What does it mean to walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16)?

By walking in the Spirit, as Galatians 5:16 bids us. We learn from Ephesians 1:13, that He is given to us when we believe the Gospel of our salvation. He marks us off as belonging to God. But also we are to walk in Him; that is, He is to be in a practical way the Source and Energy of our life and activities. Walking is the first and earliest activity of mankind, hence it becomes a figurative expression for our activities. Our thoughts, speech and actions are to be under the Spirit's control. Then we shall not be fulfilling the desires of the flesh, as otherwise we should. This is what Galatians 5:17 says. The Spirit of God wields a power that is superior to the downward drag of the flesh; and we experience it, if we walk in Him.

Here then we have conflict indicated. Yet while the conflict is inevitable, since the nature and desires of flesh and Spirit are altogether contrary, it is not supposed that the conflict is continuous; but rather the reverse. The point is that walking in the Spirit one is lifted above the desires and activities of the flesh, and for so long as the believer does walk in the Spirit he is not in conflict but in deliverance and liberty.

What is it to "walk in the Spirit"? Walking indicates activity. To walk in the Spirit is to have one's activities in the Spirit; to have one's thoughts and words, one's behaviour, ways and works springing from the indwelling Spirit as their source, and energized by Him. This is a very exalted standard of practical life, surely, but it is proper Christian living and not something of an exceptional nature to be attained to by only a few. Alas! how little do we know of it in experience and practice! How little proper and normal Christian living there is amongst us twentieth-century Christians!

Walking is man's earliest and most primitive activity. It has consequently become the figure or symbol of man's activities. To "walk in the Spirit" is to have one's activities, whether of thought or speech or action, in the energy of the Spirit, who has been given to us. The Spirit of God's Son, conferred upon us as God's sons, is to govern all our activities. This is the way of liberty, a liberty which is the very opposite of licence, for walking in the Spirit it is impossible for us to fulfil the desires of the flesh. The coming in of the higher power completely lifts us above the pull of the lower.

But there is a way in which the Christian may walk through this world, with the enemies on every side, and be in perfect safety. There is a way in which the flesh has no power whatever against the Christian. And what is that way? "Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not at all give effect to the passionate cravings of the flesh." That is our secret, "walk by the Spirit." God has given the Holy Spirit to dwell in each believer, and He does dwell in us, though often we forget Him, or grieve Him (Eph. 4:30), or disregard Him; but He does dwell in you, dear Christian reader, and He is ready to give you power for your walk. Heed His least prompting, obey Him instantly as He brings to your mind the Word of God; so we "walk by the Spirit." In verse 18 we will read of being "led by the Spirit." That is true; He knows the path we are to walk, and He is a faithful, trusty Guide. If we will but let Him lead us, then we will truly "walk by the Spirit," and we will not at all fulfill the passionate cravings of the flesh. How strong the flesh is! What passionate cravings it has! But there is One who is mightier than the flesh, who dwells within each one of us, and all His mighty power is ready to lead us, and to let us walk by the Spirit, so that there is no need for us to give effect at all to these passionate cravings of the flesh. In the Greek it is a double negative; that makes it very strong, "not at all" do we need to heed the flesh.

Now we find there are two dwelling within us who are utterly opposed to each other. The flesh is passionately opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit is passionately opposed to the flesh; so I find that within me there is a war going on, more bitter, more determined, and lasting longer than any war on earth. The flesh is always wanting to have its own way, and do its own will; the Holy Spirit who dwells in me is always opposed to my flesh. If I listen to the flesh, and yield my members to it, then the flesh quickly makes itself manifest in me; but if I walk by the Spirit, and let the Spirit lead me, then I will not at all listen to the passionate cravings of the flesh.

There are those who tell us that the flesh in them is dead, or is "burned out," and will never act again. No, dear reader, the flesh is very much alive, as we will soon see, if we do not heed the Holy Spirit within us. There was a man who insisted that his flesh was dead, and he had no more passionate desires. Someone threw a cup of water in his face, and immediately he lost his temper, and became very angry. His flesh was not dead, but was only waiting for an opportunity to manifest itself. Though the flesh is not dead, and will be with us as long as we are down on this earth, yet we may thank God that He has provided a way in which it may be kept in the place of death. So in Romans 6 we read, "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with (Him), that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin. For he that has died is justified from sin… So also ye, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts. Neither yield your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God." Rom. 6:6-13, J.N.D. Trans. But the only way I can put this into practical effect in my life, is by walking by the Spirit, letting the Spirit lead me, yielding myself and my members to God, to lead me, and use me as He pleases. So I live to God, not to the flesh.

This life is produced in us by the work of the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God. The Christian's walk should show forth this new life, which indeed manifests Christ, for Christ is our life. If we follow this path we shall not at all give effect to the passionate cravings of the flesh. It is thus we avoid sin, not by taking the law to compel us to do what we do not wish to do. The law has no power to compel the flesh to obey, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom. 8:7). The new life loves to obey, loves holiness, and Christ is its strength and wisdom by the Holy Spirit. Let us not forget the flesh is still here, as we find in this chapter in Galatians, and it is passionately opposed to the Spirit, in order to hinder us walking by the Spirit; and the Spirit is opposed to the flesh, in order to prevent the Christian from walking according to the flesh. But if the Spirit leads us, we are not under law. It does not say, "not under the law," but not under any law; not under the rules and regulations of man; not under the rules that we love to make for our own life. The Word of God, through the Spirit of God, is our only guide, and by it we are ruled. But we may be sure of this that the Spirit does not lead us to law, for law gives neither life nor strength.

But this is not the question discussed here. The Galatians had new life, but what was to be the power for producing Christian holiness? They were bringing in the rule of the law as a means of holiness; and the apostle entirely puts this aside "Walk," he says, "in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." There we have the divine guard; nay, more than that, it is not merely admonition against this or that evil, but what will give us power for what is good. "Walk in the Spirit." The Holy Ghost has been sent down to dwell in the believer. It is not the truth of our being builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit, as in Ephesians, where we have also the body of Christ brought out, the corporate relations of the children of God. The Epistle to the Galatians never gives us what is corporate, but always what is individual. And the walk being an individual thing, or what concerns each soul, if there were not another in the world, this is what you want. The word is, "Walk in the Spirit;" he does not say, Walk in the law. On the contrary, he had dealt sharply with the men who were so zealous for that rule. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." You want power against the lusts of the flesh: the Spirit is that power, and there is no other. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, in order that ye may not do the things that ye would." This, I believe, is what the Holy Ghost wrote and meant. What we have in our version is, as many of us have long known, positively wrong. I wish not to pass it over, nor to bring it in by an underhand way: but wherever there is anything plainly mischievous in this version, which is but a human one, it is a christian duty to call attention to it; and the more so, as I am always ready to maintain its general excellence and to defend the common Bible we have got against adversaries who would do it dishonour. But it is not a friend's part to justify a real mistake that may have slipped in through human infirmity, or worse.

Where then could the Galatians, where can the Christian now, find power? "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would" (vers. 16, 17). Here is the secret of power. The believer now receives from God the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is one of the great characteristic blessings of Christianity, the value and importance of which no one can duly estimate. And having given the Spirit to us, God looks to us to walk in the Spirit. This is to allow Him to dwell in us ungrieved that He may be free to act and carry on His gracious work of conforming us to the image of Christ in glory. If this is true of us, if we not only live in the Spirit but walk in the Spirit, flesh does not act, its lusts are not fulfilled.

Every believer will assent to these statements; and the question, then, now comes, By what power is such a walk to be attained? One or two scriptures will give us the needed information. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Rom. 8:13-14.) Again: "If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit." (Gal. 5:25.) Two things are here plainly taught: first, that the hindrance (if we may so put it) to our walking as Christ walked, lies in the deeds of the body, or, as in Galatians, in the flesh which always lusteth against the Spirit, and seeks to re-assert its control over the child of God; and secondly, that the only power by which the flesh can be held in check — kept in the place of death, according to the judgment of God upon it in the cross of Christ — is the Holy Spirit. There is also the additional instruction, that we may be led of the Spirit; i.e. that He is not only our power for repression, for the mortification of our members (Col. 3), but He also enables us to walk — is therefore our power for progress in the divine path. We must hold by these teachings most tenaciously, because we thereby learn that we have absolutely no natural resource; that we are shut up entirely to the energy of the Holy Ghost for conflict and walk, as for every activity of the divine life.

This then, at first sight, would seem to settle the question at the head of our paper. But there is another consideration, and this, if truly comprehended, will go to the root of the difficulty which is felt by so many souls. For be it observed, that though it be accepted that the Holy Spirit is our only power for walk, the question may still arise, How then is it that He does not enable us to follow Christ more energetically? There are numbers of true-hearted saints who long to be like Caleb, but who are disappointed at every step they take. They do follow, but instead of doing so fully, they feel that they are rather like Peter, following afar off. Now it will help all such to understand that, notwithstanding they possess the Spirit of adoption, and are thus sealed, He will be inoperative, put forth no energy, unless the eye is on Christ; i.e. unless Christ is constantly before the soul as the object of faith. As the apostle says, "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." That is, his faith had Christ as the Son of God as its object — Christ glorified at the right hand of God, glorified as man, but withal the Son of God, being ever, in this connection, the true and proper object of faith. He Himself said, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." And when we are living every hour, yea, moment by moment, in dependence, Christ, as so exhibited, filling the vision of our souls, the object of our contemplation, the Spirit of God is ungrieved, and leads us on by His mighty power, so that the divine life which has been bestowed upon us flows out in the same channels, whatever the difference of volume, as those in which the life of Christ found expression when He was in this world. It is on this account indeed that the Spirit is termed in Rom. 8:9 the Spirit of Christ.

The flesh and the Spirit are contrary one to the other: there is no point of agreement. The work of the one leaves no room for the work of the other. God will not give His glory to another, and the flesh will not abandon its dishonest selfishness. If God is to be allowed to work, the energy of the flesh must cease. In fact, it is only God's own voice that can quiet the soul so that His work might be seen and rejoiced in, but when the flesh is active, we will have no spirit of thankfulness, no recognition of God's true glory. The last clause of verse 7 shows that the flesh is too strong for us: "you do not do the things that you wish." There is no suggestion that it is impossible to do what is pleasing to God, but the activity of the flesh tends toward not doing what we want to do. It is only God, by His Holy Spirit, who can gain the victory in this battle. My struggling does not help at all, for this would be only the flesh trying to subdue the flesh. The Spirit of God within me accomplishes what I cannot do because He draws my heart to the Lord Jesus to depend totally on Him and have no confidence in the flesh.

Some believers, not understanding that all goodness and truth is in God alone, will suppose that to "walk in the Spirit" is a requirement comparable to the rules the Law. Therefore they fast, punish themselves, go through severe self-discipline, laboring to attain such an experience. But such attainment is impossible. Rather, the patience of faith and quiet rest in God's presence is asked, no labor, no pressing or forcing, for "if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law" (v.18). The Spirit of God never leads us to set up legal standards as guides: He Himself "will guide you into all truth" (Jn.16:13), engaging the heart and mind with Christ, a Standard far more pure, far more full than law. How sweet and joyous is this place of rest, and how perfect a foundation for a life that is devoted to a "labor of love" (1 Thes.1:3), not by constraint, but willingly, rejoicing to bow the shoulder to the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus (Mt.11:30). This is to be led by the Spirit, the character of whose work is seen in verses 22 and 23, where no great outward work is mentioned, but every quiet and beautiful virtue. For the Spirit of God always sets Christ as the One Object before our hearts.

The Apostle does not say that if we walk in the Spirit, the flesh will not be in us, nor that the flesh will cease to lust and be in any way altered, but, if walking in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil its lusts. One has truly said, "The flesh strives to hinder us when we would walk according to the Spirit, and the Spirit resists the working of the flesh to prevent it from accomplishing its will." (J. N. D.).

(V. 18.) Moreover, if led of the Spirit, we are not under law. The Spirit has come to take of the things of Christ and show them to us. He leads us into occupation with Christ, the One Who has died for us and lives for us. The Spirit will not lead us under a law that makes demands upon us that we cannot meet, but under the influence of a love that passes knowledge to which the new nature delights to respond.