Walking In the Spirit Lesson 3
Gal 5:16-18
The Galatian readers of this letter wanted to be under the law (4:21) as a way to attain spiritual perfection (3:3). But their preoccupation with keeping the law did not lead them to spiritual perfection. On the contrary, their bondage to the law produced a competitive, angry, judgmental spirit. Paul warns them of the results of their bondage to the law: If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other (v. 15). These words are often taken as a description of the libertine tendencies of the Galatians, who are destroying each other by indulging the passions of their sinful nature. But note the similarities between this description and Paul’s description of himself before his conversion. When he was competing against his fellow Jews to advance beyond them in his zealous devotion to the traditions of Judaism (1:14), he was persecuting and trying to destroy the church (1:13). Paul knew from his own experience that zealous devotion to keep the law can accompany and even intensify destructive attitudes toward the church. When he saw the Galatian believers biting each other in their criticism and chewing each other up in their negative reports, he was reminded of his own attacks on the church during the time in his life when he was most zealous to keep the law. When churches define their purpose in terms of law observance, they need to watch out or they will be destroyed by a competitive, critical, judgmental spirit.
The tragic irony of the Galatians’ situation was that the more they came under bondage to keep the law, the more they violated the basic moral standard of the law: love your neighbor as yourself. Paradoxical as it may seem, that standard is only fulfilled in the lives of those who resist slavery under the law (v. 1) and serve as slaves in love to others (v. 13). Freedom in Christ is freedom to love.
Freedom by the Spirit (5:16–18) The attempt of the Galatian believers to attain spiritual perfection by keeping the law had ended in failure. Their churches were torn apart by conflict: they were “biting and devouring each other” (v. 15). Obviously their devotion to the law had not enabled them to be devoted to each other in love. And since they did not love each other, they were breaking the law. Where could they find the motivation and power to resolve their conflicts and renew their love for each other? Many Christians are asking the same question today. They are members of Bible-teaching churches torn apart by conflict. What went wrong? How can they be so devoted and yet so divided? How can they be empowered to really love each other?
Paul’s answer is the Spirit of God. So I say, live by the Spirit (v. 16). The command live by the Spirit is the central concept in Paul’s ethical appeal. Since the Christian life begins with the Spirit (3:3; 4:6, 29), the only way to continue the Christian life is by the power of the Spirit.
The Galatian believers began their Christian life by receiving the Spirit (3:2–3), but they soon turned to the law to direct their lives. They probably felt that observance of the law was the way of life that would establish their identity and guide their behavior as the people of God. By turning to observance of law as their way of life, however, they were denying the Spirit’s sufficiency to identify them as the people of God and to direct their conduct. Paul’s references to the Spirit in chapters 3 and 4 assure his readers that their experience of the Spirit has clearly established their identity as the true children of Abraham and as the children of God. In this section (5:13–6:10) his references to the Spirit express his confidence that the Spirit is more than adequate to direct their moral behavior. The Spirit is the best guarantee of Christian identity and the only sure guide for Christian behavior. The Spirit is the only source of power to love in a way that fulfills the whole law
In verse 17 Paul explains the basis of his confidence in the Spirit. He describes the war between the flesh and the Spirit and the result of that war. The Spirit and the sinful nature are two hostile forces opposed to each other: the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other. So walking by the Spirit (v. 16) means fighting in a war between the Spirit and the sinful nature (v. 17*). The connection between verse 16 and verse 17 indicates that those who live by the Spirit are not neutral in this war. They are committed to fight on the side of the Spirit against the desires of the sinful nature.
Freedom from Evil (5:19–21) So far Paul has talked in general terms about life in the Spirit. He has assured his readers that the Spirit will enable them to resist the desires of their sinful nature. What the law cannot do for them, God will do by the work of his Spirit in them. But he realizes that the Galatians are attracted to the law because it gives them specific moral guidelines that they can apply to their practical problems. After all, the Jewish law teachers were renowned for their ability to develop applications of the law for every conceivable situation. There seems to be a sense of moral security in such well-defined codes of conduct. In comparison, Paul’s command to “live by the Spirit” seems to leave everything up in the air. How can they know they are not gratifying the desires of their sinful nature if the behavior of the sinful nature is not defined? How can they know what life in the Spirit is like if it is not defined?
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious, Paul says (v. 19*). His point may be that while the “desires of the sinful nature” (vv. 16–17) are hidden, the acts produced by those desires are public, plain for all to see. So an evaluation of our outward behavior makes it easy to see if we are gratifying the hidden desires of our sinful nature. But since some of the acts listed also refer to inward attitudes of the heart (for example, hatred, selfish ambition and envy), the word obvious is probably not drawing a contrast between hidden attitudes and public acts. Instead Paul seems to be emphasizing that the Galatians do not need the Mosaic law to define the nature of evil. Since he has just told them that they are not under the supervision of the law (v. 18), it would be strange if he now turned to the law for moral instruction. In fact, he does not do that; he does not describe the acts of the sinful nature as transgressions of law. His list of vices is similar to many lists in the ethical teaching of the Greeks and Romans of his day. Pagan philosophers often published lists of vices and virtues. So when Paul says that the acts of the sinful nature are obvious, he means that all of us already know what is evil when we see it.
His list gives a representative sampling of commonly recognized vices. At the end of the list he says and the like to indicate that his list is not meant to be comprehensive; it is merely typical of the things that were widely viewed to be contrary to high moral standards. The huge difference between Paul and his contemporary pagan philosophers is not the content of the list of vices but the context: Paul gives the list in a context that offers the way to freedom from these vices; the pagan moralists were not able to offer any such solution to the rampant immorality of their day.
Paul’s use of the word acts (literally “works”) connects this list to his frequent reference in this letter to the “works of the law.” They are not one and the same, of course. But the tragic irony of the situation is that while the Galatian believers are trying so hard to do the “works of the law,” they are actually producing “works of the flesh” (NIV: acts of the sinful nature). This is another way of saying again that the law has no power (as the Spirit does) to overcome the destructive influence of the sinful nature.
Paul’s list of fifteen acts of the sinful nature can be divided into four categories: (1) illicit sex, (2) religious heresy, (3) social conflict and (4) drunkenness.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
19 Now, the effects of the corrupt nature are obvious: illicit sex, perversion, promiscuity,
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
19 The cravings of the self-life are obvious: Sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, pornography
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Jesus’ disregard for the laws concerning unclean and clean foods is carried over to his treatment of persons. When Jesus sits at table with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:15–17; Luke 15:1–2), he provokingly rejects the boundary between what is unclean and what is clean.
Given Jesus’ radically new understanding of reality and his conduct resulting therefrom, it is no wonder that many of his opponents regarded him as one possessed by an unclean spirit (Mark 3:30; K. Hübner 1985).
The transformation of the concept of cleanness from the cultic to the ethical level comes to clearest expression in Matt 5:8.
an unbridled expression of sexual urges