When you are walking with someone, you usually try to keep in step with the person. I often will pass a group of walkers in the morning. The group of people is always walking in step. There might be two rows of people, but each one is keeping step so as to stay together, to walk together. Their speed. Their distance. Everything is in sync.
In the end of letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul writes to “keep in step with the Spirit.” In this letter, Paul again and again tells the people to get back in step. From the start of the letter, we can tell that the people have wandered. Paul simply addresses the people as “to the churches in Galatia” (1:2). There is no “holy people” or “saints” as with other letters. Verse 6 notes that the people were turning away from Christ. They were very much out of step.
Paul reminds us of the freedom we have in Christ. He also reminds us that this freedom we have should not be used “to indulge the flesh” (5:13). We need to keep in step with the Spirit. How can we do that? We need to be crucified with Christ. If we belong to Christ, we should have “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (v. 24). Let us keep in step with the Spirit. We can only do that with the Spirit.
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” – Galatians 5:25 [NIV]
Tania Gutekunst 