What are the works of the flesh?

(Vv. 19-21.) In the remaining verses of the chapter the Apostle contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. It would appear that he sums up the works of the flesh under seven heads: Firstly, he refers to the lusts of the flesh, "fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness" (N.Tn.) Secondly, the superstition of the flesh, "idolatry" and "sorcery": Thirdly, the malice of the flesh, "hatred," leading to "strifes": Fourthly, the jealousy of the flesh, "jealousies," leading to "angers" and "contentions" Fifthly, the reasoning of the flesh, leading to "contentions, disputes" and "schools of opinion": Sixthly, the self-love of the flesh, leading to "envyings" and "murders" Seventhly, the worldly indulgence of the flesh, leading to "drunkenness, revellings, and such like."

Such is the terrible and unchanging character of the flesh, and those who live in these evils shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, disputes, schools of opinion, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revels, and things like these” (5:19-21a)

[4] The fourth point of this new walk is connected with the contrast between the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Here Paul summarizes the works of the flesh. We have many lists of the works of the flesh in the New Testament, Romans 1, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 1 and 2 Timothy 3, for example. Here he gives also a list and we can divide it into four categories. The first category involving fornication, uncleanness and licentiousness has to do with sexual sins. The second category, idolatry and sorcery, has to do with false worship, including witchcraft. The third category contains eight points and has to do with social and personal relationships. These words are difficult to follow, for there are so many different translations of them. Hatred is mentioned here and there, as emphasis on enmity and strife in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, which is peace. The third category is envy, which is a special evidence of the flesh. We have to humble ourselves before the Lord. How easily some of these things are displayed among believers! Contentions are divisions, actions, or disputes, a word that is also used in Romans 16:17, where Paul says, “Consider those who cause division.”It is a work of the flesh, of forming schools of opinion, which is the idea of sects or denominations. These four categories summarize the works of the flesh over against the fruit of the Spirit.

“…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.” (5:21b)

The works of the flesh are solemnly and fully enumerated, and in such a manner as to mark the holy hand of the Spirit of God. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these; adultery], fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 19-21). Who but the Spirit of God would have given the unholy list thus? Who but He would have placed wrath, variance, etc. in the same category with such notoriously vile offences as fornication, murders, and drunkenness? Man would have classified them, arranging them in the order in which they appeared heinous in his sight. Offences that are lesser, in human judgment, would have been placed in one class, and bolder sins in another. But not so the Holy Spirit. He traces all to the one root. Whether it be murder or strife, sect-making (for such is the meaning of "heresies"), or emulations (which may even happen among brethren), all comes from the flesh, which is incurably evil, whether in the saint or the unregenerate sinner. In like manner the Lord Jesus exposed the heart of man to His disciples in Matt. 15:19. All evil flows thence. The spring being impure, all that flows from it is offensive to God.

Let every believer watch himself with earnest godly care. Flesh must be treated as a dead and judged thing, and then all is well; but if it be allowed to work, though but for a moment, any evil may follow. Those who persist in an evil course the apostle repudiates altogether here. He presses it in this place on the Galatians, as elsewhere on the Ephesians (Eph. 5:5), that those also who live thus shall not inherit God's kingdom. The truest believer may, through unwatchfulness, fall into the gravest sins; but such cannot be said to live in them — they do not characterise their lives. The believer, through the action of the Spirit of God on his conscience, owns and confesses his sin, and gets forgiveness and cleansing. Such statements are not intended to encourage doubts in the hearts of saints, but to test and sift profession. There is much of it in this day. On every hand there is boastful profession of Christianity; but in how many cases is the fruit lacking which God looks for! 2 Tim. 3:1-5 may well be pondered in this connection.

After this the apostle draws out the contrast of the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit.

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest" — there was no difficulty to discern them — "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." Thus you have human corruption and human violence. You have idolatry and witchcraft brought in, and on the other hand, seditions and heresies, which refer to the party-spirit that might be at work even under a christian profession. A child of God might slip into any of these evil things for a time; but there is a solemn sentence pronounced upon them — "Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." He warns them now, as he had while he was with them, "that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Whatever the difficulty may be, let us never doubt, but most firmly receive it as from God, that Christ is the power of God to every one that believes. He is the power of God not merely to justification, but to salvation; and salvation, while it includes justification, goes far beyond it, because it takes in all the course of a christian man till he is actually in the resurrection state along with Christ. This is the meaning of the verse, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" — not your own forgiveness, but your own salvation. It is said to those who were already forgiven. Thus, salvation, in the sense spoken of there, implies the whole conflict with the power of evil we are passing through. We know that we have to do with the common enemy; but God is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We know the deep concern and regard which God feels for us, as committed to this conflict. We are fighting under His orders — doing His will in that thing as well as in others. So far is God from leaving us in any way, that He assures our soul He is pledged to see us through to the end; but He will have a solemn sense of the war with Satan in which we are engaged.

Then we have, on the other side, "the fruit of the Spirit is love." He begins with love — that which is of God, and flows directly from God, and which is the knowledge of God's character more than any other thing. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." Such are the first and weightiest effects produced by God's love. Then he gets down to what would more particularly deal with one another: "meekness, temperance," because these suppose the bridle put upon the evil nature — the self-control which the Holy Ghost works in the soul for the Lord's sake, as evidently being set in this world to be an epistle of Christ, so that we should not give a false character to Him whose name we bear. But all these are the fruits of the Spirit; and he adds, "against such there is no law." When did law ever produce these? So the law will never condemn those who walk in these things; as he says to the Roman saints, Romans 13, speaking of governors and rulers, "Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to thee for good." So here, "against such there is no law." If you are producing these fruits of the Spirit, there is no condemnation against them.

Is the old nature then forgotten? Or is the law needed for disciplining it? The belief so thinks; but the word says, on the contrary, "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." He shows that all that are Christ's have gone through the great question of what was not His: they have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. They have submitted, by faith, to the sentence of death on all their nature — they have "crucified the flesh." We know, of course, that it is only really and fully done in Christ — that it is in the cross of Christ that the crucifixion of the flesh, with all its lusts, has taken place. Hence, too, it is true of every believer. The flesh, with the affections and lusts, is a thing already done with in God's sight. If we are Christians at all, we have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. If it were only a person just born of God, he might say he has "crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts."

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:19-21.)

What a dark catalogue of the works of the flesh which are manifest. There are other workings of the flesh which are not open and palpable, and which can only be judged by those who are spiritual. There is 'the fleshly mind' (Col. 2:18), and 'the flesh' in its religious aspect, in which Paul could have no confidence. (Phil. 3:3-4.) But even in the works of the flesh which are manifest, while some are morally offensive to us, others are not so, but are equally offensive to God. We draw distinctions between these works which the apostle classes together. While outward sensuality and libertinism is reprobated as fearfully evil and injurious to human society; 'variance, emulations, wrath, strife, heresies,' are not regarded in so dark a light; and yet they prove equally, that there is no fear of God as an influential principle, and they equally exclude from 'the kingdom of God.' 'Emulation' is the work of the flesh. It is the principle on which most of us have been educated; but it is in its spirit the most opposite to the Spirit of Him "who did not strive, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street." 'Emulation,' as rivalry, or competition, is the life of the world; it is honoured and respected; but it is but "the potsherd striving with the potsherd of the earth," to the utter forgetfulness of the real condition of man before God, as a lost and ruined sinner, and real greatness in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:1-7.) 'Envyings and murders' are grouped together, even as they came into the world together in Cain. 'Drunkenness and revellings' are found together; and 'such like' comprises all those exciting and refined amusements, for which men are content to pay so dearly. The world is glad to restrain some of the more gross works of the flesh for its own sake, whilst they encourage, as necessary and even advantageous, 'emulations,' 'revellings, and such like.' Herod heard John gladly up to a certain point; but when John plainly touched his conscience, by saying, "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife," he put John in prison. 'Seditions and heresies,' party-spirit in the State, and party-spirit in the Church, for such is heresy, may often be found combined together against the truth of God. In this epistle, whilst the apostle presents us with a rich exhibition of the grace of God, he comes in with a most unsparing hand against the flesh, its lusts, its affections, and its works. Stern as the apostle is against the corrupters of the grace of the gospel, he is no less stern in his denunciation of practical ungodliness. "I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

The verses which follow (Gal. 5:19-21) give us a very dark catalogue of the works of the flesh, which are manifest. There are other workings of the flesh which are not open and palpable, which can only be discerned by those who are spiritual. There is the mind of the flesh (Col. 2:18); and the flesh in its religious aspect, in which Paul could have no confidence (Phil. 3:3-4). But even in the manifest works of the flesh, while some are morally offensive to us, others are not so; but they are all offensive to God "for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15).

In this epistle, whilst the beloved apostle presents us with a rich exposition of the grace of God, he deals unsparingly with the flesh, its lusts, its affections, and its works. How happy the contrast to the works of the flesh is the fruit of the Spirit. This precious fruit is produced by the Spirit as we abide in Christ. "In Me is thy fruit found;" and again, The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. … He that abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit" (John 15:4-5). Compared with the dark catalogue of the works of the flesh, the fruit of the Spirit is a cluster of beautiful variety, fragrant with the perfections of Christ. Let us repeat the words of the apostle, "Against such there is no law! How searching is the closing exhortation! "If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit. Let us not become vain-glorious, provoking one another, envying one another." If we were ever walking in the Spirit, we should be "unknown, yet well-known;" passing as pilgrims and strangers through the world, without joining in its restless interests. The words of the Lord would then assume a deeper significance for us, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

Verses 19-21. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these," etc. The lust of the flesh brings forth, according to its evil opportunities, its works, which are now specified, in their principal varieties, as objects of fear and abhorrence to the spiritual mind. What is here presented to us is a general description of the evil activities of our fallen and marred humanity, and offers to our contemplation a dreadful and most humiliating catalogue of the capabilities, the tendencies, and the effects of an unregenerate and therefore godless will. It is a sufficient, but not exhaustive, statement of the moral ground of the sentence by which "flesh and blood" are for ever excluded from the kingdom of God. Of these things it is needless here to speak particularly. A few however may be noticed of those among them which, being less offensive to the natural conscience, are on that account more dangerous to the unwatchful saint.

"Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and the like." These things may not all appear equally heinous in our sight, but they are all the works of the flesh. Yes, variance, strife, and envyings are as truly the works of the flesh as adultery, heresies, and murder. Corruption and death always follow in their wake, not only for the individual who gathers any one of them, and who, to change the figure to that most solemn one given by the Holy Ghost, must reap what he has sown, for God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7), but for many others also, who are associated with him as a member of Christ's body. It is because this is so that we are exhorted to "Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, AND THEREBY MANY BE DEFILED" (Heb. 12:14-15).

We get in Galatians 5 a good description of “gold, silver, precious stones” in the enumeration of the qualities constituting the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, [how impatient we are apt to be, the impatience of the flesh] gentleness, [how rough we often are], goodness, faith, meekness, temperance [self-restraint], against such there is no law.” But we have the works of the flesh, answering to “wood, hay, stubble”—“adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, [snares of the passions of the human body, which need to be guarded against with earnestness and resolution] idolatry, witchcraft [snares whereby the devil seeks to catch men. It includes the temple worship of the heathen, but it takes in more than that. The covetous man is an idolater. Many have been “kicked to death by the golden calf,”] hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, [in the main, the expression of a self-centred fleshly life], drunkenness, revellings [the gratifications of the appetite], and such like.”

The next two on the list are idol-worship and witchcraft. How much we see in China of these two works of the flesh. Some people try to tell us these things are not altogether bad; but how much better it is to believe the Word of God, and flee from idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14). And remember the Apostle John's last words in his first epistle are: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." For we may make other idols than those 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. Do not let us think these words have nothing to say to us. And how many persons there are who 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," and is one of the works of the flesh. Christ has made us free from all such things; let us stand firm in this freedom.

Then come eight bad works towards my brethren. First, enmities. 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 come 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 were children and we quarrelled together, my mother always told us: "It takes two to make a quarrel." We may be certain if we are mixed up in a quarrel, it is because we have yielded to the flesh. Only by pride cometh contention! (Prov. 13:10.) Then comes jealousy, one of the most common things in the heart of man. Then outbursts of anger. We call it "quick-tempered" or "short-tempered," but it is one of the works of the flesh. In 2 Peter 3:9 we read that the Lord is "long-tempered to us-ward." Then self-seeking. In Philippians 2:21 we read: "All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." Nearly all the Christians, even of Paul's day, had fallen under the power of this terrible work of the flesh. There was one young man who was exempt, and that was Timothy; so we might see that there is a way not to put into effect even this work of the flesh.