When Paul says, “walk by the Spirit,” he is not handing us a spiritual technique. He is describing a way of life: trusting God to make us holy through His Spirit, rather than relying on self-effort, rule-keeping, or our own sinful natures.
That phrase comes from Galatians 5. The Galatian churches were under pressure from teachers who insisted that faith in Jesus was not enough to be saved. They taught Gentile coverts must also keep the Mosaic law. Those teachers argued that without the law, people would drift back into pagan sin.
Paul answered that believers have something better than the threat of the law. They have the Spirit of God.
See: What It Means to Walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:13–24)
Freedom is Not a License to Sin
In earlier chapters of Galatians, Paul argued that we are justified by faith alone. We are free from the old covenant in the sense that we are not obligated to keep it in order to be right with God. But freedom from condemnation is not permission to indulge sin.
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
The Judaizers accused Paul’s gospel of giving people a license to sin. Paul’s response is pastoral and direct: the implication of the gospel is the pursuit of goodness, not sin. If someone uses freedom from the law as an excuse to pursue sin without repentance, that calls into question whether they have the Spirit at all. Because part of the gift of faith the Spirit gives us is the desire to be holy and to long to be free from sin.
Instead of biting and devouring one another (Paul’s picture of self-centered conflict), believers are to serve one another through love. The whole law is fulfilled in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
What Paul Means by “Flesh”
Before we can understand walking by the Spirit, we need to understand Paul’s moral use of the word flesh.
In Galatians 5, flesh is not mainly “the body.” It is everything we are apart from God, unredeemed humanity before God intervenes. My Sunday-school shorthand is that we all have "broken choosers." The same inner bent that prefers ice cream to broccoli also prefers selfishness to love. A broken chooser cannot fix itself.
To walk by the flesh is to live by that broken chooser or by our own selfish will, resources, and self-reliance. Even religious people can do this. A Pharisee with an impeccable pedigree may still pursue God through self-effort, as if holiness were something inside we can dredge up by keeping the law hard enough.
By contrast, the person who walks by the Spirit knows there is no holiness inside to dredge up. We look outside ourselves and trust that God will make us holy because of the blood of Jesus and through the work of His Spirit.
See: How to Pursue Holiness Without Living Under Law
Like the Wind, Not the Force
American Christian culture often hears “walk by the Spirit” and asks for five steps. I disagree with that approach. Walking by the Spirit is not a mystical technique, like Luke Skywalker using the Force. We do not tap into the Spirit, channel Him, or unlock Him with the right prayer.
Jesus compared the Spirit’s work to the wind (John 3:7–8). You cannot see the wind, control it, or schedule the next gust. You know it is there because the branches move and you feel it on your face.The Spirit is invisible and out of our control, but His effects show up in a changed life.
Asking what we must do to “access” the Spirit is like standing in front of a tsunami and asking whether to spread our arms or kick our feet. The tsunami is carry us away no matter how we cooperate or not. The Spirit is not optional help we choose to use. He is God’s active love intervening to change us according to God’s plan and timing.
So to walk by the Spirit is to live trusting that God is in control, counting on the blood of Christ, not self-effort. It is a heart attitude and a worldview, not a skill we master.
See: Nicodemus: You must be born again (John 3:1-13)
Two Opposite Desires
Believers do not avoid sin mainly because the threat of guilt under the law hangs over our heads. We resist the flesh for a different reason: the Spirit is turning our deepest desires toward the things of God. If we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law because something better than the law’s threat is at work inside us.
Paul says the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to each other (Galatians 5:17). Left to ourselves, we exalt ourselves at others’ expense. The Spirit is fixing our broken choosers and teaching us to love God and pursue holiness.
Modern culture says “be who you are” and do what comes naturally. Scripture says the last thing believers want is to remain our natural sinful selves. The Spirit gives a new vision of a good and godly life, clean, loving, morally beautiful. That vision does not come naturally. What comes naturally is the works of the flesh.
See: Introduction to the Fruit of the Spirit
Fruit the Law Cannot Produce
Paul sets two lists side by side. The works of the flesh—immorality, idolatry, enmity, strife, jealousy, rivalries, divisions, and the rest—are symptoms of a life ruled by a broken chooser. Many are relational. In Galatia, legalism itself produced factions and scorekeeping rather than love.
Paul warns that those who make such things the trend of their lives will not inherit the kingdom of God. That is not “one strike and you’re out,” and it does not put anyone beyond mercy. It is a wake-up call: if that is your life’s direction, repent. Throw yourself on God’s mercy and trust the blood of Jesus.
Opposite that list stands the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law because no law can produce this fruit. The Law is like a thermometer: it can tell you that you are sick; it cannot make you well. Outer rule-keeping cannot change who we are inside. Only the Spirit of God can.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. I take that language as a metaphor for repentance: agreeing with God that we are sinful, asking Him to put the broken chooser to death, and asking for a new heart that loves God and neighbor because of Jesus, not because we deserve it.
What Keeps Us on the Straight and Narrow?
Not the threat of condemnation under the law. Faith in Jesus. Because we have faith, God gives us His Spirit, who can actually change us.
That change is not instantaneous. The Spirit does not zap fruit into us the moment we believe. His work unfolds over a lifetime of choices, struggles, and trials. Paul later says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). In context, that means living in a way that matches grace: no conceit, no competing over who keeps the rules best, no impatience with fellow believers still being transformed. Since life comes from the Spirit’s sanctifying work, we march with Him—and with each other as fellow heirs of the gospel.
We are never free to say it is fine that we failed to love our neighbor. That is never right. But we are free from guilt because God forgives us through the cross, and He has promised, in His timing, to make us people who do love our neighbor. One day we will be clean, worthy, and gloriously morally like Him. That is the hope of the glory of God.
Are You Bearing Burdens or Keeping Score (Galatians 5:25–6:5)
Want to Go Further?
I’ve taught this most fully in the Galatians talk What It Means to Walk by the Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit series unpacks Galatians 5:22–23, and the Holy Spirit series presses the same claim: the Spirit is God’s agent of change, not a power we learn to access.
Listen further, and test everything against the text. The goal is not a technique. It is trust.
What It Means to Walk by the Spirit
Fruit of the Spirit intro
Who is the Holy Spirit
Photo AI generated by the author.
Page Views: 0