October 17

Galatians 5:16‑17
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” — Galatians 5:16,1716This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Galatians 5:16‑17).
THE inward conflict between flesh and spirit disturbs and bewilders many believers, often leading to the anguished query, like that of Rebecca of old, “If it be so, why am I thus?” (Gen. 25:2222And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. (Genesis 25:22)). The struggle seems to cast doubt on the reality of conversion. It is rather an evidence of it, for the two natures are in every child of God, and this produces condition unknown in days before the new birth took place. The way of victory is not to fight the flesh and, endeavor by our own power to suppress its activities. It is to yield to the control of the Spirit of God and as we walk in the Spirit whose delight it is to occupy our hearts with, and conform us to Christ, we find practical deliverance from the power of fleshly lusts. In place of “cannot” in the last clause we should read “may not.” It is only as we are spirit-led we are enabled to do the things that we would, and should.
“O may Thy Spirit guide our souls,
And mould them to Thy will,
That from Thy paths we ne’er may stray,
But keep Thy precepts still.
That to the Saviour’s stature full
We nearer still may rise,
And all we think, and all we do,
Be pleasing in Thine eyes.”
—Doddridge.