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I went swimming with someone one time – in a lake. The person was not comfortable swimming and when we got out a little ways they started to panic that they were going to drown. I kept telling them – “stand up!” but they cried out “its too deep.” “Just try it,” I said – finally they put their legs underneath them and realized the water only came up to their waist. As we Christians, who began in the Spirit, try to perfect ourselves by our own efforts, we are like that person – floundering around in the water, trying so hard to stay afloat above temptation and creating self-perfection through arbitrary codes of behavior and laws. In reality all we need to do is acknowledge the fact that our fleshly nature, and our ability to please God on our own – died with Christ. Now the Spirit is like the lake bottom – we will rise up above it all if we will just put our feet underneath us – and realize the freedom we have in Christ to be like Christ. But the more we splash about, thinking we are bettering ourselves – we are really just pushing water around never getting anywhere. Life lived by the flesh will not produce righteousness, only more flesh. It’s taken us a while to get here – but one of the biggest objections to Spirit freedom is that it will lead to sin. So watch how Paul deals with that: 13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. “called” can mean: “strongly urged” or “invited.” Through Christ, God wants us to be free – we can be free – but we also have a choice to let our sinful nature bring us back into bondage. It doesn’t mean we become “unsaved” but it does mean that we become “unfruitful” Another way to translate this is: “But because you are free in this way, do not think that you can now let yourselves be controlled by what your bodies desire” “indulge” can be translated: “a way to justify” its actually a military term for “base of operations.” If your command and control center of your life is the desires of the “old man” – then you are headed for trouble – both for others and for yourself. Don’t let your physical desires control you – let love control you – love in service to others. Frankly, if you focus on serving others above yourself you are not going to have the time to focus on what you want. This can also be rendered “show your love to each other by helping one another.” 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." And Jesus also said: “a new command I give you that you should love one another.” John 13:34 As we focus on rules and regulations – as the Judaizers did – we ignore the Lord’s command to love and serve each other – instead we do what Paul says in the next verse: 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. I wish every Christian had this tattooed on their heart. We think that by enforcing our view of what God expects of others that we are creating more holy Christians – instead when we force our way on others and criticize people and get in their business we are cannibalizing the body of Christ. This kind of behavior leads to the destruction of lives and the destruction of churches and it comes when we indulge the fleshly nature – instead of serving in love. (one version says “Like wild animals …”) Every time you speak an unkind word about a brother or sister – whether to their face or behind their backs – you are taking a bite out of them. Whenever you look down your nose at another believer because they actually had the audacity to listen to rock music in their home – you are helping to destroy the body of Christ. We get so caught up in legalism that we fall right into the enemies plans – having us shoot each other so we don’t take the time to build each other up and rescue the lost from certain death. That’s what legalism does – I have a standard and if you don’t live up to it then you are not as spiritual as I. Wrong focus! You and I love the Lord – how can I serve you today? There ya go! So now we get into being able to tell the difference between flesh and spirit – why should Paul even have to go into this? Because we give way to the flesh so much that we can’t tell the difference! I mentioned last week about speeding – we obey speed laws so we avoid the punishment of a ticket – and if there are no cops around we speed like crazy. That’s life under the law – the threat of punishment holding us in line. But in the Spirit there is freedom – complete freedom – no more cops. But what if instead of indulging the flesh and speeding, we didn’t want to speed. We didn’t speed because it was now in our nature not to! That’s life in the freedom of the Spirit. Here Paul tells us that if we focus on the vibrant relationship with God’s Spirit inside us – we will become that new person who obeys because they want to – and can obey because of the presence of the Spirit. 16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. Verse 16: literally says “But I say walk in the Spirit” – the present tense of the Greek verb “to walk” means an action that is already taking place – “continue to walk.” We are given a new life in the Spirit – and at any time we can choose to continue that walk in Him – or we can choose to walk in the flesh – but not both at the same time! We’re almost like the man with dual personality disorder – (“I want to help you – no, I want to hurt you. What do you mean – that’s not nice – shut up, I can say anything I want. No you can’t – yes I can ---“) Verse 17 can be understood this way: “you do not do what you want to do” meaning – fulfill the desires of the flesh – so “These two are enemies, and this means that if the Spirit directs your lives, you cannot do what you want to do, which is to satisfy the desires of the human nature." Another way to put Vs 18: “Laws do not command you if the Spirit leads you.” That is not to say you can do anything that contradicts with God’s character or His Word – because the Spirit would never tell you to do that. But it means that a law governed life is given over to a Spirit governed life – a life of loving service to others. Legalism in a life or in a church sets up a caste system – those at the top, the “super Christians” that follow arbitrary rules governing behavior – and those underneath. The ones at the top lord it over those underneath, and those underneath envy those on top and aspire to be like them – or at least cut them down to size when they invariably fail in their quest to make themselves perfect. So Paul gives us the fruit of each way of life – the results of legalism, which panders to the flesh – and the fruit of the way of dependence on the Spirit. 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 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. As the list starts out everyone can agree – “Oh yes, sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry – terrible, terrible!” But then Paul begins to dig deeper – discord, jealously, selfish ambition – factions – these were all the results of the false gospel brought in by the Judaizers – and brought into many churches to this day. A lot of people think bringing up bad things is their job – I’ve had a church leader tell me that – purposefully creating division. I’m sorry – but that’s the flesh fruit. This ought to hit us right between the eyes – if you are envious you will not inherit the kingdom of God – that is, without the undeserved gift of God’s grace. Again the standard is impossible to meet by ourselves – no amount of legalistic righteousness will be enough. I’d like to read how The Message renders these verses: 19 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; 20 trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; 21 the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom. Bottom line – legalistic living never brings satisfaction – whether its with yourself, your relationships with others or your relationship with God – but life that let’s go and concentrates of letting the Spirit work is vastly different: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Acts (or works) of the flesh, as opposed “fruit” of the Spirit. We control acts – the Spirit controls fruit – like growing pears – they appear as long as you water the tree. I can cut the tree down – but I can’t make fruit appear, I can only encourage its growth. There are 9 characteristics of the fruitful Christian life: 3 internal that come from God, three external as we relate to others, and three general characteristics of the Spirit filled believer. Love: agape, self sacrificing love God showed towards us (see 1 Cor 13) Opposite is idolatry (giving your life or worship to anything other than God) or witchcraft (manipulating your environment using any source other than God) Joy: inner rejoicing despite circumstances – not happiness (opposite is envy, jealousy) Peace: inner contentment that God is in control even when times are tough (opposite is hatred, dissension, selfish ambition) Patience: Putting up with people who make us crazy! (opposite is fits of rage) Kindness: exhibiting that agape towards others, accepting without merit. (opposite is rage, dissension, factions) Goodness: Doing good for others even if they don’t deserve it. Faithfulness – reliability, trustworthy (opposite is jealousy, impurity) Gentleness – “Even force in the correct way.” Humble, submissive to God, considerate of others. (Opposite is fits of rage, dissensions) Self control – mastery over sinful desires (the opposite of what happens when we give in to sin – it takes control and makes us a slave – the Holy Spirit’s strength makes us able to withstand temptation – if we try to do it ourselves we will fail and fall.) Opposite is: impurity, debauchery, orgies, drunkenness, etc) Legalism tricks you into thinking that these characteristics will come from your life if are forced into obedience to some external standard – when in reality by frustration and not letting the Spirit work – it brings out the exact opposite of this character. Some of the most un-Christ-like people I know are also the most legalistic (no one here of course). Paul sums it up in verse 24: 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. This is Romans 6 in a nutshell. Somehow, and I don’t fully understand it, our sinful nature died with Christ on the cross – even though practically it still seems to be alive and kicking – positionally it is dead and we can claim it to be so. Notice that it’s past tense (have crucified). 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Though we don’t re-crucify the flesh – we should keep our lives and our values aligned with the Spirit – not with those things that will drag out the old man. Meanwhile, Paul says – as you progress in this, don’t start thinking that you are better than – or look to others and think you are less than. As The Message says: “we are all an original.” So the bottom line is: if you want to be miserable, unhappy, angry, unsatisfied, unable to control yourself and a real jerk – by all means keep trying to make yourself perfect by your own efforts and look down on anyone else who isn’t as perfect as you. Splash around in the waist deep water and you’ll end up thinking you are drowning. But if you will but stand up in the crucified flesh and Holy Spirit guided and empowered life – you will be a kind, gentle, joyous, and loving person – truly happy and content. |
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