But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For 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. Galatians 5:16-17
Paul is saying that there is an active contradiction within us. We have our flesh and the Holy Spirit both vying for the cooperation of our will. How conscious do we need to be of this inner struggle? If our choices are involved don’t we need to be aware of and recognize the agendas of these opponents within? I believe it is helpful to have an awareness of our inner lives for the sake of being led by the Spirit. When Paul says, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law” he seems to be saying that we will be living either by the Spirit within or out of compliance to an external written code.
This is timely because I have found my flesh insistent of late, tempted to nurse hurt feelings into offenses, entertaining resentment and flirting with bitterness. Due to pervious expereince I knew early on in this most recent season that I was going to have to side with the Holy Spirit’s inner directives in order to work this out in my heart. It actually sounds easier than it is. Even though I knew the choices before me I had to die to this whole line of thought (focused around my rights) if I was to walk in the Spirit. This was not my first impulse.
My question: Was this fleshly side of my contradiction simply an outburst of my fallen sinful nature – wretched as always in its opposition to God? Or, was this a phantom impulse much like the amputee who feels his toes after his leg has been taken? Or, as a preacher friend proposed, “that God withdrew His presence from me, so as to remind me of my bankrupt status without Him.”
I also had input from a spiritual father. Spiritual fathers are rare indeed. They are those who walk in the Spirit along side us and our messy lives. They love by listening and responding from out of the Spirit’s work in their own lives. They do not talk doctrine so much as they talk of life in the trenches. They speak out of an earned and granted authority. They may or may not be graced with any title other than friend but the kingdom is being shaped by them. My friend offered some wisdom that has helped me to think about the dynamics of my own spirit / flesh contest.
While I was bent on thinking of the flesh as my nature, he encouraged me to abandon that idea. So, I loosened the bolts on my belief system and ask him to proceed. He suggested it would be better to think of the flesh as a seed bed that is filled with seeds that can be watered or not. Those seeds would be things that Paul is mentioning in our passage….
…..immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these….
As I was working out my contradiction, it was clear I could deliberately water the seeds that were trying to germinate or not. I asked my friend, “Then how should I respond when the flesh seeks to have its own way ?” He first told me what not to do. He said, “Don’t let yourself fall into either of the two classic errors in dealing with the flesh. First, don’t proactively start trying to uproot the weeds by developing an excessive focus on sin and making fresh resolutions to live righteously. He warned me that this would simply empower sin and create an ongoing and un-winable war. Note: Some plants grow more aggressively when you disturb the roots.
The other error would be to think that as new creations that we are above such skirmishes. This error would be born and sustained by pride. It would eventually lead to denial and religious pretense. The best council I received involved simply trusting that I was a new creation even in the presence of these assertions by my flesh. In short, battle the flesh by focusing on the Spirit.
Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
As we learn to respond to our flesh by staying focused on Jesus we will discover that out of our inner most being will flow….