Walk in the Spirit

Galatians 5:16-26 — Christian Liberty: Walking in the Spirit

Having just given a warning to the Galatians about the dangers of strife which comes from living in either legalism or licentiousness, the Apostle Paul begins this section by giving more pointed, direct, and emphatic instruction, "I say, then, walk in the Spirit." Paul had instructed the Galatians in the last section "to serve one another" through love. If serving one another in love is the "what" of standing fast in Christian liberty, then walking in the Spirit is the "how."

In the first half of chapter 5, the Apostle Paul told Galatians to stand fast in Christian liberty by neither getting entangled in bondage to the law (Gal 5:1) nor in bondage to the flesh (Galatians 1:13). Being under the bondage of the Law only serves to agitate the flesh, “the sinful passions, which are aroused by the Law” (Romans 7:5), and ironically puts the believer in bondage to sin. The Law produces works, but God calls them dead works (Heb. 6:1).  While the Judaizers had told the Galatians that the Gospel gives license to sin. The Apostle Paul insists that the opposite is true. The flesh and its desires are agitated by the Law. Only through the Holy Spirit will the Galatians be able to “not carry out the desire of the flesh.” The flesh is at war with the Spirit and they are “contrary to one another” (Galatians 5:17). The Christian life cannot be lived under the Law but in being “led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:18).  

Being led by the Spirit gives the believer power to have victory over sin. The result is evident in "the fruit of the Spirit", which is marked by "love, joy, peace…” These are not different fruits but characteristics of the same fruit. This fruit is not produced by the believer but rather by the Holy Spirit.  How this fruit manifests itself requires no prohibitions, rules, or regulations (Galatians 5:23).

The Apostle Paul compares “the fruit of the Spirit” with the “works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19-21). In stark contrast to what the Christian life produces through the Spirit, being in bondage to the Law agitates the flesh and produces envy, jealousy, bitterness, etc. He strongly warns the Galatians not to live in sin, habitually indulging fleshly desire at the risk of “not inheriting the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21). This does not refer to one losing his salvation. Instead, it reveals that the person who lives continually in such abject moral corruption is not a child of God.  

To walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), to be led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:18), to live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25a), and to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25b) are all equivalent. All of these means that the believer ought to live the Christian life through the guidance and enablement of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The believer intentionally rejects the lusts of his flesh, his desires, and his will (cf. Matthew 16:24) to yield to the will of God revealed in His Word through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Prayer, spiritual disciplines, and Christian fellowship are of course also essential to allow the Holy Spirit to work through the life of the believer.

Law! Sin! Legalism! Licentiousness! The solution, the only solution, for the believer to please God is to “walk by the Spirit.”

Are you walking in the Spirit?