Thoughts From Galatians 5 - Part 3

 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Gal 5:13-18, 24-25

        The flesh wants to consider ourselves and our wants more important than other peoples' and the Spirit wants us to consider others' wants and needs and well-being more important than our own. No wonder they are in conflict, they are complete opposites. I wish I had the answer to making the Spirit come out on top but if I did, I would have mastered sinless perfection and I certainly haven't.

        I guess the first hurdle would be wanting the Spirit to win. Don't you somedays just want to be self-centered and do what you want to do instead of what others want. I remember early in marriage our biggest fights would be on Saturdays. After working long hard hours daily as a resident and my wife as a physical therapist, we would finally have a day off and each of us would have our own ideas of what that day should look like, and we would have a battle of the wills. Marriage was exposing that sin nature I didn't realize I had. I didn't drink, cuss, look at pornography, have premarital sex so I thought I was pretty much sinless. Little did I know that I was rotten to the core. So, 44 years later do I still fight with my wife on Saturdays? Nope. Why not? I guess because after being together so long, our interests have aligned? We want to see the other one be happy? The fights are worse than giving in? We realize we will have plenty of other time to do what we want to do? I suppose all of these are factors.

         What does this have to do with the flesh vs. the Spirit? Paul says to walk in step with the Spirit and just like walking in step with my wife, our interests after years of being saved should start aligning. We will learn that the joy of making Jesus happy is more rewarding than making ourselves happy. We will learn that the discipline of the Lord or even the distance when we are following the flesh is more pain than it is worth. Also, we learn that we have all of eternity at our disposal and although I don't see it as a time of fulfilling delayed gratification on Earth, I do know that it is going to be spectacular and more enjoyable than self-gratification here on Earth. But you see, it's all about relationship. Grow in your knowledge and love of Jesus and you will more and more want to please Him rather than chase after the flesh.