Spiritual Warfare: The Flesh Vs. The Spirit Series

Scripture: Galatians 5:16-18 Denomination: Other Summary: Galatians 5:16–18 introduces the passage by setting forth the nature of Spiritual Warfare between the flesh and the Spirit. In this we see 1) The Warfare Command (Galatians 5:16), 2) The Warfare Conflict (Galatians 5:17), and 3) The Warfare Caution (Galatians 5:18).

One of the most tragic elements of warfare is the event of collateral damage. Often in military operations, civilians are caught in the crossfire. Whether it is in Palestine or Iraq, civilians often get hurt between two fighting forces. Sometimes, one side, usually the weaker one, deliberately puts others in harms way in an effort to defend itself. It is truly tragic when someone is in the midst of a battle and does not realize it. They take no action to avoid the conflict and are unaware of the danger. Every one of us in smack dab in the middle of a battlefield. The weaker force of our flesh wages war against the Spirit. Although a defeated foe, the flesh will attempt to do as much damage to us as possible against the stronger force of the Spirit. In order not to be caught in the crossfire of the battle, we must realize that a battle rages and take appropriate measure. More simply, we may say that ‘the flesh’ stands for what we are by natural birth, ‘the Spirit’ what we become by new birth, the birth of the Spirit. And these two, the flesh and the Spirit, are in sharp opposition to each other. (Stott, J. R. W. (1986). The message of Galatians: Only one way (p. 146). Leicester, England; Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.) Having just shuddered to contemplate the possible ruin and annihilation of the Galatian churches through their unruly attacks on one another, Paul now moves on to describe the divinely appointed remedy for this grave dilemma (George, Timothy: Galatians. electronic ed. Nashville : Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c1994 (Logos Library System; The New American Commentary 30), S. 385) The remedy is rooted in understanding the problem. Just as Isaac and Ishmael were unable to get along, so the Spirit and the flesh are at war with each other. The battle will be lost if people seek an external set of laws to stop the conflict. The Law was designed to show the problem, not provide the solution. On the other end, the battle will also be lost if people seek to throw off all restraint and be a law unto themselves, to live however they feel at the moment, according to fleshly desire. The solution to the problem is to be ruled internally by the Holy Spirit. There can be no spiritual life unless the Spirit has first worked that life in the believer

1 Corinthians 12:3

“3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

And, on the other hand, where the Spirit is active in a person’s life, there will inevitably be spiritual life and a new spiritual nature.

John 3:6

“6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Do you struggle with focus? Do you find yourself being tempted and feel trapped? Are you dissatisfied in your holiness or find it difficult in knowing how to please God? God has provided a means of following him. Believers have the Holy Spirit of God inside them to convict of sin, guide on the path of righteousness, and empower them to do so. In its most profound yet simple definition, the faithful Christian life is a life lived under the direction and by the power of the Spirit.

That is the theme of Galatians 5:16–26

“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. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 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. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us als…”

The opening paragraph here in Galatians 5:16–18

“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.”

introduces the passage by setting forth the nature of Spiritual Warfare between the flesh and the Spirit. In this we see

1) The Warfare Command Galatians 5:16 “16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

2) The Warfare Conflict Galatians 5:17 “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.”

3) The Warfare Caution Galatians 5:18 “18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”

Having the Spirit control the Flesh in Spiritual Warfare means understanding:

1) The Warfare Command (Galatians 5:16)

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

Before we can understand the solution, we have to first understand the problem. What is Paul referring to in this text? Paul begins this text with a contrast “But/so”. This word ties in with verses 13–15. The strategy for removing the divisiveness that marred the Galatian church was to serve one another in love, but that too was humanly impossible. People cannot, in their own power, show love to all people at all times. But God has provided the means to meet his commands—the Holy Spirit. Believers are called to “walk by the Spirit” (pneumati peripateite). Paul uses the phrase “walk” thirty times in his other epistles as a favorite way to describe the Christian life. It shows action, direction, a goal, and in this verse a companion Guide along the way. Paul had earlier reminded the Galatians of how they received the Holy Spirit upon hearing him preach the message of Christ and his cross

Galatians 3:1–3

“1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

Here he was exhorting them to continue the walk they had begun on that occasion. If they continued to walk in the Spirit, they would not be halted by the fleshly appeals of the Judaizers, their own libertine tendencies, or the debilitating disputes within their churches. Although this is the only place in Galatians where the word “walk” is used in this sense, it is a common Pauline designation for one’s daily conduct or lifestyle. In its wider usage the Greek word means not only “to walk” in a general sense but “to walk around after someone or to walk in a particular direction.”

Illustration: For example, the students of Aristotle were known as the Peripatetics because of their habit of following the philosopher around from place to place as he dispensed his teachings. In Paul’s vocabulary, to walk in the Spirit or be led by the Spirit means to go where the Spirit is going, to listen to his voice, to discern his will, to follow his guidance

The fact that peripateo (walk) is presented here in

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

as a present tense/imperative indicates that Paul is speaking of continuous, regular action, in other words, a habitual way of life, to “keep on walking”. And the fact that the verb is also in the imperative mood indicates he is not giving believers an option, or suggestion, but a command To walk by/in the Spirit is to allow the Spirit to have His way. It is to remain in communion with Him. It is to make decisions in the light of His holiness. It is to be occupied with Christ, because the Spirit’s ministry is to engage the believer with the Lord Jesus. When we thus walk by/in the Spirit, the flesh, or self-life, is treated as dead. We cannot be occupied at the same time with Christ and with sin. t is more than mere guiding, more than mere pointing out the right way. It is a controlling influence. As William Hendrickson put it: “It is that constant, effective, and beneficent influence which the Holy Spirit exercises within the hearts of God’s children whereby they are being directed and enabled more and more to crush the power of indwelling sin and to walk in the way of God’s commandments, freely and cheerfully.

In Galatians 5:16

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

There is an important causal relationship. Paul does not give a second command in this verse, that believers should walk by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh. These “desires/lusts of the flesh”

(epithumei kata) refer to a yearning passion for. They include: yearning, wanting, craving, hungering, thirsting, and longing.

When a faithful believer walks by the Spirit, the result is that they will not gratify the desires of the flesh. What are those desires that Paul refers to? Though most often referring to an evil lust,

the word epithurnia can refer to a strong, compelling desire of any sort, good or evil.

This is expressed by the strongest negation possible in Koine Greek which utilizes the DOUBLE NEGATIVE with an AORIST SUBJUNCTIVE which means “never under any circumstances.

There are many things that are good in themselves. It is good to be married, have kids, work, eat and play. But if any of these things become an end in themselves, then we are no longer walking by the Spirit, for the Spirit has the end of glorifying God. We can too easily deceive ourselves and make our spouse, kids, work or recreation the main point of all we do. When these become defacto gods in our lives then we have taken what is good and make it a god.

In Romans 13, Paul shows the misuse of many good things in themselves as a warning:

Romans 13:13–14

“13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

• These two opposite behaviors are mutually exclusive, so that at all times in our Christian lives we are either walking by the Spirit or are functioning in fleshly desire, but never both at the same time. To walk by the spirit is to have a life that is Christlike, the saturation of a believer’s thoughts with the truth, love, and glory of the Lord and the desire to be like Him in every way. It is to live in continual consciousness of His presence and will.

Illustration: “Step By Step”

But how does the Spirit lead? Barbara C. Ryberg expressed it like this: “He does not lead me year by year Nor even day by day, But step by step my path unfolds; My Lord directs my way. Tomorrow’s plans I do not know, I only know this minute; But He will say, “This is the way, By faith now walk in it.” And I am glad that it is so, Today’s enough to bear; And when tomorrow comes, His grace Shall far exceed it’s care. What need to worry then, or fret? The God who gave His Son Holds all my moments in His hand And gives them, one by one”.

Having the Spirit control the Flesh in Spiritual Warfare means understanding:

2) The Warfare Conflict: (Galatians 5:17)

Galatians 5:17

“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.”

Along with many others in the New Testament, this verse makes it obvious that walking by the Spirit is not simply a matter of passive surrender. The Spirit-led life is a life of conflict, because it is in constant combat with the old ways of the flesh that continue to tempt and seduce the believer.

It should be noted that the flesh (Sarx) is the term Paul often uses to describe what remains of a person” after they are saved. It refers to unredeemed humanness, the part of a believer that awaits future redemption at the time of glorification.

Romans 8:23

“23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

Until then believers have a redeemed self.

Galatians 2:20

“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.”

Living in an unredeemed humanness, and that creates great conflict.

The flesh is that part of a believer that functions apart from and against the Spirit. It stands against the work of the Spirit in the believer’s new heart. The unsaved person often regrets the sinful things they do because of guilt and/or painful consequences, but they have no spiritual warfare going on within them, because they have only a fleshly nature and are devoid of the Spirit. The sinful things they do, though often disappointing and disgusting to them, are nevertheless consistent with their basic nature as an enemy of God

Romans 5:10

“10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

A child of His wrath

Ephesians 2:3

“3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

They therefore have no real internal conflict beyond whatever conscience may remain in their sinful state.

Things are different for believers. Paul himself, like every other believer, faced that constant struggle with the flesh, as he confesses in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 7:18–19

“18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”

Romans 7:21–24“21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

• So long as we remain in this present life, we never outgrow or transcend the spiritual conflict Paul was describing in this passage. There is no spiritual technique or second blessing that can propel the believer onto a higher plane of Christian living where this battle must no longer be fought. One of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is complacency, the temptation to imagine oneself invulnerable, and hence impervious, to the allurement of the flesh. Yet Paul’s words were addressed to the entire believing community. No Christians are so spiritually strong or mature that they need not heed his warning, but neither are any so weak or vacillating that they cannot be free from the tyranny of the flesh through the power of the Spirit. “In the battle between the forces of flesh and Spirit there is no stalemate, but the Spirit takes the lead, overwhelms, and thus defeats evil.”

It is only in the lives of believers that the Spirit can fight against the flesh, because it is only in believers that the Spirit dwells. At regeneration, the Holy Spirit removes the old nature and creates a new nature

Ephesians 4:24

“24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

2 Peter 1:4

“4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

There is a remaining element, called the flesh in scripture, that now wages war against this new nature.

Only a believer can truthfully say as Paul just said in:

Romans 7:22–23

“22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Only in believers are the unredeemed flesh and the Spirit living in the redeemed self opposed to each other, to keep believers from doing thing things that they want to do. Believers do not always do what they wish to do. There are those moments in every Christian’s experience when the wishing is present but the doing is not. The Spirit often halts our flesh desires, and the flesh often overrides the will that comes from the Spirit. It is no surprise that this frustrating conflict led Paul to exclaim:

Romans 7:24

“24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

• Although the Christian life is warfare, it is warfare in which victory is always possible. In His high priestly prayer Jesus spoke of the authority His Father had given Him “over all mankind” (“all flesh,” from sarx; John 17:2).

Unfortunately, some Christians have lost the tension between the human and the divine and have taught the idea suggested in such popular expressions as “Let go and let God.” Rightly used, such an expression can be helpful. If it is understood to mean letting go of one’s own resources and self-will and surrendering to God’s truth and power, the idea is scriptural. But if, as is often the case, it is unfortunately used to teach the idea that Christian living is little more than passive submission and yieldedness to God, it is contrary to all the militant terms and commands for great effort and commitment that pervade the New Testament (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 9:24–27; Heb. 12:1–3). As Paul instructed Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:3–4

“3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”

Any battle is lost if a participant does not know whom they are fighting or what the objective is. This principle is carried forward to other examples. Paul compares a faithful believer to an athlete who recognizes to what they must battle and with a particular objective:

1 Corinthians 9:24–27

“24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Likewise:

Hebrews 12:1–3

“1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

• Every believer has the indwelling power of God’s own Spirit to do battle with their own weak and sinful flesh, in order that they not do the things that they want to do/please their flesh.

Very well written with much care, love and concern for the person delivering it as well as the ones receiving it!

Illustration: Holy Spirit

At the close of World War II, two pictures appeared in a magazine showing a soldier in conflict with a tank. The first showed a huge tank bearing down on a tiny soldier, about to crush him. The picture was proportioned to show the odds involved when a foot soldier with a rifle faced a tank. The next picture showed what happened to that soldier’s odds with an anti-tank weapon, in his hands. This time the tank appeared to be shrunken in size and the soldier at least equal in size, if not a little larger. Without the power of God released in our lives, when in conflict with sin we are like an infantry soldier in the presence of a tank. We cannot do a thing. But by trust in the power of the living God at work in us, we can say no and make it stick. We can turn and begin to live as God intended us to live

Finally, having the Spirit control the Flesh in Spiritual Warfare means understanding:

3) The Warfare Caution (Galatians 5:18)

Galatians 5:18

“18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”

Please turn back to Romans 7

As a repeated warning to believers who were being influenced by the Judaizers, Paul added in Galatians 5:18, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. To live under the Law is to live by the flesh, even when one is not actually committing sin, because that is the only avenue available to the legalist. The flesh is powerless to fulfill the Law, and the Law is powerless to conquer the flesh. Rather as Paul explained in Romans 7:

Romans 7:8–11

“8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.”

• The solution to this problem, is not for people just to try harder to resist their own carnal desires.

Freedom comes in ways previously unsuspected: Jesus delivers from guilt

Romans 8:1

“1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

and the Spirit begins installing a new set of desires

Galatians 5:22–23

“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

which we have limitless permission to pursue. The law could condemn our misbehavior's, but was powerless to change them in any permanent way. We who are being led by the Spirit , walk the path that increasingly leads to the final and total escape from our lifelong plight. But how does the Spirit lead us? The surest way, of course, is through the precepts and principles of Scripture, the “sword of the Spirit”

Ephesians 6:17

“17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

Followed through, this command speaks of a way of living in which all aspects of life are directed and transformed by the Spirit.

Please turn forward to Romans 8

The Holy Spirit writes God’s Law on our hearts

Hebrews 10:14–17

“14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

2 Corinthians 3

“1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? 2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. 4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8 How shall not the ministration of the sp…” so that we desire to obey Him in love. “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy Law is within my heart”

In Romans 8:2

“2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Romans 8:2–4

“2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 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: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Romans 8:12–14

“12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 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. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Romans 8:26

“26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

• As already mentioned, the most effective way for a Christian to oppose the desires and deeds of the flesh is to starve them to death, to “make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts”

Romans 13:14

“14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

The surest way to fall into a sin is to allow oneself to be in situations where there is temptation to it. On the other hand, the safest way to avoid a sin is to avoid situations that are likely to pose temptations to it. A believer should “consider the members of [his] earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amount to idolatry”

Colossians 3:5

“5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

When our Lord told us to pray, “Do not lead us into temptation”

Matthew 6:13

“13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

He revealed that there is a part to sinful temptation that we must avoid.

A believer who is not actively involved in resisting evil and failing to seek to do good is not being led by the Spirit. A believer can accomplish nothing for the Lord in their own power, but, on the other hand, the Spirit can accomplish little through a believer apart from the believer’s submission and commitment. The opposite extreme of quietism is traditionally labelled “pietism,” in which a believer legalistically strives in his own power to do everything the Lord commands. In pietism, there is an overbalance on the side of discipline, self-effort, and personal diligence. The Christian life is not a matter of “All of Him and none of us,” as the popular saying has it; and it is certainly not a matter of all of us and none of Him. It is the balance of our yieldedness and commitment with the Spirit’s guidance and power

Philippians 2:12–13

“12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”