Walking in the Spirit
The message is consistent, because the Author is the same
During Sunday’s lesson, we were discussing 1 Timothy 6:11-16, specifically verse 14.
11But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
12Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
13I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
14that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
16who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
1 Timothy 6:11–16 (NASB95)
My contention was that Paul’s direction to Timothy is in verse 11, to flee and to fight the things from the previous verses.
9But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.
10For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:9–10 (NASB95)
But when I asked the question, What is “the commandment” Paul charges Timothy and us with keeping in verse 14, I used verses 11 and 12 as the reading.
11But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
12Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:11–12 (NASB95)
The very quick off-hand comment when those two verses were read was, “That sounds like the fruits of the spirit”. It does sound like the fruits of the Spirit.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
26Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:22–26 (NASB95)
Galatians is also Paul writing a warning, but this time to a church. Verse 25 is a very good piece of advice for the Galatians passage, but it is also good advice to Timothy and us. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. But what does that mean to “…walk by the Spirit”?
It is at the heart of what this year’s series title means, Path of Promise. We are to be on God’s path, not our path. God’s path for us is a Spirit-led path. A spirit-led path means we are not just willing but actively pursuing the Holy Spirit’s guidance for our lives. It means when God sends us road signs through His Holy Spirit, we turn the car and follow those road signs. Walking by the Spirit means we take direction from God, discarding those things He wants out of our lives and taking on those things He wants in our lives, and that’s where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. That last part is where things get hard…and easier. We forget that last part.
People don’t like change. Change is hard. We don’t like leaving the known for the unknown, and changing the comfortable routine of our daily lives, by definition, means we willingly put ourselves out there for some unknown. The unknown usually brings some hardship and difficulty into our lives, but that’s okay because of what we forget.
If we walk by the Spirit, it means we walk with God. If we walk with God, we are on His path. On God’s path, even when things get hard, we are on God’s path, meaning we are walking in His intentions for our lives.
10“For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
11‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
Jeremiah 29:10–12 (NASB95)
But what lies before us doesn’t look prosperous, safe, or comfortable. That’s okay too. God didn’t say it would be safe, comfortable, or prosperous. He just said He would be with us.
18And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18–20 (NASB95)
“…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus is with us always, for all time. He didn’t say He would only be with us in the good, comfortable, or prosperous times. He said He is with us always, for all time.
We are to walk in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and directed by the Spirit. 1 Timothy 6:9-10 gives us a list of things to resist, run from, and fight: the pursuit of wealth, lust for stuff, and envy for the things others have that we do not. We are to run from these things. 1 Timothy 6:11-12 gives us things to run to: righteousness in learning from God’s Word, doing those things we find there, holding faith in Jesus, loving our neighbor as ourselves, enduring our hardships or trials, and carrying a peaceful nature when encountering our neighbor. These are all things we are to run too, and they do sound very much like the fruits of the Spirit because they are from the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
Paul has a consistent message because the Author of that message is unchanging and consistent, God. We have a spiritual guide. We were given an earthly example. Both of these point to the Heavenly source. All that’s left now is for us to walk the path promised. God bless and Godspeed.