Galatians 5:16–18 (ESV) — 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 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. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

What? Who?

What Is The Flesh?

When I was a boy, it took my family a little while to realize that I'm left-handed. Babies don't come with instruction manuals, so they had no way of knowing. But one of my earliest memories is of an interchange with my paternal grandfather. He had bought me my first baseball glove, but since it was for right-handed throwers, it sat on my left hand. But when they threw me a ball, I would both catch and throw with it my gloved left hand. I think I remember the moment because of my dad's excited response—I think he immediately began dreaming that I would be the next Sandy Koufax, the next great left-handed pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers! Once we all figured out my handedness, everything else made more sense. Soon, I was writing, playing sports, and eating with my left hand.

In a similar way, once we come to terms with the dynamics of the flesh and Spirit within us, other elements of life fall into place. Soon, the basic disciplines of the Christian life become clear because we realize our need for them and why we often resist them.

So what is the flesh? It comes from the Greek word sarx. It can mean the body, including bodily appetites, but Christians developed it to mean a bit more than that. Many translations render it "sinful nature," which helps us understand Paul's meaning. Paul wasn't thinking of the body versus the Spirit or the physical realm versus the spiritual realm. Instead, Paul thought of the flesh as the "sin-desiring aspect of our whole being as opposed to the God-desiring aspect."[^1] In the New Testament, it is used to denote how even our most charitable and best desires are stained and tainted by underlying sinful ones.[^2] It is the part of every Christian that is not yet renewed by God's Spirit. It can be understood as "any mindset, action, and attitude that is not led by the Spirit."[^3]

The flesh seems to be that remnant part of us that we inherited from Adam. And it still pulls at us against the desires of God.

Who Is The Spirit?

But who is the Spirit Paul speaks about here? The word Paul used in Greek is the word pneuma. At its base level, it means wind, air, or breath. But Paul attributed this word to the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit behaves like the wind in that you cannot see him, but you can see his effect on a person submitted to him. He is like air in that he is the one to give us spiritual oxygen while we live in a broken world. He is like breath in that just as God breathed life into Adam, he also breathes in everyone who believes the gospel, awakening them to life with God. These are appropriate ways to think of the Spirit because, in Paul's usage here, the Spirit is meant to convey that part of us that is alive to God.

So the flesh is the part of us that is yet unrenewed, still pulled in rebellion against God, and the Spirit is the new heart, nature, and life that we receive when we believe the gospel.

Paul majors on the Spirit in this ethical section of Galatians. He will mention the Spirit seven times by name. This new focus is appropriate because Paul has made it clear that Christians are not under the law (18). But if we aren't under the law to guide us, how did the early church produce so many beautiful lives? How did such power and holiness come to exist among them? What standard did they follow? How could Paul say, in another place, that he worked harder than anyone for God without being a legalist (1 Cor. 15:10)?

Paul has already told us that it is the law of love that now drives us, but here we learn who authors this love—the Holy Spirit of God. When our lives are submitted to him, he makes us like Jesus, and Jesus is love, so we become loving. So we aren't led by the law anymore, but love—and love grows within us as we walk and are led by the Spirit (16, 18).

War

Desires

So believers have both the Spirit and a flesh, a renewed nature and a sinful one, warring within them. Paul was clear about this here. He said that 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 (17). This conflict is a fact of the Christian life, and it will not abate until our hope of righteousness comes with Jesus (Gal. 5:5).[^4]And this battle is recognized here as fierce.[^5] The flesh and the Spirit have incompatible desires which means the Christian is a battleground.

What this all means is that "Christians should not think that they have the choice to do whatever they want; whether conscious of it or not, their actions at every point are governed by the flesh or the Spirit."[^6] We are far from autonomous individuals with complete self-control. Instead, the Bible presents us here as under pressure from evil while being pulled by the Spirit.

In the next passage in Galatians, we will consider just what the flesh and the Spirit are trying to produce, but notice here that both have desires of their own (17). We will soon discover that the flesh desires for us to sin in the realm of sex, practice our own religious forms, contribute to a chaotic society, and give in to the abuse of substances, to name a few (Gal. 5:19-21). But the Spirit has desires of his own, namely to produce love in us, but this love leads to a life that looks suspiciously like Jesus—joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (22-23).[^7]

The news that you are a battleground might at first discourage you, but there are reasons to be immensely encouraged by it. First, this is far better than the alternative. Before Christ came to rescue us, we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). In a sense, there was no battle at all because we only had a sinful nature to work with.

This isn't to say that people without God never face a moral conflict within. But the Christian is under even more pressure because of the presence of both the flesh and the Spirit. And when we did want something better or healthier than our addictions and sins, even those better and healthier desires were driven and tainted by our sinful nature. But when Jesus gives us new life, hope is born. Yes, there is a battle, but at least there is a battle. We don't have to be merely annihilated by sinful desires anymore.

Second, this battle is evidence of the Christian life and experience. "We should not become discouraged and think that we aren't Christians if we are engaged in a struggle against sin." When Paul describes this war between the flesh and Spirit, he describes the normal Christian life. "It is [a life] not marked by perfection, but war."[^8]

Temptation is not the problem; it's what you do with it that is problematic. As James said, "Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire" (Jas. 1:14). These are words one would use to describe setting a trap or bait. Temptation uses our own desires to try to bring us into defeat. But temptation—and the flesh's desires—are a fact of life.

James went on to say, "Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin" (Jas. 1:14). He means that there is a gap between the temptation and the conception of desire that births sin. Again, temptation is normal, but what will you do with it is the issue?

James finished, "And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death" (Jas. 1:15). When temptation can lock harmful desires in as our practice, moral, spiritual, psychological, relational, and (sometimes even) physical death come. But this battle with temptation is not evidence that we aren't Christians. You might even say it is a specifically Christian conflict.

Deepest Desires

Paul said that this war within keeps you from doing the things you want to do (17). Does he mean that we live in a constant middle ground as Christians, that we never fully obey the flesh or the Spirit, so we never do what we completely want to do in either direction? Is this his way of describing a torn individual, a tormented soul that will never experience satisfied desire?

Romans can shed some light on this for us. There, Paul said, "I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members" (Rom. 7:22-23). What this and many other passages like it tell us is that the New Testament vision of Christians is that we are so completely remade by God that our truest new self wants to obey God.

But there is another principle—the flesh!—within us that wars against our deepest desires. This logic is right in line with the already, not yet truths of Christianity. I am already saved, righteous, and in the kingdom, but I have not yet fully experienced that salvation, righteousness, or kingdom. And we are already new but not yet free of old desires. But, in God's sight and mind, the true you wants to follow and obey him.

Walk

The Right Focus

All this helps us understand why Paul's exhortations that we walk in the Spirit and are led by the Spirit are of such importance (16, 18). If the true you wants to follow God, but you have an adversary within that wants to rebel, then feeding and nurturing the Spirit within will lead to victory. That's how Paul said it when he made the promise that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh (16).

What this means is that a major source of victory and freedom in the Christian life comes when we focus on nurturing our spiritual life. Paul does not tell us to stop obeying the flesh. He does want us to stop that, but he wants us to focus our energies on walking in, being led by the Spirit. When we are in the Spirit, we won't obey the flesh; that's God's promise here.

Scripture does encourage us to focus on the deeds of the flesh in an attempt to cut them off. It's just that we'll never be successful without the Spirit's power. For instance, Paul said, "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" Romans 8:13). This means we should, without shame and condemnation, analyze our fleshly desires and sinful impulses, and then seek to remove them with the Spirit's help.

And we are to be aggressive in this endeavor. Paul said we must "put to death...what is earthly in you" (Col. 3:5). Like gardeners who weed out the bad and nurture the good, the Spirit will help us identify the flesh and unroot it from our lives.

But the promise here in Galatians is that when we focus on life in the Spirit— life according to the new nature God has given us—we win. Walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. Victory comes.

Walk In The Spirit

Let's spend the rest of our time thinking about what it means to walk in and be led by the Spirit. If it is such a key to our flourishing, we should know how to do it. To walk indicates a long, step-by-step journey. It is a procedural word. It isn't fast or slow but steady and constant. It speaks of the need to submit to the Spirit (and life in the Spirit) every day. It has less to do with guidance for daily decisions and more to do with a life that is completely reformed by God. As Paul said, "Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit...[which is] life and peace" (Rom. 8:5-6).

This is where I would like to go back to the word for the Spirit Paul used here—pneuma. I said it could mean wind or breath or air. This imagery is perfect because it is useful for understanding how divine energy mixes with human responsibility. If you went out to the bay to watch sailboats, you would see human responsibility. Sails are up, ready to catch the wind, and someone put them up. The sailboat is not powered by human energy but by the wind.

In like manner, there are actions we can do on a regular basis that set the sails for God's Spirit to drive us along in the new life he has designed for us. Theologian Trevin Wax calls these "subversive habits" in that they undermine the desires of the flesh.[^9] I would like to consider a few of the subversive habits he suggests today.

The big three are worth mentioning but probably don't need much elaboration because we talk about them often. They are prayer, Bible study, and church attendance. There is lots of biblical weight and current data attesting to the importance of all three habits in the life of the believer. Can they be done legalistically as a way to earn God's favor? Yes. But are they meant to be sails for the wind of the Spirit to fill in the life of the believer? Absolutely. When engaged in with the right heart, they greatly reduce the tendencies of the flesh and give the Spirit tools to work with. But are there other ways to "walk in" or be "led by" the Spirit?

Wax holds out three people as examples. First, consider a man who finds his identity in his career. Rather than merely meditate on Scripture, he could memorize and study passages that talk about wealth and the desire for power. Rather than work hard all seven days of the week, he could set a boundary around a weekly Sabbath day as a way to cut off the flesh and give the Spirit space to breathe. Or when he makes his plans, he could think harder about how to be generous and build relationships because an overemphasis on business building is his natural temptation.

Or consider a woman who is addicted to and sees most of life through the prism of politics. She would do well to establish routines where she does not read, listen, or watch any news until after she has meditated deeply on Scripture. She would do well to set limits on how many politically oriented podcasts, news outlets, and social media accounts she consumes. And she could pray for popular politicians from all sides as a way to engender love for people with whom she disagrees. Or she could prioritize eating meals with people of different political perspectives. She could also get more engaged with foreign missions as a way to get outside her current political bubble.

Or consider a young man who is prone to video game addiction. He could make a plan for moderate video game usage and tell a few Christian friends or a pastor about his commitment. He could decide that each day must end with reading a psalm so that he resists the temptation to be on a screen until his eyelids are forced shut. He could volunteer to serve somewhere in the community as a way to change his focus and story. He could keep a daily journal as a way to honestly catalog his time—forcing himself to see with his own eyes if he spent the too much of the day playing games.

Practices like these can help us in our quest to walk in and be led by the Spirit, keeping us from fulfilling the desires of the flesh. We can create them by thinking through our temptations and building practices that counteract them. Addicted to social media? Silence and solitude. Bitter and angry? Gratitude journal. Lazy? Serve. As I said, we are in a war, we are a battleground, so we are told by Paul to walk by and be led by the Spirit (18). It is a decision Paul put to the Galatians—and puts to us.

Conclusion

In the Old Testament, Samson was uniquely empowered by God's Spirit. Set apart by God from his birth, he became a heroic deliverer of God's people. But for as strong the Spirit was in Samson's life, he always battled with the desires of the flesh. It all culminated for him in a relationship with a forbidden woman named Delilah. She enticed him day after day in an attempt to find the secret of his strength, all with the intention of reporting it directly to Israel's enemies. For a while, Samson danced around the truth. But one day, he caved, told her the secret to his strength, gave himself completely to her, and was captured.

Samson vexed his soul by putting himself in harm's way time and time again. Rather than flee so he could walk in the Spirit, he stayed in environments that would torment him, hinder his progress, and inevitably enslave him. It would have been better for Samson to acknowledge the power of temptation in his life, to himself, to God, and to others, than to keep throwing himself into places that would inflame his lusts. Had he walked in the Spirit, he would not have gratified the desires of the flesh.

Fortunately, a better than Samson has arrived. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Alone in the wilderness for forty days without sustenance, Jesus endured the most brutal of direct assaults from Satan. And alone on the cross, Jesus never flinched in submission to any selfish desires or temptations. And when Jesus rose from the dead, he brought with him a newness of life for anyone who believes in him. So the Spirit of Christ births in us a new nature, one responsive to his leading, making us more like Jesus.

But the old desires still linger within us, awaiting their final execution at the return of Christ. Because we are influenced by both the newness of the Spirit and the oldness of the flesh, it is wise for us to pursue, feed, walk in, and be led by the Spirit. He reforms us. He guides us. He makes us look more like Jesus than our selfish desires.

But this shaping is not automatic. As Paul said elsewhere, we must work out what God has done inside of us (Phil. 2:12). We are called to be involved. And when we submit ourselves more and more to God's Spirit, he transforms us more and more into Christ's image (2 Cor. 3:18).

[^1]: Keller, Timothy. 2013. Galatians For You. New Malden, England: Good Book Company. ↩ [^2]: Barker, Kenneth L., and John R. Kohlenberger III. 2019. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Old & New Testaments. USA: Zondervan Academic. [^3]: Sayers, Mark. 2017. Strange Days: Life in the Spirit in a Time of Upheaval. Moody. [^4]:Stott, John R. W. 2008. Galatians: Experiencing the Grace of Christ. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press. [^5]: Schreiner, Thomas R. 2010. Galatians. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [^6]: Moo, Douglas J. 2015. NT341 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Audio). Logos Mobile Education. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. [^7]: Keller, Timothy. 2013. Galatians For You. New Malden, England: Good Book Company. [^8]: Schreiner, Thomas R. 2010. Galatians. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [^9]: Wax, Trevin. 2020. “The ‘Subversive Habits’ Approach to Changing Your Primary Story.” The Gospel Coalition (blog). January 27, 2020. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/the-subversive-habits-approach-to-changing-your-primary-story/.