This very morning, as we have all gathered together here to worship our Lord and Savior, there is a war that is taking place. This war has been going on for far longer than the past 10 years. It has been taking place ever since the fall of mankind in the Garden. Although this war may cause nations to fight, it is not a specific war that exists between nations. The battlefield for this war is not a piece of land but the heart. This war and the particular war that we have been reminded of all week long do have one major thing in common. One side is seeking to destroy Jesus Christ and His gospel. The war that I am talking about this morning is the war that exists within each and every one of us between the flesh and the Spirit.
You see, in the previous section of Galatians (5:1-15), Paul tells us that we have freedom, and that that freedom is found in Jesus Christ. God wants us to be happy. God gives us freedom. We are told in v. 13 that the only activity that we can perform in freedom is love. “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Love is commanded, it is not optional. We are called to the Great Commandment. We are called to love our neighbor just as we love ourselves. We are called to seek their happiness just as we would our own. This is where the war between the Spirit and the flesh has its greatest conflict.
The question is, “How do we fulfill this portion of the Great Commandment?” How do we love our neighbor as we love ourselves? The simple fact of the matter is that WE can’t. That is to say that we can’t do it by ourselves. We must have the Holy Spirit work through us to do so. To put it in Paul’s language, we must “walk by the Spirit.” When we do this, he tells us that we will “not gratify the desires of the flesh.” You see, we don’t have the power within ourselves to overcome the desires of the flesh. To use an example from our young adults Sunday school class last week, we were talking about how we can see sin coming from a mile away and still not stop ourselves. Someone said that it was kind of like when they take a bowl of rotel dip out of the microwave and they immediately taste some of it despite numerous warnings from their better half. What happens? You burn your mouth. We see our hearts leaning towards the desires of the flesh. We see our depraved natures coming out in our thoughts, actions, and deeds, but we can’t help ourselves.
We are told throughout Scripture just as we are here by the Apostle Paul that the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to one another. So if “walking by the Spirit” is the only way in which we can keep from giving in to our earthly desires what does this word “walking” mean. The best analogy that I have found for this term is from the brilliant mind of John Piper who looks at this as our “walking by the Spirit” not as a pace car out in front of the pack at the Daytona 500, but as a locomotive on a train. You see there is a disconnect between the pace car and the rest of the pack. If they so choose, the cars can veer from the path. When it comes to a train, the cars cannot move. They have no choice but to follow the locomotive. They are led by the power of the locomotive. We have no option here but to stay connected to the divine source of power and go where He would have us go. That is the only chance that we have to overcome the sinful desires that are so prevalent in our hearts.
Now I want to say something that may sound a little odd when you first hear it. This war that is taking place within Christians, that is taking place within each of us, is not a bad thing. You see, as long as we are on this earth, the presence of sin within us is a reality. If there is not war, it is because sin has won out. Thank God that there is a war within us. Rejoice in the fact that your heart and your soul feel like a battlefield. Because, you see I don’t think that the main point of Paul’s message here is really about the war itself, I look at this and I see Paul proclaiming the victory of the Spirit. Look at some of the definitive language used here. “Walk by the Spirit, and you WILL NOT gratify the desires of the flesh.” That’s pretty definitive language. Reading further we also see, “If you are led by the Spirit, you ARE NOT under the law.” When you walk by the Spirit, the sinful fleshly desires are defeated. There is a shift from our self-centered desires to those that are Christ-centered. Victory over the flesh is promised. Notice that there is not a promise of war, but the promise of which side wins. When wars end between countries, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all fighting immediately stops. There are still going to be those isolated groups that will not surrender and will fight until the death. Sin and the desires of the flesh are never going to give up, they are going to keep fighting until the moment that we enter into the kingdom of heaven and are made perfect and the process of sanctification is completed. It is only by walking by the Spirit that we can be ready to defeat these forces of sin.
There are two questions that must be asked at this point about “walking by the Spirit.” The first question is how. How do you walk by the Spirit? We have all heard calls made by pastors before to something similar to this. How practically do you allow the Holy Spirit to control you? What do you have to do to allow this to happen? You rest on the promises of God. You rest on the fact that God has never, nor will He ever, fail to fulfill any promise that He have given to us. And He doesn’t just meet the bare minimum of a promise, He fulfills promises to a measure that is far beyond anything we could ever imagine or ask for. This should delight our hearts immensely. We just said that God has promised in His Word that if we are led by the Spirit then the desires of the flesh will be defeated.
The second question is what. What does walking by the Spirit look like? Now I want to say a word of caution before we look at what walking by the Spirit looks like. We have for us laid out from vv. 19-23 some lists. Now, lists are a great thing. They are very direct and help us immensely in our understanding. However, lists can sometimes be a dangerous thing when we look at Scripture. We have to be careful not to treat these lists given by Paul as checklists that are complete in-and-of themselves. We can’t treat these lists like children do with the Ten Commandments and keep score and their success or failure depends on which side has the majority. We have to dig much deeper than a simple surface reading of these lists. We have to get to what lies at the heart of each of these lists. There are many sinful behaviors that are not found on the “don’t” list that no one could argue are not sinful desires of the flesh.
Another problem is that some will use these lists to try and cast judgment on other people and other Christians. This wouldn’t help us to overcome our depravity, but actually deepen our decent into sin. This would cause us to abuse the very Word of God. Paul knows these two facts. He knows exactly how these lists can be abused. He has seen it with the law of the Old Testament. He has seen it in the Pharisees. He has seen it in his own life before his conversion. Paul, inspired by God, takes care to prevent us from abusing God’s Word and show us what “walking by the Spirit” looks like.
By calling the two lists “works of the flesh” and “fruit of the Spirit” Paul is making a clear distinction between the two. The term “flesh” here isn’t referring to the body, it is referring to the self-centered nature within us. The term is referring to that proud, self-promoting part of all of us that becomes magnified when God is absent within us. We know that the flesh is completely opposed to the Spirit, but what about the other words used here. What about “works” and “fruit?” Why did Paul use these words? Is it to convey effort vs. effortlessness? I don’t think so. Is it to convey earning something vs. being given something? A little closer, but still not there. You see, I think that it has to do with grace. The flesh knows nothing of grace. It views joy and satisfaction as things that are owed to it. It has an insatiable appetite for more. There is always something that it feels owed. That is why Paul uses the term “works.”
The mentality behind “fruit” is that of faith. When we walk by the Spirit, we see everything not as something that was owed to us, but as free gifts from a merciful and gracious God. We know that we are owed condemnation, but we get mercy. We know that all we have to pay is sin which earns us God’s wrath. But, in walking by the Spirit, we turn away from self-reliance. We turn from looking at the self and we look to Christ. We see that to not look only at the self produces the fruit of the Spirit, and not works of the flesh.
So let’s don’t get caught up in the specific vices and virtues on these lists. I don’t think that they are to be ignored completely, but I want us to see that the issue here is not the outward, expressed action, but the kind of heart that produces what is seen on the outside. Paul is very much aware of the war within and the promise given to those who walk by the Spirit. V. 24 tells us, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Paul has already told the church in Galatia of the promise of God that is found in Christ Jesus. This promise remains true for us today. Jesus Christ has defeated the flesh. He has fulfilled the law. He has conquered death itself. He has died, sacrificing himself, paying the price that is owed for our sins. He has made the payment to God on our behalf. All righteousness found in him is now made available to us. It is through him and him alone that we have hope of entering into the kingdom of heaven. But sin and the prince of darkness does not give up that easily. As long as there is an outside chance they are going to continue to fight. They are going to attempt to reclaim our hearts. They hope that one battle, one diagnosis, one event, one broken relationship, one painful addiction, one financial crisis, can cause your to fall and cause sin to win in your heart. But God promises us that if we are led by the Holy Spirit, then we will never completely fall. There may be times in our lives when we feel the foundation shaking, we see the walls cracking and the roof leaking, but the house will never cave in. We may lose our footing, slip, and fall, but we will be able to get up. Sin is real, and it is present. You and I alone do not have the power to defeat sin in our lives. We must call upon the power of someone else; someone much greater than you and I, someone who within Him exists nothing that is not pure and holy. We must call upon the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts; to transform us into people who bear the fruit of the Spirit and who above all else act out of love for God and for other people, and not out of love for self. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
