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Vol I No. 8
Daily Thought

Flesh and Spirit

by William J. Martin

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Note, the best antidote against the poison of sin is to walk in the Spirit, to be much conversing with spiritual things, to mind the things of the soul, which is the spiritual part of man, more than those of the body, which is his carnal part, to commit ourselves to the guidance of the word, wherein the Holy Spirit makes known the will of God concerning us, and in the way of our duty to act in a dependence on his aids and influences. And, as this would be the best means of preserving them from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, so it would be a good evidence that they were Christians indeed; for, says the apostle ‘if you would be led by the Spirit, you are not under law.’ As if he had said, ‘You must expect a struggle between flesh and spirit as long as you are in the world, that the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh; but if, in the prevailing bent and tenor of your lives, you be led by the Spirit, if you act under the guidance and government of the Holy Spirit and of that spiritual nature and disposition he has wrought in you, if you make the word of God your rule and the grace of God your principle, it will hence appear that you are not under the law, not under the condemning.

Matthew Henry, Comments on Galatians 5:16-18