Message Date: June 8, 2025

Identity Directs Character

Victory Life Church — Sunday, June 8, 2025

Identity has become Idolatry. Therefore, Loyalty anchors Identity.

We should question and be critical of cultural ideas that tempt us to shift our loyalty away from Jesus, especially when the shift moves toward the “self.” This is a subtle way of shifting our loyalty toward our own selfish desires and wants, making “gods of our belly” (Philippians 3:19).

“I am what I have. I am what I want. I am what I feel.”

Our loyalty to King Jesus is what anchors our identity “in Him.”

1 Corinthians 6:17 (ESV)¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Our identity in Him is what should then shape our lives and our character, versus our self-oriented identity (the “flesh”) shape our lives.

The Flesh and the Holy Spirit: Galatians 5:16-26

Galatians 5:24–25 (ESV) ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

There seem to be two ways of living set out before us: a life shaped by the flesh or a life shaped by the Holy Spirit.

Our loyalty to and identity in Christ should shape our lives by the Holy Spirit’s power and leadership.

After laying the groundwork of freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:1-15), Paul instructs us on living a life that is not bound by the Mosaic Law but by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-18 — Competing Desires of Flesh and Spirit

Galatians 5:19-21 — The “Natural Results” of the Flesh

Galatians 5:22-23 — The “Fruit” of the Spirit

Galatians 5:24-26 — The Victorious Way to Live

Competing Desires

Galatians 5:16–18 (ESV)¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Paul is stating the reality that within us are two kinds of competing desires: the flesh (self, connected with our bodies) that has its urges, passions, and desires, and the Spirit who has desires that are placed with us. These sets of desires are both in us, but opposed to one another. His initial encouragement (5:16) frames the entire instruction: “walk by the Spirit.”

“Walking by the Spirit” should not become some charismatic cliche thrown around without understanding it. Holy Spirit is a person, not a force or philosophy or some ethereal and immaterial “sense.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God given to us and poured out for us. The Holy Spirit “leads and guides” us (John 16:13). Because the Holy Spirit is a person, it is imperative we develop a relationship with Him. Relationships take time and attention. “Walking by the Spirit” means that our lives take shape through our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

There is no form of the true Christian life that excludes relationship with the Holy Spirit.

There is no maturity or sanctification in our Christian life without relationship with Holy Spirit. There is no character formation into Christlikeness that excludes relationship with Holy Spirit. There is no moral clarity and revelation without relationship with Holy Spirit.

“But without the continuing, directing, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit our liberty is bound to degenerate into license.” ~ John Stott

“The Galatian Christians have already been reminded that they received the Spirit when they believed the gospel and that his presence with them was attested by mighty works (3:2, 5); let his presence be attested also by their way of life. ‘Walk by the Spirit’ means ‘let your conduct be directed by the Spirit’.”

“By speaking instead of a ‘walk by the Spirit’ Paul is deliberately posing an alternative understanding of how the people of God should conduct themselves—not by constant reference to laws and statutes, but by constant reference (the verb is present continuous) to the Spirit; and not to the Spirit as norm, but to the Spirit as resource. … the key to moral effort and acceptable conduct lies in the prompting of the Spirit from within, not in the constraints of the law from without; that moral living springs from inward engagement and motivation enabled from God rather than from outward compulsion.”

If someone is living in a relationship with Holy Spirit, there will be evidence for it in their lives and their character. The opposite is true. If someone, though born again, does not walk by the power and leadership for Holy Spirit, there will be evidence in their lives and character for that as well.

The “Natural Results” of the Flesh vs the “Fruit” of the Spirit

The “works” of the flesh are the natural actions and activities that stem from “gratifying the desires of the flesh.” Saved or not, there are still desires that lurk in our flesh that align us with sin (Ephesians 2:1–3); drives, urges, desires within us that are connected to our flesh, our mortal bodies and its passions. When we nurture those desires, they result in these “actions”:

Galatians 5:19–21 (ESV)¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

“Works of the Flesh” in 4 Realms: Sex, Religion, Society, Drink (John Stott’s framing)

Sex: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality”

- Sexual immorality — “sexual irregularity, unchastity, fornication” (Greek: porneia) — sexual intercourse between unmarried people, but may refer to any kind of unlawful sexual behavior.
- Impurity — “It includes the misuse of sex, but is applicable to various forms of moral evil…The word is used, naturally, of physical and ritual uncleanness, but it is its ethical sense that is relevant here, the tendency of vice to spread its corrupting influence.”
- Sensuality — (“lustful pleasures” NLT) debauchery or sexual excess — “‘wantonness’, is vice that throws off all restraint and flaunts itself, ‘unawed by shame or fear’, vice paraded with blatant impudence and insolence, without regard for self-respect, for the rights and feelings of others, or for public decency.” — “…in 2 Pet. 2:7 it characterizes the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah… [The] rejection of God regularly, and probably inevitably, results in the sexual appetite’s becoming one of the ‘desires of the flesh’ which dominate existence and relationships, and which, if not checked, can lead all too quickly to dehumanizing excesses (cf. Romans 1:21-27).”

Religion: “idolatry, sorcery”

- Idolatry — “Worship” is to serve, to orient your life around; (Col. 3:5) covetousness is described as a form of idolatry, because the thing coveted becomes an object of worship. It is important to see that idolatry is as much a work of the flesh as immorality; the works of the flesh include offenses against God as well as against our neighbor or ourselves.
- “If ‘idolatry’ is the brazen worship of other gods, ‘sorcery’ is ‘the secret tampering with the powers of evil’.” Stott
- Sorcery — comes from the word meaning ‘drug’ (pharmakon, from which the English ‘pharmacy’ is derived); drugs were so often used in witchcraft and to administer poison; use of drugs in witchcraft or black magic.

Society: “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy”

- Enmity — “‘hostilities’—between individuals, or between communities, on political, racial or religious grounds. Not only hostile acts but the underlying hostile sentiments and intentions are in view.”
- Dissensions and Divisions — “Its other Pauline occurrence is in 1 Cor. 11:19, of factions in the Corinthian church (it is not expressly used, though it might well have been used, of the partisan spirit deplored in 1 Cor. 1:11f.; 3:4). The formation of cliques, with the resultant exhibitions of party spirit, is in view both at Corinth and in Galatia.”
- Envy — “It is the grudging spirit that cannot bear to contemplate someone else’s prosperity.”

Drink: “drunkenness, orgies, and things like these…”

- Drunkenness — “As gluttony is excessive indulgence in food, so μέθη is excessive indulgence in wine (and strong drink): both forms of excess are vices, but drunkenness is the more perilous because it weakens people’s rational and moral control over their words and actions.” (See also Luke 21:34, Ephesians 5:18)
  - Jesus says, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life…” (Luke 21:34)
- Orgies — ‘revelry’ (partying), excessive feasting

Galatians 5:21 (ESV) …I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Inheriting the kingdom of God: inheritance in line with covenant family of Abraham (3:13-14), that includes receiving the “promise of the Spirit,” connect with the Holy Spirit as the “down-payment” or “guarantee” of the future inheritance (Romans 8:23, 2 Corinthians 1:22); we are presently transferred to God’s Kingdom through the work of Jesus (Colossians 1:13-14); and presently living under Christ’s reign (1 Corinthians 15:25); there is also a future dimension to our inheritance in the kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:50). (Galatians 5:21 — connected also to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and Ephesians 5:5).

Those who make a lifestyle of such things will be unable to operate in God’s Kingdom in the present, and may be in danger of losing the inheritance of God’s Kingdom in the future. (Galatians 3:13-14; Romans 8:5-6, 23; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14; Colossians 1:13-14; 1 Corinthians 15:25, 50; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 5:5)

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The “fruit” of the Spirit is described in nine “virtues.” These should be understood in respect to a person’s character rather than just simply a person’s actions. There are “works of the flesh,” actions that are the natural evidence of nurturing the desires of the flesh, that are now placed in contrast with the “fruit of the Spirit,” which are the result of a character transformed by nurturing the desires of the Spirit in one’s life.

“Paul’s point then is that the nature of God’s Spirit is demonstrated in the quality of character exemplified in the following list.”

Conclusion

Galatians 5:24 (ESV)²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

This is the instruction Paul has been driving toward. He has stated that when we identify ourselves by the desires of our flesh (create an identity based on what I want or how I feel), nurturing them, and continuing to act on them, we are putting ourselves in danger of not inheriting the kingdom of God. However, Paul is not suggesting we simply “suppress” our desires, pretending they don’t exist, or forcing ourselves into “rule-following” in order to avoid acting on these desires. No! He is saying that these desires “are not you!” These desires are dead because of what Jesus has done for you in his death and the grace given to us.

Romans 13:14 (ESV)¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Do you see here how Paul ties our identity in Christ with how we handle wrong desires? Our old man is dead, our passions and desires that stem from the flesh we are to consider dead, and therefore powerless over our decision-making.

Galatians 5:25 (ESV)²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

But there is an important action we are to take in opposition to the desires of our flesh. We do not simply have a revelation of our identity in Christ, and then there’s nothing more to it. Because of our identity in Christ, we are to draw life from a new source: the Holy Spirit. There is an initial indwelling of the Holy Spirit when we are born again. But there is also an ongoing empowerment that is to flow from our relationship and intimacy with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has desires that we can nurture, and as we nurture those desires, it affects our actions. This is what it means to “keep in step” with the Holy Spirit; it means to cultivate ongoing communion and intimacy and pursuit of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives. This leads to the transformation of our character: “fruit” that we bear.

Steps to Take:

Ask the Holy Spirit and Receive Prayer

Take time to be still and listen

Be with people who are filled with the Spirit

Reag More and Citations

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 146.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1982), 243.

James D. G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Galatians, Black’s New Testament Commentary (London: Continuum, 1993), 295. (296-297)

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians, 147.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians, 247.

James D. G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Galatians, 303–304.

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians, 147.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians, 248.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians, 249.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians, 249–250.

James D. G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Galatians, 308.