OUR FATHER WHOSE SPIRIT IN US BRINGS FORTH FRUIT OF LOVE, JOY AND PEACE

In Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 - 26, the apostle Paul gives a presccription to believers walk in the Spirit as the way to bypass the lusts of the flesh. Believers have two modes; Walking in the flesh or Walking in the Spirit.  

To walk in the flesh is our default mode and even when we are born-again, we can persist in the life of the flesh where our identity remains centered around our fallen nature. This mode yields adultery, fornication, uncleaness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery. hatred, contentions, jealousies, wrath, selfish desires, ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkeness, revelries and other forms of short-sighted and selfish behaviour.

Believers, however, can practice living in the spirit where the center of their identity is their born-again spirit and in that mode, they walk according to the promptings and guidance of the Spirit of God. 

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are  evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Paul, having urged the believers in Galatia to center their identities on their new spirit, gives a warning about living in the Spirit because life in the Spirit can cause us to become conceited as we find ourselves becoming more bouyant in life due to the blessings of walking in the Spirit and Paul encourages us not to compare ourselves with one another in our spiritual growh which can lead us to showboating in order to prompt each other to envy us and we ourselves can be led into envying others.

Amen.

1