In the following expository lesson, Alexander MacLaren stresses the
importance for the Believe to walk in the Spirit.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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Walk In The Spirit
- an Exposition Of The Scriptures
by Alexander MacLaren
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. -
Galatians 5:16
We are not to suppose that the Apostle here uses the familiar contrast of
spirit and flesh to express simply different elements of human nature.
Without entering here on questions for which a sermon is scarcely a
suitable
vehicle of discussion, it may Be sufficient for our present purpose to say
that, as usually, when employing this antithesis the Apostle means by
Spirit
the divine, the Spirit of God, which he triumphed in proclaiming to be the
gift of every believing soul. The other member of the contrast, 'flesh,'
is
similarly not to be taken as equivalent to body, but rather as meaning the
whole human nature considered as apart from God and kindred with earth and
earthly things. The flesh, in its narrower sense, is no doubt a
predominant
part of this whole, but there is much in it besides the material
organisation. The, ethics of Christianity suffered much harm and were
degraded into a false and slavish asceticism for long centuries, by
monastic
misunderstandings of what Paul meant by the flesh, but he himself was too
clear-sighted and too high-toned to give his adhesion to the superficial
notion that the body is the seat and source of sin. We need look no
further
than the catalogue of the 'works of the flesh' which immediately follows
our
text, for; although it begins with gross sins of a purely fleshly kind, it
passes on to such as hatred, emulations, wrath, envyings and suchlike.
Many
of these works of the flesh are such as an angel with an evil heart could
do, whether he had a body or not. It seems therefore right to say that the
one member of the contrast is the divine Spirit of holiness, and the other
is man as he is, without the life-giving influence of the Spirit of God.
In
Paul's thought the idea of the flesh always included the idea of sin, and
the desires of the flesh were to him not merely rebellious, sensuous
passion, but the sinful desires of godless human nature, however refined,
and as some would say,' spiritual' these might be. We do not need to
inquire
more minutely as to the meaning of the Apostle's terms, but may safely
take
them as, on the one hand, referring to the divine Spirit which imparts
life
and holiness, and on the other hand, to human nature severed from God, and
distracted by evil desires because wrenched away from Him.
The text is Paul's Battle-cry, which he opposed to the Judaising
disturbers
in Galatia. They said 'Do this and that; labour at a round of observances;
live by rule.' Paul said, 'No! That is of no use; you will make nothing of
such an attempt nor will ever conquer evil so. Live by the spirit and you
will not need a hard outward law, nor will you be in bondage to the works
of
the flesh.' That feud in the Galatian churches was the earliest battle
which
Christianity had to fight between two eternal tendencies of thought-the
conception of religion as consisting in outward obedience to a law, and
consequently as made up of a series of painful efforts to keep it, and the
conception of religion as being first the implanting of a new, divine
life,
and needing only to be nourished and cared for in order to drive forth
evils
from the heart, and so to show itself living. The difference goes very far
and very deep, and these two views of what religion is have each their
adherents to-day. The Apostle throws the whole weight of his authority
into
the one scale, and emphatically declares this as the one secret of
victory,
'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.'
I. What it is to walk in the Spirit.
The thought which is but touched upon here is set forth more largely, and
if
we may so say, profoundly, in the Epistle to the Romans (chap. viii.).
There, to walk after the flesh, is substantially the same as to be
carnally
minded, and that 'mind of the flesh' is regarded as being by fatal
necessity
not 'subject to the law of God,' and consequently as in itself, with
regard
to future consequences, to be death. The fleshly mind which is thus in
rebellion against the law of God is sure to issue in 'desires of the
flesh,'
just as when the pressure is taken off, some ebullient liquid will bubble.
They that are after the flesh of course will 'mind the things of the
flesh.'
The vehement desires which we cherish when we are separated from God and
which we call sins, are graver as a symptom than even they are in
themselves, for they show which way the wind blows, and are tell-tales
that
betray the true direction of our nature, If we were not after the flesh we
should not mind the things of the flesh. The one expression points to the
deep-seated nature, the other to the superficial actions to which it gives
rise.
And the same duality belongs to the life of those who are 'after the
Spirit.'
'To walk,' of course, means to carry on the practical life, and the Spirit
is hero thought of not so much perhaps as the path on which we are to
travel, but rather as the norm and direction by which we are to travel on
life's common way. Just as the desires of the flesh were certain to be
done
by those who in their deepest selves belonged to the flesh, so every soul
which has received the unspeakable gift of newness of life through the
Spirit of God will have the impulses to mind and do the things of the
Spirit. If we live in the Spirit we shall also - and let us also - walk in
the Spirit.
But let us make no mistakes, or think that our text in its great
commandment
and radiant hope has any word of cheer to those who have not received into
their hearts, in however feeble a manner and minute a measure, the Spirit
of
the Son. The first question for us all is, have we received the Holy
Ghost? - and the answer to that question is the answer to the other,' have
we accepted Christ? It is through Him and through faith in Him that that
supreme gift of a living spirit is bestowed. And only when our spirits
bear
witness with that Spirit that we are the children of God, have we a right
to
look upon the text as pointing our duty and stimulating our hope. If our
practical life is to be directed by the Spirit of God, He must enter into
our spirits, and we shall not be in Him but in the measure that He is in
us.
Nor will our spirits be life because of righteousness unless He dwells in
us
and casts forth the works of the flesh. There will be no practical
direction
of our lives by the Spirit of God unless we make conscience of cultivating
the reception of His life-giving and cleansing influences, and unless .we
have inward communion with our inward guide, intimate and frank, prolonged
and submissive. If we are for ever allowing the light of our inward
godliness to be blown about by gusts, or to show in our inmost hearts but
a
faint and flickering spark, how can we expect that it will shine safe
direction on our outward path?
II. Such walking in the Spirit conquers the flesh. We all know it as a
familiar experience that the surest way to conquer any strong desire or
emotion is to bring some other into operation. To concentrate attention on
any overmastering thought or purpose, even if our object is to destroy it,
is but too apt to strengthen it. And so to fix our minds on our own
desires
of the flesh, even though we may be honestly wishing to suppress them, is
a
sure way to invest them with new force; therefore the wise counsels of
sages
and moralists are, for the most part, destined to lead those who listen to
them astray. Many a man has, in good faith, set himself to conquer his own
evil lusts and has found that the net result of his struggles has been to
make the lusts more conspicuous and correspondingly more powerful. The
Apostle knows a better way, which he has proved to his own experience, and
now, with fall confidence and triumph, presses upon his hearers. He would
have them give up the monotonous and hopeless fight against the flesh and
bring another ally into the field. His chief exhortation is a positive,
not
a negative one. It is vain to try to tie up men with restrictions and
prohibitions, which when their desires are stirred will be burst like
Samson's
bonds. But if once the positive exhortation here is obeyed, then it will
surely make short work of the desires and passions which otherwise men,
for
the most part, do not wish to get rid of, and never do throw off by any
other method.
We have pointed out that in our text to walk in the Spirit means to
regulate
the practical life by the Spirit of God, and that the 'desires of the
flesh'
mean the desires of the whole human nature apart from God. But even if we
take the contrasted terms in their lower and commonly adopted sense, the
text is true and useful. A cultivated mind habituated to lofty ideas, and
quick to feel the nobility of 'spiritual' pursuits and possessions, will
have no taste for the gross delights of sense, and will recoil with
disgust
from the indulgences in which more animal natures wallow. But while this
is
true, it by no means exhausts the great principle laid down here. We must
take the contrasted terms in their fullest meaning if we would arrive at
it.
The spiritual life derived from Jesus Christ and lodged in the human
spirit
has to be guarded, cherished an.d Made dominant, and then it will drive
out
the old. If the Spirit which is life because of righteousness is allowed
free course in a human spirit, it will send forth its powers into the body
which is 'dead because of sin,' will regulate its desires, and if needful
will suppress them. And it is wiser and more blessed to rely on this
overflowing influence than to attempt the hopeless task of coercing these
desires by our own efforts.
If we walk in the Spirit, we shall thereby acquire new tastes and desires
of
a higher kind which will destroy the lower. They to whom manna is sweet as
angel's food find that they have lost their relish for the strong-smelling
and rank-flavoured Egyptian leeks and garlic. A guest at a king's table
will
not care to enter a smoky hovel and will not be hungry for the food to be
found there. If we are still dependent on the desires of the flesh we are
still but children, and if we are walking in the Spirit we have outgrown
our
childish toys. The enjoyment of the gifts which the Spirit gives deadens
temptation and robs many things that were very precious of their lustre.
We may also illustrate the great principle of our text by considering that
when we have found our supreme object there is no inducement to wander
further in the search after delights. Desires are confessions of
discontent,
and though the absolute satisfaction of all our nature is not granted to
us
here, there is so much of blessedness given and so many of our most
clamant
desires fully met in the gift of life in Christ, that we may well be free
from the prickings of desires which sting men into earnest seeking after
often unreal good. 'The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,' and
surely
if we have these we may well leave the world its troubled delights and
felicities. Christ's joy remains in us and our joy is full. The world
desires because it does not possess. When a deeper well is sunk, a
shallower
one is pretty sure to give out. If we walk in the Spirit we go down to the
deepest water. holding stratum, and all the surface wells will run dry.
Further, we may note, that this walking in the Spirit brings into our
lives
the mightiest motives of holy living and so puts a bridle on the necks and
a
bit in the mouths of our untamed desires. Holding fellowship with the
divine
Indweller and giving the reins into His strong hand, we receive from Him
the
spirit of adoption and learn that if we are children then are we heirs. Is
there any motive that will so surely still' the desires of the flesh and
of
the mind as the blessed thought that God is ours and we His? Surely their
feet should never stumble or stray, who are aware of the Spirit of the Son
bearing witness with their spirit that they are the children of God.
Surely
the measure in which we realise this will be the measure in which the
desires of the flesh will be whipped back to their kennels, and cease to
disturb us with their barks.
The whole question here as between Paul and his opponents just comes to
this; if a field is covered with filth, whether is it better to set to
work
on it with wheelbarrows and shovels, or to turn a river on it which will
bear away all the foulness? The true way to change the fauna and flora of
a
country is to change the level, and as the height increases they change
themselves. If we desire to have the noxious creatures expelled from
ourselves, we must not so much labour at their expulsion as see to the
elevation of our own personal being and then we shall succeed. That is
what
Paul says, 'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the
flesh.'
III. Such a life is not freed from the necessity of struggle.
The highest condition, of course, would be that we had only to grow, not
to
fight. It will come some day that all evil shall drop away, and that to
walk
in the Spirit will need no effort, but that time has not come yet. So in
addition to all that we have been saying in this sermon, we must further
say
that Paul's exhortation has always to be coupled with the other to fight
the
good fight. The highest word for our earthly lives is not 'victory' but
'contest.' We shall not walk in the Spirit without many a struggle to keep
ourselves within that charmed atmosphere. The promise of our text is not
that we shall not feel, but that we shall not fulfil, the desires of the
flesh.
Now this is very commonplace and threadbare teaching, but it is none the
less important, and is especially needful to be strongly emphasised when
we
have been speaking as we have just been doing. It is a historical fact,
illustrated over and over again since Paul wrote, and not without
illustration to-day, that there is constant danger of lax morality
infecting
Christian life under pretence of lofty spirituality. So it must ever be
insisted upon that the test of a true walking in the Spirit is that we are
thereby fitted to fight against the desires of the flesh. When we have the
life of the Spirit within us, it will show itself as Paul has said in
another place by the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us, and
by
our 'mortifying the deeds of the body.' The gift of the Spirit does not
take
us out of the ranks of the combatants, but teaches us to fight, and arms
us
with its own sword for the conflict. There will be abundant opportunities
of
courage in attacking the sin that doth so easily beset us, and in
resisting
temptations which come to us by reason of our own imperfect
sanctification.
But there is all the difference between fighting at our own hand and
fighting with the help of God's Spirit, and there is all the difference
between fighting with the help of an unseen ally in heaven and fighting
with
a Spirit within us who helpeth our infirmities and Himself makes us able
to
contend, and sure, if we keep true to Him, to be more than conquerers
through Him that loveth us.
Such a conflict is a gift and a joy. It is hard but it is blessed, because
it is an expression of our truest love; it comes from our deepest will; it
is full of hope and of assured victory. How different is the painful,
often
defeated and monotonous attempt to suppress our nature by main force, and
to
tread a mill-horse round! The joyous freedom and buoyant hope taught us in
the gospel way of salvation have been cramped and confined and all their
glories veiled as by a mass of cobwebs spun beneath a golden roof, but our
text sweeps away the foul obstruction. Let us learn the one condition of
victorious conflict, the one means of subduing our natural humanity and
its
distracting desires, and let nothing rob us of the conviction that this is
God's way of making men like angels. 'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lusts of the flesh.'
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