War Between the Flesh and the Spirit

from Google Images

Walking in the Spirit is a matter of choice, but it is more complicated than simply a matter of choice. To begin with, the flesh is at war with the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). In other words, the flesh or the natural man (1Corinthians 2:14) will not embrace the things of the Spirit, because spiritual matters are foolishness to the natural order of things—or how the natural man (viz. the spirit of man) understands his world. The natural man compares physical evidence with physical evidence in order to draw his conclusions, but the spiritual man compares spiritual matters with spiritual matters (1Corinthians 2:13). The natural man has no frame of reference in spiritual matters, because they are spiritually discerned, i.e. they are understood through the Spirit of God which is given to believers (cf. 1Corinthians 2:14 and Galatians 5:17).