Galatians 5: The Contrasted Christian

Galatians 5

There is such contrast in this chapter: freedom and slavery, liberty and bondage, Spirit and flesh, circumcision and uncircumcision...and even more.

What speaks to me most is the fact that when we are in the Spirit, we walk in freedom. 

Vs 1: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."

Vs 16: "walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

Vs 18: "but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."

Vs 25: "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

For most of my life, I allowed myself to live in bondage, to be held captive by things from my past, to live in my flesh and in doing so I grieved the Spirit of my God. I was far from God's grace, as verse 4 talks about. After becoming a Christian, I attempted to live by the law, never truly understanding God's grace and the freedom it brings to His children.    

I love these contrasts Paul give us here because I know personally the contrast of my life before  I discovered the freedom I had in Christ and the way I lived before. I now understand that all those things that I held so dear for so long: anger, bitterness, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, drunkenness...and the like...held me captive, robbed me of living a joyful life, and kept me from the very freedom I had all along in Christ. All of that was my flesh waging war against the Spirit of God, that lived inside of me and had freed me and had and has victory of all of these things. 

I had desperately desired to see the fruit of the Spirit evident in my life, but never did. It seemed I always fall short. 

However, now, having gotten back in the race, I run at a more steady pace than ever before. I have a great joy inside of me that I honestly had never experienced in 15 years of being a Christian. I have a true love for people, even those that are very different than me. I am learning daily lessons on patience and how to be long-suffering. Through God's great kindness...I am now experiencing more and more desire to show that very thing to those in my life. I have learned that my faithfulness to the little things yields a faithfulness in my heart that rarely wavers. Doubt doesn't visit very often anymore, Praise God! The Lord has used other women in my life to teach me gentleness...and I am continuing to learn. And now there is a level of self control in my life that has become something that I do not even have to think about anymore. 

As Paul says, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me..."

I am not perfect, nor do I exhibit the fruit of the Spirit every single moment of life...however, I pray that more often than not, others see Jesus and not me!

"He must increase, but I must decrease." 

The saying goes "It's all about me." And we all laugh at that...the truth is it's all about Jesus but it is all up to us to let him be more and ourselves be less.

My application is to do a word study on kindness and gentleness. I know that I need the Lord's help in there two areas of my life. I will ask the Lord to show me opportunities to apply what I have already learned and also to continue to teach me. I will also ask Matt help keep me accountable to practicing these two fruits of the Spirit.