WALK BY THE SPIRIT
Galatians 5
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Paul now helps us to understand the full picture: The danger of freedom is that it can be abused; the remedy is to walk by the Spirit.
Paul uses many phrases to describe the whole process: walk by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, live by the Spirit. They all point to us allowing the Spirit to shape our lives.
Our lives are normally shaped by our minds that will inform our will and determine our choices. So how can we allow the Spirit into this whole process? Paul, in Romans 12, has this to say: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Simply put, we need to re-educate our mind by choosing to listen to the Spirit rather than to the world.
Obviously this is a slow and long process because we cannot wipe our minds and renew it in an instant. Choosing to listen to the Spirit rather than to the world is a daily grind; small steps, rather than a giant leap.
How can we listen to the Spirit? We let the Word teach us. Paul, in 2 Timothy 3, writes, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Scripture is the training manual of the Spirit for us.
There is another area that we need to be aware of: We can bypass the mind and directly influence our will. The flesh—our desires, habits, fears, prejudices and even obsessions—can push the mind away and dominate the will. In fact, when we walk by the Spirit, the conflict with our Spirit-led mind will intensify. Paul writes, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”
When we choose to become a Christian, Christ receives our prayer to be rescued from our enslavement to sin and frees us; he now calls us to defend this freedom and choose to walk by the Spirit. As we freely choose to walk by the Spirit, in time our inner self will be re-aligned. In the meantime we fight the good fight in our daily choices.
This is where freedom comes into play. Freedom gives space for the mind to do its work and regain its rightful place in our lives. In this conflict, we can now choose to be led by our mind rather than be dominated by our flesh. An unthinking Christian is a misnomer.
Why is freedom so important? It is because God is not interested in replacing one form of slavery with another, even if we become slaves who can do no wrong. Right from the start, God created us free; unfortunately we chose to listen to the devil and were enslaved. Now, in Christ, God has set us free so that we can once again choose. We can now learn to choose to walk with him. This time, however, our failure does not bind us but instead we find forgiveness in Christ; this is where Law is inferior to the Gospel. And so we can learn, step by step, day by day, to choose to listen to the Spirit rather than to the flesh, to embrace the fruit of the Spirit and repudiate the works of the flesh.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”