom 6:6; Rom 6:12; Rom 7:4; Rom 8:23-24; Rom 8:10-13; Col 2:11-13; Col 3:5} his expressions are not to be resolved into metaphors.

On this definition of the terms, it is manifest that the antagonism of the Flesh and Spirit is fundamental. They can never come to terms with each other, nor dwell permanently in the same being. Sin must be extirpated or the Holy Spirit will finally depart. The struggle must come to a definitive issue. Human character tends every day to a more determinate form; and an hour comes in each case when the victory of flesh or spirit is irrevocably fixed, when “the filthy” will henceforth “be filthy still,” and “the holy, holy still”. {Rev 22:11}

The last clause of Gal 5:17, “that ye may not do the things that ye would,” has been variously interpreted. The rendering of the Authorised Version (“so that ye cannot”) is perilously misleading. Is it that the flesh prevents the Galatians doing the good they would? Or is the Spirit to prevent them doing the evil they otherwise would? Or are both these oppositions in existence at once, so that they waver between good and evil, leading a partly spiritual, partly carnal life, consistent neither in right nor wrong? The last is the actual state of the case. Paul is perplexed about them; {Gal 4:20} they are in doubt about themselves. They did not “walk in the Spirit,” they were not true to their Christian principles; the flesh was too strong for that. Nor would they break away from Christ and follow the bent of their lower nature; the Holy Spirit held them back from doing this. So they have two wills, – or practically none. This state of things was designed by God, – “in order that ye may not do the things ye haply would”; it accords with the methods of His government. Irresolution is the necessary effect of the course the Galatians had pursued. So far they stopped short of apostasy; and this restraint witnessed to the power of the Holy Spirit still at work in their midst. {Gal 3:5; Gal 6:1} Let this Divine hand cease to check them, and the flesh would carry them, with the full momentum of their will, to spiritual ruin. Their condition is just now one of suspense. They are poised in a kind of moral equilibrium, which cannot continue long, but in which, while it lasts, the action of the conflicting forces of Flesh and Spirit is strikingly manifest.

2. These two principles in their development lead to entirely opposite results.

(1) The works of the flesh- “manifest” alas! both then and now-exclude from the kingdom of God. “I tell you beforehand,” the Apostle writes, “as I have already told you: they who practise such things will not inherit Gods kingdom”. {Gal 5:21}

This warning is essential to Pauls gospel; {Rom 2:16} it is good news for a world where wrong so often and so insultingly triumphs, that there is a judgment to come. Whatever may be our own lot in the great award, we rejoice to believe that there will be a righteous settlement of human affairs, complete and final; and that this settlement is in the hands of Jesus Christ. In view of His tribunal the Apostle goes about “warning and teaching every man.” And this is his constant note, amongst profligate heathen, or hypocritical Jews, or backsliding and antinomian Christians, – “The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” For that kingdom is, above all, righteousness. Men of fleshly minds, in the nature of things, have no place in it. They are blind to its light, dead to its influence, at war with its aims and principles. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him-the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-and walk in darkness, we lie.” {1Jn 1:6} “Those who do such things” forfeit by doing them the character of sons of God. His children seek to be “perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect.” They are “blameless and harmless, imitators of God, walking in love as Christ loved us.” {Php 2:15; Eph 5:1-2} The Spirit of Gods Son is a spirit of love and peace, of temperance and gentleness. {Gal 5:22} If these fruits are wanting, the Spirit of Christ is not in us and we are none of His. We are without the one thing by which He said all men would know His disciples. {Joh 13:35} When the Galatians “bite and devour one another,” they resemble Ishmael the persecutor, {Gal 4:29} rather than the gentle Isaac, heir of the Covenant.

“If children, then heirs.” Future destiny turns upon present character. The Spirit of Gods Son, with His fruit of love and peace, is “the earnest of our inheritance, sealing us against the day of redemption”. {Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30} By selfish tempers and fleshly indulgences He is driven from the soul; and losing Him, it is shut out from the kingdom of grace on earth, and from the glory of the redeemed. “There shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean; “such is the excommunication written above the gate of the Heavenly City. {Rev 21:27} This sentence of the Apocalypse puts a final seal upon the teaching of Scripture. The God of revelation is the Holy One; His Spirit is the Holy Spirit; His kingdom is the kingdom of the saints, whose atmosphere burns like fire against all impurity. Concerning the men of the flesh the Apostle can only say, “Whose end is perdition”. {Php 3:19}

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul entreats his readers not to be deceived upon this point. {1Co 6:9-10; Eph 5:5} It seems so obvious, so necessary a principle, that one wonders how it should be mistaken, why he is compelled to reiterate it as he does in this place. And yet this has been a common delusion. No form of religion has escaped being touched by Antinomianism. It is the divorce of piety from morality. It is the disposition to think that ceremonial works on the one hand, or faith on the other, supersede the ethical conditions of harmony with God. Foisting itself on evangelical doctrine this error leads men to assume that salvation is the mere pardon of sin. The sinner appears to imagine he is saved in order to remain a sinner. He treats Gods mercy as a kind of bank, on which he may draw as often as his offences past or future may require. He does not understand that sanctification is the sequel of justification, that the evidence of a true pardon lies in a changed heart that loathes sin.

(2) Of the opposite principle the Apostle states not the ultimate, but the more immediate consequences. “Led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal 5:18); and “Against such things-love, peace, goodness, and the like-there is no law” (Gal 5:23).

The declaration of Gal 5:18 is made with a certain abruptness. Paul has just said, in Gal 5:17, that the Spirit is the appointed antagonist of the flesh. And now he adds, that if we yield ourselves to His influence we shall be no longer under the law. This identification of sin and the law was established Gal 2:16-18; Gal 3:10-22. The law by itself, the Apostle showed, does not overcome sin, but aggravates it; it shuts men up the hopeless prisoners of their own past misdoing. To be “under law” is to be in the position of Ishmael, the slave-born and finally outcast son, whose nature and temper are of the flesh. {Gal 4:21-31} After all this we can understand his writing law for sin in this passage, just as in 1Co 15:56 he calls “the law the power of sin.” To be under law was, in Pauls view, to be held consciously in the grasp of sin. This was the condition of which Legalism would reduce the Galatians. From this calamity the Spirit of Christ would keep them free.

The phrase “under law” reminds us once more of the imperilled liberty of the Galatians. Their spiritual freedom and their moral safety were assailed in common. In Gal 5:16 he had said, “Let the Holy Spirit guide you, and you will vanquish sin”; and now, “By the same guidance you will escape the oppressive yoke of the law.” Freedom from sin, freedom from the Jewish law-these two liberties were virtually one. “Sin shall not lord it over you, because ye are not under law, but under grace”. {Rom 6:14} Gal 5:23 explains this double freedom. Those who possess the Spirit of Christ bear His moral fruits. Their life fulfils the demands of the law, without being due to its compulsion. Law can say nothing against them. It did not produce this fruit; but it is bound to approve it. It has no hold on the men of the Spirit, no charge to bring against them. Its requirements are satisfied; its constraints and threatenings are laid aside.

Law therefore, in its Judaistic sense and application, has been abolished since “faith has come.” No longer does it rule the soul by fear and compulsion. This office, necessary once for the infant heirs of the Covenant, it has no right to exercise over spiritual men. Law cannot give. {Gal 3:21} This is the prerogative of the Spirit of God. Law says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”; but it never inspired such love in any mans breast. If he does so love, the law approves him, without claiming credit to itself for the fact. If he does not love his God, law condemns him and brands him a transgressor. But “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.” The teaching of this paragraph on the relation of the believer in Christ to Gods law is summed up in the words of Rom 8:2 : “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death.” Law has become my friend, instead of my enemy and accuser. For Gods Spirit fills my soul with the love in which its fulfilment is contained. And now eternal life is the goal that stands in my view, in place of the death with the prospect of which, as a man of the flesh, the law appalled me.

3. We see then that deliverance from sin belongs not to the subject of the law, but to the freemen of the Spirit. This deliverance, promised in Gal 5:16, is declared in Gal 5:24 as an accomplished fact. “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the fleshThey that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” The tyranny of the flesh is ended for those who are “in Christ Jesus.” His cross has slain their sins. The entrance of His Spirit imports the death of all carnal affections.

“They who are Christs did crucify the flesh.” This is the moral application of Pauls mystical doctrine, central to all his theology, of the believers union with the Redeemer (see chapter 10). “Christ in me-I in Him”: there is Pauls secret. He was “one spirit” with Jesus Christ-dying; risen, ascended, reigning, returning in glory. His old self, his old world was dead and gone-slain by Christs cross, buried in “His grave.” {Gal 2:20; Gal 6:14} And the flesh, common to the evil world and the evil self-that above all was crucified. The death of shame and legal penalty, the curse, of God had overtaken it in the death of Jesus Christ. Christ had risen, the “Lord of the Spirit,” {2Co 3:18} who “could not be holden” by the death which fell on “the body of His flesh.” They who are Christs rose with Him; while the flesh of sin stays in His grave. Faith sees it there, and leaves it there. We “reckon ourselves dead unto sin, and living unto God, in Christ Jesus.” For such men, the flesh that was once-imperious, importunate, law-defying-is no more. It has received its death-stroke. “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. {Rom 8:3} Sin is smitten with the lightning of His anger. Doom has taken hold of it. Destroyed already in principle, it only waits for men to know this and to understand what has been done, till it shall perish everywhere. The destruction of the sinful flesh-more strictly of “sin in the flesh”-occurred, as Paul understood the matter, virtually and potentially in the moment of Christs death. It was our human flesh that was crucified in Him – slain on the cross because, though in Him not personally sinful, yet in us with whom He had made Himself one, it was steeped in sin. Our sinful flesh hung upon His cross; it has risen, cleansed and sanctified, from His grave.

What was then accomplished in principle when “One died for all,” is realised in point of fact when we are “baptised into His death”-when, that is to say, faith makes His death ours and its virtue passes into the soul. The scene of the cross is inwardly rehearsed. The wounds which pierced the Redeemers flesh and spirit now pierce our consciences. It is a veritable crucifixion through which the soul enters into communion with its risen Saviour, and learns to live His life. Nor is its sanctification complete till it is “conformed unto His death”. {Php 3:10} So with all his train of “passions and of lusts,” the “old man” is fastened and nailed down upon the new interior Calvary, set up in each penitent and believing heart. The flesh may still, as in these Galatians, give mournful evidence of life. But it has no right to exist a single hour. De jure it is dead-dead in the reckoning of faith. It may die a lingering, protracted death, and make convulsive struggles; but die it must in all who are of Christ Jesus.

Let the Galatians consider what their calling of God signified. Let them recall the prospects which opened before them in the days of their first faith in Christ, the love that glowed in their hearts, the energy with which the Holy Spirit wrought upon their nature. Let them know how truly they were called to liberty, and in good earnest were made sons of God. They have only to continue as heretofore to be led by the Spirit of Christ and to march forward along the path on which they had entered, and neither Jewish law nor their own lawless flesh will be able to bring them into bondage. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Where He is not, there is legalism, or license; or, it may be, both at once.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary