Fruits of the Spirit: The Flesh

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Fruits of the Spirit

The Flesh

Galatians 5: 16-22

Galatians 5: 16-21

16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 By the age of 11, Mikey had been through more turmoil than most of us will ever face in a lifetime. His father had spent 8 out of the 11 years of his life in jail for selling drugs, and when he was out of jail, his dad was nowhere to be seen. His mother abused drugs and alcohol on a regular basis and spent many days and evenings in jail for various offenses. His 15 yr old brother was in a gang as well as his sister and her fiancé.

In a 3 month period, Mikey was literally stabbed in the back over a sports jacket, assaulted several times at school witnessed a drive-by shooting where a young man was killed and saw his sister’s fiancé get shot in the neck, doomed to spend the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. His lifetime of inconsistent parents and this summer of violence scarred Mikey in ways that his teachers at school, his mother, and others who cared about him, really could not understand.

At 11 yrs old, Mikey would go to school about half of the time. When he did go, he would never talk to any teachers or any of the students in his classroom. One afternoon his teacher set firm boundaries after a request, and Mikey responded in the way he had been taught when confronted with choices that he did not agree with. He threw his desk to the ground and picked up his chair and hurled it at his teacher.

After his school expulsion, Mikey was taken to several therapeutic classrooms with a very low teacher student ratio. Eventually, Mikey assaulted somebody in every self-contained classroom that he was involved in. After several unsuccessful placements, Mikey was taken out of his home and placed in residential treatment where he lived with other young boys who struggled with emotional expression. After approximately three days at the residential facility, Mikey ran away and has not been seen by his caseworker or the police since.

What bothers you about Mikey’s story?

Maybe it’s what happened to Mikey. What of what happened to him was his fault? It was the choices of others…their flesh…their sin that impacted Mikey. But he’s not alone. All of us have been impacted by the choices of others…

How has this fallen world negatively affected your life? While some of the listed sins can be performed alone, note how many involve abuse of other people and a breakdown in human relationships.

In v. 19 these are not the products of our “lower nature,” but the results of the power of sin at work in the Christian community. The “flesh” destroys relationships and community not only by flagrant immorality, but by generating the socially acceptable (even admired) sins of envy, excessive ambition, and divisions into cliques.

In our men’s group last week the lesson was titled “the wound.” The author John Eldridge noted that all men (and for that matter women) have been damaged by our fathers. Not that our fathers were bad men…it’s just that the wounds from our fathers cut deeper and can impact our entire lives, affecting our personality, our marriages, and our relationships. Eldridge notes that we can also be wounded from our family, and from our peers. All of us have been wounded in some way by those around us.

And it’s all their fault that I do bad things isn’t it? No, in life we face choices as well. You and I also battle the flesh, don’t we? And unfortunately we have sinned. And even though Mikey was impacted by those around him he still had choices. And those choices affected others. So again think about your own life and how your sinful nature has negatively affected others. Again not that we are only evil.

Paul describes the 2 forces conflicting within us-the Holy Spirit and the sinful nature (our evil desires or inclinations that stem from our bodies). There’s a great illustration of this from one of the Lord of the Rings movies…didn’t show it because it’s a little scary. It’s a conversation Smeagol has with his evil alter ego Gollum. Gollum was the previous owner of the ring before Bilbo Baggins stole it from him in the Hobbit series. Anyway, Smeagol begins to realize that he no longer has to give in to the evil pleasures and desires of Gollum and he sets himself free from the bondage. Declaring at the end of the scene “I’m free.” We too can have mastery over our evil desires. Unfortunately, as long as we live with the flesh we will have temptations, but we can still have a choice.

See Paul is not saying that these forces are equal-the Holy Spirit is infinitely stronger. But if we rely on our own wisdom, we will make wrong choices.

Take the story of Little Johnny. His family was going on vacation, but they had left late and wouldn’t make it to the hotel until late. Johnny kept bugging his mother about swimming at the hotel once they arrived, but his mother told him it would be too late when they arrived and he could swim in the morning. They finally reached the hotel and as Johnny’s family was unloading the car his mom heard splashing in the pool, but Johnny was nowhere around. When Johnny’s mom went to the pool who did she see in the pool? Little Johnny…when his mom asked him what happened he said the temptation was too great. But we haven’t even gotten the suitcases unloaded and you have your swimsuit on. I was afraid the temptation would be too great so I put my swimsuit on before we left. If we rely on our own wisdom we plan to fail.

And if we try to follow the Spirit by our own human effort, we still will fail. Our only way to freedom from our evil desires is through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

We all have evil desires, and we can’t ignore them. In order for us to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we must deal with them decisively in Paul’s words, crucify them. These desires include obvious sins such as sexual immorality and idolatry. But they also include less obvious sins such as selfish ambition, hatred, and jealousy. Those who ignore such sins or refuse to deal with them reveal that they are not receiving the gift of the Spirit that leads to a transformed life. So if we will receive the Holy Spirit not only do we have the power to overcome temptation, but we gain the Fruits of the Spirit which we will talk about in the coming weeks.

Now the question becomes what can we do to help others? How can we communicate the love of God in the midst of the injustice all around us? How would you explain the love of God to Mikey? To his parents? To the person sitting next to you?

For me I believe it is this, that we serve the God of hope, the God of second chances. In this scripture the phrase, those who do such things, is the Greek word prassontes or practicing. It is not those who fall short of perfection who are excluded from the Kingdom, because that would exclude everyone. God gives us forgiveness. As Christians we need to be real, to be honest with ourselves and with others. It is only through God that I have hope to face each day. That even though the world at times has kicked me in the gut and knocked a few teeth out. I get up and dust myself off because God is big enough to overcome my hurt and pain. God is big enough, Jesus’ death was enough for all my sins, past, present and future. God loves me just the way I am and invites me to take the next step. And finally that God trusts in me, believes in me and wants me to help bring the Kingdom here.

So may you forgive what has been done to you and may you overcome what you do to others through the power of the spirit as we seek to save the lost and broken in this fallen world, to communicate the hope and love that God offers.