“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.” (Galatians 5:25–26, RSV)
When you walk with God, when you ask Jesus in your heart, when you desire to be faithful, there are some things that must end in your life. The scripture for today from Galatians chapter 5 gives several things that must cease if you are to remain loyal to God. To understand the process, the Holy Spirit must be in you. Then, you need to “walk by the Spirit”. You need to let the Holy Spirit lead and guide your steps. Only then can you work through those things that Galatians 5:25-26 teaches should not remain in you.
As the Holy Spirit directs your steps in life, there are emotions that must cease to exist in your heart and soul. Galatians 5:26 lists three of these emotions. First, you should “have no self-conceit”. Self-conceit is a prideful, arrogant, selfish attitude. The Holy Spirit cannot remain in a person who is driven by such an ambition that is so self-centered. Second, the Holy Spirit will not allow “provoking of one another”. In the original language of the New Testament, this word meant to “call out” or “accuse” one another. This type of “calling out” is common among people, where you push a person’s buttons in order to elicit anger or frustration. In truth, this “provoking” or “calling out” begets negative emotions in another person wherein they feel the need to defend themselves. The third emotion that must cease to exist in your life is envy. The scripture states that you must have “no envy of one another” (Galatians 5:26). Envy is a type of jealousy that consumes you. It is the desire to have what another person has attained, whether money, power, status, or respect. Essentially, envy would push you to knock down another person, while stealing their glory or success.
The scripture for today’s meditation from Galatians 5 is forcefully clear. Three times this scripture uses the word “no” to make clear that none of these emotions are to remain too long in the faithful heart and soul and mind. If they endure for too long, the Holy Spirit cannot remain in you. If they are present, your obedience to God will falter in time. If these emotions start coming up, you need to practice restraint and repentance. The longer these emotions remain, the more spiritual and psychological danger you will face. If you wait too long or let these emotions have their way, the Holy Spirit will leave your life… maybe forever.
I find it interesting that many churches focus heavily on teaching the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, but these emotions that can cripple or destroy your faith are often completely ignored. When was the last time you attended a Bible study on self-conceit, provoking, or envy? How much time has your pastor devoted in his sermons to such topics? Even though these three emotions are seen as damaging to the faith and prone to driving away the Holy Spirit, they remain footnotes in the church’s teachings.
We are living in a time when these three emotions are becoming commonplace in society. Some schools even teach them to students as ways to get ahead in life! Social media promotes them. Friends may encourage their use. All in all, these emotions of self-conceit, provoking, and envy, have damaged or destroyed many a person’s spiritual life in modern times.
At an airbase in Korea during the Korean War, a pilot was given great acclaim. He had shot down enemy aircraft and was personally responsible for saving a platoon of soldiers. When the soldiers were pinned down by overwhelming enemy fire, he risked dropping a bomb to save them. He succeeded perfectly. Other pilots praised his action that day. When the pilot walked around the base, people sought him out. Pictures were taken frequently in his presence. GIs wrote home saying how they had met the pilot. The guy was deservedly famous.
Repairs on the pilot’s plane were overseen by several ground crew. One of the ground crew, a mechanic, was very envious of the attention the pilot received. For this mechanic, the pilot got all the attention while the ground crew spent hours making his plane flyable, safe, and effective. The mechanic felt they deserved some of the pilot’s glory. For days and weeks, the mechanic grew increasingly angry that their work was overlooked while the pilot “hogged all the attention”. Finally, desiring to show how much the pilots relied on their work, the mechanic decided to rig the famous pilot’s landing gear to fail. He loosened bolts and connecting points on the plane just enough so that the landing gear would collapse on the next landing. However, when the mechanic was finishing his “sabotage” of the plane, the landing gear failed catastrophically. The plane landed on the mechanic, who lost his life.
I find it very interesting that this envious mechanic lost his life due to his envy of the pilot. You see, just as envy caused his death, envy had already caused spiritual and psychological damage and death in the mechanic. His physical death was precipitated by his psychological envy and his failure to see the need to repent and make things right.
Your Spiritual life will be helped or harmed by how you “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). If you let certain sinful emotions and feelings such as self-conceit, the desire to provoke, and envy, run wild; heart soul and mind will incur damage. These emotions may not seem that dangerous to you based on how commonplace they are in the world. Don’t be fooled! These emotions can be highly destructive, even resulting in God’s presence leaving your life.
Have your thoughts ever led you down the road to provoking, self-conceit, or envy? Do you hide these emotions? Do these emotions lie ready to pounce on your heart and soul and mind in one weak moment? If you want the Holy Spirit to be strong in you, you must learn to deal with such emotions. You must take them seriously. You must banish their presence every time they seek permanent relevance in your life.
As the Holy Spirit directs your steps in life, there are emotions that must cease to exist in your heart and soul. Galatians 5:26 lists three of these emotions. First, you should “have no self-conceit”. Self-conceit is a prideful, arrogant, selfish attitude. The Holy Spirit cannot remain in a person who is driven by such an ambition that is so self-centered. Second, the Holy Spirit will not allow “provoking of one another”. In the original language of the New Testament, this word meant to “call out” or “accuse” one another. This type of “calling out” is common among people, where you push a person’s buttons in order to elicit anger or frustration. In truth, this “provoking” or “calling out” begets negative emotions in another person wherein they feel the need to defend themselves. The third emotion that must cease to exist in your life is envy. The scripture states that you must have “no envy of one another” (Galatians 5:26). Envy is a type of jealousy that consumes you. It is the desire to have what another person has attained, whether money, power, status, or respect. Essentially, envy would push you to knock down another person, while stealing their glory or success.
The scripture for today’s meditation from Galatians 5 is forcefully clear. Three times this scripture uses the word “no” to make clear that none of these emotions are to remain too long in the faithful heart and soul and mind. If they endure for too long, the Holy Spirit cannot remain in you. If they are present, your obedience to God will falter in time. If these emotions start coming up, you need to practice restraint and repentance. The longer these emotions remain, the more spiritual and psychological danger you will face. If you wait too long or let these emotions have their way, the Holy Spirit will leave your life… maybe forever.
I find it interesting that many churches focus heavily on teaching the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, but these emotions that can cripple or destroy your faith are often completely ignored. When was the last time you attended a Bible study on self-conceit, provoking, or envy? How much time has your pastor devoted in his sermons to such topics? Even though these three emotions are seen as damaging to the faith and prone to driving away the Holy Spirit, they remain footnotes in the church’s teachings.
We are living in a time when these three emotions are becoming commonplace in society. Some schools even teach them to students as ways to get ahead in life! Social media promotes them. Friends may encourage their use. All in all, these emotions of self-conceit, provoking, and envy, have damaged or destroyed many a person’s spiritual life in modern times.
At an airbase in Korea during the Korean War, a pilot was given great acclaim. He had shot down enemy aircraft and was personally responsible for saving a platoon of soldiers. When the soldiers were pinned down by overwhelming enemy fire, he risked dropping a bomb to save them. He succeeded perfectly. Other pilots praised his action that day. When the pilot walked around the base, people sought him out. Pictures were taken frequently in his presence. GIs wrote home saying how they had met the pilot. The guy was deservedly famous.
Repairs on the pilot’s plane were overseen by several ground crew. One of the ground crew, a mechanic, was very envious of the attention the pilot received. For this mechanic, the pilot got all the attention while the ground crew spent hours making his plane flyable, safe, and effective. The mechanic felt they deserved some of the pilot’s glory. For days and weeks, the mechanic grew increasingly angry that their work was overlooked while the pilot “hogged all the attention”. Finally, desiring to show how much the pilots relied on their work, the mechanic decided to rig the famous pilot’s landing gear to fail. He loosened bolts and connecting points on the plane just enough so that the landing gear would collapse on the next landing. However, when the mechanic was finishing his “sabotage” of the plane, the landing gear failed catastrophically. The plane landed on the mechanic, who lost his life.
I find it very interesting that this envious mechanic lost his life due to his envy of the pilot. You see, just as envy caused his death, envy had already caused spiritual and psychological damage and death in the mechanic. His physical death was precipitated by his psychological envy and his failure to see the need to repent and make things right.
Your Spiritual life will be helped or harmed by how you “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). If you let certain sinful emotions and feelings such as self-conceit, the desire to provoke, and envy, run wild; heart soul and mind will incur damage. These emotions may not seem that dangerous to you based on how commonplace they are in the world. Don’t be fooled! These emotions can be highly destructive, even resulting in God’s presence leaving your life.
Have your thoughts ever led you down the road to provoking, self-conceit, or envy? Do you hide these emotions? Do these emotions lie ready to pounce on your heart and soul and mind in one weak moment? If you want the Holy Spirit to be strong in you, you must learn to deal with such emotions. You must take them seriously. You must banish their presence every time they seek permanent relevance in your life.