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 keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:16-26 ESV

Even though he was very likely a member of the Sanhedrin, the governing body over the Jews, Nicodemus was not ravenous to see Jesus killed as his fellow members of the council were. Instead, he was utterly intrigued by Jesus, and so he came to speak with Him by night, saying: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Nicodemus could clearly see the purpose of Jesus’ signs, that is, to testify that He is from God, yet he did not see or understand fully what that meant. Consider their opening dialogue in John 3:3-8:

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Although Nicodemus did not yet understand, Jesus taught him a foundational truth about the gospel of His kingdom. As He would testify before Pilate, His kingdom is not of this world. It is of the Spirit, not of the flesh. Therefore, no amount of fleshly toil and labor will sufficiently qualify a person to enter or even simply see this kingdom. No, only ones who have been reborn in the Spirit can do so. And this is a potent picture, for no one ever willed themselves into being born. In a similar way, all who are born again of the Spirit “were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).

In our present passage, Paul draws upon the very same distinction that Jesus used, the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. In this main argumentation from 3:1-5:12, Paul attacked the legalistic teachings of the Judaizers, who were essentially teaching the Galatians that entrance into the kingdom of God came through obedience to the law. Having now shown that such obedience is impossible to attain, the apostle now addresses the perennial argument of legalists: so you are saying that Christians can do whatever they want, right? As Jesus told Nicodemus, Paul now says to the Galatians: those who are born of the Spirit will bear the fruit of the Spirit, and against such things there is no law.

OPPOSED TO EACH OTHER // VERSES 16-18

As we noted last week, verses 13-15 are transitional. They are certainly the immediate conclusion of Paul’s overall argument against the Galatians’ submission to the regulations of the law; however, it also introduced the big theme of the remainder of the letter: “do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh…” In other words, how does salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone not lead to licentiousness?

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.

While hardly anyone enjoys tense situations, humanity’s rebellion into sin ensured that we now perpetually live in a world of tension, and the tension is not erased whenever we place our faith in Christ. If anything, we are thrown into an even deeper degree of strain and struggle. For although Christ has cancelled the guilt of every one of our sins, He has not yet made all things new. We still sin because we are still in the flesh. The word flesh is sometimes used to mean simply our earthly bodies; however, that is not Paul’s meaning here. As DeSilva notes:

It does not signify some physical aspect of human existence (as in 3:2-5; 4:21-31), but rather the sum total of the impulses, urges, and desires that lead human beings away from virtue toward self-promotion and self-gratification, often at the expense of the interests and well-being of others. (114-115)

Or as John Brown puts it, the flesh is a mode of thinking and feeling that is “natural to man in an unregenerate state.” Thus, the flesh represents the default mindset of everyone born into this world of sin. It is how everyone thinks, feels, and acts. These are the desires that are natural to each one of us.

But those who are born of the Spirit are given new desires, desires that are otherworldly. And the desires of the flesh and of the Spirit are not simply distinguishable from one another; they are at war against each other. They are opposed and cannot be reconciled. To walk, which is a common metaphor for the totality of how we live, by the Spirit means rejecting the desires of the flesh. But the converse is also true. To walk according to the flesh means rejecting the desires of the Spirit. They are mutually exclusive.

This means (and this is Paul’s main point) that those who are led by the Spirit are not under the law. Remember that the law was given because of sin. The desires of the flesh are sinful, which makes the law needed to curb the desires of the flesh. But the desires of the Spirit are not sinful and, therefore, have no need of being under the law. Thus, it is only through being born of and led by the Spirit that we can ever hope to actually fulfill the law of God, not from curses and threats, but from a new heart with new desires.

This means, to quote R. C. Sproul, that “unless the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of your soul, you are flesh and nothing but flesh. If you are nothing but the flesh, you will perish and profit nothing” (113).

IDENTIFYING THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT // VERSES 19-23

With such a serious conflict before us, we should immediately ask how we can know that we are following the desires of the Spirit or the desires of the flesh. The apostle anticipates that question and gives us two lists, one of vices and one of virtues. He begins with the flesh:

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkennness, orgies and things like these.

Just as a man can be recognized by the quality of his work, Paul says that living according to the flesh is easily identifiable through its works. Of this list, John Brown gives a wise warning:

To enter into a minute description of the different crimes which are here mentioned, could serve no good purpose, and might serve some bad ones. There are immoral practices which are not even to be named among Christians, and there are others which, though they must be named, should scarcely be more than named. There are certain vices, and a number of them are mentioned in this catalogue, which can scarcely be made the objects of steady intellectual contemplation without tainting in some degree the purity of the mind. The greater part of the terms employed by the apostle are sufficiently plain. A few of them, however, to an English reader require a word or two in explanation. (300)

Unfortunately, since Brown published his commentary in 1853, many of the things which both he and Paul would have considered plainly sinful have been intentionally obscured today. Nevertheless, let us strive to heed his warning and go no further in meditation than necessary.

Frank Thielman notes that this list could be divided into four parts, which he calls “sexual sins (“sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality”), religious sins (“idolatry, sorcery”), social sins (“enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy”), and sins of excess (“drunkenness, orgies”)” (641).

Regarding the first category, I do not think that Paul intends for us to get bogged down on what each word means; rather, he piles them together as a way of saying that any thought, word, or deed that does not uphold the marriage bed in honor is sin. Any sexual thought, word, or deed that is not with your spouse is sinful, and if it is not in love and kindness toward your spouse, it is also sinful.

Within the religious sins, we should note that sorcery is φαρμακεία in Greek, which is where we get our word pharmacy. Whether concocting poisons, remedies, or hallucinogens for spiritual quests, witches were the drug dealers of the ancient world. Ryken rightly notes that both abortion and euthanasia would fall under this sin. But I would also note that modern medicine should be received in thankful dependence upon the Lord rather than as a way of mastering our limitations, which would be nothing more than modern sorcery.

Of the fifteen sins listed here, eight of them are social sins that emphasize divisiveness and quarreling. And rightly does Paul give them so much space, for these are the works of the flesh that are most likely to leave a congregation of Christians in ruins, not mention wars between nations and feuds within families. In Titus 3:9-11, Paul writes:

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, know that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Thielman is right to call the final two sins of excess. The Bible does not quite Christians to be teetotalers and abstain entirely from alcohol, but drunkenness is always sinful. It leaves a person without proper self-control, and by getting drunk in the first place, it reveals an even deeper lack of self-control. The word for orgies (κῶμοι) is not exclusively sexual but wild partying in general and gluttonous feasting. As with alcohol, parties and festivities are not forbidden but excessive partying certainly is.

Paul ends by saying and things like these to show that his list could continue indefinitely. Sadly, sinful humanity can very often be called “inventors of evil” (Romans 1:31). So, this list is not exhaustive.

I warn you, as I have warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. This statement ought to give us pause because each of us can find at least one item in the list that we have been guilty of (and probably much more than one!). Indeed, at the end of our passage the Paul adds three more to the list, saying in verse 26: Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. To do these things is to be outside the kingdom of God, cut off from salvation. Does this mean that we are damned? Ryken gives this answer:

Certainly anyone who commits these sins deserves to go [to hell], and for this reason we should not think lightly of these or any other sins. But remember that the Christian, even the “Spirit-filled Christian,” still has a sinful nature. From time to time, therefore, even believers commit these very sins. With this in mind, it is important to know that when Paul refers to “those who do such things” (Gal. 5:21), the Greek verb (prassontes) indicates habitual action, not an occasional lapse. Paul is not talking about Christians who from time to time commit one of these sins against their better judgment, all the while knowing that they are grieving the Holy Spirit and wishing that they could stop. Rather, he is talking about people whose lives are dominated by sin, who are committed heart and soul to immorality, idolatry, sorcery, and envy.

This is not the kind of life that leads to heaven. Quite the opposite. Why would someone who loves to break God’s rules even want to go to the place where God’s rules are always kept? People who make a regular practice of vice need to repent of their sins and leave their old lifestyle behind, lest they fall into eternal judgment. (231-232)

Or perhaps we can say it like this. The good news is that Christ died to pay the penalty for each of these sins. None of them are unforgiveable in themselves. But in order to receive forgiveness, we must acknowledge that they are indeed sins. This is why 1 John 1:8-9 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The mercy of Christ is entirely sufficient to wash away all of our sin, but we must first recognize that we have actually sinned.

With this list of vices before us, Paul now presents the virtues of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law.

While these are virtues that we should cultivate and strive to grow in, we must first acknowledge that these are fruit that the Spirit produces in us. Consider Jesus’ parable in Mark 4:26-29:

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.  The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

While a farmer can create favorable conditions for growth, a seed becomes a plant and produces fruit only by the hand of God. The chief work of the farmer is then to harvest the fruit. So it is with the fruit of the Spirit. No amount of work can produces these in our lives; they must come from being born of the Spirit. The work of the Christian is cultivation and harvesting, but production only comes through the Spirit. Just as an apple tree is recognized by the apples that it produces, the work of the Spirit is recognized by the fruit that it produces.

Of course, in this life, we will never exemplify these virtues to the degree that we desire, but they ought to be evident in our lives. A healthy degree of introspection is warranted here, but it can also be beneficial to ask a close friend or your spouse to give their honest observations.

We should also note that these are the fruit (singular) of the Spirit, not the gifts of the Spirit. Although we can certainly be lacking in gentleness or patience particularly, these are innately bound together. Indeed, each of these virtues reflect the character or attributes of God as He molds us into the image of Christ. Therefore, just as God’s attributes cannot be separated from one another, neither can these virtues be severed from one another. Love is joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, meek (or gentle), and self-controlled. Joy, likewise, is loving, peaceful, patient, kind, good faithful, meek, and self-controlled. And we could go on through the whole list. This is the litmus test for evaluating Spirit-produced fruit. How do I know that my patience comes from the Spirit? Because it is a loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, good, faithful, meek, and self-controlled patience.

But what are these virtues? While each deserves a sermon in their own right, let us give a brief definition of each.

Love is the steadfast and sacrificial affection that God first shows to us and then we should to both Him and to one another.

Joy is far deeper than happiness, for Paul says that we are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Indeed, joy is a glad disposition that comes from trusting in God’s providence.

Peace is more than the absence of strife; it is being whole and well. As with love, the gospel gives us peace with both God and one another.

Patience is the opposite of fits of anger listed in verse 20; as one commentator noted, it is being long-fused rather than short-fused.

Kindness is actively caring for and helping others.

Goodness, as Ryken notes, “connotes complete moral excellence… and indicates a willingness to be generous” (233).

Faithfulness is being trustworthy, loyal, and dependable.

Gentleness or meekness is, to quote Lloyd-Jones, “a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others… A man cannot never be meek unless he has seen himself as a vile sinner.”

Finally, self-control is literally having dominion of oneself, having lordship over yourself. Given that Paul was able to quote more obscure pagan writers like Epimenides and Aratus, he was surely familiar with Aristotle and the like. Indeed, I suspect that Paul might have intentionally used self-control (ἐγκράτεια) because he knew that his readers would draw such connections. After all, Socrates says of self-control: “Should not every man hold self-control to be the foundation of all virtue, and first lay this foundation firmly in his soul? For what without this can learn any good or practice it worthily? Or what man that is the slave of his pleasures is not in an evil plight body and soul alike?”

But even though the wisest of pagans were able to see the great value and worth of self-control, they were nonetheless helpless to truly practice it. Of course, any Roman would have considered it a severe breach of this virtue for any man to commit adultery with another man’s wife, but they also viewed brothels simply a necessary part of life. And Paul knew, through divine revelation, what they could know through human reason and intellect alone: self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, not a work of the flesh. Self-control is a grace and a gift that certainly must be cultivated but cannot be truly produced by the natural man. It must come from God Himself.

With these definitions in mind, consider these words from Ryken:

Notice that this is a catalogue of virtues rather than a list of rules. Perhaps this is why Paul ends by saying, “Against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:23). This is a deliberate understatement. The reason there is no law against these virtues is that they are positively lawful, and thus people who practice them fulfill the law. (235)

LET US ALSO KEEP IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT // VERSES 24-26

While the law could only hinder the works of the flesh (at best) and was utterly incapable of producing the fruit of the Spirit, Paul says that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Again, this does not mean that those who are in Christ are now sinless or a completely free from the flesh. Instead, it means that the flesh has received a mortal wound. Because we have been crucified with Christ, our flesh has been nailed to that piece of wood. Like a snake that has been cut in half, there are plenty of death throes and the danger of further bites, but the death has still been delivered. Practically, this means that even when we do sin, we should hate our sin and long to be freed entirely from it. Far more than self-gratification, the Christian desires to glorify and please his heavenly Father. He, therefore, hates licentiousness far more than the legalist does. He knows the desires of his flesh and longs for the day when they will be put away entirely.

Thus, rather than placing ourselves under the law again in order to fight our sin, Paul says, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. In both the law and the flesh, there is only death, but in the Spirit, there is life everlasting. Let us enjoy the new life given to us through our new birth in Spirit by following after the Spirit. But how do we keep in step with the Spirit? John Brown writes:

The great practical lesson taught us by this passage is, that the true way of mortifying sin and making progress in holiness, is to yield our minds and hearts more and more up to the transforming influence of divine truth. Divine truth is efficacious only when attended by the operation of the Divine Spirit. The humble diligent study of the Bible, especially the New Testament scriptures, and fervent believing prayers for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, are the principal means of Christian sanctification. (299)

For the one who has been born again through the Spirit, it is through time reading and meditating upon the Word and in prayer that the Spirit leads, shapes, and renews us into children of our Father, giving us new desires and affections that reflect the heart of our Lord. Indeed, it is through Scripture and prayer that we have communion with Christ, who perfectly displayed the fruit of the Spirit for us. As we keep in step with the Spirit and put to death the desires of the flesh, let us pray earnestly for the Spirit to make us like our great Savior. As we marvel at the goodness of Jesus and strive to walk in His Spirit, may the benediction of Hebrews 13:20-21 be true of us:

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.