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Paul's letter to the Galatians hits its peak in the second half of chapter five, so I'm excited to have arrived here! This passage contains one of the verses I find most challenging in the whole Bible, so I hope this serves you well.

'But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.' (Galatians 5:16-26)

Paul says

Something which immediately stood out to me from the beginning of this passage is the way that Paul draws attention to his own authority: 'I say...' It's clear that Paul is demonstrating here a biblical attitude towards spiritual authority, that he perceives his voice as commanding authority over those in the Galatian churches. This is a theme which runs through this letter - it began with Paul stating that he was 'an apostle', and referred multiple times to Paul and the other apostles, as if they are to be submitted to. In modern-day society, leadership is often treated with suspicion and hostility. Leaders in the secular world tend to have got there by default, and often lord it over those in their care. Shamefully, leaders in the church are too often the same. The secular world tends to 'promote to incompetence' - I work hard and do well at my current job and so I get a promotion, so I am permanently kept in a state of not knowing enough to do my job well. Again, the church seems to copy this example.

But it does not have to be that way, and that is not God's plan. Paul's role as an apostle was an appointment made by God himself, and Paul expects those in his care to respect him, and to submit to him. The message here is for leaders, and for followers. Leaders: is your lifestyle one which ought to command respect and imitation? In other words, do you practise what you preach? The number of leaders in the modern church who commit adultery does my head in. We ought to look at John Piper, who is currently taking a break from his leadership role at his church to protect himself from pride, and to spend time with his wife. What an example to imitate! Followers: do you willingly and joyfully submit to your leaders? Or are you bitter and suspicious of their every thought and word? Do you gossip about every decision which is made? Come on, let's unite together to submit to our God-appointed leaders.

What you want

The crux of this passage, however, comes when Paul compares 'the works of the flesh' to 'the fruit of the Spirit'. Paul says that these are opposed to each other 'to keep you from doing the things you want to do'. This is complicated! This sounds like Paul's rant in Romans 7, and is something I'm sure we can all relate to. Deep down, if you're a Christian, you won't want to sin. Out of gratefulness to God for the free gift of forgiveness, peace and joy that he gives, it would be inconceivable to willingly go against what he wants...but we still sin. Paul explains that it has to be this way for one simple reason: we need to constantly be reminded of the fact that on our own, we can't do anything. The only possible way we can escape from sin is through Christ's sacrifice in our place. What grace!

But it doesn't just stop there. Paul drops this sentence in: 'those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires'. Have another look at that. If we are Christians (belong to Christ Jesus), then the flesh has been crucified. Therefore, the works of the flesh must be eradicated. This scares me - we must be radical in aggressively killing our sin. Jesus himself talked about literally gouging our eyes out, or chopping our hands off if they cause us to sin, and we must have that attitude! We sometimes laugh at Jesus' words here, but this is no laughing matter. The flesh must be crucified. Has yours?

Let us...

So, let's turn to this better way. Let's kill the desires of the flesh, and turn wholeheartedly to the Spirit to follow his leading. He directs us toward love, joy, peace, and the entire range of good gifts, but this goes back to where we started: it requires submission. Yes, we must submit to earthly spiritual leadership, but above all we must submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He is good, he is love, and he will never let us down. Let's commit ourselves to following the Bible's teaching, to listening for the voice of God as we pray, and to obeying those in spiritual authority over us.

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

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