Walking by spirit is what have difficulty understanding and grasping.
We can best understand it by examples (which is why we really needed Christ to first set that example as Peter tells us at 1 Peter 2:21 and which is evident in the example Paul used at Romans 2:14-15).
To understand it, let's suppose that you were forming a group of people to come together for a specific purpose like as offering help to the elderly.
You would no doubt begin by creating a list of rules designed to keep this effort healthy and assure that no one caused harm to the ones your purpose was to help.
These rules or mini laws each one have a spirit behind why they were chosen by you.
For example, a rule says, "After you clean for them do not leave the trash in the home, but make certain it gets out to the trash."
But the spirit of that rule says, "It is an unloving thing to leave the trash in the home, for various reasons, stench, germs, clutter, and so forth."
Therefore, just as Paul shows at Romans 2:14-15, there will be some who won't do that until they read the rule, and there would be some who would have done that anyway never having read the rule.
This is why love is superior to law and this is why what we do shows what is really in our hearts.
We can best understand it by examples (which is why we really needed Christ to first set that example as Peter tells us at 1 Peter 2:21 and which is evident in the example Paul used at Romans 2:14-15).
To understand it, let's suppose that you were forming a group of people to come together for a specific purpose like as offering help to the elderly.
You would no doubt begin by creating a list of rules designed to keep this effort healthy and assure that no one caused harm to the ones your purpose was to help.
These rules or mini laws each one have a spirit behind why they were chosen by you.
For example, a rule says, "After you clean for them do not leave the trash in the home, but make certain it gets out to the trash."
But the spirit of that rule says, "It is an unloving thing to leave the trash in the home, for various reasons, stench, germs, clutter, and so forth."
Therefore, just as Paul shows at Romans 2:14-15, there will be some who won't do that until they read the rule, and there would be some who would have done that anyway never having read the rule.
This is why love is superior to law and this is why what we do shows what is really in our hearts.