When the Flesh is Tugging

January 24, 2018

When the Flesh is Tugging

For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:14

Read: Galatians 5: 13-21

Jesus Christ has set us free from the power of sin that separated us from God. Our New Covenant relationship with God has been won by, and secured by Jesus for all eternity. Paul wants us to embrace our freedom, to rejoice in our freedom, and to choose to live each day in our freedom in Christ. In this passage, Paul begins to demonstrate how different our freedom in Christ is from the law. The law provides a list of do’s and don’ts. Keep the law and you’ll be in a right-relationship with God. Of course, the problem we know all too well is that no one can faithfully keep the law.

Freedom doesn’t provide a list of do’s and don’ts. Freedom provides us with sign posts pointing the way toward God, and then we have the freedom to choose which way we want to go.  The more we choose the ways of God, the more we train ourselves in the life of Christ. However, in keeping with the truth Paul has been teaching in this letter, choosing the right path is vitally important.

The apostle Paul was not too big on shades of gray. He saw things as black and white. You are either in Christ, or you are not. You are either living by grace, or you are living under the law. You are either living by the Spirit, or you are living by the flesh.

My Takeaway: Paul’s argument is quite simple. If your lifestyle resembles the characteristics of the flesh life in Galatians 5:19-21 you are making the wrong choices in life. Paul wants us to know we don’t have to follow the desires of our sinful flesh. Through the power of Christ, we can choose to follow Christ in the ways of God. When we feel the tug of our flesh, let us always recall Paul’s words in Romans 7:24-25: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

P.S. Also, hold on to the promise of Romans 8:1-2.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2018 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.