The Christian is to obey God, and the New Testament has clear commands for every believer to obey. The interpreter who believes that they can ignore New Testament commands as long as they feel led by the Holy Spirit is probably taking Romans 8 and Galatians 5 out of its context and isolating pieces of scripture to suit them. There is no scripture to support the belief of strictly being led by the Holy Spirit, and somehow being able to ignore New Testament commands.
The interpreter must know that the meaning of a phrase must be consistent with the sense of it’s immediate context, and must be consistent with the book’s general flow of thought. In order for a believer to interpret passages about living in the spirit and having freedom in Christ as being permission to disobey direct New Testament commands would have had to ignore this rule. Take Galatians 5:18 for instance, this verse does not imply that we are somehow free to ignore New Testament commands. The actual immediate context would ask the opposite of its readers. The book of Galatians itself is a decree of spiritual freedom from the Old Testament laws and rituals of the Jews whereby the Apostle Paul states clearly to walk in the Holy Spirit and not the flesh or law. To regard this command of the Apostle Paul and disregard the rest of the New Testament would be an apparent oxymoron in itself, and it would suppose that somehow the Holy Spirit is now taking a new direction from the original plan He set in place.
The proper way to interpret scriptures like Galatians 5:18 or Romans 8:12-17 would be to look not only at the passage itself, but rather the complete thought itself, and realize that we must study the entire book of Galatians or Romans to get an understanding of the passage in it’s immediate context. The author intends to tell Jews that believe on Christ are now free from rabbinical law, and the laws of Moses. Paul is stressing that we must bridle our freedom in regards to foods or any other stumbling block for weaker believers, and that we should be concerned about others more than ourselves.
