Good day dear people of God. I hope we are all
refreshed and revitalized for the new week.
Last week we looked at the reality of the
existence of an on-going conflict between the Spirit and the flesh as
contrasting influences on earth. We ended with a reminder that God through His
grace has provided victory for us in Christ through the enablement of the Holy
Spirit. I sincerely hope that we are applying these principles to our lives and
that we are taking the right steps to make good progress in our walk with God
in grace.
This week I want us to proceed in our journey
through the epistle to the Galatians:
“Now the actions of the flesh are obvious…I am telling you
now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will
not inherit the kingdom of God” Galatians 5:19-21 International Standard
Version
These verses above contain a list of
works or actions of the flesh but I have left out the individual items on the
list to reduce the length of my post and also because I do not intend to keep
us fixated on the wrong attributes. However I must point out that this list is
not exhaustive but merely representative as I am sure we all can readily roll
out more attributes of ungodly lives. This is the reason Paul after mentioning
these specific attributes says “…and things like these” (Galatians 5:21).
I believe this list of vices
corresponds with issues the original recipients of this epistle were exposed to
in their own society. If the letter for example had been addressed to the
Cretans among whom Titus was serving as a minister of the Gospel, then perhaps issues like lying, violence
and gluttony would have been prominent (see Titus 1:12). And if it had been an
epistle to a church in Nigeria in our modern day, one can be sure that greed,
corruption and tribalism would have been high up on the list! My point is that
it is not only these 16 or 17 attributes (depending on which Bible translation
you read) that are works or actions of the flesh.
Galatians 5:21 echoes 1st Corinthians
6:9 & 10. The kingdom of God is not the inheritance of people who live like
this (see Revelation 22:15). People who make a practice of such a lifestyle demonstrate
that they are still in the flesh and are firmly under the control of the flesh.
Let us however, read what 1st Corinthians 6:11 has to say about believers in Christ:
“And some of you were these things, but you were washed, but you were
sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the
Spirit of our God” (Lexham English Bible)
The point is that we as believers should not
live that way. We shouldn’t make a practice of such things. All such attributes
belong to a different class of people in an opposing camp. Next week we will
look at the attributes of people in our own class. Life in the Spirit is
different from life in the flesh. We are different and we should live
differently. We are washed, sanctified, justified already! That’s our heritage.
Let God’s Spirit dominate your mind
this week and always. Refuse to allow the flesh have its way. That is the life
the grace of God has brought us to.
My song for the week is “How Sweet
The Sound” by Citizen Way.
Have a lovely day and a beautiful
week.
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