It is a thin cylindrical piece of aluminum bent into a unique shape capable of holding important papers together. It is not remarkable, stimulating, outwardly attractive, or even an object we often think of, yet without it there would be disorganization of papers. I kind of think this is like the Holy Spirit. Because we can’t see Him, we don’t often think of Him as being important, yet He is critical to keeping us together as a body. Consider:
For the whole law is summarized in a single statement: "You must love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you are not destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh wants is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, and so you do not do what you want to do. But if you are being led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God
We need to live by the Spirit so that we don’t live in the flesh which causes great problems within the body. We injure ourselves by living in the flesh. Just read the list of ways we do this (half of them deal directly with our dealings with eachother), and the add on ‘and things like that’ and there are extensive ways we can live in the flesh. Walking in the flesh, which can be easy to do, is not what we are to practice. (Also, take note what is in jeopardy.)
Obviously biting and devouring one another is detrimental to our unity, but there is another important problem that arises out of our lack of unity. Jesus prayed, “that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John ISV) When the world sees us biting and devouring one another, they aren’t interested in God or Christianity. God will hold us accountable for every person we turned off God and Christianity due to our walking in the flesh.
The solution to not living in the flesh is to live by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit can help us live as we should, and if we listen, He will let us know when our thoughts, words or actions are in the flesh. He wants to hold us together to be a unified body, but it is ultimately our choice.
We have to choose to live by the Spirit.