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The Vulgar State of AmericaGalatians 5:18-25
Excerpted from: The Christian Paradox (Part Two)I am going to give you five points. He does not enumerate them here, but there are five points that we can see in what he says in this long paragraph.
First: Walk in the Spirit. In other words, conduct yourself as well as you can under the guidance of God's Spirit. That is, strive to obey the prodding of the Spirit within you. Try strive to do what is right, do what is godly, what God or what Christ would do. It is to be your utmost intention to do these things, to follow the Spirit, and as much as lies within you, you should have those things as your normal behavior. This is far more than just confession of Christianity. It is living out as completely as possible the knowledge of God, the law of God, the instruction of God. So that should be top of mind, our intention, our motivation, everything is supposed to be in Christ doing what Christ would do. That is part of the law of your mind.
Second: Be aware that the two contrary realities will cause conflict and confusion within you. You will be battling this in your head. You will be trying to work it out. And the flesh, driven by human nature, will often win because of your weakness. You have inherent weakness in the flesh. And knowing that, knowing that you have this other law in you should drive you to do better, to overcome it. We should not just lay down and say, "I'm weak. I can't do this. I guess I'm going to sin." No, we should get our back up when we feel human nature trying to influence us and say, "No! I'm going to follow the Spirit of God, the law of my mind. That reality that is Jesus Christ and His perfect example."
Third: If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. By this he means that as long as we are sincerely trying to follow God, as long as we repent of our failures, as long as we are continuing to build a relationship with Jesus Christ and with God the Father, God will by grace continually forgive us. He will spare us from the death penalty because we are in cooperation with Him. We are working on our salvation and He is working with us. And so God covers us with the blood of Christ, and as long as we are continuing on that way, it remains on us.
Fourth: Work on mortifying, that is, putting to death, subduing, overcoming the works of the flesh. Work at it! If you find a bad habit in your life, quit it. Replace it with a good habit. Do not let those bad habits continue once you see them. Recognize them and put them to death. Because they will keep us from God's Kingdom if we fall back into them and not repent of them. That is a rejection of God's grace. So as he says in verse 24, this is what is called crucifying the flesh, putting it to death, living a life of self-denial, denying human nature its victories.
Fifth: Work on producing the fruits of God's Spirit in your relationships with others and in your personal growth in Christ's image. We need to be showing love and kindness and joy and peace, and all the others—not just believing them. We can believe in love all we want, but if we are not showing it, we are not practicing it, it means nothing. These fruits, as Paul says, have no downsides. There is no law that they break. You cannot make a law that makes love, proper godly love, a bad thing. So practice them because practicing them leads to eternal life. Because in practicing them we are growing into the image of Jesus Christ.
Now he ends his pointers here with a summary in verse 25. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." And I just mentioned this a minute ago. This summary in verse 25 signifies that if you are spiritually alive in Christ, put it into practice. Living in the Spirit is being spiritually alive because Christ has put His Spirit in you. He has raised you from the dead, and now you are alive in Christ. If that condition is what you are in, if you are in that state, walk in the Spirit. That is the bottom line. You have been called to this process of conversion, this process of sanctification. … . . .
Galatians 5:19-22
Excerpted from: Division, Satan, HumilityJust look at these "works of the flesh" and take notice how many of them are, in actuality, elements of disagreement. Do people commit adultery because they agree with the one against whom they are committing adultery? Do people murder because they agree?No, there is disagreement there! How about people who are characteristically hostile, hateful, and contentious? There are two of them from the list right there. Jealousy—do people live in agreement with the one of whom they are jealous? Can people dwell together in unity when they are filled with such character flaws as outbursts of wrath (meaning sudden explosions of temper), selfish ambition (where the opponent, the competitor, the rival is run over in the rush to attain that which is desired), dissensions, heresies (opinions held by people that are against the orthodox thinking or against the doctrines), envies, drunkenness, and on and on?
These actions do not reflect the nature of God, and if one does any of these, then I would have to say that the person is unconverted—or converted but carnal and weak, as Paul said in I Corinthians 3)—and he is not being led by the Holy Spirit. It is possible for that to occur.
Galatians 5:19-21
Excerpted from: Satan (Part 3)Satan not only can put thoughts directly into a person's mind, but his spirit or his attitude permeates, or radiates out, or is broadcast from him. I want you to look at how many of these works of the flesh involve feelings, attitudes—things like outbursts of wrath, dissensions, heresies, envy, hatred. In addition to that, many of the other things that may not be directly feelings usually, very frequently, begin with a feeling, such as murder. It begins with a feeling and develops into a direct act.
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