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The Spirit is Willing but the Flesh is Weak

Jesus observed that his disciples wanted to support him in the Garden of Gethsemane, but were unable. He attributed their limitation to their “flesh”. We can think of our bodies as the “machine” through which we interact with the world. However, we may not often consider that our bodies also connect us through time back to Adam. When Adam was created God breathed (spirit) into him and he became a living soul (Gen 2:7). God told Adam that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die (Gen 2:17). Perhaps a more complete translation is “dying you shall surely die”.

When Adam chose to act against God, he did die in that the connection he had to God through his spirit was broken. He did not die physically for hundreds of years. However, that spiritual death might be seen in his descendants like the disciples who were unable to remain awake for Jesus on the night before his death. In addition to a lack of strength, one might see in them the “weakness” of fear” (Matt 26:75). They also seemed to be limited in their ability to understand (Matt 15:16-17).

We can see that after Pentecost that the disciples were understanding, bold, and capable. This transformation is indicative of the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the weakness of the flesh. Jesus told Nicodemus that this spiritual transformation would be required for those of Israel to be able to enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5, Exek 36:25-26). Paul, who brought the gospel of grace to the gentiles, wrote that he could do all things through Christ which strengthened him (Phil 4:13).

Paul wrote the Corinthians (none of whom had been raised in Christian families) that they were guilty of immaturity (1Cor 3:1-3). He then describes the judgment of works that Christians will face and then asks them if they are unaware that they are the temple of God and the the Holy Spirit resides in them (1Cor 3:16). This illustrates a dilemma for Christians, that we are given the Holy Spirit, but we can also “quench” his work so that we remain immature (1Thess 5:19).

The Christian today has a difficult choice. He must decide if he wants to forgo some of the pleasures and comforts of his flesh and follow the path the Spirit would have him walk. Solomon was given wisdom to rule his people. However, his understanding left him cynical and even depressed as he looked at the world around him (Ecc 2:11). Solomon followed a path of indulging the flesh, yet could still see truth. As a result, he was unhappy. Christians have the opportunity to use the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the flesh (Rom 8:13).

The Spirit and the flesh war against each other (Gal 5:17). To mortify (put to death) the flesh is perhaps best done with starvation (Rom 13:14). If one considers the various deeds of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21), one can see intense emotional contributions of vanity, ambition, greed, anger, and other manifestations of selfishness. The key in disconnecting from the flesh is selflessness that is found in the biblical definition of love (1Cor 13:4-7).

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

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