Text: Galatians 5:13-26
Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and
sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge
the flesh[a]; rather, serve one
another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is
fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each
other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the
Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what
is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the
flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do
whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the
Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are
obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft;
hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,
factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I
did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no
law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the
flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the
Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become
conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Why
Emotions?
God created us in His likeness,
equipped with full set of emotions. God designed
it that way to make us enjoy the richness of life. (God…
richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment - 1 Timothy 6:17) It
is indeed a blessing since emotion is the way freedom is being fully expressed. When God bestowed on us the liberty to make
choices, He twined our freedom with feelings or emotions. Aren’t we glad, we can make decisions and, we
can build awesome relationships through them?
Out of emotions, we grow, we express, we learn, we become wise, we
create, we change and we become better and better every single day.
The Bible is a book of
emotions. It is full of real life stories that display various kind of
emotions. It gives us lot of lessons on
the effect of emotions and how we can make use of them to glorify God. In the Bible, we should learn that LOVE is
the strongest and most powerful emotion that ever exists in the entire universe
(1 John 4:8
God is Love, 1 Corinthians 13:13 … but the greatest of these is LOVE.)
Imagine life without emotions.
A movie without display of feelings will never be as beautiful as we expect
them to be. Aurora of various feelings is
the very soul of a movie so it should not dull but colorful, interesting and
exciting. The actors and actresses who exhibit emotions that have the pull to
drag the viewers into imagining that they are part of the story are mostly
gaining much popularity. And the movie will eventually sell out.
Emotion is the soul’s media of communicating. Most of the time, it doesn’t need utterance
of words. Mere facial expression,
actions and gestures will suffice to show what our soul needs to say. Emotion is the power that lies within a
person’s being. Like most of the
fictional heroes in the stories who had just discovered that they have
supernatural powers and took time to know and learn how to use it against their
opponents (usually dark forces of evil), we also need to study and familiarize those
emotions residing within us, understand how they work, and train ourselves to
tame them and gain full control over them, so that we will no longer be their
prisoners, but us, using them for good deeds.
The Downsides
of Emotions
The people nowadays are
encouraged to take decisions based on feelings.
They are usually asked how they feel about a certain issue and conclude
based on common and prevailing feelings.
One Toastmaster Rule says that evaluating a speech should be on the
basis of how the audiences feel about the performance of the speaker. When the church leader raises an issue
concerning the congregation, he doesn’t ask anything else than how the members
feel about the issue and renders decisions on that bases.
The question is, can we really
rely on feelings? Can we judge based on
mere emotions? Do we need to react because we feel something about a situation
or a person? We commonly call baseless
feelings as intuition, hunch, suspicion, or presumption. Relying on emotions sometimes pushes us in a
compromising position. There’s this saying in Filipino that goes, “Maraming napapahamak sa maling akala”
or in English, “Many were put in danger
because of wrong presumptions.” Another
saying goes, “Ang naniniwala sa
sabi-sabi, walang bait sa sarili.” Translated in English as, “Those who
believe in baseless notions or gossips have no goodness left for themselves.” We should be warned the emotions are treacherous
so extra care should be observed in letting emotions go off. Remember Jesus words in Matthew 26:41 “The
spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Even spiritual
strength does not guarantee proper emotional control.
As I said earlier, our freedom
is twined with emotion. Freedom won’t stand by itself but has to be exercised
by choosing the feelings we have to elicit, which in turn determines the action
we have to perform. This is the reality that the Apostle Paul was pointing out
in Galatians 5:13 “You, my brothers and
sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge
the flesh.”
Considering that emotion is the
means of communication of the soul, emotion dominates the flesh. Our flesh is like a mascot, animated by our
soul. The condition of the soul directs a
signal to our physical body to act accordingly.
So, whenever we feel angry, we often become aggressive and worst,
destructive. Whenever we feel lustful, we most likely fall
into impurity and worst, immorality. Whenever we feel threatened, we become violent
or be defensive at some extent. We
literally indulge our fleshly desires as our emotions may feed. At times, giving in to our emotions may lead
to harm.
Galatians
5:13
If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be
destroyed by each other.
There is a psychological
phenomenon among humans characterized by abnormal generation false perceptions
about the world. It is called, “Delusion”. One example of it is the Delusion of
Persecution. The person suffering from
this abnormality feels like everyone is talking bad about him and wanting to
inflict pains on him. He presumes that all people are always focused on him,
accusing, blaming, and laughing at him. He usually feels the strong urge to protect
himself so often times, he resort to aggression against others. Either he will destroy the reputation of his
subject by creating unwarranted gossips, or he will plot to harm him
physically.
Another example is the Delusion
of Contamination. A person suffering
from this abnormality feels the strong compulsion to maintain cleanliness, thus
frequently washes his hands and applying alcohol when it is actually not necessary.
Delusions are strongly
associated with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
This means that they become slaves or prisoners of their own
emotions. They can no longer control
their obsessions, and these uncontrollable feelings often lead them to their
own destruction and they are known to drag others into their pit.
We may not have the extreme
abnormality like that of a mentally deranged person but we have our own
emotional weakness to compete with and win over. Galatians 5:19-21 clearly enumerates some tendencies:
The acts
of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft;
hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,
factions and envy; drunkenness,
orgies, and the like.
When we lose control of our
emotions, we fall into any of these tendencies, depending on where we are weak
at. Satan uses our weaknesses to carry
out his evil plans. He will make us
weaker and weaker until we become delusional. In our text today, there was a warning from
Apostle Paul:
Galatians 5:21
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will
not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Consistently giving-in to our
fleshly desires may result to gradual spiritual death. By heaping any of those
negative emotions, our hearts will slowly become numb to its effect until it
totally hardens, and eventually forfeiting our share in the Kingdom of God.
This is what the writer of Hebrew intended to tell us:
Hebrews
3:12
“See to it, brothers and
sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from
the living God.”
So let us completely be aware that although emotion is a blessing
from God, it has also sufficient power to drag our feet to hell if unbridled.
The Opposing
Forces of Flesh and Spirit
Emotions are cues that tell us
whether we are well or sickly.
“Feelings” prompt us to seek for healing; physically or spiritually. Physically,
we take medicine or consult a physician to solve the problem. Spiritually, we seek God, the source of
ultimate healing.
Sadly, we sometimes fall into
wrong belief that a certain act may appease and satisfy our emotions. We resort into wrong decisions in our attempt
to solve the problem. We often times
don’t really mind whether our decision is in contrary to good principles,
ethics and rules of conduct. We just simply
need to satisfy our craving emotions. Drug addicts and alcoholic persons fell into
this trap.
Say for instance, we are angry
at one of our brethren; we presume that confronting him infront others can
quench your burning desire to retaliate.
And, when we finally accomplished it, our flesh tends to be cheering in
victory and pride. “Whoaaah! I feel better now! I hope he learned his lesson.” But, how about our spirit? Do you think our spirit rejoice together with
our flesh? Not at all! The flesh and
spirit always oppose each other. When
our emotion says, “Go ahead, do it!” the spirit, who is working through our conscience
says, “Hold it! Think about the consequence first!”
Galatians 5:
16-18
So I say,
walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the
flesh. For the flesh desires what
is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the
flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do
whatever you want. But if you are led by the
Spirit, you are not under the law.
Feelings tend to go wild while
the spirit is always rational because it belongs to God. The Spirit of God gave
birth to our spirit during our baptism, just as Jesus discussed in John 3:5-7
Jesus
answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to
flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised
at my saying, 'You must be born again.'
Whether
we like it or not, our spirit is a portion of God’s own Spirit. We are connected to Him by a very special
bond – Jesus Christ, the only one mediator between the Father and mankind. He entrusted this spirit to us, for us to
keep it pure and let it grow until it attains the fullness of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be
prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to
prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be
built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son
of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of
God.”
Like a baby inside the womb who
is drawing food and nutrients from the mother through the umbilical cord, our
spirit draws spiritual food and nutrients from God through our union with Him
in Christ. The strength given by the
Holy Spirit is what we will use to tame and master our emotions; hence we
become victorious over our flesh and eventually realize our Emotional Freedom. How does emotional freedom works? In Galatians
5:22-23, it says,
“…the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control.“
Wow! These are all positive
emotions meant to regulate or even quench the desires of the flesh. A person
who skillfully utilizes these emotions possesses emotional maturity. Bear in mind that we, as disciples, are
destined to champion our passions and desires; we are destined to be like our
Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no rule to follow when
we display positive emotions. No one
will stop you from being joyful because there’s no law that says, “Do not
display JOY in public.”
Galatians 5:24-25
Those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. Since we live by the
Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Emotional Freedom works when
our passions and desires are already enslaved by our spirit. It needs constant practice to be able to
attain this state of freedom. It
requires our constant obedience to Christ who called us to imitate Him. Matthew 11:29 “Take
my yoke upon
you and learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Our Lord was truthful when
he said He is gentle and humble in heart.
And He summoned us to imitate Him.
Galatians 5:24-25
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each
other.
Through this verse, Paul eventually
ends up the chapter by impressing his points again. Paul simply reminded the Church of Galatia to
watch out and examine how they treat one another. That was a call for them to build good
relationships with one another, free from arrogance, nagging and
insecurities.
Emotions are object-oriented. It is stimulated by somebody, if not by our
own selves. Emotion is required to build
a relationship but it has the potential to break it as well. The problem usually is not springing up from
the emotions we give ourselves for it is already widely accepted that our love
for ourselves is much more than anyone else.
Our emotion for others is what we need to examine and check whether it
is making our relationships healthy or it is causing our relationships to
tragically crumble. Strife sparks so
easily among us because we are storing ill feelings against one another. The unforgiving attitude stores up bad
memories and unpleasant past encounters with our brothers or sisters deep
within our hearts. And, because grudges
rule our thoughts, we tend to have bias perception about them, hating
everything in them, criticizing them whenever we have the opportunity to do so,
and envying them when we see them prospering.
The worst thing that will happen is that we become hostile if we no
longer contain our ill feelings.
Signs of
Emotional Freedom
We need life-time practice to
be able to control our feelings and attain Emotional Freedom. And we need to know what Emotional Freedom is
like through the following descriptions:
a)
Emotional Responsibility
·
Thinks “I can” and “We Can”,
rather than “You”.
·
Takes initiative and does not
expect others to do the first move.
·
No blaming others but focuses
only on the solution of a problem.
b)
Emotional Honesty
·
Willingness to admit his
feelings in a peaceful and constructive manner.
·
We feel upset yet should remain
calm and reasonable.
·
We can be angry but remain
composed. (Ephesians 4:26 In your anger do not sin)
c) Emotional Openness
·
Willingness to share, teach,
and show care.
·
Willingness to accept
corrections and learn.
d)
Emotional Assertiveness
·
Expressing ourselves whenever
we need to, but in a proper and diplomatic way.
·
Persistence to achieve targets
and goals.
·
Trust justice to roll-out and
does not take matters in his hand.
·
Stands on and do what is right
without wavering.
e)
Emotional Understanding
·
Being sure of the effects and
consequences of his actions.
·
Recognizes and deals his
negative emotions before it breaks-out and become destructive.
f)
Emotional Detachment
·
Independent and believes in his
own capability
·
Deeply rooted spiritually.
·
Selflessness and focuses on how
he can encourage and help others.
·
Does not need to be
self-conscious but so secured of who he is; does not need to compare himself
with others.
To recap, true Emotional Freedom
reflects consistency, stability and strength in character, mood and
disposition. Emotionally mature person is not so easily swayed by circumstances
in his life. He renders decisions based
on concrete or just grounds. He is self-less and understands the needs of
others.
Now is the time for
us to examine our hearts.
Draw a diagram
that depicts your relationship with the people around you….. Father, Mother,
Wife, Husband, Sons, Daughters, Church Mate, Neighbors and Colleagues.
On each of the relationship lines, list down
all your feelings for them.
If something
is negative, indicate the reason why.
Make a resolution plan and initiate a talk
with that person concentrating on the peaceful and fruitful settlement of this
relationship issue.
Additional
Readings about Emotional Expression and Maturity
- · 1 Corinthians 13
- · 1 Timothy 1:7
- · Proverbs 19:11 & 19
- · Proverbs 14:29
- · Matthew 5:19
- · Proverbs 25:15
- · Proverbs 15:1 & 18
- · Corinthians 9:25
- · Proverbs 16:22
- · Proverbs 25:28
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