From the “Fruits of the Spirit”…to the “Works of the Flesh”: Part II. The operations of the Spirit in us that we “not fulfill the deep desires of the flesh” (Gal 5, I John 3 and Jam 2)

[Reading Time: 10 minutes]

Review

In the first post, we examined the opening 14 verses in Galatians 5 which brought us out of the law’s “yoke of bondage” to the freedom of life in the Spirit, which is borne out of nothing less than our co-crucifixion with Christ. For it is in our co-suffering with Jesus that we are brought into new depths of love for one another.

Again,

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:13-14).

“All the law is fulfilled in one word…love”: From Gal 5 to I John 3

And this becomes, as it were, the dividing line between the “children of God” and the “children of the devil”:

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest:

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another (I John 3:10-11).

The John gives us the counterexample,

not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous (3:12).

i.e. It’s not actually that complicated: Cain did not “practice righteousness” because he was not “of God”; and thus, demonstrated this in the fact that he not only did not “love” his brother, but moreoever, “murdered” him.

That is the way of the “children of the devil”: selfishness and hatred that brings forth death. The path of the “children of God” is exactly the opposite. On the complete other end of the spectrum, they, in paradoxically experiencing the hatred of the world, bring forth life through love:

Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.

He who does not love his brother abides in death.

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (3:13-15).

He goes further, explicitly connecting this pathway of love which is so counter to this fallen world to Jesus Himself:

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.

And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (3:16).

Then he applies this in terms that are more day-to-day (as we can’t exactly “lay down our lives” for the brethren every day…well, at least not physically…):

But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

A very legitimate question.

Leading to the closing directive:

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth (3:17-18).

The same word in James

The Apostle James says this in a little different way:

My brethren, not in partiality (prosōpolēpsía: From prósōpon + lambánō: Not to ‘receive’ (lambánō) or be influenced by the ‘face’ of someone (prósōpon); i.e., as it is translated in each of its three other NT uses, it means not to be a ‘respecter of persons’ [cf. Rom 2:11, Eph 6:9, Col 3:25]), are you to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (Jam 2:1)

He then offers an example of how this “partiality” (prosōpolēpsía) manifests in very simple, church terms:

For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,

That is to say, a wealthy businessman and a homeless guy.

and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,”

Think of how your church would respond to these two persons and then ask with the Apostle the question:

have you not shown discrimination (diakrínō) among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? (2:2-4)

That is to say, have we used the world’s metrics of money, wealth, status, etc. to judge our brothers. “You’re ok with us…You must be blessed, because…you’re…rich.”

“But you, oh my, you can’t really be that blessed…because…you’re poor…”

But in the Kingdom it is not so:

Listen, my beloved brethren:

Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? (2:5)

Again the paradoxy of true orthodoxy. And the church completely misses this.

But you have dishonored the poor man.

Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? (2:6-7)

The very people to whom we grant respect and honor are the very ones that oppress us through it. And the ones whom we despise as poor and unrespectable are the exact ones whom Christ is filling with the eternal riches of the Kingdom.

Then James centers all of this in the law of love:

If you really fulfill the royal (basilikós, that is ‘kingly’) law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;

but if you show partiality (prosōpolēptéō), you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors (2:8-9).

Back to Galatians 5: The life of the Spirit and the war with the flesh

Love is the dividing line between the “world” and the “Kingdom of God”, between the “children of light” and the “children of darkness.” In Paul’s language, this darkness of the self-life will become manifest in our community

if [we] bite and devour one another

To the degree that we are actually

consumed and destroyed (analískō) by one another! (Gal 5:15)

What, then, are we to do?

I say then:

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust (epithymía) of the flesh (5:16).

That is the only way, the only path. For it is only by walking “in the Spirit” that we can we kept from giving in to the lusts of our fallen desires.

For the flesh lusts (epithyméō [the verb form of epithymía]) against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary (antíkeimai) to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish (cf. Rom 7 as well as this)

The two, simply put, cannot coexist.

A little bit of the Spirit here…a little bit of the flesh there…when life gets tough...

No. Absolutely not.

The Apostle Paul is very clear on this point: We cannot mix the “spirit” of this fallen age with the “Spirit of God.”

And the reason is

The flesh lusts against (katá) the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh (Gal 5:17a).

We can translate this phrase with the verb “lust” (which we don’t really use much in modern speech beyond sexual connotations) as,

For the flesh has deep desires and longings (epithyméō: From epi + thymós with epi intensifying thymós so that it comes to mean ‘passionate desire’) that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires (thymós) that are opposed to the flesh.”

And why is this the case?

These are contrary to one another (Gal 5:17b).

They cannot be mixed together for they are entirely opposed to one another.

The same tree, in the words of Jesus, cannot produce two different fruits. And so, to have the inner life which produces the “fruits of the Spirit,” we must first “walk in the Spirit.” For

if [we] are led by the Spirit, [we] are not under the law (5:16-17).

Walking in the Spirit, then, means we do not live under the never-ending oppression and “bondage of the law.”

Whispering a cacophony of sound in our ear: “Do more…Do more…It’s not enough…Do more…”

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers (Mt 23:4).

With our lives, then, centered—not in the pharisaical externals of anxiety-ridden religion but rather—in the deep and powerful, inner-working of the Spirit, we are now at the point where Paul can introduce us to the “works of the flesh.”

And he does this by organizing them fluidly into three categories:

As we are at our time limit with this post, we will do nothing more than quote the verses with the next writing examining each of these dimensions in more detail.

The “Works of the Flesh”

Paul writes,

Now the works of the flesh (ta érga tēs sárkos) are evident, which are:

I. The Lusts of the Flesh: Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery

II. Idolatry: Idolatry, sorcery (pharmakeía, from which we obviously derive the word, ‘pharmacy’ and ‘pharmaceuticals’…which begs the question, “Is idolatry at the root our our modern, industrial pharmaceutical complex?)

IIIa. Outer Division: hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies

IV. Inner Division: envyings, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-20).

And in opposition to this fallen life of the flesh, the Apostle gives us the fruits that are being borne in those who walk by the Spirit. And with this we close:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another (5:22-26).

Amen.

So may it be!