Coney Hill Baptist Church
Demonstrating God’s Love Together
Power to do God’s Will
Galatians 5:16-26
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature 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.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, 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 sinful nature with its passions and desires.
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.
Introduction:
It’s the Spirit who enables us to live well.
It’s the Spirit who helps us to make good choices.
It’s the Spirit who provides the strength to fulfil God’s plans for us.
None of those things are ever easy. There are always other options. This passage, classic Paul, sets out the issue boldly. There’s a battle going on, a conflict raging, an ever-present struggle within each one of us, or those of us who are Christians anyway – sometimes we’re conscious of it, more often we’re not. Will our lives be dominated by the Spirit or by what Paul calls here the ‘sinful nature’ – sometimes referred to, unhelpfully, as the ‘flesh’ what it is really is our untrammelled selfish desires.
We see it in children don’t we, and we feel it ourselves, although we become quite good at covering it up. We know what we should do, what we ought to do, what would be the right thing to do …. but, really, what we want, is to do something else.
It’s more than just a moral choice though, where what matters is just the accuracy of our conscience and the strength of our will, it’s the key to living closely with God. You know how some people talk about the closeness of their relationship with Him, how they can hear his voice and know His direction in their lives. Sometimes we think ‘wow’ if only we could be like them, our faith would be so much more ‘alive’. But it’s not about them at all – as we said last week, it’s about God in them.
The secret, if it is a secret is…
‘Living/Walking by the Spirit’ (v.16)
Being ‘led by the Spirit’ (v.18)
‘Keeping in step with the Spirit’ (v.25)
‘Living/Walking by the Spirit’ (v.16)
This ‘title verse’, if you like, of the whole passage, sums it up. To overcome that natural tendency towards selfishness requires ‘living by the Spirit’ instead.
But what does that mean? The slight confusion in the translation helps us…to live, to walk… the language here implies a couple of things:
Trust … like taking the first steps on a newly constructed bridge …. You need the confidence that it will take your weight, you can make the calculations, even watch others cross, but you will only really know when you take the first step yourself – that’s faith. Living by the Spirit is trusting in the Spirit’s strength to uphold you, believing in Him being there, yes, but allowing that belief to take your weight – confident that He will.
Travel … Living by the Spirit is a dynamic process. It implies movement, a journey. Trusting in the Spirit means never standing still. Growing spiritually, becoming more like Jesus, is what the Spirit is with you for.
There is a third element to the term to, to live by the Spirit implies a giving over to His authority, a submission to something/one other than ourselves.
This leads into the second description…
Being ‘led by the Spirit’ (v.18)
Verse 18 “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.”
The ‘if’ here is not a vague ‘might be’ or ‘on the off-chance that’ it’s more like ‘since’ …”because we are … led by the Spirit..” It assumes it. There’s a force about the guidance here that suggests this experience is not a mere possibility, or an option, but a reality. He stands ready to lead you.
But this leading, definite and available as it is, is not being ‘led by the nose’, it’s more an encouragement, a beckoning, guiding if you will.
So when we ask the question ‘How does God guide?’ We’re really asking to what extent am I prepared to let Him lead me. And chiefly, that’s about listening to His word.
Finally,
‘Keeping in step with the Spirit’ (v.25)
This last image expands the idea of living/walking/being led by the Spirit. Keeping in step means not only being directed and moving, but in a certain way, to a certain rhythm … to the beat of the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit then, so famous in this passage, are like the drumbeats to which we are called to match our steps. Like learning a dance … 1,2,3 … love, joy peace, … 1,2,3 … patience, kindness, goodness, … 1,2,3 … faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
The examples given here of the sinful nature are mostly deeds, specific actions, as we lumber from one thing to the next. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is all about character, what undergirds us – what really determines the way we dance… how we live.
Conc.
So how do we live? How do we get close to God and know and follow His way? How can we overcome our own seemingly insurmountable tendency to mess things up?
In His strength alone … let’s pray, with some words of Scripture…
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.”
(Eph 3:16-19)
Office Address:
Coney Hill Road
West Wickham
Kent
BR4 9BU