Dr. Rodney Plunket

Galatians 5:13-26

This morning we come to the sixth lesson in our series from the apostle Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia.  We will study together Galatians (Gal) 5:13-26, the passage which we read together as our Scripture reading.

Before we turn to that passage, I want to notice a relevant insight gained from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome.  That letter reveals that Paul was accused of preaching a message that granted believers a license to sin.  In Romans (Rm) 3:8 Paul reveals that he was accused of teaching, “Let us do evil so that good may come;” and from Rm 6:1 it appears that some interpreted his message to mean that followers of Jesus should “continue in sin in order that grace may abound.”

I think Paul is responding to a similar situation in Galatians.  I think that the believers in Galatia are being told something like this:  ‘If all you have is what Paul left you with, then you will be lost.  You will be lost due to a failure to live in a morally and ethically appropriate way.’  I think that is why Paul says what he does in Gal 2:19-20.  And I am going to read the final portion of verse (v) 20 as I think it should be translated:  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live, in faithfulness I live––the faithfulness of the Son of God.”  With these words Paul conveys the fact that the believer’s new life is the result of Christ living within them; and, therefore, it is shaped according to Christ’s own faithfulness.  The new ethic/the new mode of conduct, in other words, is the result of the living Christ transforming us from the inside out according to Christ’s own faithful life of obedience to God.

Now it is common for Paul to begin his letters with theological and doctrinal truths that supply the foundation/the base for his approach to the ethical and moral problems his churches are facing.  Then, in the later portions of his letters, he builds ethical and moral teachings upon the theological bases he has constructed.  Romans and Ephesians are two of Paul’s letters in which that kind of arrangement is particularly easy to see.

He does the same here in Galatians.  He constructs a theological foundation in the early portions of this letter.  He then builds ethical and moral teachings upon that foundation in Gal 5:13ff.  In the section that we have before us this morning, he builds upon two themes which he has already developed in those previous sections.  Let’s look at those two themes together.

The first theme is the Spirit.  Please turn to Gal 3:2-3 and follow along as I read.

The only thing I want to learn from you is this:  Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish?  Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

Just two verses later, in Gal 3:5, Paul writes, “Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”  In Gal 3:14 Paul refers to receiving “the promise of the Spirit through faith.”  In Gal 4:6 we read that “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba!  Father!’”  And Paul’s allegory in Gal 4:21ff emphasizes that Christians are connected to “the child who was born according to the Spirit.”  Then, in Gal 5:5, Paul says, “For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”

We should also note that in Gal 3:3 & 4:29 Paul creates a contrasting pair.  That contrasting pair is the “Spirit” and the “flesh.”  The Spirit is the Holy Spirit that works powerfully within the one set free by Christ.  The flesh is an enslaving power, an enslaving power that dominates even a believer when that believer chooses Law-keeping as his or her religious path.

The second relevant theme developed in the early portions of Galatians is freedom.  In Gal 2:4 he refers to “the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.”  In Gal 4:21ff he gives the allegory which places a high degree of emphasis on freedom.  You can see that emphasis in verses [vv] 22, 23, 26, 30, & 31).  And listen to the verse with which he concludes this allegory.  In Gal 5:1 he writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Now let’s look at the first verse in our Scripture reading, Gal 5:13; and let’s notice that Paul begins this section with the theme of freedom.  Paul says, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”  Here Paul is dealing with the fact that his emphasis on freedom can lead to the view that he is encouraging believers to live anyway they please.  And it is very likely that those in Galatia who are perverting the gospel are teaching that without an emphasis on Law-keeping a believer’s lifestyle will become damnably corrupt.  Paul’s initial response in v 13 is to point out that the freedom he endorses should not lead to certain abuses.  The rendering of the middle portion of Gal 5:13 in The New American Standard Bible is to be preferred.  It says, “do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.”  In other words, this freedom is not to lead toward libertinism.  It does not mean that we can sin willfully with impunity.  And be sure to notice the kind of behavior that this freedom is to generate.  Paul exhorts his readers to “become slaves to one another through love.”

Now let’s notice how Paul continues his response to the false teaching that is perverting the gospel in Galatia.  In Gal 5:14 he says that the entire Law of Moses is summed up or fulfilled in one command.  That command is from Lev 19:18 which says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In Rm 13:8-10, Paul makes the same argument that we have here in Gal 5.  In the Romans passage Paul writes,

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

As we noted in the very first lesson in this series, Paul is critical of “doing” the Law; but he is very committed to “fulfilling the Law” (see Gal 5:3 where the Greek text refers to the obligation “to do the whole Law” in a context where Paul is clearly negative about such doing).  We see that very positive emphasis on fulfilling the Law in both Romans and Galatians.  And what comprises fulfilling the Law?  Love.

Now notice what Paul contrasts with love’s fulfillment of the Law.  Look at Gal 5:15:  “If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”  It seems likely that the false teaching which is impacting the Galatian churches has created an atmosphere in which Christians are arguing and fighting.  I think Paul’s purpose for this verse is to help his readers see the flaw in Law-keeping.  If Law-keeping is the right approach, it ought to create believers who fulfill this central command of the Law to love one another.  But it is not doing that.  Instead it is causing strife and fighting to such an extent that the Galatian Christians are in danger of being “consumed by one another.”

Now look with me at Gal 5:16-17.

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.

Here we come to the second theme which Paul has developed in previous portions of Galatians and which he will use extensively here.  It is the theme of the Spirit, and he contrasts the Spirit with the flesh.  That contrast will continue throughout this section of Paul’s letter.

But what are we to make of v 17 where Paul says, “For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want”?  Is Paul saying that Christians will never be able to do what they desire because of the internal battle going on between the flesh and the Spirit?  I do not think so.  I think J. Louis Martyn is correct when in his 1997 commentary on the Book of Galatians he reasons that the people whom Paul has in mind here are those “who are trying to direct their allegiance both to Christ and to the Sinaitic Law” (i.e., to the Law of Moses).  Martyn refers to these persons as being “double-minded,” and he says,

Claiming to have the Spirit, they are actually led by the Flesh.  The result of their double-mindedness is that the war between the Flesh and the Spirit is sweeping them into a radical failure consistently to avoid behavior they wish to avoid” (Galatians, Anchor Bible, vol. 33A [New York: Doubleday, 1997], 540).

I think Paul is trying to get these double-minded ones to turn from their depen­dence on Law-keeping.  I think he wants them to focus again on the religion of freedom that is powered by the Holy Spirit of God.  I think he wants their lives to be characterized by the inside out transformation effected by the Lord Jesus Christ.  And I think that is why he exposes the battle they are having.  They are unable to do as they want because they are looking to the wrong power source and have cut themselves off from the power of the Spirit.  Paul wants them to turn back to the freedom that opens a person to the power of the Spirit of God.

Now look at v 18.  Paul says, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.”  What is the answer to this battle going on inside those believers who are turning to law?  What is the answer to the battle which ren­ders them unable to do as they desire?  The answer is to turn back to being led by the Spirit.  When they do that they will no longer be subject to the Law, and subjection to the Law is the reason they are having the battle that so debilitates them.

Now Paul’s contrast between the flesh and the Spirit continues.  Please follow along as I read Gal 5:19-26.

Now the works of the flesh are obvious:  fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.  I am warning you, as I warned you before:  those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against such things.  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 be guided by the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

We should begin our study of this material by noting that Paul’s letters frequently contain lists.  For example, three times he lists gifts that have been given to believers for the benefit of the whole church (Rm 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:27-30; & Ephesians 4:11).  What I want to note here is that there are significant differences between these three lists.  And in Rm 1:18-32, Paul lists many acts of ungodliness and wickedness.  That list includes many items that are not included here among the deeds of the flesh.  Such an awareness helps us realize that neither the deeds of the flesh list nor the fruit of the Spirit list should be considered exhaustive.  They do, however, convey the lifestyles that these vastly different powers produce.

Let me also say that I think it is a mistake to view these lists as personal attributes lists.  That is, Paul does not seem to be saying that the individual who operates out of the power of the flesh will do the deeds of the flesh, while the individual who operates out of the power of the Spirit will possess the fruit of the Spirit.  That may be true; I think it is true, but that does not seem to me to be what Paul is saying here.  Remember the final clause of v 13; there Paul says, “through love become slaves to one another.”  And notice again v 15:  “If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”  Paul’s focus here is on community, not on individual spirituality.  Therefore, it seems to me that Paul is describing the kind of community that the power of the flesh produces and the kind of community that the power of the Spirit produces.  To cite J. Louis Martyn again, he refers to the two contrasting lists as “marks of a community under the influence of the Flesh and marks of a community led by the Spirit” (Ibid., 496).

Now to a big problem for contemporary Christians who read these lists.  We are so prone to turn them into a new version of the Ten Commandments.  The deeds of the flesh are the “Thou Shalt Nots.”  The fruit of the Spirit are the “Thou Shalts.”  We turn those lists into acts of external observance, and what happens?  We turn down the path of Law-keeping again.  We turn down the path of external observance.

Paul’s lists here are intended to show us what the power of the flesh will effect in a community and what the power of the Spirit will effect in a community to show us the power that we should give free rein within our lives.  If you open up to the power of the flesh you will have communities that are filled with all kinds of corruptions.  If you open up to the power of the Spirit you will have communities that are filled with the sweet fruit that give health and wholeness to a community.  Paul is not asking us to choose a list.  Paul is asking us to choose a power.  We are to choose the power of the Spirit that sets us free from the power of the flesh.

Sisters and brothers, let’s choose the Spirit.  Let’s discard our lists.  Let’s turn away from a religious faith that is primarily focused on doing all the church stuff “right.”  Let’s realize that we are in the presence of something startlingly powerful.  We are in the presence of the living God.  We are in the presence of the living Christ.  We are in the presence of the living and life-transforming Holy Spirit of God.  Our lists rely on our will to accomplish.  They draw upon the power of the flesh.  The fruit of the Spirit grows and flourishes within our church family because of something going inside that is effected by the power of God.  Let’s turn to that power.  Let’s focus on that source of sweet, sweet fruit.

Please turn in your songbooks to #422 and follow along as I read what will serve as our invitation song.  And this is an invitation we should all respond to, whether we come to the front or not.  The song we will sing in just a moment is the song, “Spirit of the Living God.”  I want to read the words to that song with the change of a recurring pronoun.  We will sing it as it is written.  But I want to read it differently to highlight Paul’s concern that the church community be filled with the Spirit of God.

Spirit of the living God,
Fall fresh on us.

Spirit of the living God,
Fall fresh on us.

Melt us, mold us,
fill us, use us,

Spirit of the living God,
Fall fresh on us.

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