XX - THE DESIRE OF THE FLESH NOT THE DESIRE OF THE MAN

Summary

“I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

—Gal. v. 16, 17.

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh,” says St. Paul; that is, “You will be able to avoid fulfilling the lust of the flesh, if only you will walk in the Spirit.” How did he know that they wished not to fulfil the lust of the flesh? Or, taking the counsel as addressed to ourselves, is it certain that we wish not to fulfil the lust of the flesh? These are questions which have to be answered if we want to understand either what St. Paul meant, or whether what he said is of any use to our own selves.

Some will say at once that the Galatians were early Christian believers, to whom a part of the Bible was written, and that of course they had long abandoned the flesh and minded only the things of the spirit. The epistle itself shows that they are wrong. St. Paul rebukes the Galatians most strongly for various faults which were undoubted marks of a fleshly mind. In the very verse before the text he had warned them against biting and devouring one another, and told them that they were in danger of being consumed one of another. And these are just the faults by which he showed the Corinthians to be carnal, that is, fleshly.