Galatians 5:13-26

Galatians 5:13-26
¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Too many Christians use their freedom as a license to sin.  They ignore God's standards and when conviction comes they confess but they don't repent and do it again and again.  Our freedom was not given to us to indulge in our wants and greeds, but to free us to serve.  Christians fighting among themselves destroys our testimony, but will destroy our ministry and eventually one another.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

These verses have never been more true to me then in the past two years since I started this blog.  Just a look at the dates of this blog and you can see when I was walking in the Spirit and when I was off on my own doing "more important" stuff.  When my life does not lineup with scripture, that's the last place I want to go because I know conviction lies there. 

The hymn TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS, has the phrase, "and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace".  This has proven true in my life.  When I do a daily Bible study and I am in the word regularly, the things I found so fascinating suddenly become unimportant in the light of pleasing God.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

To a different degree each of us may still struggle with one or two of these and that is something for you to continue working out with God as the Holy Spirit convicts.  If you have a lifestyle that matches any of these, I strongly suggest you examine yourself. 

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

When we accept Christ's payment for our sin the Holy Spirit comes to live within us.  The fruit he will bring forth in our lives is about.  One does not plant an apple seed and eat apples the next day.  The tree has to grow and over time...HIS TIME...we will bear fruit.  Each of these attributes should begin to show itself in varying degrees in our lives.  We need to continue to study and allow these to grown within our lives.


²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

I envision marching in formation here.  Think of a local parade.  Certain groups have no structure and they are just a mob going down the street.  But other groups are all left right in sync. Am I in sync with the spirit today?  Are you?

Conceit comes from pride.  If all the good things listed above are fruit of the Spirit, then they are not of me or you and therefore there is no place for pride.  Also there is no place for us to envy another person's walk or to criticize another for their slow progress.  The Spirit is the one controlling the process.

God Bless.