24. Individual Practice - 5:16-24

Individual Practice - 5:16-24 “But I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall no way fulfil flesh’s lust.” (5:16)

[1] I will be brief about the five points that Paul summarizes in connection with walking in the Spirit. The Lord wants us to be overcomers, He has given us all the resources that are needed, and so He says, “If we take advantage of these resources we shall in no way fulfill fleshly lusts.”This is the first point.

“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these things are opposed one to the other, that ye should not do those things which ye desire …” (5:17)

[2] In the King James translation it says, “so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,”but that is a wrong translation. The new translation and other versions clearly show that. The point is that ‘ye should not do those things that ye desire.’What we really desire, according to the Spirit, according to the new nature, is opposed by the flesh, but it is not impossible, (as the KJV states), for we have the new nature connected with the Spirit: He will do those things that God asks, loving and serving one another, for example. So this verse is a description of the conflict between the flesh and the Holy Spirit, but also a new spirit in the believer connected with the new birth or the new nature while the flesh is still in us and thus there is this conflict.

“…but if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under law.” (5:18)

[3] This is the third point. We have now, through the Holy Spirit, a new leader. This is a proof for believers who are led by the Spirit. This is practical evidence that they are not under the Mosaic law. If we are under the Mosaic law, the rule given for man in the flesh, then the Spirit of God has nothing to do with this. However, we will see more about this in chapter 6:16, “As many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy.”

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, disputes, schools of opinion, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revels, and things like these” (5:19-21a)

[4] The fourth point of this new walk is connected with the contrast between the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Here Paul summarizes the works of the flesh. We have many lists of the works of the flesh in the New Testament, Romans 1:1-32, Mark 7:1-37, 1 Timothy 1:1-20 and 2 Timothy 3:1-17, for example. Here he gives also a list and we can divide it into four categories. The first category involving fornication, uncleanness and licentiousness has to do with sexual sins. The second category, idolatry and sorcery, has to do with false worship, including witchcraft. The third category contains eight points and has to do with social and personal relationships. These words are difficult to follow, for there are so many different translations of them. Hatred is mentioned here and there, as emphasis on enmity and strife in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, which is peace. The third category is envy, which is a special evidence of the flesh. We have to humble ourselves before the Lord. How easily some of these things are displayed among believers! Contentions are divisions, actions, or disputes, a word that is also used in Romans 16:17, where Paul says, “Consider those who cause division.”It is a work of the flesh, of forming schools of opinion, which is the idea of sects or denominations. These four categories summarize the works of the flesh over against the fruit of the Spirit.

“…as to which I tell you beforehand, even as I also have said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit God’s kingdom.” (5:21b)

If this happens to true believers, they are on a way that leads away from God’s kingdom. Here we see the kingdom of God in its future aspect. Let us not be confused (as some people are) in thinking that these works of the flesh can only be done by unbelievers. No. These things can be done by believers also, if and in the measure they give way to the flesh. We have seen in verse 17 the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit: if a believer lets the flesh have control, then these things will happen in his life. What Paul is saying is that at that moment they are on a pathway that will not lead to the inheritance of God’s kingdom. In another connection, Paul makes it very clear in many passages, that we are already in God’s kingdom today, and being there we understand immediately that these things cannot be tolerated. This is very obvious.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control …” (5:22-23a) This is a marked contrast with what has gone before. This is our new state, of course, in connection with the new nature, but under the control now of the Holy Spirit. There are not fruits, plural, there is onefruit, but it is a nine-fold fruit. It is wonderful to consider this fruit of the Spirit in its nine aspects. We have three categories. Love, joy and peace, in the first category; then longsuffering, kindness and goodness, in the second; and finally faithfulness, (or gentleness or fidelity) and meekness (a quality which controls the thought) and self-control, in the last. These three categories together are the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit. This is what God would like to see in our lives, individually and collectively. Paul says, almost in irony, “Against such things there is no law.”Here the question comes, “Do we cultivate this fruit?”Well, how can we do this? We have to learn many lessons with regard to the flesh. In the flesh there is no good (that is confirmed in many Scriptures in the New Testament) and God has condemned it. The positive point in verse 24 is that this fruit bearing is done by faith. In the power of the Holy Spirit we cultivate these qualities, we overcome, as we have mentioned earlier. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall in no way fulfill fleshly lusts”(verse 16). This is how to live victoriously. These points connected with the walk in the Spirit are really to help us to live lives of spiritual victory, to be overcomers. In this kind of atmosphere the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in us, and this is in the context of love, as we saw earlier (John would say, ‘first love’). All this goes together with practicing radical self-judgment, on an ongoing basis.

“…against such things there is no law.” (5:23b)

[5] This fifth point goes all together with this last matter of walking in the Spirit, living as overcomers, and then producing the fruit of the Spirit. This is Paul’s conclusion in verse 25. If we live by the Spirit (if: that is, what we are positionally), then let us walk by the Spirit in practice. We will see seven points in connection with this walking in step with each other.

“But they that are of the Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts.” (5:24)

“They that are of the Christ”is a precious expression. I have spoken about privileges and I have also mentioned that privilege goes together with responsibility. These people have crucified the flesh, not only positionally, but experimentally. This is the application of what they have learned. I want to refer to chapter 2 where Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ”(verse 20). There we see the identification with Christ. No longer live I but Christ lives in me, but in that I now in live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”It is a wonderful identification through the cross of Christ.

We have seen in chapter 5:11 a reference to the stumbling block of the cross being done away if Paul would still preach circumcision. There are also in chapter 3 a couple of references to the cross where Paul presented Christ as crucified, in verses 1 and 13, “O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you; to whom, as before your very eyes, Jesus Christ has been portrayed, crucified among you?”and “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”There are many references to the cross in this book and later in chapter 6 we will see another very important reference. We will see how, through the cross of Christ, we are crucified. The cross of Christ is mentioned in verses 12 and 14, “Far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.”How important the cross is in this book! In that sense we are of the Christ. Through this identification with Him as crucified we now live with Him. It is a wonderful link we have, the link of intimacy through faith in the Lord Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One, the One in whom God has found all His delight, this is the One in whom we have found all our delight and from whom we draw all our resources. If we deviate from this we lose the benefit of the resources that we have in Christ. This was the challenge at the beginning of this chapter.