Freedom is Not to Be Misinterpreted as Licence. They Must Walk in Love and By the Spirit (Galatians 5:13-26 ). Paul now goes on to deal with the charge that the Gospel he is presenting gives men licence to do as they like. What he is teaching, he points out, will not result in licentious living, but rather the opposite. It will result in living by the Spirit, in producing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. read more
‘But I say, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfil the longing of the flesh. For the flesh longs against the Spirit, and the Spirit longs against the flesh. For these are contrary, the one to the other, that you may not do the things that you would.’ But how different that is from being a Christian. For a Christian walks by the Spirit, and in accordance with His will. They have previously learned that Christ lives in them in His resurrection life (Galatians 2:20), that they have received... read more
Galatians 5:13 to Galatians 6:10 . Practical appendix to the epistle; in the form of “ guarding” the doctrine of free grace against antinomian abuse. read more
Walk in the Spirit; the apostle having, Galatians 5:13, cautioned them against turning the grace of God into wantonness, by using their liberty as an occasion to the flesh; here he directeth them to the best means for the avoiding thereof, viz. walking in the Spirit. Where by Spirit he doth not mean our own spirits, or the guide and conduct of our own reason; for the term Spirit, set (as here) in opposition to the flesh, is in no place of Scripture understood of any other than the Holy Spirit... read more
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTESGalatians 5:13. Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.—Do not give the flesh the handle or pretext for its indulgence, which it eagerly seeks for. By love serve one another.—If ye must be in bondage, be servants to one another in love.Galatians 5:15. If ye bite and devour one another, … consumed.—Figures taken from the rage of beasts of prey. The biting of controversy naturally runs into the devouring of controversial mood waxing fierce with indulgence. And... read more
DISCOURSE: 2082WALKING IN THE SPIRIT, A PRESERVATIVE FROM SINGalatians 5:16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.IN the Church of God, no less than in the ungodly world, there have always been found persons ready to foment divisions, and to kindle animosities between man and man. It was so in the apostolic age: it is so at this day: and it must of necessity be so, as long as tares are left growing amongst the wheat, or persons professing godliness... read more
Shall we turn now to Galatians chapter five. The whole concept is: how do I establish a righteous standing before God? Can I be righteous by keeping the law? Or am I righteous by my simple faith in Jesus Christ? Now, Paul taught righteousness through faith. There followed Paul teachers, Judaizers who brought another gospel, which was not really a gospel. For they were saying that was it was necessary to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses in order to be righteous before God, to be... read more
Galatians 5:1 . Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, by the redemption he has procured through the shedding of his own most precious blood. The liberty of your celestial birth, comprising pardon, and all the blessings of the new covenant. The power to leave the galling rituals of the law behind, and put on the garments of righteousness, as the sons of Abraham and of Sarah. The yoke of bondage is now superseded by divine adoption, which makes us sons of... read more
Galatians 5:16Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.Flesh versus SpiritA Galatian Christian might argue that the religion of Christ had not wrought for him the deliverance which he had expected; that whereas he had been taught to believe in the Almighty power of Christ, and of Christ’s grace, he found that there yet abode within him another power of a wholly different kind, a power antagonistic to the grace of Christ, a power constantly inclining him to evil. How was... read more
Get Bible verse every day in your inbox
Read on Mobile
James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary - Galatians 5:16
POSITIVE CHRISTIANITY‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.’ Galatians 5:16 These Galatians were a fierce, brave, generous, but untamed race of mountaineers, whose chief vices were unbridled fleshly self-indulgence. And here St. Paul urges them to struggle to be self-controlling men, and not self-indulgent brutes: ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.’ It is hardly possible to conceive a greater contrast than that between those wild... read more