New Testament: Lusts of the Flesh vs. Fruits of the Spirit

New Testament Class Assignment: 

    Galatians chapter 5 verses 13 through 26, discusses the fruits of the Spirit and the lusts of flesh. What are the fruits of the Spirit? We are told in verses 22 through 23: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Listed under the lusts of flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like (verses 19-21).

    God gave us the commandment that we should “love thy neighbor as thyself” (verse 14). In verse 13 we are told that we should use our liberty for loving service. I think that when we are choosing to love and serve, it is difficult to submit to lusts of the flesh. In verse 16 it says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” In the footnotes it says, “Walking with God.” I think when we imagine walking with God; we are not going to be giving into the lusts of flesh.

    The list given for both the fruits of the Spirit and the lusts of flesh may seem long and somewhat irrelevant to our situation, for instance, we probably are not struggling with murder or witchcraft. However, I am sure there is at least one thing we can be working on in both of the lists. When we strive to have God apart of our life and work to serve others, we are getting closer to having more fruits of the Spirit. 

Here is a link to Galatians 5.