Getting What We Most Desire

Text: Galatians 5:1, 13-25 July 1, 2007

How will we get what we most desire?

The letter of Paul to the Galatians is famous as a treatise on the freedom of a Christian. But for Paul, at least here, freedom does not mean autonomy, does not mean independence. Autonomy means self-law. Free to do what I want, go where I want, say what I want, have what I want. Within the constraint that I don’t hurt anyone else. A philosopher, a contemporary of Paul’s, wrote about this kind of freedom, saying: “One is free who lives as one wills, who is subject neither to compulsion, nor hindrance, nor force, whose choices are unhampered, whose desires attain their end, whose aversions do not fall into what they would avoid.” And though we might be sympathetic to this definition, Paul would not be.

When Paul writes to the Galatians about freedom, he has something specific in mind and something general. Specifically, some people—rivals of Paul, evidently—have been telling gentile Galatians—those who are not Jewish—that they have to adhere to certain Jewish traditions before they can rightly be followers of Jesus. For Paul this amounts to an entrance exam to God. Particular acts that serve as hurdles on the path to God’s favor. But Paul says that because of Jesus, there are no such hurdles. Generally, Jesus Christ has freed people from any special requirements, any special behaviors, to be right with God, to be OK as far as God is concerned.

Christ has set us free, Paul says. But not in the way the philosopher wrote. Not autonomous. Freedom affects and benefits me, but it is not about me, about myself. Its point is not me by myself. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, Paul warns. Do not allow freedom to turn into self-indulgence. But instead, to become slaves to one another. This would have sounded as weird to Paul’s readers then as it might to us now. But for Paul, focusing our energy and efforts and good will on the behalf of others is exactly what God had taught. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Paul sounds annoyed with the Galatians. But he is not annoyed because some of them are engaging in immoral acts that threaten their individual souls. He is annoyed because what they are tempted to do is threatening the community of which they are a part. They are, he says, gratifying the desire of the flesh. The desire, not the desires. Singular, not plural. It is not the special fleshy sins that so much concern Paul. It is instead the commonplace desire of creatures made out of flesh to think about themselves first. Of the works of the flesh he lists, over half are specifically about getting along with other people (strife, quarrels, envy, and such), and the rest are what we might call individual sins whose effects disrupt the community. Such acts mess up the coming of the kingdom of God, Paul warns.

There are two ways we can live, Paul tells us. We can live out the desire of the flesh, or we can walk with the Spirit. The Spirit and the flesh are in opposition. They are two modes of being. On the one hand, If we live according to the flesh, we do all those things (obvious things, Paul says) that make us—the world, that is—miserable and mean. On the other hand, if we live according to the Spirit, we do all those things that lead to the kingdom of God. The question here: is to whom do we turn? Do we turn to ourselves and things we make and do, or do we turn to God?

We are good at making things and doing things. We build economies, we develop systems of medicine, we create massive militaries, we make great and fun toys like animation and iPhones. We invent educational systems to teach our children, and science to learn about how things work, and technology that uses that knowledge. We entertain and amuse ourselves. We figure out how to cope with adversity, we create places and substances of retreat. We fleshy creatures are smart.

Do we worship these things? Do we turn to them in need, thank them in gratitude, praise them for their awesomeness? God, says the psalm, is “my greatest good,” “my good above all others.” Are these things that we make and do our greatest good? Have we turned them into gods, false gods, as the psalm says?

And are these things reliable? Will they save us from danger and sorrow? Have they? Will they bring about the kingdom of God that Paul writes about? Have they? Are they trustworthy? Are we ourselves?

How, then, about God? Do we think God is trustworthy?

Paul writes that we must walk with the Spirit. “Live by the Spirit,” our Bible says, but walk in the Spirit is a better translation. When you walk you stand a certain way, you go fast or slow, left or right, walk alone or with others, stop for rest or carry on. How you walk in the Spirit means how you live your life. If you walk in the Spirit, you will not live according to the flesh.

For Paul, walking in the Spirit is sufficient. All the other things we do, as helpful and pleasing and powerful as they might be, are inadequate and unnecessary. God is trustworthy. The Galatians felt, or were persuaded as Paul thinks, that unless they followed the law and tradition, that the world would descend into chaos and moral confusion. As we think it would without armies and law and punishment and barriers. If we say we trust God in the way Paul says we must, we sure don’t act like it, any more than the Galatians did. The risks of relying on the Spirit evidently seem greater to us than the risks of relying on ourselves.

Paul has been given a vision of the kingdom of God. In it, all people share in God’s favor and all people deserve ours, our favor. There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female—this verse comes from this epistle to the Galatians. We cannot continue to be divided as humans and expect the kingdom of God, Paul says. Christ has made all the things that we do that separate ourselves one from another as worthless. Not necessary. Not applicable.

What humanity seems to most desire is to enjoy lives full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness. The fruits of the Spirit.

To walk in the Spirit is the strategy. The tactic is to become servants of one another. Though this advice is two thousand years old, though it comes from a person we say we revere, we haven’t much followed it. Perhaps it is time we gave it a try. As Paul writes to his church, there is no law against it.