Galatians 5:19-21 – Hall of Shame 3

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹But the works of the flesh are evident, which are (adultery), immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, ²⁰idolatry, drug-abuse, hostilities, quarrels, envies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, divisions, factions, ²¹jealousies, (murders), drunken bouts, wild parties, and the such like these, of which I foretold to you and told you before that those who habitually practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

In my previous posts I recorded some of the technical details in this passage; now for some more practical observations. First of all, it’s interesting to me that porneia (immorality) is at the top of the list. I don’t necessarily think there is any order at all to the list, yet, still, there it is, sexual sin at the top of the list. Our pastor last Sunday made the observation that knowing God not only means loving what He loves, it also means hating what He hates. Hmmmm. One of those things where my heart wonders if it really is seeing things through God’s eyes. Food for thought. What is mean is, yes, of course that is bad, but would it be at the top of my list of things I hate?

Second, I think it is revealing to me just to pause and consider this list. I think it is probably true of all of us that when we think of “works of the flesh” our minds naturally go to the immorality, drunken bouts, and wild parties.  Since I “don’t do that” I can then sit off to the side, congratulate myself, and go on unchanged. But that is not all that is in the list. It is interesting that Martin Luther made the same observation 500 years ago:

“I do not deny that the lust of the flesh includes carnal lust. But it takes in more. It takes in all the corrupt desires with which the believers are more or less infected, as pride, hatred, covetousness, impatience ...”

“But it takes in more.”   We have in our list five words for what we (and Luther) call carnal lusts: immorality, uncleanness, lasciviousness, drunken bouts, and wild parties. We also have idolatry and drug abuse. That makes seven and pretty well ends the list. Right? No. There are eight more. Eight. The group which actually makes up the single largest category in the list. And what are they? Go back and read them and see.

I don’t know if I’ve ever really looked this straight in the face. Most of the sins in the “works of the flesh” are what? They are just plain personal meanness: hostilities, quarrels, envies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, divisions, factions, jealousies, and some texts even follow all of this with murders!

Once again, I don’t think Paul intended this list itself to be exhaustive or in any particular order, but still it is worthy of note that these sins of personal meanness represent 8 of the 15 sins (more than half) and if you include the “murders” you’re up to 9!

As I alluded above, I suspect it has always been the tendency of believers to congratulate themselves that they don’t participate in what we might call the grosser sins of the list, then allow the sins of meanness to go unnoted. It saddens my heart to think that in too many churches par for the course is “hostilities, quarrels, envies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, divisions, factions, and jealousies”. On the way to a business meeting, a young child told her mother, “I don’t like to go to yelling meetings.” Yikes. And we wonder why so many young people grow up to “leave the church and never return.” Someone important once said, “By this shall all men know you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

Case in point once again is the very Reformation itself. I have enormous respect for Martin Luther and for John Calvin all of the men who risked their lives (many lost them) to reestablish the Bible as the supreme authority. But sadly their history is blackened by “hostilities, quarrels, envies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, divisions, factions, and jealousies”. As I have lamented before, only ten years after Luther lit the Reformation’s spark, protestants were murdering each other. And so it has continued down through the centuries. It is “okay” to be a Christian, to even be a leader in fundamental, evangelical circles and yet be a person who in reality is just plain mean. As long as you aren’t immoral (well, not in any ways that anyone else finds out about) and as long as you don’t attend wild parties, it is totally okay to be a hateful, mean-spirited person. In fact, you might even be praised for being so “militant.” Nice word but personally I’ve never been impressed. If the Bible really is the authority, then we need to let it speak … and what it is saying in Galatians 5:19-21 is that God doesn’t approve. Whether church groups do or don’t, God doesn’t. I wish somehow we could shout that from a rooftop.

But, of course, the biggest rooftop I need to shout it from is my own heart. When I look at myself, it is no wonder church “groups” are so mean-spirited. If everyone else is like me (and they are), then we are a collection of mean-spirited people. This is the very point I’ve been lamenting for some time. I wish the Spirit’s indwelling made a bigger difference in me. I think to myself, “Here I am, indwelt by the very third Person of the Trinity, with all that infinite wisdom and power and love so available to be my spirit, and yet still here I am a petty, discontent, impatient, easily angered, selfish little buffoon.” Guess I need to talk to myself like Luther: “Martin, you will never be without sin, for you have flesh. Despair not, but resist the flesh.” 

One of the commentators pointed out it is actually good for us to feel this nearly inconquerable struggle. He pointed out that it should keep our hearts constantly running back again to our real refuge, which is Christ Himself. If we will fight the battle, it is there to keep us humbled. Yes, I am myself a sinner. Yes, I struggle to maintain even a minimal representation of the person I should be. Even indwelt by the very Holy Spirit of God, I still do a miserable job of living out the Christ my heart really does love. The good news is that, as we studied above, the Holy Spirit Himself is inconquerable. He will be our guide, nudging us toward the right path, even though we spend most of our time off of it.

I guess what is important here in Galatians 5:19-21 is for us all to clearly and definitively see that our personal meanness is not okay; it is (and should be) a major part of our own personal Hall of Shame. It is NOT acceptable to God, and I need in my own heart to fight it (and hate it) and seek to keep it out of my life, just as much as I might “immorality, idolatry, drunkenness and wild parties”. My heart cannot be congratulating itself that I haven’t worshipped any idols or been to any “wild parties” lately, then be letting down the guard on my meanness. Both are my shame and both should be fought against. “We have seen the enemy, and he is ___.”

I guess the other thing I should do, since we are studying Galatians, is to point out once again, the answer to the struggle is not rules. That in a sense is the whole point of this book. I am reminded again of Michael W. Smith’s words,

“You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart …”

God help me to let the Holy Spirit be changing my heart as I seek to let Him change my behavior. May I not pick and choose from my Hall of Shame but determine to fight against all of it. As I would even try, may my successes be His glory and may my failures keep my heart leaning on Jesus’ breast.