The Battle Between The Flesh And The Spirit

Living inside of each believer is the flesh and the Spirit.

They are in conflict with each other.

The flesh is the sinful desires within us that crave to be gratified.

When these sinful desires are gratified, they become the acts of the flesh.

Paul lists the acts of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21.

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, carousing, and the like.”

The Spirit is the desire of Jesus within us to produce his love through us.

Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

The desires of the flesh are in conflict with the desire of the Spirit.

We have all experienced this internal battle between the flesh and the Spirit.

As this battle rages within us, how do we keep from gratifying the desires of the flesh so that the fruit of the Spirit is produced within and through us?

Paul provides the answer in Galatians 5:16-18.

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

The answer Paul provides is “walk by the Spirit.”

That leads to another question.

What does it mean to walk by the Spirit?

In the context of Galatians, to walk by the Spirit is to live our lives focused on “Abba, Father’s” love for us rather than on the law.

We learn in Galatians 4:4-6 that Jesus redeemed the Galatians from the law and God sent the Spirit of Jesus into their hearts so, as his sons and daughters, they could call God “Abba, Father.”

We have the same relationship with God.

We are not under law but under grace.

As his sons and daughters, we call God “Abba, Father.”

This means we relate to God in a love relationship rather than through the the law.

By relating to God in a love relationship instead of the law, we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, rather the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in our hearts and lives.

However, if we relate to God through the law, we will fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Romans 7:4-6 explains this.

"So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code (the law-The Ten Commandments)."

The Spirit does not lead us to the law but to Abba’s love.

As we experience Abba's love, the Spirit produces the fruit of love within us.

But the law arouses the sinful desires of the flesh within us (Romans 5:20; 7:4-25).

For example, A sign that says “Do Not Touch” produces a desire within us to touch what the sign said not to touch.

We use this Do Not approach with children many times.

What happens when we tell a child not to do something?

They do the very thing we told them not to do.

That is the flesh.

Then we threaten retribution upon a child if he fails to do what we ask, while also guaranteeing a reward if he does what we ask.

Now we are appealing to the selfishness of his flesh, which doesn’t want retribution but wants reward (this is like the children of Israel under the Law of Moses).

Sometimes we will use the child’s flesh and a law to our advantage.

We will say playfully, “You better not give me a hug.”

We know full well the child will do the very thing we told him/her not to do...give us a hug.

The flesh is something else!

Law brings the flesh to life even in children.

In Romans 7:14-25, we discover a person who was trying NOT to covet by obeying the Tenth Commandment...Do Not Covet.

This commandment aroused the sinful desires of the flesh, and he found himself coveting all the more.

The solution to his coveting problem was not trying harder to not covet, but was walking in the Spirit by relating to God as “Abba, Father”...my Daddy who loves me...my Papa who loves me! (Romans 8:1-16).g

How does Abba, Daddy, Papa love us?

It gives him great joy to call us his sons and daughters.

He is peaceful to us, and patient, kind, good, gentle, and faithful toward us.

As we experience his love, the Spirit produces joy and peace within us, along with peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and faithfulness.

Joy and peace flood our hearts because we know Abba...Daddy...Papa takes joy in loving us and calling us his sons and daughters.

Our focus becomes trusting in Abba’s love rather than trying not to gratify the desires of the flesh.

We begin enjoying Abba’s love rather than eradicating sin from our lives.

As we enjoy Abba’s love, the acts of the flesh will be eradicated from our lives.

The desires of the flesh will always be around...the battle will rage between the flesh and the Spirit.

However, we don’t fight the battle by trying to obey the Ten Commandments.

If we do, we will lose.

We will sin more (Romans 5:20; 7:4-25).

The truth is...we don’t need to enter the battle.

The battle is not ours to fight.

The battle is between the flesh and the Spirit, not us and the flesh.

We simply disengage from the battle by enjoying Abba’s love.

We focus on Abba’s love rather than focusing on the battle.

The Spirit of Jesus then produces Abba’s nature in us…

...his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and faithfulness.

Our lives then become controlled by Abba’s love not the flesh.