All Worked Up

Have you ever tried repeatedly to do something only to have someone else come along and blow right past you doing it extremely well?

What is your reaction to that?

Galatians 5:19–26 ESV

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

The past few passages leave us in no doubt as to the kinds of things to which our sinful natures prompt us. In verse 15, for example, we have a warning against ‘biting and devouring each other’, a warning which, if unheeded, will result in us being ‘destroyed by each other’. Again, at the end of the chapter, we are exhorted to ‘not become conceited, provoking and envying each other’ (v. 26). And in between there is that most disturbing list which Paul gives us in verses 19–21. A number of comments may be made on it.

It is not exhaustive

It tells us the capacity of sin within the heart of man.

It tells us the result of capitulation

It is not just a warning to unbelievers

The ESV Study Bible (Chapter 5)

The present participle (Gk. prassontes, translated here as “do”) refers to those who “make a practice of doing” such things, as a pattern of life. Their outward conduct indicates their inward spiritual status: that they are not born of God, do not have the Holy Spirit within, and are not God’s true children.

Two Important Words

Works and Fruit

One flows from a unredeemed heart and results in sinful behavior.

One flows from the Spirits presence in our lives.

Matthew 21:19 ESV

19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

John 15:5 ESV

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

The Solution

Romans 7:24 ESV

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

The Spirit is our guide and our teacher.

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The presence in our hearts of such diametrically opposed desires results in conflict. Don’t we sometimes feel as if we are being pulled in two different directions, indwelling sin wanting one thing, the Spirit moving us to want the opposite?

We are no longer unregenerate.

Opening Up Galatians (The Answer to the Problem (vv. 17–18))

helpless before a law which commands us to do this and that but which offers us no assistance, condemns us for our transgressions, and extends to us no forgiveness. Instead we enjoy the leading of the Spirit (v. 18), a ministry that enables us not only to know the right way to take but also to actually take it. The outcome of the conflict, in other words, is by no means always defeat!

We need to walk in and with the Spirit

As we do so, we will see the fruit of the Spirit actualized

So, which do you see more manifest in your life?

If the works of the flesh mark your life, repent and turn to Christ.

Galatians 5:15 ESV

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Galatians 5:26 ESV

26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:14 ESV

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

May the Spirit, and His fruit, be present in all of our lives.