Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness,
Paul has just set the flesh and the Spirit against each other inside the believer. Now he stops describing the fight and names what one side produces — a list that starts with sins of impurity and raises a hard question: what has such a list to do with anyone who belongs to Christ?
The first thing Paul says about these works is that they are obvious. They need no discernment to spot. They fall into two broad kinds, and they can show up even where people profess Christ:
"Now the works of the flesh are evident" — there was no difficulty in recognising them. So you have human corruption and human violence. You have idolatry and sorcery brought in, and on the other hand dissensions and divisions, which refer to the party-spirit that might be at work even among people who profess to be Christians. A child of God might slip into any of these evil things for a time. But Paul pronounces a solemn sentence on them: "those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
The obvious works are not everything the flesh does. Some of its activity never reaches this list, and the entries that do reach it do not all repel us in the same way:
These verses (Gal. 5:19-21) give us a very dark catalogue of the works of the flesh, which are evident. Other workings of the flesh are not open and obvious, and only the spiritual can discern them. There is the mind of the flesh (Col. 2:18); and the flesh in its religious form, in which Paul could put no confidence (Phil. 3:3-4). But even among the evident works of the flesh, some offend us morally and others do not. They all offend God: "for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15).
One commentator groups the whole list under seven heads. This verse supplies the first of them:
In the remaining verses of the chapter the Apostle contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. It seems that he sums up the works of the flesh under seven heads. First comes the lusts of the flesh: "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality." Then the superstition of the flesh: "idolatry" and "sorcery." Then the malice of the flesh, "enmity," leading to "strife"…
The list never sorts these sins into serious and minor. Sexual sin comes first, but temper and rivalry sit in the same column.
Who but the Spirit of God would have given the unholy list in this way? Who but He would have put fits of anger, strife and the like in the same category as offences everyone knows are vile — sexual immorality, murder and drunkenness? Man would have sorted them, putting first the ones that looked worst to him… But not so the Holy Spirit. He traces all to the one root. Whether it is murder or strife, sect-making (that is what "divisions" means here), or rivalries — which may even happen among believers — all of it comes from the flesh. And the flesh is incurably evil, in the saint as much as in the unconverted sinner.
The entries that trouble the conscience least carry the sharpest warning:
The lust of the flesh brings forth its works as evil opportunity allows. Paul now lists them in their main varieties, as things the spiritual mind should fear and hate. They describe the evil activities of our fallen and marred humanity… A few deserve special notice: those which offend the natural conscience less, and for that very reason are more dangerous to the unwatchful believer.
Paul does not use the same word here that he uses for the Spirit's side three verses later:
There is a remarkable point in chapter 5, if we pay attention to it. It shows the character of this power that works in us. In verses 19 and 22 we see the contrast between "the works of the flesh" and "the fruit of the Spirit." Why are the words different? "Works" imply effort; the natural man understands this; it expresses his life in the world. But there is no effort connected with the thought of "fruit." No amount of trying would ever get fruit from a tree.
- One root. Paul traces every item — from murder down to rivalry — back to one source: the flesh. It stays incurably evil in the believer as much as in the unbeliever.
- Root on display. Paul calls these works evident because they need no discernment to spot. The flesh puts human corruption and human violence on public view.
- Display is partial. Other workings only the spiritual can detect: the mind of the flesh, and the flesh in its religious form.
- Danger in the tame ones. The Spirit refused to rank these sins by how bad they look to us. So the items your conscience hardly notices are the most dangerous, and a child of God can slip into them for a time.
- Root against root. The flesh yields works — effort, noise, activity. The Spirit yields fruit, and no amount of trying produces fruit.
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, disputes, schools of opinion,
Paul is listing what the flesh produces when nothing holds it back. The company these sins keep is startling: quarrelling and jealousy stand next to sorcery and murder.
This list is not a random sample of human evil. Paul wrote it for readers who had gone back to law-keeping.
The law and the flesh go together, and applying the law provokes the flesh. As Paul wrote elsewhere, "if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'" That is why bringing the law back among the Galatians came with such a vigorous display of the works of the flesh.
We sort sins into serious ones and minor ones. This list refuses that sorting.
Who but the Spirit of God would have given the unholy list in this way? Who but He would have put wrath and quarrelling in the same class as notoriously vile offences like fornication, murder, and drunkenness? Man would have sorted them, putting them in the order that seemed serious to him… But not so the Holy Spirit. He traces all to the one root. Whether it is murder or strife, sect-making (that is what "heresies" means), or rivalry — which may even happen among believers — all of it comes from the flesh. The flesh is incurably evil.
Idolatry and sorcery sound like carved images and spells. One writer, living in China, points to forms much closer to home.
We may make other idols than the ones we see around us in China. My house may become my idol, or my books, or my study, or even my child. Anything that takes the place that God alone should have is an idol… And how many people are what we call "superstitious"! There are many things they will not do, because they say it will bring them "bad luck." This all comes under the heading of "witchcraft."
The word translated "sorcery" turns up again in Revelation:
Revelation uses another word for sorceries, pharmakeia. It refers to drugs, "to stupefy with drugs," and then to any system of sorcery by spells… Sorcery belongs with the worst of sins, and Revelation uses the word for the professing church too, pictured as Babylon. The same word is translated "witchcraft" in Galatians 5:20.
The middle of the verse turns to how believers treat each other. One writer takes these words in order and cuts off our usual excuse.
How easy it is to have a spirit of enmity against a brother. He may have wronged us, and we do not forgive; after the enmities comes quarrelling. The enmities we may have kept in our heart, but very soon it comes out in an open quarrel. The fault, we think, is all on his side. But when we quarrelled as children, my mother always told us: "It takes two to make a quarrel." We can be certain that if we are mixed up in a quarrel, it is because we have yielded to the flesh… Then comes jealousy, one of the most common things in the heart of man. Then come outbursts of anger. We call it "quick-tempered" or "short-tempered," but it is one of the works of the flesh.
"Rivalries" names something most of us learned young:
Rivalry is the work of the flesh. It is the principle behind most of our education. But in its spirit it is the exact opposite of the Spirit of Him "who did not quarrel or cry aloud, nor make His voice heard in the streets."
The verse ends with "dissensions, divisions" — older versions say "seditions, heresies." One writer draws the line between splitting a church and teaching error.
The apostle uses "heresy" for a party of self-will, a faction that cuts itself off from the assembly… A split inside soon becomes a split outside. False teaching, by contrast, looks for shelter inside, hoping to spread through the whole like yeast.
The verse sets such a person beside idolatry and murder:
What terrible company the sect-maker is put in here… Scattering and dividing the saints of God is plainly a fleshly and devilish work.
- Root. Every item in the verse comes from one source: the flesh. Murder, sect-making and rivalry all rise from the same spring.
- Provoked. Law does not hold the flesh down; it stirs it up. When the Galatians went back to law, these very works broke out.
- Unranked. The Spirit refuses our grading of sin. He sets temper and quarrelling beside the sins we call notorious.
- Everyday. Idolatry is anything that takes God's place — a house, books, a child. Fear of "bad luck" falls under sorcery.
- Divisive. "Heresy" here means a self-willed party that splits off. The verse names the sect-maker in the same breath as the murderer.
envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revels, and things like these; as to which I tell you beforehand, even as I also have said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit God's kingdom.
Paul ends his list of the works of the flesh with a warning he had already given the Galatians once before. So what is the warning for? Does it leave believers unsure of their standing, or does it show what the flesh is and where it ends up?
He closes the list with a sentence of exclusion, and points out that they have heard it from him before.
You have here human corruption and human violence. You have idolatry and witchcraft brought in. On the other hand there are divisions and sects, which point to the party-spirit that might be at work even among people who claim to be Christians. A child of God might slip into any of these evil things for a time. But the sentence on them is solemn: "I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
The verse sets envy and drunkenness beside offences everyone calls vile. That is not how people usually rank sins.
Who but the Spirit of God would have given the unholy list in this way? Who but He would have put wrath, quarrelling and the like in the same class as such notoriously vile offences as fornication, murders and drunkenness? Man would have sorted them by how serious they looked in his own eyes… But not so the Holy Spirit. He traces all to the one root. Murder or strife, sect-making (that is what "heresies" means), or rivalry, which can even appear among believers — all of it comes from the flesh. And the flesh is evil beyond cure, in the believer as much as in the unconverted sinner.
Two sins in this list — drunkenness and revelling, which the ESV calls "orgies" — are the ones society is quickest to excuse.
"Drunkenness" and "revellings" usually harm the person who indulges in them more than they harm anyone else, so ordinary moralists judge them leniently. Revellings, under slightly changed names, count among the accepted social customs of a society that calls itself Christian. Fashion, not the love and fear of God, decides how far this license may go, whether personal or social… But against these things the Spirit has perpetual war.
The list is not complete, and the closing phrase is no filler. It covers every sin the apostle did not name.
The apostle closes his list of things that are "obvious" with the sweeping phrase "and things like these." Hidden in it lies an ambush of countless other "passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." The Spirit of grace urges God's children, as strangers and exiles, to keep away from them. They all share one character, because they all contradict the will of God and go against the leading of the Spirit. The varieties of self-pleasing are as endless as the differences of face and form among people… Only those who are born of God can inherit the kingdom of God, and so they not only rejoice in His goodness but also, in spite of their natural selves, watch His ways and copy them.
The verse speaks of those who do such things — a settled practice, not a single fall.
Here the apostle disowns those who persist in an evil course… The truest believer may fall into the gravest sins when he stops watching himself. But you could not say he lives in them; they do not mark out his life. The Spirit of God works on the believer's conscience, so he owns and confesses his sin, and he receives forgiveness and cleansing. Such statements are not meant to stir up doubts in the hearts of saints. They are meant to test and sift what people claim to be.
So the warning does not hang a threat over the Christian. It works by contrast.
Unbelievers practise such things: it is their life, their character. What a shame, then, if even a little of a believer's conduct looks like the conduct of someone bound for eternal punishment! Paul is not threatening the believer with this. He is showing him how wretchedly inconsistent it is to act as the world acts, when his own character and destiny are so far from the world's.
That leaves the practical question: how is the flesh held in check?
The remedy for the working of the flesh is not in trying to regulate it by law. It is in freedom from the flesh, by walking in the Spirit.
- One root. Envy, temper and party-spirit spring from the same source as murder and drunkenness. That source is the flesh, and it is evil beyond cure in believer and unbeliever alike.
- One open list. "Things like these" leaves no loophole. Every kind of self-pleasing goes against God's will and against the Spirit's leading.
- One repeated warning. Paul had said it before and says it again. The solemn sentence tests what people claim; it is not there to unsettle believers.
- One dividing line. A true believer may fall into these sins. He confesses them, and God cleanses him. His life is not marked by them — and that is what "those who do such things" means.
- One remedy. The answer to the flesh is not a stricter rule. Freedom comes by walking in the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity,
Paul has just listed the works of the flesh; now he turns to what the Spirit produces in a believer. That change of word — fruit instead of works — sets up the whole passage. It raises a practical question: is a good life something we make, or something that grows?
Commentators point to the difference between noisy activity and quiet growth.
Notice the contrast between the "works" and the "fruit." The "works" are easy to understand. Their noise fills the earth. You can see their confusion and damage on every side. "Fruit," on the other hand, grows silently, even in nature. In summer, no one in the orchards is bothered by the noise of ripening fruit. The wonder of its growth takes place without a sound. So it is with the fruit of the Spirit. Notice that it says "fruit," not "fruits." These lovely moral features are thought of as one bunch. There are nine of them, but they all grow from one stem — the Spirit of God.
The word "works" carries the sense of straining; "fruit" does not.
"Works" mean effort. A person without God's Spirit understands that, because effort is what his life in this world is made of. But there is no effort in the thought of "fruit." No amount of trying would ever get fruit from a tree. If the tree is in the right climate, healthy and watered, it will bear fruit.
The order is not random. Love heads the list, and the rest are treated as its outgrowth.
If we turn to Galatians 5:22, we find the first fruit of the Spirit is love. All the other fruits grow out of that one. If love is missing, the rest is only artificial fruit tied onto a tree — it never grew there... The next on the list is joy. Our joy will always match our love. This is an unfailing principle. And so it is with the next, peace. If, in all we do and say and think, we are moved by love, we shall enjoy a peace which nothing can disturb.
The first three named are a condition of soul, and the rest depend on them.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so on… Notice that the first of these fruits are love, joy, peace. The Spirit does produce the practical fruits that show the life of Christ to other people. But the inward fruits come first — the ones that face God. They are the state of soul the others grow out of.
This is why happiness in God changes how we take insults from others.
If I am fully happy in God, I do not mind when someone insults me; I take it patiently. I am fully happy, and my soul rests in these blessed affections. So nothing else has power to pull me away.
Read the list as a portrait. It describes a person.
But what is this list? It is a beautiful description of Christ as He walked through this world in lowliness. So if such fruit is seen in believers, it will result in the reproduction of Christ in His people. Christ Himself has gone from this world. But God intends the character of Christ to still show in those who belong to Him. Christ in person has gone to the Father's house. Christ in character continues in His people on earth.
Gifts and public service are given to some. This fruit is not limited that way.
We are not all gifted, or called to be teachers and preachers, or to undertake great works. But "the fruit of the Spirit" is open to every believer, from the youngest to the oldest. It is the one thing all true service needs.
As for how it comes, writers point away from effort and toward time spent with Christ.
The Spirit of God works to reproduce in us the likeness of the One we give our attention to. It is not a question so much of trusting Him as studying Him; it is a matter of love rather than of faith. As we love Him, we come to resemble Him. So the Spirit produces in our lives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The closing phrase answers the argument about the law head-on. Law can command love, but it cannot grow it.
But all these are the fruits of the Spirit; and he adds, "against such things there is no law." When did law ever produce these? So the law will never condemn those who walk in these things… If you are producing these fruits of the Spirit, there is no condemnation against them.
Those who press law on Christians face a further problem.
By the law they can never produce fruit like this. And even if someone could keep the law perfectly, the result would still not compare to the beauty and worth of the fruit of the Spirit.
- One stem — it is fruit, not fruits: nine features hanging together as one bunch, all drawing from the Spirit of God.
- One root — love stands first, and joy and peace follow. Without love, the rest is fruit tied onto a tree that never grew there.
- Inward first — the state of soul that faces God comes first, and the qualities others see follow. Being happy in God is what makes an insult bearable.
- One likeness — the list is a portrait of Christ. He has gone to the Father, and His character is meant to continue in His people.
- No effort, no law — fruit grows quietly out of time spent with Christ. Law has nothing to say against it, and never had power to produce it.
meekness, self-control against such things there is no law.
The list of the Spirit's fruit ends with two quiet qualities: gentleness and self-control. Then comes a verdict that answers the teachers who were pushing the Galatians back under law: no law stands against such things.
The flesh has "works." The Spirit has "fruit" — and the singular matters.
Notice the contrast between the "works" and the "fruit." It is easy to understand the "works." The earth is filled with the noise of them. Their confusion and disruption are visible on every side. "Fruit," on the other hand, is of silent growth, even in nature. In summer time, among the orchards no one is driven to distraction by the noise of maturing fruit. The wonder of its growth takes place without a sound. So it is with the fruit of the Spirit. You notice it is "fruit," not "fruits." That is because these lovely moral features are thought of as one bunch: nine in number, but all growing from one stem — the Spirit of God.
Older translations read "meekness, temperance." Both words point inward, to a curb on what we are by nature.
Then he gets down to what deals more with one another: "meekness, temperance." These suppose a bridle put on the evil nature — the self-control which the Holy Spirit works in the soul for the Lord's sake. We are clearly set in this world to be a letter of Christ, so that we should not give a false character to Him whose name we bear.
One of these qualities gives up its rights. The other wins a victory inside.
Gentleness (or meekness) is the quality that submits to personal humiliation, if need be. It does not demand our personal "rights" as we see them. Self-control is a great inner conquest. Proverbs 16:32 reminds us: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." In contrast, "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls" (Proverbs 25:28).
Self-control also guards what we know. Knowledge without it swells the head.
Temperance is needed in our knowledge. In Galatians 5:23, this same word is translated "self-control." Knowledge without self-control may leave us puffed up with a sense of self-importance, as it did the Corinthian believers.
God will not condemn what He Himself has produced.
It is not God's way to seek to produce holiness in the flesh through the law. The flesh is not subject to the law, and cannot be. God gives a new life in Christ, and the Holy Spirit, to produce fruits which are acceptable to Him. Against these fruits there is no divine law. God cannot condemn the fruits of His own Spirit.
Those who press law as the rule of life must admit two things.
Those who love to teach the law must admit that there is no law against the nine lovely fruits we have just been considering. Further, they must admit that they can never bring forth such fruit as these by the law. And even if one could keep the law perfectly, the result still could not compare to the beauty and preciousness of the fruit of the Spirit.
The one who is not under law is the one who fulfils it.
If I am walking after the law, I do not fulfil it; if I am walking after the Spirit, I do. The same teaching appears in Galatians 5. If we walk according to the Spirit, there are good fruits: "against such there is no law." On the contrary, the law justifies the fruits of the Spirit. But the Spirit never justifies the ways of any man who makes the law his rule of life.
Read the nine together and a familiar figure appears.
What is this but a beautiful description of Christ as He passed through this world in humiliation? So when such fruit appears in believers, it reproduces Christ in His people. Christ Himself has gone from this scene. But God intends that the character of Christ should still be seen in those who are Christ's.
- One stem. Nine qualities, one fruit. It grows quietly from one stem, the Spirit. Effort does not assemble it.
- One bridle. Gentleness gives up its rights. Self-control rules its own spirit. Both look inward, where the flesh is loudest.
- One verdict. No law condemns this, because God will not condemn the fruit of His own Spirit.
- One impossibility. The law never produced these things. Even perfect law-keeping could not match their beauty.
- One portrait. The full list is Christ's own character, and the Spirit reproduces it in His people.