Spiritual Conflict

Why do I still experience lust? When I am criticized, I become deeply hurt and lash out in anger. What is the matter with me? There are some people I find almost impossible to love, and they are some of the people I am closest to in this life! I feel continuous tension between the demands of home and workplace. Is my profession too important? I desire to do good but seem unable sometimes to make it happen. Sometimes I seem almost driven to do wrong things. I feel a hateful fascination with what I see in the theater or on television—wanting and not wanting at the same time. When I try to serve God in the world, it seems an invisible army contrives to make it impossibly difficult.

Contrary to the teachings of some, Christians struggle until the day they die. There is no experience of God that can usher one into sinless perfection free of the slightest twinge of difficulty. Spiritual growth is the progressive transformation of our persons into the likeness of Christ. But the transformation is not complete in this life. Some aspects of the conflict involve spiritual warfare with the principalities and powers. There is an invisible backdrop to our struggle—a host of social, political and economic structures and invisible spiritual beings that frustrate the Christian’s life and service in the world (Ephes. 6:12). But part of the struggle is with flesh and blood, with human nature as it has become through sin, in opposition to life in the Spirit. This article will explore the tension between flesh and spirit—or more accurately, flesh and Spirit—in Paul’s writings and will offer some practical help in dealing with spiritual conflict.

The Flesh Against the Spirit

In Paul’s writing sarx, translated as “flesh,” is a complex word not easily understood in English. Sometimes it merely means what is human about us. Once we regarded Christ “from a human point of view” (2 Cor. 5:16 NRSV; compare 2 Cor. 1:17). By human standards not many of the Corinthians were wise and educated (1 Cor. 1:26). Sometimes flesh simply refers to one’s bodily life (Romans 2:28) that is normally good or, at least, neutral. Paul did not agree with the Greek view of the body as a hindrance, but as a Jew he believed that people can glorify God with and in their bodies. Our ultimate future is, not to be holy souls floating around eternity, but to be resurrected persons experiencing complete, personal, physical and communal life in the presence of God in a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21-22). So flesh is not always pitted against life in Christ or the Spirit.

On this point it is remarkable that the works of the flesh Paul lists in Galatians 5:18 are largely nonphysical: “impurity; . . . idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy” (NRSV). These are mostly psychological, spiritual and relational. The war is not mainly between our physical bodies and our human spirits but between something inside us that “desires what is contrary to the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17 NRSV). Though four of the listed works of the flesh—sexual immorality, debauchery, drunkenness and orgies—involve the physical body, the root of these destructive activities is to be found in what Scripture calls the heart or soul.

While many modern versions translate sarx as “human nature,” they must not be understood to communicate that there are two parts to us, one good and one bad, one higher and one lower, one given to God and the other given to sin. No, it is our whole person—body, soul and spirit—that struggles to live under the reign of Christ and in the Spirit. Biblically we do not “have” a body, “have” a soul and “have” a spirit, but are bodies, souls and spirits—integrated wholes. Touch someone’s body in a sexual affair, and you have touched that person: such affairs arise not from an irrepressible instinct in our bodies but from something wrong in our persons. Idolatry and sorcery involve the secret tampering with the powers of evil through drugs or witchcraft. Enmity, strife, fits of anger, selfishness, dissensions, party spirit and envy are relational sins—in which persons are out of sync with others, seeking their own advantage or cherishing pain when someone else is honored. Even drunkenness and carousing are, in the end, not physical problems because they both involve the choice to give one’s consciousness to a substance. So the works of the flesh are not to be located in our physical drives and appetites but in the fundamental orientation of our lives.

Sometimes Paul uses flesh in his letters to refer to that fundamental orientation, for example, in Romans 7:18 (“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature [sarx]”; NRSV) and Galatians 5:17 (“For the sinful nature [sarx] desires what is contrary to the Spirit”; NRSV). Here flesh stands for flawed human nature as it has become through sin. It is life lived as though Christ had not come, died and been raised. It is life outside and against the Spirit. Flesh describes—but does not ultimately account for—the oft-repeated situation in which a person knows what to do but feels helpless to do it (Romans 7:8). There are many interpretations of Paul’s striking confession in Romans 7:15: “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (NRSV). On one extreme, some argue that Paul was speaking of his pre-Christian state, and on the other, that he is confessing his present experience of struggle. Whatever the meaning, James Stewart offers a helpful pastoral comment on these words: “It is safe for a Christian like Paul—it is not safe for everybody—to explain his failings by the watchword, `Not I, but indwelling sin. . . .’ but a sinner had better not make it a principle” (p. 77). This is precisely the emphasis Paul brings in Galatians 5:16-26.

The Spirit Against the Flesh

Seldom noted in Paul’s correspondence—sometimes because of the translation—is the fact that Paul’s most common use of Spirit and Spiritual involves the use of a capital S. The war within is not between a lower nature (flesh) and a higher nature (spirit), but between the flesh and Spirit, between human nature as a whole turned inward and organized against God’s purposes and the presence and power of God. Paul’s point in saying that flesh and Spirit “are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want” (Galatians 5:17 NRSV) does not reflect a war over which the believer is helpless but speaks to people who are already “in the Spirit.” These are reminded by Paul that just as they began their Christian life not by human effort but by receiving the Spirit (Galatians 3:2-3), they cannot attain the goal of the Christian life by performance, religious or otherwise, but only through faith and Spirit. They can be taken triumphantly to heaven, but it is through the power of the gospel all the way.

So Christians are under obligation to live according to the Spirit and not to gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Walking in the Spirit precludes Christians from making provision for living according to the impulses of their former way of life: “Spirit people cannot do whatever they like. Freedom is not freedom for the flesh; it is freedom for the Spirit, so that they serve one another in love” (Fee 1991, p. 17). The possibility of a Christian’s giving in to sin from time to time remains. Though the flesh has been crucified with the cross of Christ, a Christian might live as though he or she had not been redeemed, adopted, forgiven and indwelt by God’s own Spirit. But it is inconsistent so to do. The fact that we continue to struggle makes it imperative not only to understand the nature of the conflict but also to learn how to deal with it.

Walking in the Spirit

In Galatians Paul teaches us how to live victoriously in the thick of battle, not how to live the victorious life. He starts with the fruit of the Spirit and gives an ad hoc list of benefits from being in Christ (Galatians 5:22-23)—experiential (such as joy), attitudinal (such as patience) and behavioral (such as self-control). What is remarkable about this list is that Paul does not regulate the Christian life by a series of rules and behavioral requirements. For the Christian there can be no law (Galatians 5:23) to regulate food, clothing, religious practices, entertainment and recreation. Human commandments have no value at all. What Paul proposes is letting the Spirit bear fruit in our lives. The contrast between works of the flesh and multiple fruits of the Spirit is often noted. Works must be accomplished; fruit comes from irruption of life within. Ironically the first and foremost strategy for refusing to live by the flesh is indirect: to turn from concentrating on the flesh to concentrating on the Spirit.

In a shocking, anonymous article entitled “The War Within: An Anatomy of Lust,” an American spiritual director revealed his long-standing struggle with pornography and voyeurism. He admitted that lust is fully pleasurable and has its own compelling rewards. He despaired that time after time when he repented in prayer and cried out to God to take away his desire, nothing changed. Then he chanced on a line from François Mauriac, stating that purity is the condition for a higher love—for a possession superior to all possessions: God. Whereas all the negative arguments against lust had failed and guilt had provided no power to change, “here was a description of what I was missing by continuing to harbor lust: I was limiting my own intimacy with God” (“The War Within,” p. 43).

Fruit bearing is also the context for Paul’s second strategy, a strategy that is also positively motivated. Crucifying the flesh is not first and foremost a negative work. It is like repentance. C. S. Lewis once remarked that repentance “is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose; it is simply a description of what going back is like” (quoted in “This War Within,” p. 45). Paul’s repeated exhortations in Galatians to the effect that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24) should be understood this way. As with the fruit of the Spirit springing up from God’s work within us, this experience basically springs from the ongoing effect of Christ’s work for us and comes through in Paul’s declaration, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

These statements are not appeals to self-crucifixion, mortification or self-hatred; such negative good works cannot accomplish anything more than positive good works. Paul appeals for a full and continuous awareness of and agreement with God’s judgment on our autonomous, self-justifying life in the cross. John Stott reminds us that a crucifixion is pitiless (and we should not treat the flesh as respectable), painful (even though the pleasures of the flesh are fleeting) and decisive (as suggested by the tense in the Greek—fully accomplished) (pp. 150-51). Here, as everywhere in the Christian life, we move from the indicative (what exists) to the imperative (what ought to be done). Jesus has died for us, and the flesh has been substantially overcome; therefore, we should maintain a crucified perspective on the flesh. But mortification is less than half of living a victorious battle.

Once again Paul preaches good news. We do not have to live defeated lives: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. . . . But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. . . . Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16, 18, 25). Here again we move from the indicative to the imperative. We are children of God and by the Spirit call God “Father” (Romans 8:15). We are led by the Spirit (an image used to describe a farmer leading cattle or soldiers escorting a prisoner to court). Because the Spirit leads us to do the walking, we have a continuous, gentle pressure toward goodness. Two words for walking are used—the ordinary word for “walk” and stoikeō, which means “to draw people up in a line,” thus, “to line oneself up with the Spirit’s initiatives.” Both suggest an action on our part, but that is responsive to the constant and creative initiative of the Spirit in our lives.

Negatively, walking according to the Spirit means not setting the mind on the things of the flesh (Romans 8:5) or doing the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). We put these desires and deeds to death by the Spirit (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:16-18, 24-26). Involved in this is repudiating our boasting in human achievement, human wisdom or human law keeping as ways of achieving righteousness. Positively, walking according to the Spirit involves setting one’s mind on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5), allowing the Spirit to produce character fruit (Romans 12-14; Galatians 5:19-21) and receiving the Spirit’s power for works of holiness (Romans 12:9-21; compare Isaiah 58).

Until Christ comes again and introduces a new heaven and a new earth, we will never cease to experience tension and struggle. But we need not live defeated lives. As surely as Christ has come, has died and has risen, we are living in the age of the Spirit. And we can live by the Spirit. Indeed we will. New Testament spirituality is Spirit-uality. So Paul says, if translated literally, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

» See also: Conflict Resolution

» See also: Principalities and Powers

» See also: Spiritual Disciplines

» See also: Spiritual Growth

References and Resources

D. L. Alexander, ed., Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification—Reformed, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Pentecostal, Contemplative (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1988); W. Barclay, Flesh and Spirit: An Examination of Galatians 5.19-23 (London: SCM, 1962); W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism: Some Rabbinic Elements in Pauline Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980); G. D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1993); G. D. Fee, “Some Reflections on Pauline Spirituality,” in Alive to God, ed. J. I. Packer and L. Wilkinson (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992) 96-107; G. D. Fee, “The Spirit Against the Flesh: Another Look at Pauline Ethics,” lecture at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, November 7, 1991; M. Green and R. P. Stevens, New Testament Spirituality: True Discipleship and Spiritual Maturity (Guildford, Surrey, U.K.: Eagle, 1994; quoted with permission); J. S. Stewart, A Faith to Proclaim (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1953); J. R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1968). A. C. Thiselton, “Flesh,” in Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. C. Brown (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975) 1:671-82; E. Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1989); “The War Within: An Anatomy of Lust,” Leadership 3, no. 4 (Fall 1982) 30-48.

—R. Paul Stevens