Freedom in the Spirit

Gal 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

I remember listening to endless ‘testimonies’ when I was a teenager - people telling us how they had been ‘saved’. Many of them very moving and some quite remarkable. (Peter in front of TV in Australia - Neil in Fudpuckers) But there was a genre, usually recounted by burnt out looking thirty-somethings (I see a number of you here this evening), which ran along the lines: “There was no sin and debauchery to which I had not sunk (sometimes they went on to “and then at the age of five...”). But others would give you a tantalising glimpse of the sins and broad hints of the debauchery of their mis-spent youth. And I would sit and complain to God that I had become a Christian far to early to get a good crack at debauchery.

This passage from Paul’s difficult letter to the Galatians, contains this list, which even as a child you would mentally tick off as we ran the gamut of the sins of the flesh. [I was never sure what ‘lasciviousness’ was, but by the very sound of it, I’d committed it...]

The Scriptures, and Paul himself, use the word ‘flesh’ to convey a variety of meanings.

Fallen and perverse human nature - “the lust of the flesh”. Or if you don’t like the biblical imagery of the fall in the garden of Eden, then you can follow Richard Dawkins and his ‘Selfish Gene’ - we’re born that way - we’re part of nature, red in tooth and claw; or if you look into your own soul, you know that it is easier to be selfish and self-centred than to be generous and altruistic - that takes effort. This is what Paul has in mind in this passage, and he amplifies it.

His hit list covers three dominant areas of our lives: sexuality, spirituality and society.

Sexuality- fornication, impurity, licentiousness
- the pursuit of sex as an end in itself, regardless of the feelings, responsibilities and respect we owe to each other - and to society. That’s a more difficult point in our divided society where there are very varied sexual mores. And of course some would argue that what we do in the bedroom is nothing to do with wider society. This was Abp Runcie’s view expressed in his candid biography.

Spirituality - idolatry & sorcery - the need for human kind to worship
- the danger of worshipping of ‘other gods’ of our own making - eg
- the cult of self - the body beautiful and self-gratification - fuelled by the
- the cult of money - the love of which is the root of all evil -
consumerism - shopping mall temples - Tesco ergo sum - retail therapy
- the cult of ‘my church’ - pride, intolerance and lack of Xn charity
- the cult of others - worshipping the lover, the spouse, the children

Society - enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing
- the ills which fragment community life and lead to distrust, social isolation, pain and anguish

So what is the Apostle’s solution to this civil war within us - the backcloth of so much human history, literature and art; the backcloth of this war-riven century; the backcloth of our own experience of the messiness of life.

It is to walk in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit; to be what you are in Christ. It is to have that attitude which was in Christ Jesus.

Paul lists the fruit of this Spirit of Christ in relation to God, Others and Self
God - love, joy, peace - these should be our characteristics
Others - patience, kindness, generosity (To dwell above...)
Self - faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

We crucify the flesh: we make those moment by moment decisions to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit rather than to follow our demanding animal self - the lust of the flesh - the selfish gene. And we need not only the help of God’s Spirit, but of his Word and Sacraments, and of his people, and of the best of his world.

Then Paul talks of walking in the Spirit - ‘keeping in step’ with the Spirit.
Sailing - finding the wind - and the exhilaration of running before it. These are what the spiritual disciplines are for - church, devotions, confession, spiritual reading, retreat, pilgrimage (Walsingham)....

As we are led by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit so we will know the fullness of joy in the Spirit and the abundance of life in the Spirit.


Gal 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”