January 25th - Galatians 5:16-17
Playback speed
Galatians 5:16-17
It’s always refreshing when you meet someone who is completely honest. The apostle Paul was such a man. In Romans 7:18-19, he gave an astonishingly frank account of how he ticked. He talked about the way he struggled with his sinful nature, summing it up this way: “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.” That all sounds rather bleak doesn’t it? However, whoever we are, we all know how easy it is for our selfish nature to dominate our lives, even when we know that that’s the wrong way to go. But we don’t need to despair because God offers to lead us by his Holy Spirit. He is able to give us the wisdom and strength to choose a better way.
Paul then gave an agonising list of the destructive consequences of leaving our selfish nature in the driving seat. What’s fascinating is that he wouldn’t need to come up with a different list if he was addressing us today. Look at it. “Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). You might have thought that, after 2,000 years, the world might have come up with some new sins. But no, the tired old ones continue to get dragged out, undermining and destroying their victims.
Paul’s excitement was that it doesn’t have to be this way. The Holy Spirit has set us free so that we can live a new life that is characterised by love and all the fruit of the Spirit. Such a life is open to all of us, but only if we are willing to be, like Paul, absolutely honest about our own weakness and our absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit to help us to live this new life. We will never make it by ourselves.
QUESTION
How will you deal with your natural desire to be selfish today?
PRAYER
Loving God, I thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Help me to put him in the driving seat of my life today. Amen
Released on 25 Jan 2023
Coming up next
January 26th - Galatians 5:22-23
Galatians 5:22-23 These beautiful spiritual qualities are the inevitable result of the Holy Spirit taking control of a person’s life. You can be sure of the genuineness of a person’s spiritual experience when you see these qualities flowing. It’s...
January 27th - Galatians 5:25-26
Galatians 5:25-26 Living in step with the Holy Spirit sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Just imagine a life which is full of love, joy, peace and all the other beautiful fruit of the Spirit. This must surely be life at its best. But the apostle Paul kn...
January 28th - Galatians 6:1
Galatians 6:1 Sadly, in every organisation of human beings things sometimes go wrong. It’s sad but also an inevitable fact. I love the gracious and positive way in which this verse addresses the issue. When someone sins it is not the end of t...