Fighting an unCivil War

From 1861 until 1865, America was torn apart by the bloodiest war in our history. Today we know it as the American Civil War, but much like the political culture today, there was nothing civil about it. The War Between the States was an uncivil war in which over 650,000 Americans were killed. To put that into persepective more American’s lost their lives in the Civil War than World War I and World War II combined (622,000 Americans died in the two world wars). It’s a miracle of God that our nation even survived that terrible war.

There is another war an internal war, and it’s not very civil either. It’s the war that rages between your two natures. Each of us has a sinful nature, we simply call it human nature. When we become a follower of Jesus, God places His Holy Spirit in our hearts, and the war begins. Our sinful nature is always pushing us toward sin, and the Holy Spirit is prompting us toward holy living.

Paul offers his readers encouragement and instruction in facing this inner civil war in Galatians 5:16-26. Look at what he says:

“I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

Some people would argue that Christians shouldn’t have any inner conflict because our old sinful nature is dead and we now have peace with God.  But the truth is, we live in a sinful world. Because of this, we face temptation.  We are not immune from this.  In fact, often times the experience of this inner conflict can be much more intense or much more evident for Believers since we have a new nature.

Paul says the result of this conflict is that “you don’t do what you want.” You see, our spiritual and renewed nature desire to do good.  But what end’s up coming out more often than not is our sinful nature which pulls the other way – take this example, you want to apologize to someone for something, but then your pride gets in the way, and you ignore it.  Our sinful nature resists everything that is spiritual, even as a Christian.  The solution? To walk in the Spirit.

In verses 19-21 Paul lists off the works of the flesh. It doesn’t make very pleasant reading. But it serves an important purpose. To convince us of the corrupt and depraved nature of man.  Remember, we live in a fallen world it shouldn’t surprise us when we see these works of the flesh around us and in ourselves as well.

Paul doesn’t leave us there though with a list of stuff not to do. That’s not the Bible’s purpose nor is it Paul’s in these verses. How do we know this? Look at the next two verses (22-23) he gives us the “fruits of the Spirit” – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. 

So, we have a pretty good picture in these five verses of what we should and should not do. These acts of our sinful nature are a description of sin; whereas, the fruit of the Spirit is a description of the work of God’s grace.

And as Paul closes out this passage reminding us that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Talking the talk is easy. It’s easy to say all the right things, have all the right answers. But we are not called to live an easy life, we are not to be about simply talk. We are called to walk the walk. That is why Paul said, “I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

…Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit….

What does this mean for us? This means that we need to examine our lives, the way we live, the words we speak, things we do both in public and private and prayerfully ask ourselves where do they fit in the descriptions Paul has given us.

Are following the Spirit or are you following the flesh? Who is winning the inner civil war in your life today?

See ya Sunday!