Galatians 5's Lust of the Flesh For Paul

I received a question from Paul Qu, which name I believe is pronounced 'chew':

Sorry for the irrelevant comment. I've been following your blog for a while, and I really hope you could give me some inspiration regarding the verses in Galatians 5, especially 5:16. How do you understand the lust of the flesh? Thanks million times in advance.
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Dear Paul,

I hope you will forgive me for fixing your question a bit (too many years an English teacher, though you wouldn't know it by my grammar). The lust of the flesh and works are interesting questions. They puzzle just about everybody. Let me begin by looking at the passage in Galatians 4 and 5 from Victor Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic. You will notice that chapter 5 begins with the word 'therefore,' which means what comes after is conditioned by what came before.

Galatians 4

1. I tell you then, while the heir is a child, he is indistinguishable from the rest of the servants, yet he is the lord of all.
2. Except he is even under their supervision and that of the house masters, until the season designated by his father.
3. Thus we also, while young, we were under submission to the rituals of the world.
4. Then when the age came to an end, God sent his Son, and he was born from woman and was under the Law,
5. So as he may redeem those who were under the Law, and that he may proffer the consecration for the Children.
6. And then as you are Children, God sent the Spirit of His Son to your hearts, that which calls the Creator "Our Father."
7. Hence you are not servants, except Children. And if Children, then also heirs by the hand of* Jesus Christ.
8. For when you did not know God, you worked for those who were by their nature not Godly.
9. Now that you know God and moreover that you have heard from God, you are again returning to those sick and impoverished rituals, and you want to start again being under submission to these.
10. You observe [the rituals] by day, month, season and year.
11. I am concerned that all my efforts should not end up in vain for you.*

12. Be for me as I am for you. Brethren, I pray that nothing should go remiss because of me.*
13. For you know that even through the weakness of the flesh, I have preached to you the Kingdom promised from olden* times.
14. And my past offenses of the flesh you did not hold against me, except like an angel of God you did receive me, and like Jesus Christ.
15. What happened to that generosity? For I testified that if it were possible, you would have even plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
16. Then what, have I become your enemy that I preach the truth?
17. The discrimination that your enemies sowed between you is not for your benefit,* except they wish to create havoc among you.
18. It is beautiful, however, that you are discriminating at all times and not only when I am with you alone.
19. Children,* these things that I agonize* over again from the beginning, I do so that Christ may be victorious in you,
20. For I am pleased to be with you now and speaking to you in a lower tone of voice,* because I am amazed with you.
21. Tell me, those of you who wish to be under the Law,* do you indeed heed the Law?
22. For it is written, Abraham had two sons, one from the mother and one from the emancipated.
23. Except the one who was born of the mother was of the flesh, however the one born from the emancipated was of the land.
24. These are then the two lines of the Covenant.* One that is from Mount Sinai, was born to serve, which is Haggar.
25. For Haggar is a mountain of Sinai, in Arabia, and Jerusalem [ended up following this line,] and performed this service together with its children.
26. That Jerusalem then, which we hold in high esteem, is our mother.
27. For it is written [in Scriptures,]

"I was pleased by the barren [woman,] who had not given birth,
And overjoyed by the step mother who would not go through labor pains,"
because the children of the outcast had increased more than the children of the tribeswoman.

28. We, however, brethren, are like Isaac, we are the children of the inheritance.*
29. And like the one who was born of the flesh, rejected the one who was born of the Spirit, likewise now.
30. Except what did Scriptures say?

"I shall bring out the mother and the child,
because the Son of the mother shall not inherit the same as the son of
the emancipated."

31. Therefore, brethren, we are not children of the mother, except the children of the emancipated.
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*4:7 Lit. Ar. id.: "By the power," or through.
*4:11 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "I am in fear that not emptily I provided for you."
*4:12 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "No foolishness should come upon you through me."
*4:13 Lit. Ar. id.: Reference to Old Testament.
*4:17 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Dividing through you was not for the beautiful."
*4:19.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "My children."
*4:19.2 Lit. Ar. idiomatic figure of speech: "[Go into] throes [over.]"
*4:20 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Change my echo."
*4:21 Lit. Ar. expression retained: "To live strictly by the Law."
*4:24 Lit. Ar. id.: "Divisions of covenance."
*4:27 Lit. Ar. id. "From the rib."
*4:28 Lit. Ar. id.: "Kingdom," "property" or "land."


Galatians 5


1. Therefore, hold on to the freedom that Christ granted us,* and do not [allow yourselves to be] under the yoke of performing [the Law.]
2. Behold, I, Paul, am telling you, that if you become circumcised, Christ does not commend you for it.
3. Again I testify to every human being who is circumcised, that he is responsible to fulfill all the Law.
4. You have relieved yourselves from Christ, those of you who have glorified yourselves* by the Law and as such dropped out of grace.
5. For we, through the spirit of faith, are strengthening the hope of sanctification.
6. For through Christ Jesus neither is being in circumcision anything, nor is being outside circumcision anything, except that faith should be perfected* through love.
7. Run the course well. Who made you heedless of the truth?
8. That heedlessness was not from the one who called you.
9. A little yeast leavens the whole dough.

10. I testify on your behalf before our Lord,* that you have no other opinion. And those who mock you, let them await the Judgment that is coming.
11. I, then, brethren, even if I were still preaching circumcision, why would I be still rejected? Why has the shape of the cross changed?* *
12. Then, let them remain among you, those who strike across your midst in mockery.*

13. You were called to His freedom, brethren, however, let not your freedom be for the sake of the flesh, except let your submission to each other be in love.
14. For all the Law is fulfilled by one manifestation, that you love your kin as yourself.
15. If, however, you grind one another down and chew each other out, see that you do not eliminate* each other.
16. I am telling you then, walk in the Spirit and never be a slave to the pleasures of the flesh.
17. For the flesh enjoys what lowers the spirit, and the spirit enjoys what lowers the flesh, and both of them are a hindrance to each other, so that you can never do what you wish.
18. If then you were fetched by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
19. For you know the manifestation of the flesh, fornication, evil doing, dissolution,
20. The making of idols, witchcraft, hostility, destructiveness, backbiting, resentfulness, stubbornness, divisiveness, apathy,
21. Killing, murder, drunkenness, [outrageous] singing and the like. And those who devote themselves to such things, as I told you from the start, I tell you now as well, they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22. The fruit of the Spirit, however, are love, joy, peace, compassion, fulfillment, grace, faith,
23. Gentleness, hope -- the Law does not consecrate these.
24. These belong to Christ, they crucified the flesh together with all its wounds and lusts.
25. To live thus is by the Spirit and in submission to the Spirit.
26. And [those that live so] are not lacking in bliss that they should torment one another and cut down each other.
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*5:1 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "Stand therefore through freedom in that which Christ freed us."
*5:4 Lit. Ar. idiomatic figure of speech: "Sanctified."
*5:6 Lit. Ar. id.: "Developed," or nurtured.
*5:10 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "I am alibi over you through our Lord."
*5:11.1 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "They, why, voided is the crisscrossing of the Cross?"
*5:11 and 5:12 Drawing the parallel to the two lines of the Covenant mentioned earlier in the chapter.
*5:12 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "Associate then also cutting they cut those that ridicule you."
*5:15 Lit. Ar. id.: "Sift."
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In a nutshell, Paul the Apostle is saying to have faith that what you have created imaginatively IS and NOT to try to create it physically yourself. Have faith perfected in love. Jerusalem is the mind. When we were young, we learned to do everything ourselves according to the rituals of this world. But having woken up to the fact that we are spirit and become emancipated, if indeed one IS woken up and their mind emancipated, the spirit we are lives by the Law of God's spirit. It is not that we do not do anything, but that what we do is in submission to the leadings of God.

I get this all the time in questions: If I am God, how can God want something other than what I want? We are God in spiritual nature, but how can we compare our tiny little pea-brain wisdom with the infinite wisdom of the universe? Emancipated by the realization that we are mind and not body, we submit to and cooperate with the Infinite Divine Intelligence we are OF. IF It has given us our desires according to Psalm 37, It will bring Its in us implanted desires to pass. Have faith in that. If we are not actually emancipated and are forcing our own lusts as our desires, we have to implement our "rituals": work hard, plan, save and invest, connive, take care of number one - ourselves - in all things.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD HAS A DIFFERENT WAY: THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIND, STRENGTH, AND SOUL, AND THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF. It is hard for us to imagine ourselves being as given over as Jesus, but as Frank C. Laubach asked, "How fully can you surrender and not be afraid?" (March 9, 1930).

I guess I could sum up the lust of the flesh as the desire to get things by doing things.

Something I just noticed in rereading this: Alexander notes on Galatians 4:28 that inheritance means kingdom, property, land. God said to Moses, “The land you stand on is holy ground.” I.e., Jethro, His Excellence, the Kingdom of God, is what Moses had entered into in his meditation. This is the real “Promised Land.”
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"Is there a price to be paid to be in the healing ministry?" one preacher asked T. L. Osborn. The young man wanted to discover how much prayer, fasting and Bible reading it would take to be successful in ministry.

"Yes! There is a very high price to be paid," Osborn responded, but immediately followed with, "But Jesus paid it all on the cross!"