Galatians 5:21, commentary and pictures

The verse names envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry and similar indulgences as open works of the lower nature, part of a longer list that includes impurity, idolatry, hatred, variance, wrath, strife and heresy. Those who keep doing and persisting in such things shut themselves out of God's kingdom and will not inherit it. The phrase and such like widens the warning to every like evil, including lying, stealing, Sabbath-breaking, selfishness, anger, covetousness, pride and impurity. These works stand directly opposite the fruit of the Spirit, which is pure love from Christ with joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. The escape is to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit, crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts and ruling every appetite instead of serving the lower nature.

Terms and Setting

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like are manifest works of the flesh, and those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God. They belong to a larger list that includes adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, and heresies. Such behavior is incompatible with belonging to Christ and stands opposite the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, peace, gentleness, self-control, joy, longsuffering, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. To corrupt mind or body by these fleshly practices dishonors Christ, who has bought the souls, minds, and bodies of all His creatures.

The phrase and such like extends the warning to every similar sin. It covers lying, Sabbath-breaking, stealing, idolatry, and every other sin, so that none who are untruthful, impure, or unrighteous can enter heaven. It likewise covers selfishness, covetousness, pride, and evil passions as fruits of evil control of the heart, and selfishness and anger which foster prejudice, secrecy, and division and oppose consecration to God.

Envy in the verse means desiring vainglory, provoking one another, and cherishing prejudice of brother against brother, causing division and discord. It is unlawful desire for another person's place or position, breeding dislike, resentment, deception, pride, accusations, and enmity, and driving out love for Christ. It appears as an unholy desire for supremacy, loving to be flattered, jealously watching for slights or neglect, and a hard, unforgiving spirit, showing the lack and need of a self-abasing, unpretending spirit.

The licentious sins committed at Beth-peor illustrate the verse. Those who practice such sins will surely meet retribution even though punishment may not fall as speedily now as then. They suffer in this life the natural penalties of degeneracy, disease, misery, suffering, imbecility, and death that cannot be hidden, and beyond this life face the tribunal of the Judgment with eternal penalty.

The warning was told before and repeated in time past because those who persist in such conduct will not inherit the kingdom. It applies both to those guilty of these actions and to those approaching them. It is decisive and allows no excuse for a rough character. Each person is therefore called to examine whether moving toward committing these sins, since jealousies and divisions bring weakness and God's disfavor.

Exclusion from Kingdom

Those who do, practice, persist in and continue in envy, drunkenness, revelry, murders and every like work of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdom of God but are shut out from it and have its gate closed against them. The warning was told before and is repeated in time past precisely because persistence in such conduct excludes from inheritance, and it applies both to those guilty of these actions and to those approaching them. It is decisive and allows no excuse for a rough character, calling instead for being led by the Spirit and turning from these works to walk in the Spirit, with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, having crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. It belongs to the Bible instruction that students are to study thoroughly, becoming doers of the Word who dig deep and lay a sure foundation through obedience to all of God's requirements in order to prepare to graduate to the higher school.

Relational sins such as hatred, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies and envyings are as serious as lasciviousness, adultery, fornication, drunkenness and murder and close the gate of heaven just as surely, because they are equally works of the flesh. This applies to Christians who contend with one another, warning that in trying to correct the faults of others they must beware lest in desiring vainglory, provoking one another and cherishing prejudice of brother against brother they commit sins equally great themselves and so be shut out of the kingdom of God. Separation from Christ is the cause of such division and discord in the church, and union with Christ is the secret of unity.

Beyond suffering in this life the natural penalties of degeneracy, disease, misery, suffering, imbecility and death that cannot be hidden, those who practice the licentious sins illustrated at Beth-peor will surely meet retribution even though punishment may not fall as speedily now as then, facing beyond this life the tribunal of the Judgment with eternal penalty. They are shut out from the kingdom of God to share with Satan and evil angels in the lake of fire which is the second death, for evil natures cannot inherit the kingdom and none who are untruthful, impure or unrighteous can enter heaven. A great price has been paid for redemption to make change possible through making Christ the personal Saviour and becoming true and pure and holy, but if sin is not destroyed in them there is only one course: the sinner must be destroyed and sin will destroy the sinner, just as Satan designed.

Jealousy of one another and variance prove unfitness for heaven and that individuals will never reach it, for nothing of that kind will exist there. Variance and disaffection arise from a divided heart open to the enemy's suggestions, in which Satan rejoices when he causes dissension. Believers must instead have the likeness of Christ in the heart right at home, making a little heaven on earth now through tenderness for one another, for rising up in spirit against those who speak of the errors of another crushes the plant of love and leaves the heart unfit for heaven.

Fanaticism is a work of the flesh produced when Satan's power acts on the carnal mind. Though it may be clothed to look like truth and righteousness, it cannot imitate the work of God, and when fully ripened its fruit is bitterness. Its end is perdition and death, set in the opposite direction from life and the glories of God's kingdom, as wide apart as Beelzebub from Christ, so the pure work of God and the counterfeit work of fanaticism must not be mixed together as if both came from heaven, nor must God's work be rejected because fanaticism appears beside it.

Flesh Opposed to Spirit

Envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry and every similar indulgence are manifest works of the flesh that are incompatible with belonging to Christ and shut the doer out of the kingdom of God. They stand directly opposite the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. That love is pure and unadulterated, proceeding from the heart of Christ, not a love-sick sentimentalism and not a beastly, defiling element that destroys all that is pure in mind or body and is death to both soul and body. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, and in union with Him show that fruit by restoring the erring in meekness and bearing one another's burdens instead of desiring vainglory, provoking one another, cherishing prejudice of brother against brother, and causing division and discord.

To live after the flesh is to allow the sensual appetites to rule the being. The lusts of the flesh are fulfilled when there is no walking in the Spirit, for they are the evil fruit of an evil tree done when the flesh lusts against the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit and be led of the Spirit is not to fulfill those lusts, and it frees from bondage to the law and from condemnation into the no-condemnation and freedom enjoyed by those in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit as the truly sanctified. The remedy is therefore to walk in the Spirit and be led of the Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body, and to purify the mind by obedience to the truth.

To corrupt the mind or the body by these fleshly practices dishonors Christ, who has bought the souls, minds, and bodies of all His creatures. They are the evil fruit of an evil tree, produced when the flesh lusts against the Spirit. When fleshly lust and carnal passions govern a person, sin corrupts the conscience and encourages skepticism about Christian truth.

These indulgences are filthiness of flesh and spirit that must be cleansed away in perfecting holiness in the fear of God. God's elect must remain untainted by such corruption, keeping their bodies holy and their spirits pure and allowing the Spirit to influence every action as they prepare for immortality in the last days.

Satan Division and Society

Envy with strife and jealousy is unholy fruit of a heart not in harmony with Jesus Christ and marks the children of Satan, who live in continual contradiction and variance with one another. Giving way to envying and jealousy is obedience to Satan rather than to Christ, for envy, strife, and jealousy are Satan's work and show the fruit of his influence. Those truly connected with God cannot live at variance with one another, because His Spirit ruling and working in the heart creates harmony, peace, love, and unity. The characteristic of the Christian is the meekness of Christ, and benevolence, kindness, mercy, and love originating from infinite wisdom are the opposite fruit, so every person is tested and professed followers are known by what fruit they bear. Those who persist in such evils will not inherit God's kingdom.

Separation from Christ is the cause of division and discord in the church, and union with Christ is the secret of unity. Desiring vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another, cherishing prejudice of brother against brother, and doing such works of the flesh shuts one out of the kingdom of God. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts and show love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, restoring the erring in meekness and bearing one another's burdens. Hatred, emulation, strife, sedition, and murder are sown by Satan to ruin the souls and bodies of men, women, and children and to break up families. He produces them everywhere he intrudes — in every department of the household, in every street of cities, in the churches, in the national councils, in the courts of justice — by perplexing, deceiving, and seducing, and these evils are not appointed by God and are not things that must exist or need exist.

Variance and disaffection arise from a divided heart open to the enemy's suggestions, and Satan rejoices when he causes dissension. Selfishness, rivalry, separation of interests, and breaking the harmony that should exist between man and his fellow man are hateful principles that God hates and that displease Him. Satan makes it his studied plan to imbue humanity with this selfishness and to nourish a spirit of rivalry, bringing it even into publishing establishments, institutions, and the work under pretense of necessity. When admitted it corrupts the experience, dims perception by the policy of the world, defiles the whole man like a poisonous root springing up, and reveals that the human far more than the divine is ruling actions. Among the ungodly there will be only a deceptive harmony that partly conceals perpetual discord, for they are united in opposition to the will and truth of God while on every other point they are rent with hatred, emulation, jealousy, and deadly strife.

Envy, drunkenness, revelry, and other works of the flesh with related evils such as strife, betrayal, lust, intemperance, violence, and violent crime spread when people are taught that they need not obey God's requirements, and they undermine family and social life. They belong to the lawlessness and vice spreading through society and even professedly Christian homes, as signs of moral corruption that should move those who fear God to seek a way to stop its spread. Hatred, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, and envyings close the gate of heaven just as surely as lasciviousness, adultery, drunkenness, and murder do, because they are equally works of the flesh. The warning therefore applies to Christians who contend with one another, that in trying to correct the faults of others they must beware lest they commit sins equally great themselves and so be shut out of the kingdom. Evil surmising and withdrawing sympathy and affection over a supposed mistake are condemned as discord, emulation, and strife among brethren, and Christians should instead approach one another in faith, love, and the spirit of Jesus.

Selfishness and anger foster prejudice, secrecy, and division and oppose consecration to God. Selfish rivalry and separation of interests brought even into institutions under pretense of necessity displease God and corrupt the whole man. Alienation between relatives, such as between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, belongs to the natural ways and habits that must be changed by the grace of God so the Spirit of God rules in the heart. Envy opposes a life shaped by love and meekness and can grow into jealousy and efforts to discredit or harm another person, stirred by Satan, and such conduct is hateful to God.

Remedy and Faithful Response

The remedy for these manifest works of the flesh is to walk in the Spirit and be led of the Spirit so as not to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, mortifying the deeds of the body and purifying the mind by obedience to the truth. Instead of being held in bondage to the lower nature they are to rule every appetite and passion, including drunkenness and every like fleshly lust opposed to temperance.

Nothing but the life-giving power of the gospel can remedy souls enfeebled by selfish, degrading passions. With the aid of the Great Physician to restore the moral image of God in man and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, there is help for everyone in God. Those who put their trust in Christ need not remain enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency toward these evils, but whatever their inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong, they can overcome through the power God is ready to impart rather than battling evil in finite human strength.

Each person is called by this warning to examine whether moving toward committing envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry and similar sins, since jealousies and divisions among church members bring weakness and God's disfavor. Envy grows from unlawful desire for another person's place or position, breeds dislike, resentment, deception, pride, accusations and enmity, and drives out love for Christ, so unless a person recognizes and repents of envy and is freed from evil, that person will be shut out of God's kingdom. Those who bear envy, hatred, jealousy, suspicion, rivalry, strife and bitterness need to turn back to God for healing, for such fruit proves cherished evil and separation from God. They have forsaken God the Fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water, have corrupted their ways before Him and have gone every one astray with not one guiltless, and rejecting the testimony God sends leaves them unconverted and unhealed unless seen and turned from by conversion in order to be healed.

The church must name such wrongdoing plainly and warn and instruct those who sin, refusing to appear to approve or sanction their deeds. Its work is to seek to restore the erring in meekness and bear one another's burdens, showing love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Christians are to approach one another in faith, love and the spirit of Jesus rather than in evil surmising and withdrawing sympathy and affection over a supposed mistake, and disunion and division are to be identified as evil rather than fruits of righteousness springing from selfishness that breaks fellowship. When sinners persist in sin, disunion and division, the judgment declared from God's word is pronounced in heaven, and this faithful action is ratified in heaven.

This Bible instruction belongs to what students are to study thoroughly, becoming doers of the Word who dig deep and lay a sure foundation through obedience to all of God's requirements in order to prepare to graduate to the higher school. Believers must have the likeness of Christ in the heart right at home, making a little heaven on earth now through tenderness for one another. Rising up in spirit against those who speak of the errors of another crushes the plant of love and leaves the heart unfit for heaven, for jealousy of one another proves unfitness for heaven where nothing of that kind will exist.