We all know it as a familiar experience that the surest way to conquer
any strong desire or emotion is to bring some other into operation. To
concentrate attention on any overmastering thought or purpose, even if
our object is to destroy it, is but too apt to strengthen it. And so to
fix our minds on our own desires of the flesh, even though we may be
honestly wishing to suppress them, is a sure way to invest them with new
force; therefore the wise counsels of sages and moralists are, for the
most part, destined to lead those who listen to them astray. Many a man
has, in good faith, set himself to conquer his own evil lusts and has
found that the nett result of his struggles has been to make the lusts
more conspicuous and correspondingly more powerful. The Apostle knows a
better way, which he has proved to his own experience, and now, with
full confidence and triumph, presses upon his hearers. He would have
them give up the monotonous and hopeless fight against the flesh and
bring another ally into the field. His chief exhortation is a positive,
not a negative one. It is vain to try to tie up men with restrictions
and prohibitions, which when their desires are stirred will be burst
like Samson's bonds. But if once the positive exhortation here is
obeyed, then it will surely make short work of the desires and passions
which otherwise men, for the most part, do not wish to get rid of, and
never do throw off by any other method.
We have pointed out that in our text to walk in the Spirit means to
regulate the practical life by the Spirit of God, and that the 'desires
of the flesh' mean the desires of the whole human nature apart from God.
But even if we take the contrasted terms in their lower and commonly
adopted sense, the text is true and useful. A cultivated mind habituated
to lofty ideas, and quick to feel the nobility of 'spiritual' pursuits
and possessions, will have no taste for the gross delights of sense, and
will recoil with disgust from the indulgences in which more animal
natures wallow. But while this is true, it by no means exhausts the
great principle laid down here. We must take the contrasted terms in
their fullest meaning if we would arrive at it. The spiritual life
derived from Jesus Christ and lodged in the human spirit has to be
guarded, cherished and made dominant, and then it will drive out the
old. If the Spirit which is life because of righteousness is allowed
free course in a human spirit, it will send forth its powers into the
body which is 'dead because of sin,' will regulate its desires, and if
needful will suppress them. And it is wiser and more blessed to rely on
this overflowing influence than to attempt the hopeless task of coercing
these desires by our own efforts.
If we walk in the Spirit, we shall thereby acquire new tastes and
desires of a higher kind which will destroy the lower. They to whom
manna is sweet as angel's food find that they have lost their relish for
the strong-smelling and rank-flavoured Egyptian leeks and garlic. A
guest at a king's table will not care to enter a smoky hovel and will
not be hungry for the food to be found there. If we are still dependent
on the desires of the flesh we are still but children, and if we are
walking in the Spirit we have outgrown our childish toys. The enjoyment
of the gifts which the Spirit gives deadens temptation and robs many
things that were very precious of their lustre.
We may also illustrate the great principle of our text by considering
that when we have found our supreme object there is no inducement to
wander further in the search after delights. Desires are confessions of
discontent, and though the absolute satisfaction of all our nature is
not granted to us here, there is so much of blessedness given and so
many of our most clamant desires fully met in the gift of life in
Christ, that we may well be free from the prickings of desires which
sting men into earnest seeking after often unreal good. 'The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace,' and surely if we have these we may well
leave the world its troubled delights and felicities. Christ's joy
remains in us and our joy is full. The world desires because it does not
possess. When a deeper well is sunk, a shallower one is pretty sure to
give out. If we walk in the Spirit we go down to the deepest
water-holding stratum, and all the surface wells will run dry.
Further, we may note, that this walking in the Spirit brings into our
lives the mightiest motives of holy living and so puts a bridle on the
necks and a bit in the mouths of our untamed desires. Holding fellowship
with the divine Indweller and giving the reins into His strong hand, we
receive from Him the spirit of adoption and learn that if we are
children then are we heirs. Is there any motive that will so surely
still the desires of the flesh and of the mind as the blessed thought
that God is ours and we His? Surely their feet should never stumble or
stray, who are aware of the Spirit of the Son bearing witness with their
spirit that they are the children of God. Surely the measure in which we
realise this will be the measure in which the desires of the flesh will
be whipped back to their kennels, and cease to disturb us with their
barks.
The whole question here as between Paul and his opponents just comes to
this; if a field is covered with filth, whether is it better to set to
work on it with wheel-barrows and shovels, or to turn a river on it
which will bear away all the foulness? The true way to change the fauna
and flora of a country is to change the level, and as the height
increases they change themselves. If we desire to have the noxious
creatures expelled from ourselves, we must not so much labour at their
expulsion as see to the elevation of our own personal being and then we
shall succeed. That is what Paul says, 'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.'