III. To be led by the Spirit.—1. The Christian’s life is a growth, his walk a progress; but he is led and guided by the Spirit. 2. No new revelation is made by the Spirit. He leads and guides by what is written in the Word.
IV. Learn our relations to the Spirit.—1. We live under the Spirit’s dispensation. 2. He is the Spirit of God, and so of life, truth, and authority. 3. He is the Spirit of Christ, and so unites us to Him. 4. If we live by the Spirit, let conversation and conduct be answerable thereunto.—Homiletic Monthly.
Walking in the Spirit—
I. Is to savour the things of the Spirit.—To subject a man’s soul to the law of God in all the faculties and powers of the soul. The things revealed in the law are the things of the Spirit, which Spirit must at no hand be severed from the Word.
II. To walk in the path of righteousness without offence to God or man.
III. To walk not stragglingly, but orderly by rule, by line and measure.—To order ourselves according to the rule and line of the Word of God. The life of a man will discover to the world what he is.—Perkins.
Ver. 26. Vaingloriousness.
- The exciting cause of many quarrels.
- A source of envy and disappointment.
- Unbecoming the dignity and aims of the Christian life.
The Vice of Vainglory and its Cure.
I. Vainglory is a branch of pride, wherein men principally refer all their studies, counsels, endeavours, and gifts to the honouring and advancing of themselves. They who have received good gifts of God are often most vainglorious. Whereas all other vices feed upon that which is evil, this vice of vainglory feeds upon good things. A man will sometimes be proud even because he is not proud.