Albert Barnes Commentary Galatians 5:16

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." — Galatians 5:16 (ASV)

This I say then. This is the true rule about overcoming the propensities of your carnal natures and of avoiding the evils of strife and contention.

Walk. The Christian life is often represented as a journey, and the word walk in Scripture is often equivalent to live (Mark 7:5; see also the notes on Romans 4:12; Romans 6:4; Romans 8:1).

In the Spirit. Live under the influences of the Holy Spirit; admit those influences fully into your hearts. Do not resist him, but yield to all his suggestions (see also the notes on Romans 8:1).

What the Holy Spirit would produce, Paul states in Galatians 5:22-23.

If a man would yield his heart to those influences, he would be able to overcome all his evil propensities. It is because he resists that Spirit that he is always overcome by the corrupt passions of his nature. Never was a better, safer, or an easier rule given to overcome our corrupt and sensual desires than that furnished here. (Compare to Romans 8:1 and Romans 8:2-13; see also the notes on these passages).

And ye shall not fulfil, etc. A marginal note reads, Fulfil not—as if it were a command. So Tyndale renders it. But the more common interpretation, as it is the more significant, is that adopted by our translators.

Thus, it is not merely a command; it is the statement of an important and deeply interesting truth: that the only way to overcome the corrupt desires and propensities of our nature is by submitting to the influences of the Holy Spirit.

It is not by philosophy, not by mere resolutions to resist them, nor by the force of education and laws; it is only by admitting into our souls the influence of religion and yielding ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.

If we live under the influences of that Spirit, we need not fear the power of the sensual and corrupt propensities of our nature.

[Textual note: The phrase ye shall not fulfill the lust has an alternative rendering, fulfil not. The term lust here can also mean desire.]