Flesh Wounds

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Gal. 5:16

emember the old cowboy movies? Remember the hero being hit during a gunfight, holding his arm and telling us not to worry because it was “only a flesh wound?” How silly! Ouch, as if flesh wounds were nothing to worry about. Flesh wounds can be the most painful for that is where most of our nerve endings are; that’s where our feelings lie, in the flesh. When my “feelings” have been hurt it is evidence that someone has found my “flesh.”

God wants us to live in the Spirit not in the flesh. Paul had to treat the “flesh wounds” of believers in the early church. The church at Corinth had many. The Galatians also often seemed to be in danger of bleeding to death from “flesh wounds.” Satan aims for the flesh. If he can wound enough believers they will be so preoccupied with their own wounds that they will forget about their mission. A local church (which is also a “body”) can suffer from flesh wounds. Paul describes them as “works of the flesh,” yet they are actually cause wounds. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, seditions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries; what a mess! (Gal 5:21).

In the flesh some in Galatia were biting and devouring one another (5:15). Little band-aids won’t do. Spiritual wounds require serious first aid. Only love can heal such hurts. “…but by love serve one another…For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this [LOVE] thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” 5:13-14.

Be careful of flesh wounds. They can become infected and cripple our Christian walk. If you get one, put God’s love on it and remember the One who was wounded for our transgressions. If you find some who has been hurt by sin, do all you can to get them to the Great Physician who can “bind up the broken hearted.”