Interpretation Confusion

I always find the idea of a “favorite bible verse” somewhat humorous- humorous in an ironic, impossible kind of way. Saying you have a favorite bible verse is like saying you have a favorite song. How could one possibly choose a favorite when there are so many good ones? And there are so many different types! You might have a favorite song to listen to when you are sad and lonely, when you’re warming up for a game, when you’re gearing up to go out for the night, when you’re happy and on top of the world, when the windows are rolled down in the summer, when … ok, you get the point. 
 

I feel like the same concept applies for bible verses. How could anyone possibly have a favorite? There are so many beautiful, uplifting, convicting, inspiring, and just downright incredible verses. Picking favorites is near impossible! And similarly to listening to a new hit song that instantly becomes your favorite, you may continue to find new verses that you’ve previously never read, nevertheless adding another after another to your list of “favorites.”

Well, despite the irony and the humor I find in implying that a verse is on a list of favorites (because they are all so good!), I am going to tell you about one of mine.

One of my favorite verses (<--- I giggled out loud as I typed that) is in the book of Galatians. It comes right after the verses listing the fruits of the Spirit. It says,

“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Therefore, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:24-25.

The figurative language in this gives me the chills each time that I read it. Seriously, check it out. We have crucified our flesh. We have done away with its passions and desires. A few verses beforehand, Paul writes about the desires of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness. We have done away with all of these things! They are no longer a part of who we are.

[The fact that this verse says ‘crucified’ is part of what makes it so amazing to me. It doesn’t say we have ‘set aside’ or we have ‘forgotten about’ or we have ‘walked away from.’ Those are all great, too, but that implies that those passions and desires are still very present. They are still alive, still active, and still a part of your world. But saying that we have crucified them makes it sound so final, so dead, so powerful. They are crucified, and the only thing that rises again after a crucifixion is our Savior.]

Anyways, the verse strikes me as incredibly powerful, and a great reminder of how I ought to walk.

I got to thinking about it one day, and as I reread this verse while reading through Galatians, I found that the language that initially helped the verse earn a place on my ‘favorites’ list actually had me quite perplexed. I have crucified my flesh with its passions and desires, and yet I still fall prey to such. Continually I find myself giving in to the desires of my flesh. Have I not crucified them right? Does crucified not really symbolize and mean what I think it does? Does that mean I have to crucify them again? All sorts of potentially crazy questions like these arose in my mind. I thought that if the desires of my flesh were truly crucified, it wouldn’t make sense that they would continue to make me fall. If my sinful nature was no longer a part of who I was, then why was I still stumbling?  

What I found was that I was initially reading and interpreting the verse wrong. Rather than see only what was written on the page, I was reading more than what was there. In my mind it said,

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, meaning that there is no excuse for you to fall prey to them, seeing as how they are dead. Now, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. This means to walk in perfection, Mary. No mistakes.

I’d say that’s much less inspiring. Who knew that my mind was subconsciously botching the bible? I sure didn’t. I didn’t notice what I was doing because it made sense to me. It seemed logical: if something has been put to death, it no longer has the ability to trip me up and make me fall. I thought that I thoroughly enjoyed the verse because of the symbolism and figurative language, but that is exactly what I was failing to see in it.

I have crucified my flesh with its passions and desires, yes, but in a spiritual and symbolic manner. I haven’t crucified them in a way that makes them absent from my life or from my person, or in a way that makes me perfect, but in a way that makes them unable to make up my life and to define me. Saying that I have crucified my flesh means that those sins and desires are no longer a part of who I am. I have freed myself, not from their presence, but from being defined by them.

 

The desires and passions of the flesh (sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, envy, and drunkenness) will always be existent. Why? Because I’m human and I’m imperfect, and that will never change. They may always be existent in my life, but they will never tell who or what I am; they will never define me.   

Now I see that walking by the Spirit does not mean walking perfectly as a result of my flesh being put to death. Instead, I realize that walking by the Spirit is allowing the Spirit to guide my steps, rather than my flesh, and in doing so, I “will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh” (Gal. 5:16-17). 

I have realized that the verse is more about making a choice as a new and clean creation. If I live by the Spirit, which I do as a child of Christ, I should walk by the Spirit. That doesn’t mean perfectly. That doesn’t mean questioning my strength and the depth of my faith when I fall. It means choosing to follow the desires of the Spirit, and not the desires of my flesh. It’s realizing that this is a decision not made once, or even twice, but one that is made constantly. It’s a decision that I will have to make every day; every morning, every night, every hour, maybe even every minute. Walking is a constant action, thus requiring a constant decision to do so.

This verse isn’t telling me to walk perfectly as I previously had though it did, and God certainly isn’t expecting me to do so. Crucifying my flesh does not mean ridding myself of my imperfections, but rather making a decision to part with the desires of my flesh and to disassociate myself with that sin. It is making a decision of how and with whom I will walk. 

Maybe I’m still interpreting this verse wrong, but I like this interpretation much more than the perfectionist pressure of the first.