Walk by the Spirit

When I wrote to the Galatians, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16), I was not laying a new burden on backs already bent. I had just set them free from the law as a way of being made right with God. So the question presses: if not the law, then what will keep me from the ditch? And here is the answer — not a rule pinned to the wall, but a Person given to dwell within you. The Spirit is not merely how you began; he is how you go on.

I will not pretend the walk is quiet. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other" (Galatians 5:17). There is a war in you, dear ones, and if you feel it, that itself is a sign the Spirit has come — the old self does not fight a house it already owns. So do not despair at the conflict; it is the mark of life. And notice how each side keeps its own company. The works of the flesh I named are plain enough — the sins of the bed and the bottle, yes, but look longer at the list: "hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions" (Galatians 5:20). Cold sins. The sins of the church that thinks itself respectable. These, too, shut the door of the kingdom.

Then set beside them the fruit — and mark that it is fruit, not works. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23). One fruit, many flavors, growing in its season out of a living root. You do not manufacture love by clenching your teeth; you abide in Christ and it comes, as apples come. "Against such there is no law" — no rule was ever needed to forbid too much kindness.

How, then? "They that are of Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24). It was done at the cross, and it is done daily in you: you refuse the old master its demands, you starve what once ruled you. And the last word is a step you can take before this hour is out: "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). You already live by him — now keep in step with him, one plain act of surrender at a time. Choose the patient word over the cutting one. Yield where you long to provoke. This is not law returning by the back door; it is Christ living out his own life in you. Grace and peace to you.