stephen R Harrison

Conceited, provoking, and envying…these are sure ways to quench the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives and churches. These have been present in my life in the past. Lord, help! I have also at times seen these more active in church and its leadership than the movement of the Holy Spirit. If you want to stop the Holy Spirit’s presence, power, and activity in a church, stop “living by the Spirit” and “keeping in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). Instead of being a Galatians 5:25 person is start being a 5:26 person. Verse 26 says, “let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other”. When these start, the Spirit stops. When these start, real church stops. When these are present, the Spirit isn’t.

How do you “live by the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Spirit”? The ingredients of a Spirit-filled life are found in the previous verses. They include not indulging the flesh (v. 13a), serving one another humbly in love (v. 13b), and loving your neighbor (v. 14). Paul says do not bite and devour one another, which will lead to destroying one another (v. 15). As a pastor, I’ve had people who have done the good and the bad of these verses to me. Those that served with humility in love promoted the life of the Spirit in our church. Those who indulged the flesh, bit, devoured, and destroyed what the Spirit was doing. They were bent on promoting self, sowing strife, and jealousy. The result was destruction of relationships, small groups, ministries, and even unity. By keeping things stirred up in the flesh, the mission of winning souls with the gospel and making disciples of Jesus was hindered.

Paul’s encouragement to prevent all of this is to “walk by the Spirit” (v. 16). That’s the opposite of walking in the flesh as they are contrary to one another (v. 17). He even goes as far as listing specific acts of the flesh (vv. 19-21) before he lists the fruit of the Spirit (vv. 22-23). A real litmus test if you are in the Spirit or in the flesh are the presence of these. If hatred, that’s the flesh. If love, that’s the Spirit. If there’s envy, that’s the flesh. If there’s kindness, that’s the Spirit. I think we get the picture as we read, but perhaps the difficulty happens in the moment of choosing the Spirit or the flesh. The answer can be found in the moment as the Spirit is with us and he convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. However, the answer comes before the test – we are to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit (vv. 25-26). This happens daily as we listen, obey, read the Word, pray, and follow the Spirit’s promptings and commands. May our lives and churches be filled with the activity of Spirit-filled and Spirit-walking people. Help us Holy Spirit to “crucify the flesh with its passions and desires” (v. 24).