So that you don't do the things you want (Galatians 5:17)

Needing some help on Galatians 5:17. Some think 17b, “to keep you from doing the things you want to do” is referring to the Spirit stopping the flesh, others say its the flesh stopping the Spirit; others still say its kind of both. Any thoughts?

JTB.SDG said:

Some think 17b, “to keep you from doing the things you want to do” is referring to the Spirit stopping the flesh, others say its the flesh stopping the Spirit; others still say its kind of both. Any thoughts?

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Hi Jon,

I have always taken your middle option (the flesh stopping the Spirit) as the primary interpretaion. As in Rom. 7:14–25, Where Paul is lamenting his old nature's effect (a law) on his new true Spiritual nature, (the real Paul). But it is true also that it is both. Not just "kind of both."

Romans 7:21-25 (ESV)
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Paul doesn’t stop here but adds verse 25 where he confesses that the Spirit, through Jesus Christ will win out in the end.

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

On the other hand, Paul's subject in Galatians 5:16, 18 is our practical victory over the flesh. So it is possible that your first option is more in view here.

Galatians 5:16 (KJV)
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

I checked, and Lenski supports your first option, while Hendriksen believes the second. Maybe the third option is the best answer. For sure the third statement is true.

I guess at bottom; I have not helped you very much.

Ed

It is possible, I think, to understand Paul's words as describing a sort of paralysis that oftentimes occurs. I don't think there is any way to determine for sure whether he primarily meant the flesh stopping the Spirit, or vice versa. His point is that they are opposed to each other. So, sometimes it will happen that when you are tempted to a sin of the flesh, the Spirit will often stop you in your tracks. So also when you are about to do something evidencing the fruit of the Spirit, the flesh pulls you back. Paralysis is oftentimes the result. As in Romans 7, this is the personal manifestation of the conflict of the new Holy-Spirit--eschatological age, and the old age of the flesh. Fortunately, for us, progress can be made. The Holy Spirit is, after all, far stronger than our old man.