If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit.
Paul has just set the works of the flesh against the fruit of the Spirit. Now he draws the conclusion: the Spirit who gives the Christian life should also set the pace of the Christian's conduct.
The opening word does not put anyone's standing in question. It states the ground on which the appeal rests.
This "if" suggests no doubt, for they who answer to the call of God are made alive by His word, and live both in and by the Spirit. If otherwise, we are dead still in our natural selves. The apostle's exhortation is here, as always, grounded on a state that is assumed. None but Christians can be justly invited to a Christian walk, since a person's behaviour is, or ought to be, a proof of what he is.
The order matters. The walk does not create the life; it matches a life the believer already has.
It is certain that we live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Well, then, let us walk by the Spirit. Our walk must certainly match our life. A bird cannot have its life in the air and yet all its activities under the water. A fish cannot have its life in water and yet its activities on land. Christians cannot have their life in the Spirit and yet their activities in the flesh.
The words "keep in step" carry a picture.
We live by the Spirit. We walk by the Spirit. We are led by the Spirit, and by the Spirit we keep in step. The word means to walk in a line, as a line of soldiers. If each soldier went his own way, and only walked when he chose, there would be no line at all. But the soldiers are under authority, and obedience to that authority produces the line of soldiers, and all must keep in step. The Holy Spirit has authority over us; if we hear and heed Him, then we will walk in line — we will keep step.
Pridham reads the word the same way, and then names what settles the direction.
Let us keep the order of the Spirit, Paul says, if we live in Him. We once walked in a path of our own, when our ignorance cut us off from the life of God. Let our ways now match the light in which we live. We walk as we are led. If we forget that we are not our own but Christ's, we will be led by the deceiver into the ways of sin.
This is where the Galatians slipped.
Every believer lives in the Spirit, for He is the source of the new life the believer has received. To walk in the Spirit is to accept in practice His gracious leadership and control in all the details of life down here. From this the Galatians had slipped, through the harmful teaching they had listened to.
So the walk is not optional, and it has definite marks:
Certainly. To question it would be antinomianism, or organised unholiness. We are called to walk in the Spirit by the faith of Christ, in confidence in His care, in habitual self-judgment, and in obedience to the word.
The flesh has not been removed from the believer.
The Spirit is in us, as well as the flesh. Not only has the strong delivering arm of the Lord brought us out of being "in the flesh," but the Spirit of God Himself lives within us. He is mightier than the inclinations of our evil hearts. It is our privilege and our responsibility to walk in the Spirit — not in our own poor strength, and not by the force of our own resolutions.
The next verse turns at once to conceit, provocation and envy. That is no change of subject — it is the direct alternative to keeping step with the Spirit, and it is what a return to law actually breeds.
The law feeds rather than destroys vain glory, because the law makes us think of self. When rightly used, it is most useful for convicting of sin, not for producing righteousness.
- Life — the "if" is not a doubt. Everyone born of God already lives by the Spirit, and the appeal rests on that fact.
- Match — the walk must answer to the life. A bird does not live in the air and act under water, and a Christian cannot live in the Spirit and act in the flesh.
- Step — "keep in step" pictures soldiers in a line. The Spirit has authority, and we walk as He leads.
- Power — the flesh is still there. But the Spirit within is mightier than our inclinations, so the walk rests on His strength, not on our resolutions.
- Detail — His leadership reaches the ordinary details of daily life, through self-judgment and obedience to the word. Going back to law only feeds self-importance.
Let us not become vain-glorious, provoking one another, envying one another.
Paul ends the chapter with a sin that sounds mild next to the works of the flesh he has just listed. Why does he put conceit right beside walking by the Spirit, and how does it grow into both provoking and envying?
This warning belongs with the verse before it. Every believer already lives by the Spirit. The question is whether the Spirit also runs the daily details.
Every believer lives in the Spirit, since He is the source of the new life that they have received. To walk in the Spirit is to accept His gracious leadership and control in practice, in every detail of life down here. The Galatians had slipped away from this. They had been listening to harmful teaching. That is why the apostle gives this serious warning and rebuke in the words that close the chapter.
Older translations say "vainglorious" where the ESV says "conceited." One writer gives the everyday word for it, then names what feeds it.
"Let us not become vainglorious, challenging (or provoking) one another, envying one another." We usually call vainglory conceit. The law does not destroy our vainglory. It makes us more vainglorious, or conceited, than we were before — because the law makes me think of myself.
Conceit shows itself in two opposite ways.
Looking for vainglory also causes a provoking of one another; these two go together. If I have a desire to be first among my fellow believers, I try to put someone else down, which is a provocation. This happens so easily when we place ourselves under man-made rules. And there is the opposite extreme too: to envy one another. This is the first instruction connected with walking in step. If I become vainglorious, if I provoke or envy, I walk out of step. That damages me and the others who walk with me.
Envy does not stop where it starts.
The vainglorious man will always be an envious man — jealous of everyone who is more spiritual or more gifted than himself. And jealousy expresses itself in malice, and malice ends in strife.
This is not just a private fault. One writer traces the splits among believers back to this one desire.
Nothing hurts the heart more, or weakens our testimony more, than the differences of judgment among the true people of God. In Philippians 2 the apostle traces all envy and strife to one root — "vainglory." Even in the Lord's own presence the apostles argued, because each wanted to be counted the greatest. So, in the apostle's day, there was strife as the result of the vainglory of some who wanted to be great. And in our day, all the division and strife that has come in among the people of God can be traced to this one root — someone wanted to be great.
Thinking of another believer as better than yourself can feel hard when you can see his faults.
We may find this hard at times. As one has said, "We may see great vanity or pride in another, and we may be doing better than this or that person." But if we are close to Christ, we will feel our own nothingness in His presence, however well we may be walking. We will see our brother in Christ, and all that is of Christ in him, rather than his faults.
The next chapter puts this to the test. Someone has fallen, and everyone else must decide how to respond.
Do not let us miss the connection between the last verse or two of Galatians 5 and the first of Galatians 6. If the flesh is at work in others, and they want glory for themselves, they will only provoke the flesh still more in the brother who has failed. But some are spiritual. The Spirit of God governs their thoughts and affections, and so their judgments and behaviour, instead of the flesh. These are the ones who are "walking in the Spirit," and they should restore such a person in a spirit of meekness.
- Root — Vainglory is plain conceit. The law feeds it, because rules keep a person thinking about himself.
- Branch one: provoking — Wanting to be first means putting someone else down. That is provocation.
- Branch two: envying — The same conceit turns sour toward anyone more gifted. Jealousy then runs on into malice and strife.
- Fruit — The divisions among God's people trace back to this one root: someone wanted to be great.
- Cure — Close to Christ, self feels its own nothingness. Then we restore a fallen brother in meekness instead of provoking him.