Galatians 5:19-21

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Galatians 5:19. The works of the flesh.—

1. Sensual vices—“adultery [omitted in the oldest MSS.], fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.”

2. Theological vices—“idolatry, witchcraft.”

3. Malevolent vices—“hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders.”

4. Vices of excess—“drunkenness, revellings.”

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Galatians 5:19

The Works of the Flesh—

I. Are offensively obtrusive.—“Now the works of the flesh are manifest” (Galatians 5:19). Sin, though at first committed in secret, will by-and-by work to the surface and advertise itself with shameless publicity. The rulers of the civilised world in the first century of the Christian era, such as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, are the execration of history as monsters of vice and cruelty. Their enormities would have been impossible if the people they governed had not been equally corrupt. It is the nature of evil to develop a terrible energy the more it is indulged, and its works are apparent in every possible form of wickedness. “Every man blameth the devil for his sins; but the great devil, the house-devil of every man that eateth and lieth in every man’s bosom, is that idol which killeth all—himself.”

II. Furnish a revolting catalogue.—The sins enumerated may be grouped into four classes:—

1. Sensual passions.—“Adultery [omitted in the oldest MSS.], fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness” (Galatians 5:19). Fornication was practically universal. Few were found, even among severe moralists, to condemn it. It is a prostitution of the physical nature which Jesus Christ wore and still wears, which He claims for the temple of His Spirit, and will raise from the dead to share His immortality. Uncleanness is the general quality of licentiousness, and includes whatever is contaminating in word or look, in gesture or in dress, in thought or sentiment. Lasciviousness is uncleanness open and shameless. It is the final loathsome analysis of the works of the flesh.

2. Unlawful dealing in things spiritual.—“Idolatry, witchcraft [sorcery]” (Galatians 5:20). Idolatry and sensuality have always been closely related. Some of the most popular pagan systems were purveyors of lust, and lent to it the sanctions of religion. When man loses the true conception of God he becomes degraded. Sorcery is closely allied to idolatry. A low, naturalistic notion of the divine lends itself to immoral purposes. Men try to operate upon it by material causes, and to make it a partner in evil. Magical charms are made the instruments of unholy indulgence.

3. Violations of brotherly love.—“Hatred [enmities], variance [strife], emulations [jealousies], wrath [ragings], strife [factions], seditions [divisions], heresies [keen controversial partisanship], envyings, murders” (Galatians 5:20). A horrible progeny of evils having their source in a fruitful hotbed of unreasoning hatred, each vice preying upon and feeding the other. Settled rancour is the worst form of contentiousness. It nurses its revenge, waiting, like Shylock, for the time when it shall “feed fat its ancient grudge.”

4. Intemperate excesses.—“Drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (Galatians 5:21). These are the vices of a barbarous people. Our Teutonic and Celtic forefathers were alike prone to this kind of excess. The Greeks were a comparatively sober people. The Romans were more notorious for gluttony than for hard drinking. The practice of seeking pleasure in intoxication is a remnant of savagery which exists to a shameful extent in our own country. With Europe turned into one vast camp, and its nations groaning audibly under the weight of their armaments, with hordes of degrading women infesting the streets of its cities, with discontent and social hatred smouldering throughout its industrial populations, we have small reason to boast of the triumphs of modern civilisation. Better circumstances do not make better men (Findlay).

III. Exclude the sinner from the kingdom of God.—“They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21). How poor life seems outside that kingdom! How beautiful and glorious inside its gates! If I tried to tell you how Christ brings us there, I should repeat to you once more the old familiar story. He comes and lives and dies for us. He touches us with gratitude. He sets before our softened lives His life. He makes us see the beauty of holiness and the strength of the spiritual life in Him. He transfers His life to us through the open channel of faith, and so we come to live as He lives, by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. How old the story is, but how endlessly fresh and true to Him whose own career it describes (Phillips Brooks). Exclusion from the kingdom of God is man’s own act; it is self-exclusion. He will not enter in; he loves darkness rather than light.

Lessons.—

1. Sin is an active principle whose works are perniciously evident.

2. Sin is the primal cause of every possible vice.

3. Sin persisted in involves moral ruin.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Galatians 5:19. Biblical Account of Sin.—A mournful catalogue of words, based on a great variety of images, is employed in Scripture to describe the state of sinfulness which man inherits from his birth. Sometimes it is set forth as the missing of a mark or aim; sometimes as the transgressing of a line—the word occurs seven times in the New Testament, and is twice applied to Adam’s fall (Romans 5:14; 1 Timothy 2:14); sometimes as disobedience to a voice, i.e. to hear carelessly, to take no heed of—the word occurs three times (Romans 5:19; 2 Corinthians 10:6; Hebrews 2:2); sometimes as ignorance of what we ought to have done (Hebrews 9:7); sometimes as a defect or discomfiture—to be worsted, because, as Gerhard says, “A sinner yields to, is worsted by, the temptations of the flesh and of Satan”; sometimes as a debt (Matthew 6:12); sometimes as disobedience to law—the word occurs fourteen times in the New Testament, and is generally translated by “iniquity.” The last figure is employed in the most general definition of sin given in the New Testament—sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).—Trench and Maclear.

The Works of the Flesh.

I. Sins against chastity.—Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, wantonness.

1. We must stock up the root of these things, mortify the passion of concupiscence.
2. All occasions of these sins must be cut off, two especially, idleness and the pampering of the body.
3. All signs of these vices must be avoided, any speech or action that may give suspicion of incontinent disposition, as light talk, wanton behaviour, curiousness and excess in trimming of the body, suspected company.

II. Sins against religion.—Idolatry, witchcraft, heresies.

III. Sins against charity.—Enmity, debate, emulations, anger, contention, seditions.

IV. Sins against temperance.—Drunkenness, gluttony.

1. We may use meat and drink not only for necessity, but also for delight.
2. That measure of meat and drink which in our experience makes us fit both in body and mind for the service of God and the duties of our calling is convenient and lawful. To be given to drinking and to love to sit by the cup, when there is no drunkenness, is a sin. Drunkenness:
(1) Destroys the body.
(2) Hurts the mind.
(3) Vile imaginations and affections that are in men when they are drunk remain in them when they are sober, so being sober they are drunk in affection.—Perkins.