The way of the Cross
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
Galatians 5:16,17
Paul writes to the Galatians, as he has done before, of the tension between what he calls th Spirit and the flesh. David Brooks, in his bestselling recent book "The Road to Character", recognises this same tension between the two impulses driving our behaviour. He names them Adam I and Adam II, and claims that our lives are often shaped by the needs of Adam I: to do, succeed, win. As he explains, these things are valued by our culture and we are encouraged to pursue them- but often at the expense of developing character, the Adam II side of our nature.
Paul paints the contrast in much starker terms. He writes that the desires of the flesh are in conflict with the desires of the Spirit. While Brooks sees some value in the aims of Adam I, even while urging his readers to cultivate Adam II, Paul is more black and white. He uses the language of crucifixion...reminding us that in the end, Jesus did not come to add some helpful moral teaching onto a successful model for life, but to present a whole new understanding of what it meant to live- an understanding that was in such direct opposition to the prevailing wisdom of the day that it led to his death. So Paul writes
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:24
As we approach nearer to Easter, and remember once again the inevitable trajectory of Jesus' life from the popular acclaim of Palm Sunday to the lonely rejection of the hill outside the city walls, perhaps it is a good time to look clearly at all the world offers in the way of self-help, and at all our own attempts to get it right, and read the words of Paul again:
Galatians 5:16,17
Paul writes to the Galatians, as he has done before, of the tension between what he calls th Spirit and the flesh. David Brooks, in his bestselling recent book "The Road to Character", recognises this same tension between the two impulses driving our behaviour. He names them Adam I and Adam II, and claims that our lives are often shaped by the needs of Adam I: to do, succeed, win. As he explains, these things are valued by our culture and we are encouraged to pursue them- but often at the expense of developing character, the Adam II side of our nature.
Paul paints the contrast in much starker terms. He writes that the desires of the flesh are in conflict with the desires of the Spirit. While Brooks sees some value in the aims of Adam I, even while urging his readers to cultivate Adam II, Paul is more black and white. He uses the language of crucifixion...reminding us that in the end, Jesus did not come to add some helpful moral teaching onto a successful model for life, but to present a whole new understanding of what it meant to live- an understanding that was in such direct opposition to the prevailing wisdom of the day that it led to his death. So Paul writes
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:24
As we approach nearer to Easter, and remember once again the inevitable trajectory of Jesus' life from the popular acclaim of Palm Sunday to the lonely rejection of the hill outside the city walls, perhaps it is a good time to look clearly at all the world offers in the way of self-help, and at all our own attempts to get it right, and read the words of Paul again:
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatian 5: 19-25
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