The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 308

Yers. 19-21.-Classifiration of the works of the flesh. The picture here exhibited· by the apostle is a frightful a.byss into which he asks us to look down. We have sin in its many varieties pictured in many parts of Scripture (Rom. i. 18-32; 2 Cor. xiii. 2), bnt here we have a most complete account of the works of the flesh. I. THE WORKS OF TilE FLESH. The flesh and the body are not synonymous, The apostle usually speaks of the body in terms <>f respect-unlike QScetics, who .1'.egard it as an enemy, load it with abusive epithets, and try to weaken it with fasts and vigils and penances. He always depreciates and condemns the flesh as a constantly evil tendency in our actual nature. There are sins in this catalogue of an intellectual nature, which cannot be properly ascribed to the body, though they are true works of the flesh. The flesh represents, then, the whole system of corrupt nature, as it brel\ks forth into seventeen different forms of transgression. They fall naturally under four heads. 1. Sins of sensual passion. " Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness : " the first h~dly reckoned a sin in pagan countries; the second including unnatural sine, which had a fearful import in the East; the third, the impure propensity indulged without check of reason or shame. All three are grouped together elsewhere (2 Cor. xii 21). 2., S'i,ns oj superstition. "Idolatry, sorcery ; " the first referring to the worship of false, gods and of images, which was familiar to the Galatians in connection with idol-feasts; the second to the occult dealings with the world of spirits, so common in .Asia Mi11or. 3. Sins of social disorder. " Hatred, strife, envy, outbursts .of anger, ca"l'.illiqgs, divisions, factions, envyings, murders." It has been remarked.,that there. is a clim11,x in this catalogue of nine evils, for what begins in hatred ends in murder, after ~t has passed. through a whole succession of disturbing a.nd distracting .exper~nces. ,'.rJiey are all violat10ns of brotherly love, representing the selfish, unyielding" bitt.er spirit, .}Vhicbi tQo often enters into reactionary agitations l:>oth!. in Church. 1;1,nd .state. . 4. Individual euesses. "Drunkenness, revellings:" having exclusive relation to ourselves, not· to others. The two terms refeT to scenes o(,g!Ly a.nd wanton dissipation. , , Il. 'Im WORKS OF THE FLESH HAVE AN OVE_l;I.T .CHA,R.6.OTER. They are "manifest.'" The flesh, a.s the sinful principle, breaks out into open acts of tr!Lni;gression, which. are manifest a.like to God a.nd man, manifest by the light of. nature and. by the Law of God. We see the history of the flesh in the :whole, record, of. man's P).oral degradation and his resulting misery. These seventeen,SUIS may not all be equally manifest, for some are gross a.nd others more refined,; they ma.y not all be equally heinous in the• sight either of God or of man; and many_ of them, hateful in God's sight, carry i;io brand of social reprobation with man. Yet they a.re,a.11 me,nifest, open, tangible proofa, of a life at enmity with God. . - III. THE APOSTOLIC wABNING, "They who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 1. The kingdom of God, founded by Christ, is a. holy kingdom, and consists of those who have entered it by regeneration, who are led by the Spirit, who are heirs of the promise, who a.re "made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." 2. Transgressors prove their want of meetness f9r·it; they find no enjorment in it; it ha.s no attraction for them ; for these works of the flesh are altogether mcon- sisteut with the character of the kingdom of God. . IV. THE NECESSITY THAT EXISTS FOB REPEATED WARNINGS AGAINST SIN. "I tell you before, ae I have already told you in time past." We need "line uponi!ine, precept upon precept," to deepen the impression of the hatefulness of sin. It is well to convince sinners of their individual sins, that they ma.y be shut up to fly to the Refuge. Vers. 22, 23.-" TJ.e fruit of the Spirit." Here we have the picture of a lovely garden., with a.II the choicll&t growths of the Spirit. . I. THE NINE GRACES oF THE SPIRIT. (1) The a.postlti speaks of the nine as consti- tuting the fruit of the Spirit, a.s if to imply that it t~kes all the ,nine, and no mere selection of graces out of them, to form the one fruit of the Holy Spirit. Christian character must be fully and ha.rmoniow,ly -0eveloped. (:~) Mark the difference between the works of the flesh a.p.d the fruit of the Spirit. Sin is our work; the graces are CH, v. l-'26.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 275