Read: Galatians 5:16-25

In this series, we will focus our study primarily on Galatians 5. Today we continue on part 3 of our “Life in the Spirit” series.

The “works of the flesh” can be broken into these categories: - 

These 3 have to do with the works of the flesh in the area of sexuality:
1.   Sexual immorality – ‘pornea’ – sexual intercourse between unmarried people
2.   Impurity – ‘akatharsia’ – unnatural sexual practices and relationships
3.   Debauchery – ‘aselgia’ – uncontrolled sexuality

These 2 have to do with the area of religion:
1.   Idolatry – ‘eidololatria’
2.   Witchcraft – ‘pharmakeia’
Because idolatry is paired with witchcraft, it is not referring to the very broad inclusive practice of making good things like career into ‘god’. Rather, he is referring to the very specific occult and pagan religious practices.

These 8 describe how the flesh destroys relationships: - 

4 describes destructive attitudes:
1.   Selfish ambition – ‘eritheia’ – competitiveness, self-seeking
2.   Envy – ‘phthonoi’ – coveting, a desire for what others have
3.   Jealousy – ‘zdlos’ – the zeal and energy that comes from a hungry ego
4.   Hatred – ‘echthrai’ – hostility, adversarial attitude

4 describes the results of these attitudes in relationships:
1.   Discord – ‘eris’ – argumentative, fight picking behavior
2.   Fits of rage – ‘thumoi’ – outbursts, of anger (leading to no.3….
3.   Dissensions – ‘dichostaiai’ – divisions between people
4.   Faction – ‘aireseis’ – permanent parties and warring factions

These 2 refer to substance abuse: -
1. Drunkenness
2. Orgies
These two are linked. Orgies are not “sex-orgies” but “drinking orgies”. One of the works of the flesh is addiction to pleasure creating substances and behavior.

Another way to break down this list into categories is to notice that some of the sins are characteristic of religious people (selfishness, envy, jealousy, factions), while others are more characteristic of irreligious people (immorality, drunkenness). This list shows us that God does not make the kind of distinctions that we commonly do, seeing sex and drunkenness as more sinful than jealousy and ambition.

Paul says that the “flesh” (Galatians 5:16) is the drive to continue to live “under law’ (Galatians 5:17). In other words, underneath every problem and difficulty is a residual self-righteousness, left over systems of self-salvation.

Why are we bitter? Why are we in despair? Why are we worried? Why do we do so many of the good things we do?
– Because something more important than Jesus is operating as our functional righteousness and worth. 

If we don’t repent of the self-righteousness under our sins, we won’t be able to fight and reduce the power fueling them. If we don’t repent of the self-righteousness under our good deeds, we will set ourselves up for anxiety and anger when things don’t go well because we feel God owes us.

The Gospel leads to true repentance of the heart, not just superficial transformations. The religious will focus and work on simply changing behavior, while the irreligious will focus and work on simply changing or accommodating emotions. But repentance gets into what is under both behavior and feelings to the root of the problem. True transformation comes only when we address what’s internal and underneath, such as – greed, envy, pride, hatred, prejudice, vanity. 

What do you learn about the human heart from this list? What do you learn about yourself from this list?