Galatians 5:16–18 (ESV) — 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Last week, we saw how believers are a battlefield, with both flesh and the Spirit warring within them. This helps us understand why Paul’s exhortations that we walk in the Spirit and are led by the Spirit are of such importance (16, 18). If the true you wants to follow God, but you have an adversary within that wants to rebel, then feeding and nurturing the Spirit within will lead to victory. That’s how Paul said it when he promised that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh (16). This means that a significant source of victory and freedom in the Christian life comes when we focus on nurturing our spiritual life. Paul does not tell us to stop obeying the flesh. He does want us to stop that, but he wants us to focus our energies on walking in and being led by the Spirit. When we are in the Spirit, we won’t obey the flesh; that’s God’s promise here. Scripture does encourage us to focus on the deeds of the flesh in an attempt to cut them off. But we’ll never be successful without the Spirit’s power. For instance, Paul said, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). This means we should, without shame and condemnation, analyze our fleshly desires and sinful impulses, and then seek to remove them with the Spirit’s help. And we should be aggressive. Paul said we must “put to death…what is earthly in you” (Col. 3:5). Like gardeners who weed out the bad and nurture the good, the Spirit will help us identify the flesh and unroot it from our lives. But the promise here in Galatians is that when we focus on life in the Spirit—life according to the new nature God has given us—we win. Walk in the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the desires of the flesh. Victory comes.
Walk in the Spirit
Let’s finish this chapter thinking about what it means to walk in and be led by the Spirit. If it is such a key to our flourishing, we should know how to do it. To walk indicates a long, step-by-step journey. It is a procedural word. It isn’t fast or slow but steady and constant. It speaks of the need to submit to the Spirit (and portrays life in the Spirit) every day. It has less to do with guidance for daily decisions and more to do with a life that is completely reformed by God. As Paul said, “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit… life and peace” (Rom. 8:5-6). I would like to go back to the word for the Spirit Paul used here—pneuma. It could mean wind, breath, or air. This imagery is perfect because it is useful for understanding how divine energy mixes with human responsibility. If you went out to the bay to watch sailboats, you would see human responsibility. You would see sails that someone put up, ready to catch the wind. The sailboat is not powered by human energy but by the wind. In like manner, there are actions we can regularly do that set the sails for God’s Spirit to drive us along in the new life he has designed for us. Theologian Trevin Wax calls these “subversive habits” in that they undermine the desires of the flesh. [1] Let’s consider a few of the subversive habits he suggests. The big three are worth mentioning but probably don’t need much elaboration because we talk about them often: prayer, Bible study, and church attendance. There is a lot of biblical weight and current data attesting to the importance of all three habits in the believer’s life. Can they be done legalistically to attempt to earn God’s favor? Yes. But are they actually meant to be sails for the wind of the Spirit to fill the believer’s life? Absolutely. When engaged with the right heart, they greatly reduce the tendencies of the flesh and give the Spirit tools to work with. But are there other ways to “walk in” or be “led by” the Spirit? Wax offers three people as examples. First, consider a man who finds his identity in his career. Rather than merely meditating on Scripture, he could memorize and study passages about wealth and the desire for power. Or rather than work hard all seven days of the week, he could set a boundary around a weekly Sabbath day to cut off the flesh and give the Spirit space to breathe. Or consider a woman who is addicted to politics. She would do well to establish routines where she does not read, watch, or listen to any news until after she has meditated deeply on Scripture. She would do well to limit how much politically-oriented content she consumes. She could pray for popular politicians from all sides to engender love for those she disagrees with. Or she could prioritize eating meals with people of different political perspectives. Or consider a young man who is prone to video game addiction. He could make a plan for moderate game usage and tell a few Christian friends or a pastor about his commitment. He could decide that each day must end with reading a psalm instead of being on a screen until his eyelids are forced shut. He could volunteer to serve in the community to change his focus and story. Or he could keep a daily journal to honestly catalog his time—forcing himself to see if he spent too much of the day playing games. Practices like these can help us in our quest to walk in and be led by the Spirit, keeping us from fulfilling the desires of the flesh. We can create them by thinking through our temptations and building practices that counteract them. Addicted to social media? Silence and solitude. Bitter and angry? Gratitude journal. Lazy? Serve others. As I said, we are in a war, and we are a battleground. Therefore, Paul tells us to walk by and be led by the Spirit (18). It is a decision Paul put to the Galatians—and puts to us. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Alone in the wilderness for forty days without sustenance, Jesus endured the most brutal of direct assaults from Satan. Alone on the cross, Jesus never flinched in submission to any selfish desires or temptations. And when Jesus rose from the dead, he brought with him a newness of life for anyone who believes in him. So the Spirit of Christ births in us a new nature, one responsive to his leading, making us more like Jesus. But the old desires still linger within us, awaiting their final execution at Christ’s return. Because we are influenced by both the newness of the Spirit and the oldness of the flesh, it is wise for us to pursue, feed, walk in, and be led by the Spirit. He reforms us. He guides us. And he makes us look more like Jesus than our selfish desires when we submit ourselves more and more to God’s Spirit.
[1] Wax, Trevin. 2020. “The ‘Subversive Habits’ Approach to Changing Your Primary Story.” The Gospel Coalition (blog). January 27, 2020. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/the-subversive-habits-approach-to-changing-your-primary-story/.
