The Works of the Sinful Nature. Galatians 5:19-21.
Dear Aliens and Strangers in this World,
We have seen that sinful nature and the Spirit are in opposition. One desires what is contrary to the other and vice versa. In the same way, practicing the works of sinful nature cannot be inadvertent. Such works are plain so that those who indulge know exactly what they are doing. These things seem to fall into four categories:
Adultery (v. 19). Under this fall all manner of sexual impropriety. God has set marriage as the context within which sex is to be confined. Everything that breaches those boundaries is sin. Adultery is when a married person has sex outside marriage – with someone other than the spouse. Fornication is when an unmarried person has sex with someone else. All sex before marriage, even with the intended future spouse is against God’s desire. Uncleanness is very broad and includes anything that violates sexual boundaries – display like pornography, dirty talk, and the viewing of sexual images or listening to sex talk. Lewdness is any departure from acceptable sexual standards in speech and Conduct and includes homosexuality and bestiality.
Idolatry (v. 20a). Anything that draws our attention from God to itself becomes an idol. Idolatry was rife in Paul’s time and it took the form of the worship of a pantheon of gods and goddesses, some made of silver, gold, and stone, others simply imagined. The idolatry practiced today rarely involves the traditional idols. Cars, gadgets, and lifestyle have become the big idols that take our attention away from God. _Sorcery_ encompasses all activities that seek to get supernatural intervention, apart from God. Witchcraft, magic, occult practices, and contact with spiritual beings – even angels! Beware of any activity that attempts to manipulate the spirit world. Prayer is all we need, dear family.
Rivalry (vv. 20b-21a)The pride in us often causes strife between us. We end up in unhealthy competition that wishes others ill. Hatred needs no further elaboration except to say that we should be worried, gravely so, if we hate anyone. It really is a foul, poisonous attitude. Contentions can also be called discord or disharmony. If you are ever quarreling with others, you know what the problem is. Jealousies indicate a desire to be better than others and offense at them being or doing better. Outbursts of Wrath is translated elsewhere as “fits of rage” (NIV). It is evidence of a lack of restraint when things do not go our way. Selfish Ambitions is the pursuit of personal benefit in disregard or even at the expense, of others and their welfare.
Dissensions refer to the divisive attitude of wanting to gather people around oneself in opposition to another. Heresies is translated elsewhere as “factions” (NIV) and are an effort to draw people from a collective fellowship to one’s own. Sometimes this is done by “tweaking” the truth so that one ends up a false teacher. Envy is not just jealousy, it is wishing others ill. There are people who do not wish for anyone to succeed but themselves. Murders are missing in many modern translations (a case for textual study) but the meaning is evident and is a common development from envy and other negative attitudes. Some murder in their thoughts, wishing others dead.
Revelry (v. 21b). Indulging in the uninhibited pleasures of the sinful nature is common with those who have thrown caution to the wind. Drunkenness is the undisciplined consumption of alcohol, usually always in excess of what is reasonable. Reasonable is where one is still in control of one’s faculties. In the modern world, drugs have joined alcohol as mind–altering agents. Revelries are translated elsewhere as “orgies” (NIV). Any activity that indulges the appetites of the body to excess, even with good things like food, falls under revelries. Moderation is a great quality in a person, the lack of which sets one up for control by one’s appetites. It should be clear to all that such a lifestyle cannot be exhibited in a person who is of God because the Holy Spirit in us causes us to behave otherwise.
It follows therefore that those who live by the sinful nature are not of God and are excluded from the inheritance of the saints. Those who think that they can receive Christ as savior then go and sin as they wish are only deceiving themselves.
Your Loving Pastor Chris.