{"id":26346,"date":"2023-05-16T22:00:51","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T05:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/galatians-5_1-12-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-05-02T13:48:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T20:48:30","slug":"galatians-5_13-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/galatians-5_13-18\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Paths: Which One Will You Choose?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Galatians\u00a0 5:13-18\u00a0 \u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Galatians 5:13-18.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Galatians 5:13-18 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 13-18:\u00a0 We must choose what we will do with the freedom Jesus has given us.\u00a0 Either we can choose to indulge the sinful nature (also called our flesh) or we can choose to love (v13).\u00a0 Here Paul identifies the struggle that every Christian experiences, the struggle between doing what is loving, just and honourable and doing what pleases our sinful nature (also called our flesh).\u00a0 This struggle between the Spirit and the flesh is an ongoing one in every Christian\u2019s heart and mind (v17).<\/p>\n

How do you experience victory in the struggle with the flesh?\u00a0 Paul gives the answer in verse 16: \u201clive by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0What does it mean to live by the Spirit?\u00a0 It means to trust in God\u2019s power, not our own.\u00a0 It means to rely on and surrender to the Holy Spirit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you take verses 13-18 together, we can see three alternative paths or ways of life that we can choose to follow.\u00a0 The first alternative is living for the flesh, which always result in a miserable and empty existence.\u00a0 The second alternative is living under the law, i.e. living a powerless life where you are always stressing about what laws you have obeyed, what laws you haven\u2019t obeyed and whether you\u2019ve done enough to be acceptable before God.\u00a0 The third alternative is to live by the Spirit.\u00a0When you live by the Spirit for God\u2019s glory, the result is victory over temptation, obedience to God\u2019s commands, and, as we will see in verses 22-23, a life full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rather than living for the flesh or living under the law, God made us to live by the Spirit (v16) and be led by the Spirit (v18).<\/p>\n

Father, thank You that I don\u2019t need to live for the flesh and be empty and miserable.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to live under the law and be stressed and miserable.\u00a0 Instead I can live by the Spirit, relying and trusting in You, and experience Your power working in me.\u00a0 Holy Spirit come and fill me today that I would live by the Spirit for Your glory. In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Galatians 5:13-18.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Galatians 5:13-18 (NIV)
\n13\u00a0\u00a0You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
\n14\u00a0\u00a0The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
\n15\u00a0\u00a0If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
\n16\u00a0\u00a0So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
\n17\u00a0\u00a0For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
\n18\u00a0\u00a0But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.<\/p>\n

On verses 13-18:\u00a0 We must choose what we will do with the freedom Jesus has given us.\u00a0 Either we can choose to indulge the sinful nature (also called our flesh) or we can choose to love (v13).\u00a0 Here Paul identifies the struggle that every Christian experiences, the struggle between doing what is loving, just and honourable and doing what pleases our sinful nature (also called our flesh).\u00a0 This struggle between the Spirit and the flesh is an ongoing one in every Christian\u2019s heart and mind (v17).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26349,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26346\/revisions\/26349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}