Fruit of the Spirit/Desires of the Flesh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StzK2CUdozw Opposites attract
As I am sure you guess part of what I am going to bring up today is opposites. When talking in a relationship way many people would say that opposites attract. I do not completely doubt that this could be true, but I know from my own experience it has not been the case. If we really take a look at that statement and some opposites themselves and think about what it is saying as far as opposites go. The first thought that came to my mind as far as opposites was that of light and dark, but to avoid the philosophical debate of whether darkness is the opposite of light or merely the absence of light I’m going to avoid it. The next image that came to my head as far as opposites go is a compass. If you look at a compass you look at the directions on the compass it shows that when you look at one direction there is always a complete opposite direction. However, if you look at magnets we see that is actually what happens. It is the opposites that actually do attract in this case. For a magnet if they have the same magnetic polarity then they actually repel each other. So in this case opposites do attract.
So really looking at the statement that opposites attract aside from the aforementioned magnets we see that they do not really attract, but most of the times are as far away from each other as possible. This is what we see in the scripture. We see a comparison in a way between the opposites of the fruit of the Spirit and the desires of the flesh.
Paul finds himself speaking to the church in Galatia. They are struggling with this freedom that have from the Old Testament law, but then have almost this new law that they have been called to follow. Paul is trying to explain to them the freedom in Christ that they have, and how this freedom is not as much of bondage as they think it might be.
So I read from Galatians 5 starting in verse 13.
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh 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. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 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.
Now looking at this comparatively with the opposites that were discussed earlier we almost see that they do not have as much of an opposite thing going on here, but more along the lines of battle. We see the battle that is going on between the Spirit and the flesh. For sheer time’s sake we are not going to look at all of the desires of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit, but first we are going to look at the flesh and the Spirit. Looking at the passage at the whole we see the distinction and the emphasis on these two words and for good reason.
The Greek word that Paul uses that is translated into flesh is sarx. Then the word that some of you may be familiar with if you have ever seen Rob Bell’s popular “nooma” videos are just that of pneuma. The comparison between these two words and their usage in the passage is essentially what the entire passage explains.
Sarx can be translated into different words, but the majority of the time that it is used in scripture is translated into the word flesh. There are different kinds of flesh that Paul could be talking about. It could be the flesh that we merely have on our bodies, but the most likely case is that this is the flesh in regards to our human desires we have. Now I know for myself when I think of flesh the image that comes to my mind is not necessarily a pretty one. When I am thinking about flesh I am thinking about something dead. I think about the possibility of that flesh perishing away. This is something that we see in the passage. We see that the flesh is something that needs to be put to death so that the Spirit can live. Coming to that point of putting the flesh to death is much more a difficult concept than it seems at first.
This is where that opposite illustration comes in. We see that with the Spirit contending to live in one’s life it is not possible to live for the flesh as well. When we look at Spirit, we look at pneuma. It is the breath that comes and lives in us. For us to live the flesh must be put to death. Look at some of the opposites that were mentioned earlier. Look at the compass, and think about how the directions are. If you think about north there is no possible way to have the north and the south at the same time. Without one it is possible to have the other, but you need to get rid of one. This makes me think of Harry Potter. Now I do not want to ruin anything for anybody here, but one of the main prefaces of the story is that it is not possible for both to live. One must die for the other to live. You cannot choose to live by the flesh and to live by the Spirit.
We see that right here with the Spirit and the flesh. It is only possible to live by the Spirit if you have put the flesh to death. How are we to put the flesh to death?
This is where the specific desires listed come in. Verse 19-21 lists the desires of the flesh very clearly. The acts of the flesh 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.
Paul is worried about the church in Galatia. Some of these desires seem a bit ridiculous and fairly easy to avoid, but at the same time I know there are things listed there that are very difficult to avoid. This is one of the most trying and difficult passages for many Christians to read because it hits them.
Paul breaks the desires up into four categories. There are three sexual (immorality, impurity, debaucher), two that describe false worship (idolatry, witchcraft), eight of them relate to ordeals with other people (hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy), and the two others are related to personal excess (drunkenness, orgies). The interesting thing that you look at with this list is that they are all sins where we can have the conscious ability to decline sinning. Many of these actually have to do with other people as well. This might be because Paul is referring to those in the church of Galatia as a whole. They have been leading each other into sin and they need to be called to build each other up with the fruit of the Spirit instead of desires.
I know there are desires in my life that are listed that I am struggling with, and I am going to assume because of Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” that there are many people here that are struggling with some of these desires as well. This is where the Spirit comes in and where we need to go to the Spirit and seek the guidance that is given to us through it.
We see starting in verse 22 the listing of the fruit of the Spirit, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 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.”
We are His. We belong to Him and because we have gone about killing the desires of the flesh in ourselves we have the Spirit. Something to take note of when Paul is writing this letter is that he is talking to a group of people. This was not meant to be read by a single Christian and only applied to their life, but to be read by this group and applied to the church as a whole.
We often read scripture and only think how this applies to my life, but this should be applied to the church as a whole. It’s like if you look at a football team with a great defense. If the coach figures out how to crack the defense he is not going to keep that to himself, but he is going to tell his offense and probably even tell his defense. He is going to figure out what they as a team can do to break the opposing team. This is scripture that is to be read with the idea of how this affects me, but also how can this affect our church. How can we as a church use this scripture to defeat Satan, or in this case kill the desires of the flesh and live by the fruit of the Spirit?
Our freedom as Christians is not freedom from the law specifically, but freedom from the binding nature of the law. We are free to live in Christ. Free to live by the Spirit that guides us throughout our daily lives. I cannot stress how thankful I am for that. I know I have not killed all of the desires of the flesh in my life, but it is what I am working towards so that I can live by the Spirit and let the Spirit guide me.
I know this could all seem like a gnostic view of things, but I am not saying that we have to get rid of everything in our lives that tie us to the world. There are however things that are present in our lives that are hindering our relationship with Christ and possibly in some ways not allowing the Spirit to work and live in us.
I guess the question that I want to pose to you today is, “do opposites attract?” I am not necessarily asking this in in reference to the way that relationships work, but how we as Christians live our lives. Is it possible for them to attract? Looking at the opposites that are the desires of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit I would say no. It is not possible for these opposites to attract, but to repel each other. If you feel as though the fruit of the Spirit is not evident in your life I would suggest that before you go about trying to add them right away examine yourself. Examine yourself for the desires of the flesh that could be present in your life. As you slowly wear down those desires the fruit of the Spirit in you will continue to build up and you will be closer to where God desires you to be.

Bibliography
Cole, R. A. Galatians: an Introduction and Commentary. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1965, 154 Longenecker, Richard N. Galatians. Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1990.