Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

What is the solution to such biting, devouring, and destroying that is all too common among Christian assemblies? The answer, Paul says, is to “live by the Spirit.” Then, and only then, will one cease to gratify the desires of the flesh. It is the Spirit alone who can keep the believer truly free.

The contrast between sarx (“flesh”; NIV “sinful nature”; GK 4922), on the one hand, and pneuma (“spirit”; GK 4460), on the other, is one of the characteristic themes in NT, and particularly Pauline, theology. It is as important, for instance, as the contrast between the observance of the law and the hearing of faith that has thus far dominated the letter. Although sarx can mean the whole person as conditioned by a bodily existence and by natural desires, in Christian vocabulary (especially in Paul), it came to mean a human being as fallen, whose desires even at best originate from sin and are stained by it. Thus, sarx came to mean all the evil that one is capable of apart from the intervention of God’s grace in one’s life; i.e., it is synonymous with “the natural man,” “the old nature,” or “the sinful nature.” Sarx also contains thoughts of human limitation, both intellectually and morally (Romans 7:18). Thus, that which is flesh is incapable of knowing God apart from special revelation and the redemption that removes the barrier of sin (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14).

The other term is pneuma, usually translated “spirit.” Its earliest meaning is “wind,” “air,” “breath,” or “life.” Later it came to refer to the incorporeal part of a person, which (like breath) leaves at death. These meanings do occur in the NT. But the main emphasis is always on “spirit” as the Spirit of God or related to the Spirit of God. Indeed, it is because God breathes his spirit or breath into a person that that person has breath (cf. Genesis 2:7). The incorporeal part of a human being has God-consciousness. In distinctly religious terminology, the Spirit of God takes up residence in Christians to enable them to understand spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:14), receive Christ as Savior and Lord, call God “Father” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6), and develop a Christian personality. The Spirit is thus the presence of God in a person, through whom fellowship with God is made possible and power given for winning the warfare against sin in the soul.

The Spirit is not natural to a human being in one’s fallen state. But this does not mean that by the gift of the Spirit a redeemed person escapes the need to struggle against sin. The Spirit simply makes victory possible—and that only to the degree that the believer “lives by the Spirit” or “walks” in him.