What Freedom Is Not
WHAT FREEDOM IS NOT
GALATIANS 5:16-21
The gruesome list of sins shows what results from the free expression of self-centered human nature.
The self-life, called in 5:13 “the flesh,” must not be allowed to dominate, but isn’t this a counsel of despair? How can we resist the pull of the old nature, which often feels as irresistible and relentless as the force of gravity?
Paul faces the issue squarely and offers no easy solution. Notice he does not deny the seductive power of the fallen nature in the Christian, nor does he teach that conversion automatically transfers us to some spiritual nirvana beyond the reach of temptation. The flesh is real, and provokes a very bitter conflict within the Christian’s life (5:17).
The “opposite number” in the conflict with the flesh is the Holy Spirit whose grace and power are the believer’s resources (5:16,18). Drawing on those resources will give us strength to counteract the downward pull of the flesh; submission to the leadership of the Spirit will provide reserves of spiritual energy by which the flesh can be curbed. Paul has a side glance here (5:18) at the Judaizers’ claim that the only way to moral victory was to put oneself under the restraint of the law—a prescription which Paul had tried for himself and found illusory and ineffective (Romans 7:13-23). The only hope offered to the “wretched man” (Romans 7:24) who cries out for deliverance is the hope which tells him to call in the resources of the Holy Spirit.
The “works of the flesh” present a fearsome catalog of vices, only too common in human society, whether ancient or modern. They may be subdivided: (1) inordinate human appetites given unbridled sway (5:19); (2) perverted religion (5:20, idolatry, sorcery); (3) antisocial behavior (5:20); followed by (4) some personal lapses (5:21, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like). They all spring from our lower nature which expresses itself sometimes in blatant crime (in 5:21, some texts add “murder”), sometimes in a perversion and abuse of a God-given instinct (sex misused in pornography, indecency and immorality; thirst getting out of hand in drunken bouts) and often in some deadly forms which we treat only too lightly (quarrels, fits of rage, selfishness).