Today’s Bible reading is Galatians 5 and it provides a great motto for life, the way God intended it to be:
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. (Gal 5:25)
To “keep in step” with someone is to walk in line behind them, to follow their lead, allowing them to set the pace and direction. What better determination could we make at the beginning of a new God-given day than to keep in step with the Spirit?
To “keep in step with the Spirit,” we must not gratify the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these are “against the Spirit” (Gal 5:17-21). They lure us away from the path of righteousness, promising us freedom and fulfillment, but eventually costing us everything. “Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:21).
When we “keep in step with the Spirit,” the fruit of the Spirit will be borne in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control–this is the fruit of a disciple who belongs to Christ Jesus. This is the produce of a child of God who is crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal 5:22-24). This is the ripple-effect of keeping in step with the Spirit, a ray of light in a world of darkness.
Would it help to have the whole thing summarized in one phrase? “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:14). This is the Christ-blazed trail, the difficult way that leads to life. This is the pace and direction the Spirit of God has set for the children of God.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
That’s a motto worth setting our minds on today.