Spirit and Flesh

Galatians 5:16-26New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Those who follow along with Richard Rohr's devotions might know what he has to say about Paul's unhelpful habit of contrasting "flesh" and "Spirit."  I won't go into it all here, but I will say that we do need to remember that God is creator of all things "flesh" and has declared creation to be good.  

So there's a lot to unpack here, and it would be easy or even tempting to read this passage from Galatians as bad news. Maybe you look at his works of the flesh list and think to yourself: "well, envy, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels...maybe even an occasional drunkenness.  Uh oh!"

When we think, however, that Jesus said that the Kin-dom of God is at hand. That it is now, we might begin to see that those times we've taken part in some of the actions in that list, we know from experience that we feel quite apart from God.

And we also know that when we live in love and joy and peace and patience and kindness, etc, that something else entirely happens in our lives.  We can literally touch the Kin-dom.  We can feel a part of it.

If we look at life as an evacuation plan where our goal is to get out of this "evil flesh" we live in, the this passage seems pretty cut and dried.

But if we remember that God wants abundant life for us not only in the future - and not only for eternity - but also now, then we already have the experience we need to know that Paul's "works of the flesh" don't serve us well and that life - full, abundant life - happens when love happens.

When joy happens.

When peace happens.

When patience happens.

When kindness happens.

When generosity happens.

When faithfulness happens.

When gentleness happens.

 And yes, even when self-control happens.

Lord make me an instrument of your love.  Amen.