Galatians 5:17

For--the reason why walking by the Spirit will exclude fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, namely, their mutual contrariety.

the Spirit--not "lusteth," but "tendeth (or some such word is to be supplied) against the flesh."

so that ye cannot do the things that ye would--The Spirit strives against the flesh and its evil influence; the flesh against the Spirit and His good influence, so that neither the one nor the other can be fully carried out into action. "But" (Gal 5:18) where "the Spirit" prevails, the issue of the struggle no longer continues doubtful (Rom 7:15-20) [BENGEL]. The Greek is, "that ye may not do the things that ye would." "The flesh and Spirit are contrary one to the other," so that you must distinguish what proceeds from the Spirit, and what from the flesh; and you must not fulfil what you desire according to the carnal self, but what the Spirit within you desires [NEANDER]. But the antithesis of Gal 5:18 ("But," &c.), where the conflict is decided, shows, I think, that here Gal 5:17 contemplates the inability both for fully accomplishing the good we "would," owing to the opposition of the flesh, and for doing the evil our flesh would desire, owing to the opposition of the Spirit in the awakened man (such as the Galatians are assumed to be), until we yield ourselves wholly by the Spirit to "walk by the Spirit" (Gal 5:16, Gal 5:18).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal_5:17

For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

Contest between flesh and spirit

Here is a battle--a struggle--described: one in which we must all fight. Our own corrupt and wilful hearts, and the Holy Spirit of God, are ever drawing us different ways; and we have to choose between them. This is the work of the will. God leaves us free. The Spirit draws, but does not drive: invites, not compels. There are four states in which we may be.

1. Before the struggle begins. The soul living utterly regardless of any will but his own, any law but his own desires; sin slumbering within him, lying hid and unknown; at peace with himself, and having no idea of his danger. Terrible condition; yet, alas! how many baptized Christians are in it.

2. The struggle going on. The sinner sees what God commands, and tries to obey. Then comes the difficulty. The mind approves one thing, but the flesh strives after another; and alas! how often the flesh comes off victorious.

3. The spirit subduing the flesh. Still a struggle, but by Gods grace the good is now conquering the evil, the Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart and making the will strong to persist in following the law of God. Oh, how happy, how blessed a state is this!

4. The struggle over. In the first state there was no struggle, because the evil held undisputed sway. In the second state there was a struggle, but it was the helplessness of the natural man striving in vain to fulfil the law of God. In the third state there is a struggle too, but now it is the grace and power of God striving in us against the rebellious nature which before held us captive, and that grace and power gain the victory. In the fourth state there is again no struggle. But it is because the battle has been fought, and the victory gained for ever. No more foes to oppose, no sins to do battle with. A state we may not look for in this life; but it shall be reached by all who persevere. A little while, and the last struggle will be over; and then--rest, peace, joy, glory, victory! (Bishop Walsham How.)

So that ye cannot do the things that ye would: The wrestle of humanity

The translation is wrong. The R.V. gives it correctly: that ye may not do the things that ye would. Here you have the flesh and the spirit personified: each has given to it intelligence, aim, purpose. Here is the man, the individual, the moral and spiritual personality--man with his moral capacity and power of volition, but volition is modified by influences from without. Here are two integral powers, standing on each side of the personality, and each of them is watching the action of the other as it may be, operating upon the human volition; when the spirit with its elevating thoughts, its intense desire, its strong aspirations, is operating upon the feeling and the soul, and when a man would act under that influence, then the flesh, watching its opportunity, comes with all its force and power, and endeavours to prevent it, so that the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, that the man may not do the things he would. What is the remedy for that? Why, you, the central personality, take sides with one, that there may be two against one. Throw your moral power and affections upon one side, walk in the spirit, yield to the spirit, hold to the spirit, and then you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. You will then do the things that you would, under the spiritual influence of this gracious Agent. Hold, pray, strive, depend, look up with religious faith, and seek to have within you, strengthened continually, an intense repugnance to everything evil--to the influences and lusts operating upon you--and you will conquer. The flesh will be defeated, you will gain victory after victory; there will be sympathy after sympathy, strength after strength; and then it will come to pass that the flesh, and the devil in the flesh, will pass by you. (T. Binney.)

Self versus self

The Christian life is one of conflict between opposing forces designated respectively, the flesh and the spirit, i.e., between the old nature and the new; between Christians themselves usually so called, and that which is higher, stronger, holier, than themselves. It is a conflict, we may say, between Christ and anti-Christ: for the soul, on the battlefield of the soul. The old nature is strong and very active, and loses no opportunity of plying all the weapons of its deadly armoury against the new-born grace: the new nature, on the other hand, is ever on the watch to resist and destroy its enemy. Grace within us employs prayer and faith and hope to cast out evil All growing Christians are like men working under difficulties; like racers who must carry weights; like men rowing against wind and tide, yet compelled for dear life to row. This is not the popular conception of a Christians career. With some religious teachers Christianity is a mere sentiment; a given idea as to moral accountability, and as to escape through Jesus Christ, has to be fixed in the mind, and Presto! a man is fully saved. Such teaching is void of danger only when explained to mean that he who has seen his sinfulness, and rested upon his Saviour, has passed the strait gate and entered upon the narrow way. Men need salvation from their all but infinite conceits. There can be no salvation unto the uttermost apart from character. Faith as a disposition must follow faith as an act.

1. A Christians life must be a battle from the nature of the case. Flesh and spirit are contrary as water and oil, as light and darkness, as good and evil; and so, to do the things they would and ought, Christians have to fight.

2. Because we gain immensely from fighting. All valuable discipline comes of difficulties faced and overcome. Better to fight and win than to obtain moral mastery without fighting. (J. S. Swan.)

Sins of infirmity

True faith is not shown here below in peace, but rather in conflict; and it is no proof that a man is not in a state of grace that he continually sins, provided such sins do not remain on him as permanent results, but are ever passing on into something beyond and unlike themselves, into truth and righteousness, As we gain happiness through suffering, so do we arrive at holiness through infirmity, because mans very condition is a fallen one, and in passing out of the country of sin, he necessarily passes through it. This prevents holy men from regarding themselves with satisfaction, or resting in anything but Christs death as their ground of confidence. The following are some of the infirmities which, while they certainly beset those who are outcasts from Gods grace, are also possible in a state of acceptance, and do not necessarily imply absence of true faith.

1. Original sin. An evil principle within, dishonouring our best service. The old Adam, pride, profaneness, deceit, unbelief, selfishness, greediness, the inheritance of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; sin which the words of the serpent sowed in the hearts of our first parents, which sprang up and bore fruit, some thirty fold, some sixty, some an hundred, and which have been by carnal descent transmitted to us.

2. Sins arising from former evil habits, now abandoned. Sin once committed retains power over our souls; it has given a colour to our thoughts, words, works; and though, with many efforts, we would wash it out from us, yet this is not possible except gradually. Sloth, self-conceit, self-will, impurity, worldly-mindedness; sins such as these, though cast off, cling like a poisoned garment to the soul.

3. Sins arising from went of self-command; the conscience informed, but the governing principle weak. Difficult to do as one would wish--to govern the feelings, the tongue, the thoughts.

4. Sins which we fall into from being taken unawares.

5. Sins which rise from the devils temptations, inflaming the wounds and scars of past sins healed, or nearly so; exciting the memory, and hurrying us away; and thus making use of our former selves against our present selves contrary to our will.

6. Sins which rise from a deficiency of practical experience, or from ignorance how to perform duties which we set about. Men attempt to be munificent, and their acts are prodigal; they wish to be firm and zealous, and their acts are cruel; they wish to be benevolent, and are indulgent and weak; they do harm when they mean to do good; they engage in undertakings, or promote designs, or put forth opinions, or set a pattern, of which evil comes; they mistake falsehood for truth; they are zealous for false doctrines; they oppose the cause of God.

7. Unworthy motives, low views, mistakes in principle, false maxims.

8. Negligences and ignorances. Forgetfulness, heedlessness, want of seriousness, frivolity. All these infirmities may be and are found in persons living consciously sinful lives, and in them of course they only serve to heighten transgression and hasten judgment; but they are also to be found in persons free from wilful sin, and such persons need not despond, or be miserable on account of failings which in them are not destructive of faith or incompatible with grace. Who these are is only known for certain by God. He is able, amid the maze of contending motives and principles within us, to trace out the perfect work of righteousness steadily going on there, and the rudiments of a new world rising from out the chaos. He can discriminate between what is habitual and what is accidental; what is on the growth and what is in decay; what is a result and what is indeterminate; what is of us and what is in us. He estimates the difference between a will that is honestly devoted to Him, and one that is insincere. And where there is a willing mind He accepts it, according to that a man hath, and net according to that he hath not. In those whose wills are holy He is present for sanctification and acceptance; and, like the suns beams in some cave of the earth, His grace sheds light on every side, and consumes all mists and vapours as they rise. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)

Involuntary transgression

The soul of man is intended to be a well-ordered polity, in which there are many powers and faculties, and each has its due place; and for these to exceed their limits is sin; yet they cannot he kept within them except by being governed, and we are unequal to this task of governing ourselves except after long habit. While we are learning to govern ourselves we are constantly exposed to the risk, or rather to the occurrence of numberless failures. We have failures by the way though we triumph in the end; and thus the process of learning to obey God is, in one sense, a process of sinning, from the nature of the case. We are feeble-minded, excitable, effeminate, wayward, irritable, changeable, miserable. We have no lord over us, because we are but partially subject to the dominion of the true King of saints. Let us try to do right as much as we will, let us pray as earnestly, yet we do not, in a time of trial, come up even to our own notions of perfection, or rather we fall quite short of them, and do, perhaps, just the reverse of what we had hoped to do. While there is no external temptation present, our passions sleep, and we think all is well. Then we think and reflect and resolve what we will do; and we anticipate no difficulty in doing it. But when the temptation is come, where are we then? We are like Daniel in the lions den; and our passions are the lions; except that we have not Daniels grace to prevail with God for the shutting of the lions mouths lest they devour us. Then our reason is but like the miserable keeper of wild beasts, who in ordinary seasons is equal to them, but not when they are excited. Alas! Whatever the affection of mind may be, how miserable it is! It may be a dull, heavy sloth, or cowardice, which throws its huge limbs around us, binds us close, oppresses our breath, and makes us despise ourselves, while we are impotent to resist it; or it may be anger, or other baser passion, which, for the moment, escapes from our control after its prey, to our horror and our disgrace; but anyhow, what a miserable den of brute creatures does the soul then become, and we at the moment literally unable to help it! I am not, of course, speaking of deeds of evil, the fruits of wilfulness, malice, or revenge, or uncleanness, or intemperance, or violence, or robbery, or fraud; alas! the sinful heart often goes on to commit sins which hide from it at once the light of Gods countenance; but I am supposing what was Eves case, when she looked at the tree and saw that the fruit was good, but before she plucked it, when lust had conceived and was bringing forth sin, but ere sin was finished and had brought forth death. I am supposing that we do not exceed so far as to estrange God from us; that He mercifully, chains the lions at our cry, before they do more than frighten us by their moanings or their roar, before they fall on us to destroy us: yet at best, what misery, what pollution, what sacrilege, what a chaos is there then in that consecrated spot which is the temple of the Holy Ghost! How is it that the lamp of God does not go out in it at once, when the whole soul seems tending to hell, and hope is almost gone? Wonderful mercy indeed it is which bears so much! Incomprehensible patience in the Holy One, so to dwell, in such a wilderness, with the wild beasts! Exceeding and Divine virtue in the grace given us, that it is not stifled! Yet such is the promise, not to those who sin contentedly after they have received grace; there is no hope while they so sin; but where sin is not part of a course, while it is still sin, whether sin of our birth, or of habits formed long ago, or of want of self-command, which we are trying to gain, God mercifully allows and pardons it, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from it all … To know thus much, that infirmities are no necessary mark of reprobation, that Gods elect have infirmities, and that our own sins may possibly be no more than infirmities, this, surely, by itself, is a consolation. And to reflect that at least God continues us visibly in His Church; that He does not withdraw from us the ordinances of grace; that He gives us means of instruction, patterns of holiness, religious guidance, good books; that He allows us to frequent His house, and to present ourselves before Him in prayer and Holy Communion; that He gives us opportunities of private prayer; that He has given us a care for our souls; an anxiety to secure their salvation; a desire to be more strict and conscientious, more simple in faith, more full of love than we are; all this will tend to soothe and encourage, us when the sense of our infirmities makes us afraid. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)

The traitor within

A garrison is not free from danger while it has an enemy lodged within. You may bolt all your doors and fasten all your windows; but if the thieves have placed even a little child within doors, who can draw the bolts for them, the house is still unprotected. All the sea outside a ship cannot do it damage till the water enters within and fills the hold. Hence, it is clear, our greatest danger is from within. All the devils in hell and tempters on earth could do us no injury if there were no corruption in our nature. The sparks will fall harmlessly if there is no tinder. Alas, our heart is our greatest enemy: this is the little home-born thief. Lord, save me from that evil man, myself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Continuance of natural depravity in Christians

In material fruit-trees the sour nature of the wild plants that are grafted upon still continues in the stock or root, and is not taken away by ingrafting; it is only restrained and kept under by the graft. The nature of the graft is predominant in the tree, and overrules in bringing forth fruits according to its own kind (although with some small degree of the sour nature of the stock mixed with it), and the two natures of the graft and stock continue mixed together as long as the tree lives. This is a similitude of the state of mystical fruit-trees, and shadows forth to us this proposition: That corrupt nature abides in believers as long as they live, and is but in part subdued by grace. We find by experience that after plant is ingrafted, both the graft and the stock will shoot forth, and if the graft grow vigorously and strongly, then the shoots of the stock are but weak; but if the shoots of the stock break out strongly then the graft grows but weakly; therefore the husbandman takes pains often to cut off the shoots that grow upon the stock, so that the graft may grow the better. This is another similitude of the state of mystical fruit-trees, and shadows forth to us this proposition: That while the spiritual part in us acts and grows strongly, the fleshly part acts but weakly; so also, if the flesh be strong, the spirit is weak. This should teach us often to take notice of the actings of our spirits, whether the stock or the graft bud the faster. If we were watchful daily, and took pains with our spirits to keep them up in a spiritual frame in communion with God, then (by degrees) the shoots and growths of the spiritual part would become strong, and the shoots of the flesh weak and feeble. (Austen.)

The Christians conflicts

The conflicts of the Christian, the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, continue to the end of life, and may be compared to a conflagration which is opposed by engines, where the supply of water is scarcely equal to the demand, and not incessantly followed up. Sometimes the fire yields to the well-directed stream, and at other times it breaks forth with renewed fury, and seems to defy the efforts of those who would arrest its progress. (H. G. Salter.)

The believers struggle

The spirit and the flesh, grace and nature, heavenly and earthly influences, are sometimes so fairly balanced, that, like a ship with wind and tide acting on her with equal power but in opposite directions, the believer makes no progress in the Divine life. He loses headway. He does not become worse, but he grows no better; and it is all he can do to hold his own. Sometimes, indeed, he loses ground, falling into old sins. Temptation comes like a roaring sea-squall, and, finding him asleep at his post, drives him backward on his course; and, further now from heaven than once he was, he has to pray: Heal my backsliding, renew me graciously, love me freely. For Thy names sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Conflict and conquest

I. The Fact Stated. The flesh, etc. Remnants of indwelling sin remain. Flesh does not mean sinews, fibres, etc., but carnal propensities. Fact stated shared by apostles. They no exception to general rule. Not by nature more saintly than ourselves. Indwelling sin affects all. Sinners not perfected in holiness here. Why?

1. To make us watchful. Common idea, way to heaven easy. Nature of sin misunderstood, so that men fly to it as moths to candle. But saints are taught another lesson. Sin is a deadly enemy. Truth is known, flesh lusteth, etc. This keeps them alive, watchful, safe. Sleep is fatal. The story is told that Satan once summoned his angels to inquire what they had been doing. One said, I saw a company of Christians crossing the desert, and I let loose the winds of heaven, and their bones are bleaching in the sun. What of that? said Satan; perhaps their souls are saved. Another said, I saw a ship with missionaries on board, going to a heathen land, and I raised a storm and drowned them all. What of that? said Satan; perhaps their souls are saved. And then came forward a subtle spirit, who said, For fifteen years I have been trying to lull an old Christian to sleep, and I have just succeeded. Whereupon there arose a shout of triumph, the bells of hell rang for joy, and Satan spoke approvingly. So the old nature is never made better, but a new one added. Always an enemy within.

2. That we may never mistake the grounds of our salvation. Works have no meritorious part. All of grace. Beginning (1Co_15:8-9), ending (Php_1:6). But only failures teach this. Past sins like past gales to the seaman--forgotten. Present sickness, distress, make us cling to friends. So indwelling sin and conflict bring the saint close to Christ.

II. The attitude of indwelling sin. Not dead or restful, quiet or submissive. Rom_7:23-24, describes a deadly feud, very unlike common idea of personal depravity. Never feud more deadly, not even the Wars of the Roses or the Indian Mutiny. Its nearness makes it so. If distant, less painful, less distressing. Near. I would press this. Saints contest every step. Bunyans description of Apollyons conflict with Christian graphically describes the state. Weapons vary, but enemy never. Pride, anger, lust, sloth, despair (Eph_6:11) lusteth.

III. The conquest. So that ye, etc. Not the flesh hindering grace. Vice versa. What a mercy! Shout of victory always follows cry of battle. Gospel purposes not accomplished when men, even Christians, are stationary. More glorious. Rich become liberal, godless godly, etc. (1Co_6:11). Not preach defeat. Greater is He that is, etc. Are you ready to despair? Think of the issue. Not always slaves or prisoners. Deliverance. Wait as Wellington behind the lines of Tortes Vedras. So you behind the grace of God. Then go forth to victory. (H. T. Cavell.)

The struggle of the flesh and the spirit

It is on this passage we offer the following reflections:--

1. Paul regards all the events that constitute the general course of the world, whether of private history or of public affairs, as the works of the flesh. As water cannot rise beyond its spring, so neither can life rise beyond its origin and inspiration. The natural life of man is animal. The awful catalogue which is given of the works of the flesh (verse 19) is a condensed history of the weed of mankind in all latitudes and in all ages. There is a close alliance between man and the animal races. In this state the gospel finds mankind.

2. They that lead this animal life, under whatever form of civilization or barbarism, cannot please God (Rom_8:7-8).

3. But God, in His mercy, has provided redemption for man from his fleshly or animal condition--from sin and its consequences--by the Incarnation of the Divine Word, by the sacrifice of the Cross, by the Resurrection of Christ, and by His new creating Spirit. Christ is the new Head of life for mankind--the second Adam. Those who are not born twice will die twice.

4. But God affords His Spirit of renovation to dwell with all believers. The Spirit originates a struggle of forces within the nature of a Christian, the issue of which, as with the unborn Jacob and Esau (Gen_25:22-23), is that the elder serves the younger, the newer vanquishes the older man--the wild and shaggy animal Nature is subdued in the Israel of God by the civilizing power of Divine grace. We are surrounded on all sides in the creation by the struggle of rival forces; gravitation and muscular power; the vital powers and the chemical laws; the opposing forces which combine to send the earth along its nearly circular orbit. But there is no struggle in physical nature half so interesting or half so glorious as this inward contest between the flesh and the spirit. It is emphatically a war between heaven and earth in the body and soul of man. The condition of the contest is that God by His Spirit supplies a new power in supplying a new life. It is the part of man, as a living and intelligent will, to yield to the inspirations of the new power and life, and so to overcome the works of the flesh. God does not operate irresistibly, as upon dead matter, but intellectually and spiritually, as upon honest mind. He worketh in us to will and to do, but we must work out our own salvation.

5. How does the Holy Spirit accomplish the work of renewal in the Divine image? As it were by infusing a new blood into the system--a new life. What is this life-blood? It is the truth of Christ. Sanctify them by Thy truth The old corrupt humanity is cut down. The new vine now bears fruit unto God, the fruit of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. There is a new motive in life. God has become real, and near, and dear in Jesus Christ. Here are revealed the secrets of power, the mystery of that supernatural life in Christ Jesus which begins in the gift of God, and repentance from dead works is strengthened by the assurance of salvation from sin already visible, and will be perfected in the resurrection. (Edward White.)

The conflict in mans nature

The flesh represents, in St. Pauls terminology, the whole brood of lower faculties, or that part of our nature which constitutes us animals; and the spirit represents manhood, or that whole class of faculties by which we are exalted into the higher sphere, by which we become sons of God. In a figurative way, he represents these two as in conflict. It is as if there were two bands of soldiers quartered in one tenement, having an upper and a lower storey. On the ground-floor is a company of brawling, drunken, unruly, brutal, cruel men; and in the story above them is a company of soldiers that are gentlemanly, and courteous, and humane, and well disciplined. And there are three states of affairs which may exist. The brawling soldiers below may govern the house; and then they will have hard times upstairs, for their supplies will be cut off, and they will starve. Or, a part of the time the gentlemen upstairs may govern the house, and part of the time the coarse brutal fellows downstairs may govern it; and then there will be a terrible conflict. And between the attempts of those upstairs to maintain discipline, and the attempts of those below stairs to break down discipline, the place will be a perfect pandemonium. There will be no peace there. They will be quarrelling perpetually. And so the animal nature and the manhood, in man, quarrel. Sometimes it is the lower nature that is in the ascendency; and then whatever things are above it--conscience, faith, hope, all spiritual tendencies, and all supernal tendencies--are at a discount. The upper part of the mind is starved out because of the absolute ascendency of the appetites and passions--of pride and selfishness, and envy and lusts, and all manner of evil feelings. Then, by and by, there is the second state--the state of resistance and conflict. The spirit wars against the flesh, and refuses to be in subjection to it. And while this war continues, sometimes one predominates and sometimes the other. The men upstairs to-day have the best of it, and the men downstairs tomorrow have the best of it. Nothing is settled, nothing is continuous; all is subject to chance. There is many a half-formed man who has no fixed habits of life, and in whom sometimes one part of his nature gets momentum and comes into the ascendency, and sometimes the other part. Sometimes those faculties which are seeking to do good govern, and sometimes those which are seeking to do evil govern. And to a greater or less extent there is a state of conflict between the upper and the lower nature, between the manhood and the animal, in everyone of us. Then comes that state in which, by the power of Gods Spirit, and by the discipline of life, complete ascendency is gained by our supersensuous nature. And all the other parts of our being are brought into obedience, as it is said, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Or, if you choose to follow out the psychological figure, the superior faculties in our souls assume control. And then there is peace. Then there is rest. (H. W. Beecher.)

Opposite tendencies of flesh and spirit

As a fair and gentle wife, starlike and dovelike, is given to the guardianship of some rude, coarse, uncultured nature, who treads among her sweet feelings as the hoof and the snout deal with flowers in the garden, so it is in this strange husband and wife, the body and the soul; the soul full of sweetness and gentleness, purity and delicacy, and the coarse animal body full of despotism, and swayings and conflicts of cruel passions; and they fare but ill in their wedded life on earth. The body looks down and searches the ground for its delights; the soul looks up, and, like an astronomer, culls treasures from among the stars, and beyond. The body eats and drinks; the soul thinks and feels. The body lives in the world, for the world, and with the world; the soul reaches far away to some higher life whose need it feels--but all is vague, but the wish, but the need. Strange visions rise; but neither to-day does the soul know its origin, nor to-morrow. The picture of beauty and of purity that rose bright in the morning has faded out before night. To-morrow mocks the expectation of to-day. The soul is like a bird caged from the nest, that yet remembers something of its fellows in the forest of green leaves, and in summer days hears snatches of song from far-off fields, and yearns, with all its little life, for that liberty which it has never proved, for that companionship which it so early missed, and for those songs which it never learned to utter, though it strives in broken notes for them-. Once some adventurous hunters, from a ledge of rocks, robbed an eagles nest of an eaglet. Brought home, he was reared among fowls, that he might perform domestic duty. As he grew, he grew apart from the children of the dunghill, and sat moody in sullen dignity. As his wings secretly grew strong, they were clipped. When on a summers day, wild in the heaven the hawk screamed, every fowl in the yard ran cowering to shelter; he, with flashing eye and discordant scream, reared himself to fly, but alas! he could not rise. He fell sick. He would have died, if he might. They let him alone. His pinions grew again. They forgot him. He forgot not. The sky was his. The great round of air, without line or bound, was his. And when, one neglectful summer day, all were dozing, from afar up in the sky--so far that none could see, or see only a floating speck--there came down a cry so faint that no ear might hear it-none but an eagles. Then, with sudden force, all its life beating in its breast, it sprang up. Away from the yard, its fowls, its owners, over the rick and over the barn, over the trees and over the hills, round and round in growing circles, beaten with growing power of wing, the freed eagle sought its fellow, and found its liberty right under the sun! And such, of many and many a soul, sad in bondage, valiant in liberty, has been the history. (H. W. Beecher.)

The two natures in a Christian

A Christian lives in two worlds at one and the same time--the world of flesh, and the world of spirit. It is possible to do both. There are certain dangerous gases, which from their weight fall to the lower part of the place where they are, making it destructive for a dog to enter, but safe for a man who holds his head erect. A Christian, as living in the world of flesh, is constantly passing through these. Let him keep his head erect in the spiritual world, and he is safe. He does this so long as the Son of God is the fountain whence he draws his inspiration, his motives, encouragement, and strength. (George Philip.)

Spiritual conflict

This is one of those many passages in the Bible which, from some causes or other, men have taken away from their first and proper and comforting sense, and invested with a dark and stern meaning. For most men, when they read these words--understand them to mean that, by reason of indwelling sin, we cannot do the good things which we desire to do. Whereas, the real intention of it is exactly the reverse--that by reason of the good, that is in us, we cannot do the bad things, which, nevertheless, we wish to do. That this is the chief and true signification, the whole line of thought proves. No one who knows anything of human nature, or of his own heart, can doubt, for a moment, that the ninth article of our Church is thoroughly and literally true, and that the infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek, phronema sarkos, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God. Nay, many could give painful testimony that the more they have striven to do what is right, the more they have been dragged back again! that the stronger the light, the deeper has been the shadow! that the presence of God in them seemed to serve only to stir up the violence of the wicked one! The fact is that the process of sanctification, in a man, is not exactly what almost all of us beforehand thought it would be. It is not in the main that evil gradually ceases, and good gradually takes its place. It is not the extirpation of sin at all--but it is the subjugation of sin. The Philistines are yet in the land, in their strongholds, though the land belong to the people of God. I am not sure that what is wrong in a man is at all diminished by his sanctification. It is rather (if I may so call it) the increase of grace than the decrease of nature. Imaginations--the wicked desires--are all there; and there they are in their strength, their tremendous strength! Do not doubt it. They are there to the very end! Witness the falls, the awful falls of Christian men--long after their conversion! Witness the fearful struggles which we all have passed through sometimes! Sin lives a subject, a slave, a rebel--but Christ reigns! Ah! brethren, what if there were not something by reason of which we could not do the things that we would? This, then, brings us to the immediate force of St. Pauls words. The way to subdue sin is to introduce a master-power. You will never actually destroy the wrong will; but you must neutralize it by another will. You must bring in, and cultivate, and enlarge the prohibitive and preventive forces of the heart, till at last you have come to the state that you cannot do the things that you would. Let us look at this a little in detail. I will take one of you who is still much too fond of the world. The world exercises a particular fascination over that man. He is probably ashamed of the influence; and yet he is unable to resist it. At last, the fact is certain, that he goes more into the world than is good for his soul; and he knows that he does. Now, what shall we say to that man? No man can really and honestly live higher than his level. While the level of your heart--its tastes, and pleasures, and ideas--is the level of the world, into the world, of course, you will go. It would not do much good--it would not make you a better Christian--if you kept out of it. What you want is to raise your level. You want to taste pure pleasures--to have a higher ambition--to pursue more satisfying objects to live in a holier atmosphere--to get into an upper range. How shall you do this? You must accept the love of God--you must have more peace--you must have more real communion with God--more of the spiritual life, with all its deep, absorbing influences--more of the fellowship with Gods people--more work done for usefulness, and for the Church, and for Christ. As soon as ever you reach that point, those lesser things will descend in the scale; they will not be congenial to the new life; they will become insipid; they will be actually distasteful. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The conflict of the Christian life

I. Its feature.

1. The flesh has its desires, so has the spirit as acted upon by the Spirit of God; and both are strong, contradictory, and antagonistic.

2. The struggle between the two is a matter of the commonest Christian experience.

(1) Of the flesh against the spirit. The sense of obligation arouses the spirit of revolt. Hence even Paul had to keep his body under.

(2) The spirit against the flesh. The revolt against command is checked by the grace of submission, and the desire to be faithful awakens disgust at sin.

3. The Divine nature is imparted to us with all its love and longing that the flesh with its lusts may be overcome.

4. The nobler shall be victor over the meaner.

II. Its purpose.

1. That the antagonism of righteousness and unrighteousness may work out the highest good and accomplish the destiny of the faithful.

2. To prevent the Christian life becoming one of impulse, merely the doing simply as we would because we will it.

3. To force on us the task of deliberation and wise resolve; to make us choose as well as will, and determine as well as choose, and thus--

4. To add the steadfastness of Christian purpose to the eagerness of Christian passion. (A. Mackennal, B. A.)

I. The flesh desires ease, and thus comes into collision with the spirit, which requires us to fight the good fight of faith (Heb_12:1-2).

II. The flesh desires excitement, whereas the spirit requires us to deny ourselves and take up our cross.

III. The flesh desires distinction, whereas the spirits injunction is to humility (Php_2:3-4; Mat_20:26; Rom_12:10).

IV. The flesh desires to make self supreme, whereas the spirit desires to make God supreme. (W. Landells, D. D.)

There are eight main incom-modities which the soul hath cause to complain of in her conjunction with the body.

1. The defilement of original sin.

2. A proneness to actual sin.

3. The difficulty of doing well.

4. The dulness of our understanding in the things of God.

5. Perpetual self-conflict.

6. Racking solicitude of cares.

7. Multiplicity of passions.

8. Retardation of our glory. (Bishop Hall.)

We must fight the flesh

You that carry flesh and blood about with you, and sinful natures, and do perceive the conflicts of the flesh against the spirit, weigh with yourselves what it is the flesh conflicts with you for: it is no less than for the immortal soul, as the Apostle Peter tells you, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. The flesh aims to damn the soul. It is in this con, flict, as Caesar said in the battle he had once in Africa with the children and partakers of Pompey, that, in other battles, he was wont to fight for glory, but there and then he was obliged to fight for his life. Remember thy precious soul lies at stake in this conflict. (Christopher Lowe.)

Evil thoughts perilous

A gossamer thread is attached to an arrow, and shot through the air unseen, over an impassable chasm. Fixed on the other side it is sufficient to draw over a cord. The cord draws over a rope, the rope draws over a bridge, by which a highway is opened to all comers. Thus is the gulf passed that lies between the goodly character of a youth fresh from his fathers family, and the daring heights of iniquity on which veteran libertines stand. Out of the heart, said He who knows it, proceed evil thoughts. Yes, but what come out next? Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. A horrible gang. How quickly they come on. Once the fountain were cleansed, the streams of life would be pure. So thought David, when, in an agony of grief, he cried, Create in me a clean heart, O God. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:17 We cannot simply decide to keep the law and not sin: A war rages between God’s Spirit and our sinful nature (see Rom 7:14-25; 1 Pet 2:11; cp. Gen 4:7). The answer is not human effort at law-keeping, but living by God’s Spirit. When we are resurrected, we will finally be freed from sin (see Rom 8:18-25).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal 5:17. Τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα) and, on the other hand, the Spirit against the flesh. The word ἐπιθυμεῖ itself, or, inasmuch as that word is taken in a bad sense, another analogous to it [not lusteth, but desireth, tendeth] is to be supplied. There is certainly an elegance in the ellipsis or zeugma [use of ἐπιθυμεῖ in the double sense].—ἀντίκειται, are contrary) ἀντιπραγίᾳ, in a mutual serious contest.—ἃ ἂν, whatsoever) Carnal men do whatsoever they will; although sometimes the flesh wars with the flesh. In regard to those who repent, their condition is different, and that too a wonderful condition; for the Spirit strives against the flesh, and its bad course of action: the flesh against the Spirit, and its good course of action; so that (ἵνα) neither the one nor the other can be fully carried out. In such a state, as being doubtful, many bad and many good actions are prevented; but where the Spirit conquers, Gal 5:18, the issue of the conflict is decided. This more summary statement in some measure corresponds to those things, which are fully explained, Rom 7:14, etc.; although, in the present case, the state presupposed is rather one already spiritual.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_5:17. Ἡ γὰρ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα κατὰ τ. σάρκος] The foregoing exhortation, with its promise, is elucidated by the remark that the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to one another in their desires, so that the two cannot together influence the conduct.

As here also τὸ πνεῦμα is not the moral nature of man (see on Gal_5:16), but the Holy Spirit,[238] a comparison has to some extent incorrectly been made with the variance between the νοῦς and the ΣΆΡΞ (Rom_7:18 ff.) in the still unregenerate man, in whom the moral will is subject to the flesh, along with its parallels in Greek and Roman authors (Xen. Cyr. vi. 1. 21; Arrian. Epict. ii. 26; Porphyr. de abst. i. 56; Cic. Tusc. ii. 21, et al.), and Rabbins (see Schoettgen, Hor. p. 1178 ff.). Here the subject spoken of is the conflict between the fleshly and the divine principle in the regenerate. The relation is therefore different, although the conflict in itself has some similarity. Bengel in the comparison cautiously adds, quodammodo.

ταῦτα γὰρ ἀλλήλοις ἀντίκειται] As to the reading ΓΆΡ, see the critical notes. It introduces a pertinent further illustration of what has just been said. In order to obviate an alleged tautology, Rückert and Schott have placed ταῦτα γ. ἀλλ. ἀντίκ. in a parenthesis (see also Grotius), and taken it in the sense: for they are in their nature opposed to one another. A gratuitous insertion; in that case Paul must have written: φύσει γὰρ ταῦτα ἀλλ. ἀντίκ., for the bare ἈΝΤΊΚΕΙΤΑΙ after what precedes can only be understood as referring to the actually existing conflict.

ἽΝΑ ΜΉ Κ.Τ.Λ.] is not (with Grotius, Semler, Moldenhauer, Rückert, and Schott) to be joined to the first half of the verse,a connection which is forbidden by the right view of the ΤΑῦΤΑ ΓᾺΡ ἈΛΛ. ἈΝΤΊΚ. as not parentheticalbut to the latter. ἽΝΑ expresses the purpose, and that not the purpose of God in the conflict mentionedwhich, when the will is directed towards that which is good, would amount to an ungodly (immoral) purposebut the purpose of those powers contending with one another in this conflict, in their mutual relation to the moral attitude of mans will, which even in the regenerate may receive a twofold determination (comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 361 f.). In this conflict both have the purpose that the man should not do that very thing (ταῦτα with emphasis) which in the respective cases (ἌΝ) he would. If he would do what is good, the flesh, striving against the Spirit, is opposed to this; if he would do what is evil, the Spirit, striving against the flesh, is opposed to that. All the one-sided explanations of ἃ ἂν θέλητε, whether the words be referred to the moral will which is hindered by the flesh (Luther, Erasmus, Calvin, Estius, Morus, Rosenmüller, Flatt, Usteri, Rückert, Schott, de Wette; also Baumgarten-Crusius, Holsten, and others), or to the sensual will, which is hindered by the Spirit (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Beza, Grotius, Neander),[239] are set aside by the fact that ἵνα μή κ.τ.λ. is connected with the preceding ΤΑῦΤΑ ΓᾺΡ ἈΛΛ. ἈΝΤΊΚ., and this comprehends the mutual conflict of two powers.[240] Winer has what is, on the whole, the correct interpretation: τὸ πνεῦμα impedit vos (rather impedire vos cupit), quo minus perficiatis τὰ τῆς σαρκός (ea, quae Ἡ ΣᾺΡΞ perficere cupit), contra Ἡ ΣᾺΡΞ adversatur vobis, ubi ΤᾺ ΤΟῦ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΟς peragere studetis; and so in substance Ambrose, Oecumenius, Bengel, Zachariae, Koppe, Matthies, Reithmayr, and others; Wieseler most accurately. This more precise statement of the conflict (ΤΑῦΤΑ … ΤΑῦΤΑ ΠΟΙῆΤΕ) might indeed in itself be dispensed with, since it was in substance already contained in the first half of the verse; but it bears the stamp of an emphatic and indeed solemn exposition, that it might be more carefully considered and laid to heart. In Hofmanns view, ἽΝΑ ΜῊ Κ.Τ.Λ. is intended to express, as the aim of the conflict, that the action of the Christian is not to be self-willed (springing from himself in virtue of his own self-determination); and this, because he cannot attain to rest otherwise than by allowing his conduct to be determined by the Spirit. But setting aside the fact that the latter idea is not to be found in the text, the conception of, and emphasis upon, the self-willed, which with the whole stress laid on the being self-determined would form the point of the thought, are arbitrarily introduced, just as if Paul had written: ἵνα μὴ ἃ ἂν αὐτοὶ (or ΑὐΤΟῚ ὙΜΕῖς, Rom_7:25, or ΑὐΘΑΊΡΕΤΟΙ, or ΑὐΤΟΓΝΏΜΟΝΕς, ΑὐΤΌΝΟΜΟΙ, ΑὐΤΌΒΟΥΛΟΙ, or the like).

[238] De Wette wrongly makes the objection, that in the state of the regenerate this relation of conflict does not find a place, seeing that the Spirit has the preponderance (vv. 18, 24). Certainly so, if the regeneration were complete, and not such as it was in the case of the Galatians (Gal_4:19), and if the concupiscentia carnis did not remain at all in the regenerate. That πνεῦμα here denotes the Holy Spirit, is confirmed by ver. 22. The difference of the conflict in the unconverted and in the regenerate consists in this,that in the case of the former the σάρξ strives with the better moral will (νοῦς), and the σάρξ is victorious (Rom_7:7 ff.); but in the case of the regenerate, the σάρξ strives with the Holy Spirit, and man may obey the latter (ver. 18). In the former case, the creaturely power of the σάρξ is in conflict with the likewise creaturely νοῦς, but in the latter with the divine uncreated πνεῦμα. De Wette was erroneously of opinion that here Paul says briefly and indistinctly what in Rom_7:15 ff. he sets forth clearly; the view of Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 389, is similar.

[239] Comp. also Ewald, in order that ye, according to the divine will expressed on the point, may not do that which ye possibly might wish, but that of which ye may know that God desires and approves it.

[240] Comp. Ernesti Urspr. der Sünde, I. p. 89.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 5:17 . σὰρξ … πνεῦμα . All the various motives which operate on the mind and will to prompt intention and action are comprehended under one of the two categories, spirit and flesh. The line of division between them corresponds to that drawn in 1Co 2:14 between the natural man ( ψυχικός ) and the spiritual. The spirit of man owes its original existence to the quickening inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and depends for its continued life on the constant supply of his life-giving power: its impulses are therefore purely spiritual. In the term flesh are included all other desires of the natural man, not only the appetites and passions which he inherits in common with the animal creation, but all the desires that he conceives for the satisfaction of heart or mind. ἐπιθυμεῖ . This is a neutral term equally applicable to the good desires of the spirit and the evil lusts of the flesh. ἀντίκειται ἀλλ . ἴνα . After the coexistence of two conflicting forces, spirit and flesh, in the heart of man has been definitely affirmed, it is here added that these are set ( sc. by divine appointment) in mutual antagonism to each other for the express purpose of due control over the human will. Both alike derive their being from the same Creator, though one belongs to the natural, the other to the spiritual, creation: both alike continue by His will to fulfil their several parts in the scheme of Christian life. It is beside the purpose of the Epistle to analyse the functions of the flesh in the economy of nature, or to affirm the absolute dependence of the human will on the spontaneous action of its desires for vital force and energy: enough that by the will of God they too form an essential element in Christian life: the Epistle deals not with their beneficial action, but with their liability to perversion. For their indiscriminate craving for indulgence renders them constantly liable to become ministers of sin. The mind of the flesh, if left without a check, issues in enmity to God and death ( cf. Rom 8:6-7 ). Wholesome restraint is therefore a condition essential to their healthy action. In every community this is to a certain extent provided by the discipline of education, by social order and law. But in true Christians a far more effective control is maintained by the spirit, since it is capable of combating every wrong desire within the heart before it issues in sinful action, and so by constantly checking any wrong indulgence it gradually neutralises the power of selfish appetites, and establishes an habitual supremacy over the whole mind and will, until in the ideal Christian it brings them into perfect harmony with the mind of Christ.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the flesh dwelleth even in the regenerate man, but the Spirit reigneth although not without great strife, as is largely set forth, Rom. 7.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit] God still continues to strive with you, notwithstanding your apostasy, showing you whence you have fallen, and exciting you to return to him; but your own obstinacy renders all ineffectual; and through the influence of these different principles, you are kept in a state of self-opposition and self-distraction, so that you cannot do the things that ye would. You are convinced of what is right, and ye wish to do it; but, having abandoned the Gospel and the grace of Christ, the law and its ordinances which ye have chosen in their place afford you no power to conquer your evil propensities. It was on this ground that the apostle exhorted them, Ga 5:16, to walk in the Spirit, that they might not fulfil the lust of the flesh; as without the grace of God they could do nothing. Who can suppose that he speaks this of adult Christians?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. For the flesh lusteth. The spiritual life maintained without a struggle. We are here informed of the nature of the difficulty, which arises from our natural inclinations being opposed to the Spirit. The word flesh, as we had occasion to observe, in expounding the Epistle to the Romans, denotes the nature of man; for the limited application of it, which the sophists make to the lower senses, as they are called, is refuted by various passages; and the contrast between the two words puts an end to all doubt. The Spirit denotes the renewed nature, or the grace of regeneration; and what else does the flesh mean, but “the old man?” (Romans 6:6 Ephesians 4:22 Colossians 3:9.) Disobedience and rebellion against the Spirit of God pervade the whole nature of man. If we would obey the Spirit, we must labor, and fight, and apply our utmost energy; and we must begin with self-denial. The compliment paid by our Lord to the natural inclinations of men, amounts to this, — that there is no greater agreement between them and righteousness, than between fire and water. Where, then, shall we find a drop of goodness in man’s free will? unless we pronounce that to be good which is contrary to the Spirit of God;

“because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Romans 8:7.)

All the thoughts of the flesh are acts of enmity against God.

So that ye cannot do the things that ye would. This refers, unquestionably, to the regenerate. Carnal men have no battle with depraved lusts, no proper desire to attain to the righteousness of God. Paul is addressing believers. The things that ye would must mean, not our natural inclinations, but the holy affections which God bestows upon us by his grace. Paul therefore declares, that believers, so long as they are in this life, whatever may be the earnestness of their endeavors, do not obtain such a measure of success as to serve God in a perfect manner. The highest result does not correspond to their wishes and desires. I must again refer the reader, for a more extended view of my sentiments on this subject, to the Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, (See Calvin on Romans 7:15.)

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(17) For the flesh . . .—In this verse we have brought out most distinctly the antithesis between the flesh and the Spirit, which is one of the root ideas in the psychology of St. Paul. It does not amount to dualism, for the body, as such, is not regarded as evil. There is nothing to show that St. Paul considered matter in itself evil. But the body becomes the seat of evil; from it arise those carnal impulses which are the origin of sin. And it is the body, looked at in this light, which is designated as “the flesh.” The flesh is the body, as animated by an evil principle. It thus becomes opposed to the good principle: whether the good principle in itself—the Spirit of God, or that organ in which the good principle resides—the spirit in man.

So that ye cannot do the things that ye would.—The opposition between the flesh and the Spirit, each pulling a different way, prevents the will from acting freely. For a full comment on this, see Rom_7:15-23; Rom_7:25.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17, 18. I say ‘fulfil’—for I well know that the spiritual life is, and must be, one of conflict—you must fight manfully under Christ’s banner and continue His faithful soldiers unto your life’s end. The flesh, ‘the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts’, is in deadly antagonism to the Spirit—to the new and Divine nature, and to the Holy Ghost its Author. These stand eternally opposed to one another; and as both exist in you, ye cannot always do such things as ye would; comp. Rom_7:15-25. But if ye are led by the Spirit, this conflict implies not bondage but freedom—the freedom of sons; “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Rom_8:14.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if ye be led by the Spirit,.... That is, of God, who is the guide and leader of his people. It is a metaphor taken from the leading of persons that are blind; as such are before conversion, and whom the Spirit of God leads in ways they knew not, and in paths they had not known: or from the leading of children, and teaching them to go; so the Spirit leads regenerate persons, and teaches them to walk by faith in Christ. This act of leading supposes life in the persons led, for dead men cannot be led; the Spirit is first a Spirit of life from Christ before he is a leader; and also it supposes some strength, though a good deal of weakness; were there no spiritual strength derived from Christ, they could not be led; and if there was no weakness, there would be no need of leading; it is an instance of powerful and efficacious grace upon them, yet not contrary to their wills, though they are led, they are not forced; they go freely, being led, as there is good reason for it; for the Spirit of God always leads for their profit and advantage, and for the spiritual delight, pleasure, and comfort of their souls; he leads out of the ways of sin, and so of ruin and destruction, and from Mount Sinai, and all dependence on a legal and moral righteousness; he leads to Christ, to his person, for shelter, safety, and salvation, to his blood, for pardon and cleansing, to his righteousness, for justification, and to his fulness, for every supply of grace; he leads into the presence of God, and to his house and ordinances; he leads into the covenant of grace, to the blessings, promises, and Mediator of it; he leads into all truth as it is in Jesus, in the ways of faith and truth, and in the paths of righteousness and holiness, and always in a right way, though sometimes in a rough one, to the city of their habitation; he leads from one degree of grace to another, and at last to glory: all which he does gradually; he leads by little and little into a man's sinfulness, and to see his interest in Christ, and by degrees into the doctrines of the Gospel, and the everlasting love of the three Persons; and proportionally to the strength he gives, and as they are able to bear: now such persons as these have nothing to fear from the law of God:

ye are not under the law; such are not only delivered from the law in fact, but in their own apprehensions; they have the comfortable knowledge and experience of it; the law is no terrifying law to them; it works no wrath in them; they are delivered from the spirit of bondage to fear, by the Spirit of God, by whom they are led; nor are they under it, nor do they need it as a pressing forcing law to duty; they delight in it, and cheerfully serve it, being constrained by love, and not awed by fear; nor are its accusations and charges regarded, or to be regarded, by such who are led by the Spirit to Christ, the end of the law for righteousness; and they are entirely freed from its curse and condemnation, though they are under it, and desire to be under it, as held forth by Christ the King of saints; and, under the Spirit's influence and guidance, yield a cheerful and evangelical obedience to it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Ver. 17. For the flesh lusteth] Every new man is two men. What can a man see in the Shulamite, but as the appearance of two armies? Son 6:13. These maintain civil broils within her, as the two babes did in Rebecea’s womb. All was jolly quiet at Ephesus, till Paul came thither; but then there arose no small stir about that way, Act 19:23. So is there in the good soul.

So that ye cannot do the things, &c.] As ye cannot do the good that ye would, because of the flesh, {Rom 7:21, something lay at the fountain head, and stop it} so neither can ye do the evil that ye would, because of the Spirit. In which respect, setting the ingratitude aside, the sins of godly men are less than others, because the flesh cannot carry it without some counterbuffs.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit - The inclinations and desires of the flesh are contrary to those of the Spirit. They draw us away in an opposite direction, and while the Spirit of God would lead us one way, our carnal nature would lead us another, and thus produce the painful controversy which exists in our minds. The word “Spirit” here refers to the Spirit of God, and to his influences on the heart.

And these are contrary ... - They are opposite in their nature. They never can harmonize; see Rom 8:6-7; compare below Gal 5:19-23. The contrariety Paul has illustrated by showing what each produces; and they are as opposite as adultery, wrath, strife, murders, drunkenness, etc., are to love, joy, goodness, gentleness, and temperance.

So that ye cannot do the things that ye would - See this sentiment illustrated in the notes at Rom 7:15-19. The expression “cannot do” is stronger by far than the original, and it is doubted whether the original will bear this interpretation. The literal translation would be, “Lest what ye will, those things ye should do” (ἵνα μὴ ὥ ἄν θέλητε, ταῦτα ποιῆτε hina mē hō an thelēte, tauta poiēte). It is rendered by Doddridge, “So that ye do not the things that ye would.” By Locke, “You do not the things that you propose to yourselves;” and Locke remarks on the passage, “Ours is the only translation that I knew which renders it cannot.” The Vulgate and the Syriac give a literal translation of the Greek, “So that you do not what you would.” This is undoubtedly the true rendering; and, in the original, there is no declaration about the possibility or the impossibility, the ability or the inability to do these things.

It is simply a statement of a fact, as it is in Rom 7:15, Rom 7:19. That statement is, that in the mind of a renewed man there is a contrariety in the two influences which bear on his soul - the Spirit of God inclining him in one direction, and the lusts of the flesh in another; that one of these influences is so great as in fact to restrain and control the mind, and prevent its doing what it would otherwise do; that when there is an inclination in one direction, there is a controlling and overpowering influence in another, producing a conflict, which prevents it, and which finally checks and restrains the mind. There is no reason for interpreting this, moreover, as seems always to be the case, of the overpowering tendency in the mind to evil, as if it taught that the Christian was desirous of doing good, but could not, on account of his indwelling corruption. So far as the language of Paul or the fact is concerned, it may be understood of just the opposite, and may mean, that such are the restraints and influences of the Holy Spirit on the heart, that the Christian does not the evil which he otherwise would, and to which his corrupt nature inclines him.

He (Paul) is exhorting them Gal 5:16 to walk in the Spirit, and assures them that thus they would not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. To encourage them to this, he reminds them that there were contrary principles in their minds, the influences of the Spirit of God, and a carnal and downward tendency of the flesh. These are contrary one to the other; and such are, in fact, the influences of the Spirit on the mind, that the Christian does not do the things which he otherwise would. So understood, or understood in any fair interpretation of the original, it makes no assertion about the ability or inability of man to do right or wrong. It affirms as a fact, that where these opposite principles exist, a man does not do the things which otherwise he would do. If a man could not do otherwise than he actually does, he would not be to blame. Whether a Christian could not resist the influences of the Holy Spirit, and yield to the corrupt desires of the flesh; or whether he could not overcome these evil propensities and do right always, are points on which the apostle here makes no affirmation. His is the statement of a mere fact, that where these counteracting propensities exist in the mind, there is a conflict, and that the man does not do what he otherwise would do.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

So that you [1] do not the things that you would. He does not say, so that you cannot do, as others falsely translate; as if men were under an absolute necessity of sinning, or doing ill; which is also contradictory to the foregoing words, walk by the spirit, and you will not accomplish the works of the flesh. (Witham) --- Here some suppose, says St. Augustine, that the apostle denieth that we have free liberty of will: not understanding that this is said to them, if they will not hold fast the grace of faith conceived, by which only they can walk in the spirit, and not accomplish the lusts of the flesh. (St. Augustine, in chap. v. Gal.)

Ver 19-21. Uncleanness, immodesty, luxury. In the Greek there are but two vices named; luxury is not mentioned; and, perhaps, the Latin interpreter put two words to explain one Greek word. (Witham) --- St. Augustine here sheweth that there are other damnable sins besides infidelity.

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Ita ut non quæcunque vultis, illa faciatis; Greek: ina me a an thelete tauta poiete. Dr. Wells, in his correction to the Protestant translation, leaves out cannot.

====================

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By the flesh and

the Spirit, we cannot so much understand the sensitive and rational appetite; for these two appetites are not so contrary, but that in many things they agree well enough; and we are enemies not only in our sensitive part, to spiritual things, but εν τη διανοια, in our mind and rational part also, Col 1:21. And some of the works of the flesh, which are afterward mentioned, Gal 5:19-21, (such as idolatry, heresies, & c.), cannot be referred to the sensitive part. But by these terms are either to be understood the unregenerate part of man; or rather, that carnal concupiscence which we derived from Adam, and is seated in our rational as well as sensitive appetite; which opposeth itself to the Divine rule, and to the dictates and motions of the Spirit of God.

The flesh lusteth against the Spirit; this concupiscence moveth strongly against the directions of the Spirit.

And the Spirit against the flesh; and the Holy Spirit of God, dwelling in the saints, moveth us potently against the propensions and inclinations of the flesh.

And these are contrary the one to the other; for they are two contrary principles, and work contrarily in their motions and inclinations.

So that ye cannot do the things that ye would; so that even the best of God’s people cannot at all times do either what they should do, (according to the precept of the word), or what they would do, according to the bent of their regenerate part.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. For—Reason for the need of so walking. We now have a passage similar to Rom_7:14-25, describing the struggle alike of a low religious life and a state of unregenerate conviction, from which a self-surrendry to the Spirit delivers us.

The Spirit against the flesh—The verb lusteth does not bear to be repeated after Spirit; but some other verb, as stirreth, should be supplied.

And—Greek, for.

So that—More expressively, the Greek is, in order that. That is, the Spirit impels you one way in order that you may not do the evil you would, and the flesh impels you the other way in order that you may not do the good you would.

Ye cannot—Greek, ye may not.

Ye would—Your resolutions for good and your plans of sin are alike upset. You enjoy neither religion nor the world. The Lord does not allow you ease in sin, the world does not allow you enjoyment in God. You are a miserable whiffler both ways. What is the remedy? St. Paul has already given it.

Walk in the Spirit—That Spirit is already doing all for you he can. By his aids you must do for yourself what he will not do for you. Your selfhood—your self as a free agent—must exert its energies and put forth the decisive act by which you commit yourself to the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit. It is this free selfhood that Calvinism ignores, and expects that the Spirit, by securing power, will fix the result, and thus it destroys the very foundations of free agency, probation, and responsibility. One man is saved because the Spirit secures his assent and salvation; another man is damned, because the Spirit does not secure his salvation. The present passage clearly shows that between the Spirit doing all he will, and the flesh doing all it can, it is the free agent, by aid of the Spirit, who decides his own destiny. The Spirit urges and enables, but does not secure.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh (hJ gar sarx ejpiqumei katamatov to de Pneuma katav); for the flesh doth lust (or, hath desires) against the Spirit; but the Spirit likewise against the flesh. The first clause, "for the flesh hath desires against the Spirit," justifies the mention of "the desire of the flesh" in ver. 16, as being an experience which Christians in general have still to deal with; as if it were, For the flesh really is present still, originating within you desires contrary to those prompted by the Spirit." Then the apostle adds, but the Spirit likewise or, hath desires"against the flesh;" intimating that, although the flesh was still at work within, prompting desires tending away from holiness, that nevertheless was no reason for their giving way to such evil inclinations; for the Spirit was with them as well, originating desires after what was holy and good; and he would help them against those other inclinations towards evil, if only they would surrender themselves to his guidance. That this is the proper way of construing these two passages seems betokened by the de. If the apostle had just here meant to say, "There are two mutually opposing principles at work within you" for the purpose of justifying by explicit statement the tone of ver. 16 which implies this fact, he would have written, h te gar sarx ejpiqumei katamatov kai to Pveuma katav: or, hJ men garx to de Pneuma etc.; "For both hath the flesh desires against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; or, "for on the one hand the flesh hath desires and on the other," etc. But the adversative de standing alone tends to disjoin the two clauses rather than to conjoin them so closely together as the Authorized Version leads us to suppose. We need supply no ether verb than ejpiqumei, "hath desires," with the words, "but the Spirit;" for this verb is used in a good sense as well as in a bad; as e.g. Luk_22:15, ejpiqumi ejpiqumhsa, "with desire did I desire;" 1Pe_1:12, "the angels desire (ejpiqumousin) to look into;" Php_1:23. "the desire (ejpiqumi) to depart." In fact, the verb properly implies a simply strong wish, not necessarily an ill-governed one. And these are contrary the one to the other (tauta galoiv ajntikeitei Receptus, tauta dekeitai ajllhloiv D; for these oppose themselves the one to the other. Taking the former two clauses as has been proposed above, we can discern the force of the "for" introducing this new clause. The apostle having been by two several turns of thought led to state, first that the flesh prompts desires or action in opposition to the Spirit, and then, as a distinct sentence, that the Spirit prompts desires or action in opposition to the flesh, he now conjoins the two several notions in the affirmation of the mutual antagonistic agency of these two principles; "For these oppose themselves the one to the other." The verb ajntikeimai always denotes opposing action, and not mere contrariety of nature; being used as a participial noun for "adversaries" or "opponents" in Luk_13:17; 1Co_16:9; Php_1:28 1Ti_5:14; and as a verb in 2Th_2:4; and 1Ti_1:10, to denote setting one"s self in opposition to. This clause, therefore, describes the continual endeavour of the flesh and of the Spirit to thwart and defeat each other"s action in the hearts of the persons spoken of. So that ye cannot do the things that ye would (ina mhlhte tauta poihte) to the end that what things soever ye fain would do, those ye shall not do. This last clause describes the result aimed at by each of those conflicting principles, namely, to thwart each of them the volitions prompted by the other. The words remind us ofssw, Rom_7:15, Ouj galw touto pra "For not, what thing I fain would,that do I practise;" ibid., 16, JO ouj qelw touto poiw, "What thing I fain would not, that I do;" ibid., 19, Ouj galw poiw ajgaqon ajll o ouj qelw kakon touto prassw, "For not what good thing I fain would, do I do; but what evil thing I fain would not, that I practise." The comparison of the indefinite relative, "what things soever ye fain would do (a a qelhte)," in the present passage, with the more definite "what thing I fain would do," or "fain would not do (o qelw o ouj qelw)," in the Romans, points to the conclusion that by the clause, "what things soever ye fain would do," is meant, "whichever be the kind of your volitions, whether they be those prompted by the flesh or those prompted by the Spirit." In comparing the two passages, it is important to notice that in the seventh chapter of the Romans the apostle is Concerned exclusively with the frustration of our good volitions, which, there, are not ascribed to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but to the prompting of our own moral sense quickened by the voice of the Law"s commandment. Such good volitions he represents as overpowered by the controlling influence ("law") of the evil principle, "the flesh;" a condition of miserable thraldom, out of which, the apostle (ibid., 25), with triumphant gratitude, alludes to believers in Christ being delivered delivered by the coming in upon the scene of a new agent, "the Spirit of life:" whereas, in the passage before us, he is describing the condition of believers in Christ, to whom now has been imparted this new power for doing what is good. In these, "the mind", (Rom_7:25) powerless before to overcome the law of sin, is succoured by the presence of a mighty Ally, through whom, he intimates elsewhere, the believer has it within his power to do all things. (Php_4:13) Many expositors, in-eluding Bishop Lightfoot, take ina in the present clause us denoting simply the result actually brought about; thus the Authorized Version, "so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Whether this sense, of result actually produced, can be shown ever to attach to ina followed by the subjunctive, is a question which has been much debated. in 1Th_5:4, "Ye are not in darkness that (ina) that day should overtake you as a thief," the particle "that" points to the ordering of Divine providence spoken of in the two preceding verses, that they who are in darkness should be taken by surprise by the coming of the day of the Lord. It is certainly possible so to understand the particle here; the mutually thwarting agency of the flesh and the Spirit may be understood as latently attributed to Divine providence ordering that thus it should be. But this view would hardly seem to harmonize, either with the almightiness of the Divine Agent engaged in the conflict or with the triumphant language of Rom_8:1-4. In actual experience, it does indeed seem to be but too often almost a machrropov a drawn battle; so greatly is the Spirit"s agency dogged and hampered by the weakness of human faith and the inconstancy of human purpose. But it does not need to be so. In the case of St. Paul himself, as we may infer from all that he says of his own career subsequent to his conversion, and in perhaps not a few cases besides, the Spirit has been completely and persistently triumphant. It therefore appears inconvenient to suppose that the apostle means to ascribe such a result to the ordering of Divine providence making it inevitable. Certainly such a construction of the passage is not necessary. We escape from it altogether by ascribing the notion of purpose latent in this ina, "to the end that," to the nisus severally of the two agents. Taken so, the passage affirms this: Will whatever you may, whether good or evil, you will be sure to meet with an adverse agency, striving to bar the complete accomplishment of your desire. There appears to be no good reason for limiting the application of this statement, as some propose our doing, to the case of immature Christians, in whom Christ is as yet imperfectly formed. (Gal_4:19) With every Christian, to the very last, the life of holiness can only be a fruit of conflict; a conflict on the whole, even perhaps persistently, successful; yet a conflict still, maintained by the help of the Spirit against an evil principle, which can never, as long as we live, cease to give occasion for care and watchfulness. (see 1Co_9:24-27; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_4:7) Why, it may be asked, is the apostle concerned to refer to this conflict here? Apparently because the Galatians showed by their behaviour that they needed to be stirred up and put upon their guard. They were, as the apostle (1Co_3:3) told the Corinthian believers they were, "carnal, walking as men." They had foregone the sense of their adoption; they were worrying one another with contentions. The flesh was in their case manifestly thwarting and defeating the desires of the Spirit. Therefore the apostle here reminds them of the conditions of the Christian life; it is to stimulate them to that earnest endeavour to walk by the Spirit, without which (ver. 24) they could not be Christ"s.

The two selves.

I EVERY MAN HAS TWO SELVES A HIGHER SELF AND A LOWER SELF.

1. A bad man has his better self. When temptation is away, in calm thoughtful moments, or when he is stricken by mortal illness or bowed with a great sorrow, or perhaps when the beauty of a sunset or the strains of sweet music call up memories of childhood, the true self will rise in the heart of a wicked man with pain and unutterable regrets.

2. A good man has his lower self. The human saint is far removed from the heavenly angel. The body and its appetites are with him; the soul has its meaner powers, its earthly passions, its self-regarding interests. There are times when the spiritual life is dull and feeble; then some sudden temptation, or even without that the depressing atmosphere of the world, will reveal to a man his worse side.

II THE TWO SELVES ARE IN CONFLICT. They are not content to lie at peace each in its own domain. Both are ambitious to rule the whole man. While the flesh brooks any restraint, the Spirit strives to bring the body into subjection. Thus it comes to pass that life is a warfare and the Christian a soldier. The battle of life is not mainly a fighting against adverse circumstances and external concrete evils of the world. A man"s foes are they of his own household," nay, of his own heart. The great conflict is internal. It is civil war rebellion and the effort to quell it; of all wars the most fierce.

III THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO SELVES IS SUCH THAT EACH IS HELD IN CHECK BY THE OTHER. "Ye cannot do the things that ye would." There is a dead-lock. Each army holds itself safe in its own entrenchments. Neither can turn the enemy"s position. Not that there is perfect balance of power. In most of us one or other force gives a temporary advantage. In many the lower self has the upper hand; in many, let us thank God, the better self maintains the supremacy. But neither has the victory that will enable it to drive the other off the field. Bad men, now and again, see yawning before them deep, black pits of wickedness, from the brink of which they start back in horror, arrested by the invisible hand of conscience. No man is wholly bad, or he would cease to be a man he would be a devil. On the other hand, it is clear to all of us that no good man is wholly good.

IV IN THE STRENGTH OF THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST THE BETTER SELF OF THE CHRISTIAN WILL ULTIMATELY OBTAIN COMPLETE VICTORY. The stress and strain of the war is but for a time. In the end all enemies shall be subdued. Meanwhile the secret of success is with those who "walk by the Spirit." So great a hope should lighten "the burden of the mystery.

The heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world.

Now life is broken, confused, inconsistent, discordant. But this is but the time of passing conflict. With victory there will come true harmony of being and growth to the full stature of the soul. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the flesh desireth against the Spirit - Nature desires what is quite contrary to the Spirit of God. But the Spirit against the flesh- - But the Holy Spirit on his part opposes your evil nature. These are contrary to each other - The flesh and the Spirit; there can be no agreement between them. That ye may not do the things which ye would- - That, being thus strengthened by the Spirit, ye may not fulfil the desire of the flesh, as otherwise ye would do.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

VERSE 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

When Paul declares that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh," he means to say that we are not to think, speak or do the things to which the flesh incites us. "I know," he says, "that the flesh courts sin. The thing for you to do is to resist the flesh by the Spirit. But if you abandon the leadership of the Spirit for that of the flesh, you are going to fulfill the lust of the flesh and die in your sins."

VERSE 17. And these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

These two leaders, the flesh and the Spirit, are bitter opponents. Of this opposition the Apostle writes in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

The scholastics are at a loss to understand this confession of Paul and feel obliged to save his honor. That the chosen vessel of Christ should have had the law of sin in his members seems to them incredible and absurd. They circumvent the plain-spoken statement of the Apostle by saying that he was speaking for the wicked. But the wicked never complain of inner conflicts, or of the captivity of sin. Sin has its unrestricted way with them. This is Paul’s very own complaint and the identical complaint of all believers.

Paul never denied that he felt the lust of the flesh. It is likely that at times he felt even the stirrings of carnal lust, but there is no doubt that he quickly suppressed them. And if at any time he felt angry or impatient, he resisted these feelings by the Spirit. We are not going to stand by idly and see such a comforting statement as this explained away. The scholastics, monks, and others of their ilk fought only against carnal lust and were proud of a victory which they never obtained. In the meanwhile they harbored within their breasts pride, hatred, disdain, self-trust, contempt of the Word of God, disloyalty, blasphemy, and other lusts of the flesh. Against these sins they never fought because they never took them for sins.

Christ alone can supply us with perfect righteousness. Therefore we must always believe and always hope in Christ. "Whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed." (Rom 9:33.)

Do not despair if you feel the flesh battling against the Spirit or if you cannot make it behave. For you to follow the guidance of the Spirit in all things without interference on the part of the flesh is impossible. You are doing all you can if you resist the flesh and do not fulfill its demands.

When I was a monk I thought I was lost forever whenever I felt an evil emotion, carnal lust, wrath, hatred, or envy. I tried to quiet my conscience in many ways, but it did not work, because lust would always come back and give me no rest. I told myself: "You have permitted this and that sin, envy, impatience, and the like. Your joining this holy order has been in vain, and all your good works are good for nothing." If at that time I had understood this passage, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh," I could have spared myself many a day of self- torment. I would have said to myself: "Martin, you will never be without sin, for you have flesh. Despair not, but resist the flesh."

I remember how Doctor Staupitz used to say to me: "I have promised God a thousand times that I would become a better man, but I never kept my promise. From now on I am not going to make any more vows. Experience has taught me that I cannot keep them. Unless God is merciful to me for Christ’s sake and grants unto me a blessed departure, I shall not be able to stand before Him." His was a God-pleasing despair. No true believer trusts in his own righteousness, but says with David, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." (Psa 143:2) Again, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Psa 130:3.)

No man is to despair of salvation just because he is aware of the lust of the flesh. Let him be aware of it so long as he does not yield to it. The passion of lust, wrath, and other vices may shake him, but they are not to get him down. Sin may assail him, but he is not to welcome it. Yes, the better Christian a man is, the more he will experience the heat of the conflict. This explains the many expressions of regret in the Psalms and in the entire Bible.

Everybody is to determine his peculiar weakness and guard against it. Watch and wrestle in spirit against your weakness. Even if you cannot completely overcome it, at least you ought to fight against it.

According to this description a saint is not one who is made of wood and never feels any lusts or desires of the flesh. A true saint confesses his righteousness and prays that his sins may be forgiven. The whole Church prays for the forgiveness of sins and confesses that it believes in the forgiveness of sins. If our antagonists would read the Scriptures they would soon discover that they cannot judge rightly of anything, either of sin or of holiness.

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

These words are brought in as a special reason why Christians should walk in the Spirit, that is, after the motions and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit: because otherwise the flesh will quickly prevail over them; for the flesh is continually lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; that is, the evil inclinations of corrupt nature are continually struggling with, and striving against, the good motions which the Holy Spirit of God stirreth up in us. And in like manner the Spirit, or renewed nature, opposes the motions of corrupt nature: for these two principles are contrary the one to the other; so that ye who are led by the Spirit, cannot act (with deliberation and consent) according to the flesh; nor can they that are led by the flesh, do the things which delight the Spirit.

Learn hence, 1. That there is a diversity of principles in a Christian flesh and spirit; there is a good principle, called spirit, because the Spirit of God is the author of it; and a bad principle in us, which is called flesh, by which we are inclined to that which is evil. This is called flesh, to denote its intimacy with us; it is as near to us as our flesh, to denote its nearness to us; it is as dear to us as our own flesh, as dear as a right hand or right eye; and to denote its continuance with us, as long as we carry flesh about us, so long will this principle of corrupt nature remain in us and continue with us.

Learn, 2. That the motions and inclinations in our nature to sin, do ever conflict and combat with, oppose and war against the motions of God’s Holy Spirit, exciting and inclining us to good: though contraries cannot be together in the same subject in an intense, yet they may be together in a remiss, degree.

Learn, 3. The consequence and issue of this combat: We cannot do the things that we would, nor any thing as we would; we cannot perform any holy duty perfectly in this life. As soon may an imperfect father beget a perfect child, as we, in our state of imperfection, perform any duty free from sin.

O, what need, what great need then, have the best of saints of the mediation and intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, when they present any performed duty unto God!

And what need also to watch our own hearts when we are upon our knees, to fortify them against the incursions and disturbances of the flesh; seeing, after all our care and vigilance in duty, we can none of us do the things that we would, nor any thing as we should!

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would . [The Christian is under the guidance of the Spirit, and the Spirit continually prompts him to imitate the Father who has adopted him, and the Christ who has died for him. Now, any one who submits himself to the guidance of the Spirit, will not yield to those lusts of the flesh which he knows are displeasing to God. But he will be tempted to yield to those lusts, for there is an inner conflict forever waged within him in which the flesh contends with the Spirit, and the Spirit with the flesh, each desiring to constrain the man to fulfill its will. And thus it comes about that ye may not do things that ye would, for there are two wills within you, and one or other of them must be subdued and disappointed.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, etc. The desires of the flesh and the Spirit are in conflict. They war within us. One would lead in one direction, and the other in another. So that ye cannot. The Greek is not so strong as this. It implies that the two wills within us hinder us from doing as we would by their conflict.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

17. ταῦτα γὰρ א*BD*G latt. ταῦτα δὲ אcACDcKLP etc. syrHarcl.; ταῦτα οὖν syrpesh. Origint.

17. ἡ γὰρ σὰρξ. γάρ introduces the reason for the triumph over the flesh (Gal 5:16): the flesh lusts against the spirit, but, thank God, the reverse is also true! The verse is a very brief summary of the experience described in Rom 7:17-25. By “the flesh” St Paul here means the propensity to evil, which makes itself felt through the physical nature.

ἐπιθυμεῖ. In this clause with a bad connotation, but in the next it is not only understood but understood in a good sense. Cf. of Christ, Luk 22:15; of angels, 1Pe 1:12. The opposition between flesh and spirit lies not only in act but primarily in aim and desire.

κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος. The article is generic as with ἡ σάρξ. There is no more thought of the Holy Ghost than in Gal 5:16.

τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα κατὰ τῆς σαρκός. In glad contrast to the preceding clause.

ταῦτα γὰρ ἀλλήλοις ἀντίκειται. Probably a parenthesis; vide infra. γάρ (see notes on Textual Criticism) gives the reason for the activity of the contradictory desires of the flesh and the spirit. It lies in the fundamental enmity that they have to each other. ἀντίκειται “are adversaries.” In usage stronger than “are contrary.” Cf. the participle 1Co 16:9; Php 1:28; 2Th 2:4; 1Ti 5:14; cf. Job 13:25; Zec 3:1. See Augustine’s fine remarks in his Confessions VIII. 5 and 9.

ἵνα μὴ, “in order that ye may not” etc. To be taken closely with τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα κατὰ τῆς σαρκός. See below for the interpretation of ἵν α here as ecbatic, “so that,” 1Th 5:4 and elsewhere, and on ecbatic ἵν α generally see Moulton, Proleg., 1906, pp. 206 sqq. Theodoret takes the clause as purely imperative, μή τοῖς ἀτόποις ἔπεσθε λογισμοῖς, ἀντὶ τοῦ, περιγίνεσθε τούτων ἔχοντες συνεργὸν τὴν χάριν τοῦ πνεύματος. This use of ἵνα though found elsewhere and especially in later Greek (see Moulton, Proleg., 1906, pp. 176 sqq.), is very doubtful in the N.T. at all, and is extremely unnatural in this passage.

ἃ ἐὰν θἑλητε ταῦτα ποιῆτε. ἐάν for ἄν, Gal 5:10 note. θέλητε in accordance with the evil promptings of the flesh.

There are, however, two other ways of understanding this verse which are worthy of mention.

(1) Taking ταῦτα … ἀντίκειται not as a parenthesis, but closely with the following clause, and giving θέλητε the widest possible meaning: “For these are adversaries to each other in order that ye may not do what ye wish, whether good or ill,” with no doubt special thought of ill. But the Apostle would not take much interest in the fact that the flesh hinders the wish for good things without saying more about it. We should expect, if this interpretation were right, to see a further remark about the difficulty of doing right.

Deissmann (Licht vom Osten, p. 235) illustrates this passage from words frequently found in the manumission of slaves “doing what he will” (ποιῶν ὅ κα θέλῃ), and thinks that St Paul here has such a clause in mind when he warns us against returning to slavery under the Law (cf. Gal 5:18).

(2) Taking ἵνα not as telic but as ecbatic “so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,” A.V. So Theodore τὸ γὰρ ἵ ν α οὐκ ἐπὶ αἰτίας εἶπεν, ἀλλʼ ὡς ἀκόλουθον (non ut in causando illud dixit, sed quasi consequens). In this case it may be

(a) Still a summons to holiness, so Theodore, οὐδὲ ἡμῖν ἔξεστιν ποιεῖν ἅπερ βουλόμεθα, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ δυνατὸν ἐν ἐκείνοις ὄντας τὰ τῆς θνητότητος πράττειν. Compare also his words on Gal 5:25 “ita ut neque passio neque concupiscentia locum in nobis ullum possit habere. migravimus enim in futuram illam vitam per regenerationem Spiritus.”

(b) A palliative against despair at failure, “the things that ye would “being good things. But this, perhaps the usual interpretation among English readers, is quite out of accord with the confident note of the whole passage. Luther feels this and has to add a summons to courage: “When I was a monk, I thought by and by that I was utterly cast away, if at any time I felt the lust of the flesh: I should not have so miserably tormented myself, but should have thought and said to myself as now commonly I do: Martin, thou shalt not utterly be without sin, for thou hast flesh: thou shalt therefore feel the battle thereof: according to that saying of Paul: The flesh resisteth the Spirit. Despair not therefore, but resist it strongly, and fulfil not the lust thereof. Thus doing thou art not under the law” (p. 262 ab).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17.] Substantiation of the preceding,—that if ye walk by the Spirit, ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. The second γάρ (see var. readd.) gives a reason for the continual ἐπιθυμεῖν of these two against one another: viz., that they are opposites.

ἵνα] not ‘so that:’—this is the result: but more is expressed by ἵνα. Winer gives the meaning well: “Atque hujus luctæ hoc est consilium, ut &c. Scil. τὸ πν. impedit vos, quo minus perficiatis τὰ τῆς σαρκός (ea, quæ ἡ σάρξ perficere cupit), contra ἡ σάρξ adversatur vobis ubi τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος peragere studetis;” and Bengel: “Spiritus obnititur carni et actioni malæ: caro, Spiritui et action! bonæ, ut (ἵνα) neque illa neque hæc peragatur.” The necessity of supposing an ecbatic meaning for ἵνα in theology is obviated by remembering, that with God, results are all purposed.

See this verse expanded in Rom 7:8. as above: in 7:20 we have nearly the same words, and the same construction.

It is true that θέλειν there applies only to one side, the better will, striving after good: whereas here it must be taken ‘sensu communi,’ for ‘will’ in general, to whichever way inclined. So that our verse requires expansion, both in the direction of Rom 7:15-20,—and in the other direction, οὐ γὰρ ὃ θέλω (after the natural man) ποιῶ κακόν· ἀλλʼ ὃ οὐ θέλω ἀγαθόν, τοῦτο ποιῶ,—to make it logically complete.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. ἡ γὰρ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα κατὰ τῆς σαρκός, ταῦτα γὰρ ἀλλήλοις ἀντίκειται, ἵνα μὴ ἅ ἐὰν θέλητε ταῦτα ποιῆτε. “For the desire of the flesh is against that of the Spirit, and the desire of the Spirit against that of the flesh; for these are opposed to one another, that whatsoever ye will ye may not do.” γάρ is confirmatory and the whole sentence a proof of the statement of v. 16, that walking by the Spirit will not issue in subjection to the flesh. σάρξ and σαρκός evidently have the same meaning as σαρκός in v. 16, but for the qualitative use of that verse the apostle substitutes a generic use of σάρξ with the article, by which the force for evil is objectified. So also πνεῦμα and πνεύματος retain the meaning of πνεύματι in v. 16, save that by the use of the article they become definite, pointing directly to the Spirit of God, rather than referring to it qualitatively as in v. 16. ταῦτα γὰρ … ἀντίκειται is probably not simply a repetition in general terms of ἡ γὰρ … τῆς σαρκός, in which case it adds nothing to the thought. More probably the first part of the v. having, consistently with the point of view of v. 16, spoken of Spirit and flesh as mutually antagonistic forces, there is at ταῦτα γάρ a change in point of view, these and the following words referring to the conflict which takes place between these two in the soul of which neither is in full possession, as proof of their mutual antagonism. To the thought of the whole v. there is an approximate parallel in the antithesis between Satan and the Spirit in Mar 3:23-27. The use of ἐπιθυμεῖ with σάρξ and its antithesis to πνεῦμα in a personal sense involves a rhetorical personification of σάρξ, but not a conception of it as actually personal.

On the question precisely what ταῦτα … ἀντίκειται means, and whether ἵνα … ποιῆτε depends on this or the preceding clause, in which is also involved the question whether γάρ after ταῦτα is explanatory or confirmatory, and whether the clause introduced by it is parenthetical, the following data are to be considered:

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Are contrary [αντικειται] . The verb means to lie opposite to; hence to oppose, withstand. The sentence these - to the other is not parenthetical.

So that [ινα] . Connect with these are contrary, etc. %Ina does not express result, but purpose, to the end that, - the purpose of the two contending desires. The intent of each principle in opposing the other is to prevent man's doing what the other principle moves him to do.

Cannot do [μη ποιητε] . A mistake, growing out of the misinterpretation of ina noted above. Rather, each works to the end that ye may not do, etc. The things that ye would [α εαν θελητε] . The things which you will to do under the influence of either of the two contending principles. There is a mutual conflict of two powers. If one wills to do good, he is opposed by the flesh : if to do evil, by the Spirit.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.