Observe the Obvious (5:19–23).

Vices of the FLESH and Virtues of the SPIRIT

II. Observe the Obvious (5:19–23).

A. The works of the flesh (5:19–21)

B. The fruit of the Spirit (5:22–23)

Gal 5:19-23 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Introduction

Recap walking in the SPIRIT

Paul is going to show the Galatians that a person can objectively observe if and when a person is walking in the spirit or if the person is walking in the flesh

Notice just two words, WORKS (DEEDS) and FRUIT.

Works of the flesh—

Fruit of the Spirit.

Works speak of effort, mechanics, toil and labor. Works result in weariness, faintness, and often frustration. It is accompanied by much fleshly effort, and much display and noise of hammer and saw.

But FRUIT! How different! It does not involve work, but is the result of just RECEIVING, YIELDING, ACCEPTING. It means having no confidence in the flesh, but an honest confession of our weakness, an earnest plea for forgiveness, and a surrender to the will of God.

A. The Works of the flesh (5:19–21)

Gal 5:19-21 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The black list of SIN:

Paul made more lists in other books -

1 Cor. 6:9 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,”

1 Cor 6:18 “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.”

2 Cor 12:21 “I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.”

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident - Evident (phanerós) means that which can be plainly seen and known. These sins are not subtle! And so these next 3 verses help us assess whether we are being led by the Spirit or are choosing to be led by our fallen flesh. Gal 5:19-21 clearly point out what a flesh-led life looks like. If these unholy deeds are active in our life, then we can know unequivocally that we are not submitting to the control of the Holy Spirit.

There are four classes of sins mentioned here.

First Paul mentions

1. sins of lust: immorality, impurity, sensuality

2. idolatry and witchcraft: idolatry, sorcery

idolatry) speaks of extreme admiration or reverence for something other than God. Idolatry more specifically is the worship of something created which is in direct opposition to the worship of the Creator Himself. Originally, a physical idol helped visualize the god it represented but later people worshipped the physical object itself (Ro 1:19; 20; 21; 22; 23 see notes Ro 1:19; 20; 21; 22; 23).

sorcery. The Greek word pharmakeia, from which the English word pharmacy comes, originally referred to medicines in general, but eventually only to mood-altering and mind-altering drugs, as well as the occult, witchcraft, and magic. Many pagan religious practices required the use of these drugs to aid in communication with deities.

3. Sins of temper: enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying

Strife is a general term that carries the ideas of all kinds of self-centered rivalry and contentiousness about the truth. Strife is an expression of enmity with bitter sometimes violent conflict or dissension.

Jealousy - A test of a true friendship

Outburst of Anger: Thumos describes a thundering welling up of the whole spirit; a mighty emotion which seizes and moves the whole inner man. Thumos (especially when accompanied by breathing violently or hard) pictures a "panting rage". We've all seen individuals in whom there was a sudden outburst of this type of passionate anger. You can even see their nasal passages widening to take in more air in the heat of their passion. As Paul taught in verse 16, walking in the Spirit provides an excellent preventative against this type of sudden, explosive rage.

Disputes (selfish ambition) (2052)(eritheia means self seeking, strife, contentiousness, extreme selfishness, rivalry and those who seek only their own. In a word, eritheia is the desire to be number one no matter the cost!

The idea of dissension is disagreement which leads to discord. Dissension is strife that arises from a difference of opinion and stresses a division into factions (especially factions in the early church).

FACTIONS or “outbreaks of selfishness”—this has to do with self-ambition.

Envying (5355)(phthonos) describes pain felt and malignity conceived at the sight of excellence or happiness. It means not just wanting what another person has, but also resenting that person for having it. It is an attitude of ill-will that leads to division and strife and even murder. The English word envy is interesting as it is derived from the Latin in = against and video = to look, “to look with ill-will,

4. sins of appetite: drunkenness, carousing,

Drunkenness (3178)(methe) is the Greek word most often was used of intentional and habitual intoxication. It is worth noting that in two of the three NT uses of carousing and drunkenness are found side-by-side, which is not surprising to see one sin begat another.

Carousing (2970)(komos) originally referred to a band of friends who accompanied a victor in a military engagement or athletic contest on his way home, singing with rejoicing and praises to the victor

Paul adds a solemn warning, saying that those who habitually practice such things will never inherit God’s kingdom. This does not mean that if Christians fall into an isolated lapse into sin through getting drunk or some such thing, they thereby lose their salvation. Rather, Paul is referring to a habitual continuation in sins of the sinful nature, and his point is that those who continually practice such sins give evidence of having never received God’s Spirit. When he says that he warned the Galatians of this previously (presumably when he was among them), he reveals that his preaching was never what one might call mere evangelism but that it always contained a strong dose of the standard of morality expected from Christians.

But such sins are not characteristic of the Christian life.

But what is?

B. The Fruit of the Spirit (5:22–23)

Gal 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

The test of life

Matt 7:15-20 ““Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

Eph 5:8-11 “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;”

the fruit: Ga 5:16-18 Ps 1:3 92:14 Ho 14:8 Mt 12:33 Lu 8:14,15 13:9 Joh 15:2,5,16 Ro 6:22 7:4 Eph 5:9 Php 1:11 Col 1:10

love: Ga 5:13 Ro 5:2-5 12:9-18 15:3 1Co 13:4-7 Eph 4:23-32 5:1,2 Php 4:4-9 Col 3:12-17 1Th 1:3-10 5:10-22 Titus 2:2-12 Jas 3:17,18 1Pe 1:8,22 2Pe 1:5-8 1Jn 4:7-16

goodness: Ro 15:14

faithfulness: 1Co 13:7,13 2Th 3:2 1Ti 3:11 4:12 1Pe 5:12

But - a striking term of contrast. What is being contrasted? What two "powers" are at work in the mortal body of every believer? Paul says "the flesh (present tense = continually) sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition (present tense = continually) to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.." (Gal 5:17+)

Two contrasting "powers," one natural, the other supernatural, which bear two kinds of fruit, one "natural" (sins of the flesh) and the other supernatural (fruit of the Spirit). And the only way to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit is to obey (mysteriously even that obedience being enabled by the Spirit - Php 2:13 “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” the command to continually (present imperative/) walk in the Spirit (Gal 5:16+).

But the fruit of the Spirit - Paul now gives 9 virtues that are evidence of being led by the Spirit. Note the designation is fruit, not deeds. Deeds or works, speak of what man can do, as with the works or the deeds of the Law. On the other hand fruit must grow out of life and in the case of the believer, it grows out of the life of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and produces His fruit in and through us.

Notice also that while deeds are plural, fruit is singular stressing the fact that all 9 virtues compose a uniform whole, a unity.

Think of them as a cluster of grapes which are all attached to one branch. The point is that ALL of them are to be found in the believer.

1. First of all, in the fruit of the Spirit there is unity. We notice that the word, "fruit," is in the singular number. There is only one fruit of the Spirit, but it contains nine virtues.

2. the fruit of the Spirit possesses a notable' harmony,

the first triad of virtues being inward in nature,

the second, outward, and

the third upward.

3. There is a necessity that believers have the fruit of the Spirit. The lack of the virtues indicates sin against the Holy Spirit who is engaged in producing the virtues in the lives of the saints.

4. Finally, in the concluding words of Galatians 5:23 there is an important point made by Paul. The Law of Moses finds no flaw in the fruit of the Spirit.

The flesh may imitate, or counterfeit, certain of the virtues, but it can never produce them. The Spirit alone can do that, and the result satisfies all the demands of the moral law in the believer's life.

love - The first that is listed is love, and we would expect that, because God is love, 1 John 4:8. Love is the greatest of the virtues; Paul tells us that in 1 Corinthians 13. Love fulfills the whole Law, as he has just instructed us in the previous passage. And it is the distinguishing mark of the disciple. That's what Jesus said in John 13. "By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." And so love naturally leads the list of the fruit of the Spirit. It is what the world is to see preeminently in our lives as we act in love toward one another, and not only in love toward one another, but in love toward the world around us. Most importantly though, love is directed toward God. It is the motivation for all that we do. It's private. It is characteristic of our personal relationship with Him, reflected in our life of study and prayer, and just the way we live. So first and foremost, fundamentally it is love for God and it grows within us as we understand what God in Christ has done for us

joy - It's been said that joy is the virtue in the Christian life corresponding to happiness in the secular world. There's a big difference between the two. Joy is reliable; happiness is not. Happiness is dependent on the circumstances. Joy is dependent on the Lord, who is above the circumstances and controls them for our good. In fact, that's the reason that we can have joy in the midst of affliction, because we know that God is sovereign. He rules over every aspect of life.

“PEACE”—this is serenity or tranquility. The perfect contentment of the life which is happy and secure. It describes the perfection of human relationships. Peace is right relationship in every sphere of life. This “PEACE” points in THREE DIRECTIONS. It is “PEACE”: 1. UPWARD—in the sense that I am right with God. 2. INWARD—in that I know there is nothing hidden within about which I am feeling guilty. 3. OUTWARD—in my relationship to other brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

gentleness could be rendered "gentlemanliness"!

C Norman Bartlett says that gentleness (or meekness) "cannot be too strongly insisted upon that meekness is not weakness. It is strength held under control, power kept in reserve. Steam does the most work when it makes the least noise. Not a few of us need less noise and more poise. Things need not shatter to matter. There is more might in the sunlight falling silently upon a small patch of earth than in the crashing of thunder and flashing of lightning in a terrific storm. We do well to store up the capital of quietude against the day of need

Thus prautes describes power under control. Just as wisdom is the right use of knowledge, so gentleness is the right use of authority and power

Self Control (KJV = temperance) (1466)(egkrateia or enkrateia from en = in + kratos = power to rule <> the stem krat- speaks of power or lordship) means literally a holding oneself in or the ability to take a grip of oneself. This meaning reminds one of our modern slang expression "Get a grip"! Egkrateia refers to the restraining of passions and appetites that originate from the Old Self.

“FAITHFULNESS”—this is the quality of reliability or trustworthiness; a person upon whom you can utterly rely and his words you can trust. “He who is faithful in little will be allowed to be faithful in much.”

John 15:1-5 ““I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”