Will you spend half the day today doing the ugly task the Bible commands you to do?
Galatians 5:19-26 (NIV)
19 The acts 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.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 29: The Marks of the True Church
The true church can be recognized
if it has the following marks:
The church engages in the pure preaching
of the gospel;
it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments
as Christ instituted them;
it practices church discipline
for correcting faults.
As for those who can belong to the church,
we can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians:
namely by faith,
and by their fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness,
once they have received the one and only Savior,
Jesus Christ.
They love the true God and their neighbors,
without turning to the right or left,
and they crucify the flesh and its works.
Though great weakness remains in them,
they fight against it
by the Spirit
all the days of their lives,
appealing constantly
to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus,
in whom they have forgiveness of their sins,
through faith in him.
Summary
Today's summary is a repost from July 24
These verses from Galatians are memorable and well loved because of the beautiful metaphor it presents: the Spirit filled life as one bearing sweet, nutritious fruit. But this passage also both begins and ends with a warning based in cold, hard logic. Since the beauty of this passage is so easy to see, working through it backwards will help us see the logic a bit easier.
The final verse warns of what happens to people who've experienced a taste of salvation, but who continue to be guided by their own sinful nature (sarx). Such people become conceited and consumed with envy and self promotion. This is our natural state as sinners, the condition we default to unless the Spirit regenerates us.
Instead of trying to stay a step ahead of everyone else, a true Christian "keeps in step" with the Spirit (v25). This keeps your eyes focused on the Spirit, and not so full of yourself or worried about how you compare to others.
Our natural inclination towards conceitedness and envy doesn't go away easily; it requires a painful separation. You must crucify your flesh - not physically, of course; the Bible uses the word flesh - literally the Greek word sarx - to refer to the residual sin that's woven into our fallen human nature, samples of which Paul catalogs at the beginning of our passage.
Sarx is like a zombie: you put it to death one day, and it comes right back to life the next. This means this painful crucifixion process never ends for those who are in Christ, that is, until Christ returns and makes all things new.
Dig Deeper
It's easy to think we can outproduce our problems; in other words, if we're bearing a satisfactory amount of fruit in our lives (that is, just a bit more than the average Christian), then we don't need to worry so much about this nasty business of crucifying our flesh. We think that by cranking up the love, joy and peace just a bit, we can produce enough fruit to mask the sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery mentioned in the verses that precede this passage that so often hide in the shadows of our lives.
It's interesting to look at the four marks our Confession says identifies true Christians:
Faith
Flee from sin and embrace righteousness
Love God & neighbors
Crucify the flesh and its works
We often associate the Christian life with doing good deeds and bearing Spiritual fruit. Certainly you must do these things, and as our Confession puts it, "embrace righteousness."
But notice that half of the list has to do with ridding yourself of sin! Remember, the Confession is a summary of all of scripture, and here it captures the full counsel of God's Word in reminding you that you must spend at least half of your life - half of each day - identifying and killing off sin.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who calls us to keep in step with His Spirit;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be more and more aware of the sin in your life, and that in the strength the Spirit grants, you will be able to kill it each day;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 John 1
