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Why this is important: We have received the mighty power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God, in His good grace and mercy, has immersed us in the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit without measure.

And I am saying, walk around by the Spirit and by no means will you bring to completion the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit [lusts] against the flesh. For these oppose each other, lest you be doing these things, whatever [they are], that you are wanting [to do]. But if you’re being led by the Spirit, you’re not under the Law.

Galatians 5:16-17 Robert H. Gundry, Commentary on the New Testament: Verse-by-Verse Explanations with a Literal Translation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010), 751.

The command to walk around by the Spirit, so that this completion doesn’t take place, implies freedom of action and the personal responsibility accompanying it.

Starting with “For,” Paul tells why he has issued that command. The reason is twofold: (1) the flesh lusts against the Spirit in that your moral weakness paradoxically produces in you a strong desire to transgress the moral boundaries which the Spirit strongly desires you to honor, and (2) the Spirit lusts against the flesh in that the Spirit strongly desires you not to bring to completion the lust of the flesh.

The Greek for flesh is  σάρξf, σαρκός [sarx]: the psychological aspect of human nature which contrasts with the spiritual nature; in other words, that aspect of human nature which is characterized by or reflects typical human reasoning and desires in contrast with those aspects of human thought and behavior which relate to God and the spiritual life—‘human nature, human aspects, natural, human.’

  • οὐ πολλοὶ σοφοὶ κατὰ σάρκα ‘few of you were wise from a human point of view’ 1 Cor 1:26;
  • φανερὰ δέ ἐστιν τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκός ‘what human nature does is quite plain’ Ga 5:19;
  • σπείρων εἰς τὴν σάρκα ἑαυτοῦ ‘he who plants in the area of his human, natural desire’ Ga 6:8.

Some scholars understand the meaning of σάρξf as being a person’s ‘lower nature’ rather than simply ‘human nature,’ but the distinction between lower nature and higher nature seems to be primarily one arising out of typical Greek thought rather than out of the Semitic background which seems to be so pervasive in the use of the term σάρξ in such contexts in the NT. There are, of course, contexts in which σάρξ does refer to that psychological factor in man which serves as a willing instrument of sin and is subject to sin.

“For these oppose each other” explains that the respective lusts, those of the flesh and those of the Spirit, are dead set against each other. No compromise is possible, so that either the Spirit keeps you from doing the evil your flesh wants you to do or your flesh keeps you from doing the good the Spirit wants you to do.

“But if you’re being led by the Spirit” explains what it means to “walk around by the Spirit.” It means to let the Spirit determine your behavior, indeed, to empower you to behave in opposition to the lust of the flesh.

  • And there may be some wordplay between “being led by the Spirit” and the contrastive condition of being under the Law as your childminder.
  • For more literally translated, the word for “childminder” comes out as “childleader.”
  • We expect Paul to say that if you’re being led by the Spirit you won’t be led by your lustful flesh, or words to that effect (as in the earlier statement, “by no means will you bring to completion the lust of the flesh”).
  • But he surprises us with the conclusion, “you’re not under the Law,” which brings out that Spirit-led behavior gives evidence of freedom from the Law. So you shouldn’t submit to circumcision and the slavery it entails (compare 3:2–5).

Good news: We are being led by the Holy Spirit. We have the complete power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Source: Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 321–322.

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