Galatians 5:19-21

Galatians 5:19-21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, of which kind (or such as) are. The practical test of the fruits by which a tree is known (comp. Matthew 7:16). ‘Manifest,' plain and obvious to everybody. Paul does not sum at a complete and systematic catalogue of sins, but singles out those to which the Galatians from former habits and surroundings were specially exposed. He mentions (1) sins of sensuality or sins against ourselves: adultery [omitted in the best MSS.], fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness (comp. 2 Corinthians 12:21); these were so common among all the heathen that no ancient moralist, not even Socrates, or Plato, or Cicero, absolutely condemned them (except adultery, because it interferes with the rights of a husband), and that they were even sanctioned by religion and connected with the worship of Venus or Aphrodite. The difference between Christian and heathen morality in this respect is like the difference between day and night Paul condemns fornication as a prostitution and desecration of the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15-20; 1 Corinthians 3:16). (2) Spiritual sins against God, which are likewise characteristic of heathenism: idolatry, the worship of false gods (and all idolatrous practices), and sorcery, or magic, ‘a secret tampering with the powers of evil,' usually associated with open idolatry (comp. Acts 19:19; Revelation 21:8). (3) Sins against our neighbor, or various violations of brotherly love in feeling and action: hatreds (or enmities), strife, rivalry (or emulation), outbursts of wrath, factions, divisions (not seditions), parties (not heresies, in the later doctrinal sense), envyings, murders (comp. 2 Corinthians 12:20; Romans 1:29). ‘Murders' is omitted by the best MSS. (4) Sins of intemperance, very common among the Celtic nations: drunkenness, revellings, and such like (comp. Romans 13:13; 1 Peter 4:3).