You've seen those commercials. You know, the ones advertising the latest wonder drug.
You can't turn on the TV without hearing about the latest pill for cholesterol, high blood pressure, dry skin, acne, depression, anxiety and sexual dysfunction.
But there's one big problem about these ads and the drugs they tout. The side effects. In many spots, the list of side effects goes on and on and on.
It seems like many times the commercial is more about the bad things this new wonder drug can do rather than its benefits.
The announcer always warns us that if we take this pill and suffer these side effects, contact our physician immediately. I would hope so.
In many ways, that's what Paul is doing here in these verses. He's listing the side effects. It's a nasty list of sinful activities that indicate a much deeper problem.
These are the side effects of sin and self. These are the indicators that we are not walking by God's Spirit but giving over to the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16-17).
Beware of these side effects.
The apostle begins by telling us that we won't have any doubt when these symptoms begin to present. "Now the works of the flesh are evident" (v19).
Earlier he's called them "an opportunity for the flesh" (Gal 5:13) and "the desires of the flesh" (Gal 5:16-17).
In this context, the flesh is that part of us that we have yet to surrender to Jesus. It's our unredeemed humanness. It is that unevangelized territory of our hearts where sin still reigns.
The flesh doesn't exist because God can't defeat it. Our flesh exists because we won't ALLOW God to defeat it.
While God will ultimately win the victory in every one of His kids (Phil 1:6), we'll struggle and war against our sinful selves on this side of heaven (Rom 7:15-25).
It's like Jesus is standing outside a closet door in our lives, wanting to clean it out. But we won't let Him in. He knows the crap we keep in there. He knows its not good for us.
Despite His clear ability to tear the door off its hinges and clean up our mess, Christ won't do it until we allow Him.
We must surrender. When we do and He cleans us up, that's what theologians call sanctification, that lifelong process where God remakes us into the image of His Son.
Paul says "now the works of the flesh are evident" (v19). You can't miss them.
When these pop up, you'll know without a doubt. When you see these side effects, there will be no question about what's going on.
This list is NOT exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination. John MacArthur sees these are covering three areas of life: sex, religion and relationships. That's certainly a good way of grouping them.
In many ways, these side effects are all the result of worshiping the one in the mirror. They are indications of an "I" problem.
It’s the Me Monster. They are all the consequence of doing what I want. These are the side effects of sin and self.
We won't take time to look at the entire list, but we will highlight a few.
"Sexual immorality" is the Greek word πορνεια/porneia. This is a term Paul uses for any sexual activity outside the bounds of biblical marriage.
Any sexual activity that doesn't happen between a husband and a wife, then it's sin.
"Sensuality" is the Greek ασελγεια/aselgeia. This originally was any excessive or out of control behavior. But it eventually came to mean total preoccupation with sexual indulgence.
While sex between a husband and wife is certainly a gift from God, we must be careful not to worship the gift instead of the Giver.
Paul's word "sorcery" is φαρμακεια/pharmakeia, from which we get our English term pharmacy. In many forms of pagan idolatry, worshipers got high as a way to commune with their gods.
In today's culture, people still do the same. The difference is that we turn these substances into gods themselves.
We turn to alcohol, pot, coke, crack and meth and worship them as our god-of-choice. So many addictions are the result of a failure to worship the one true God, Jesus Christ.
Paul then lists a series of side effects that are clearly the result of self worship: "enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies" (v20-21).
These happen when life is all about me. These happen when I'm the most important person in the room. These happen when I place myself and my wants on the throne of life.
When life is "me-centric," I get upset and angry when I don't get what I want ("enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger"). The result is conflict ("rivalries, dissensions, divisions").
And are there any more evident side effects of our sinful self than "drunkenness, orgies and things like these?"
Paul tells the Galatians that this is not the first time he's waved the caution flag. "I warn you, as I warned you before" (v21).
Clearly, this was a central part of his teaching when he visited these churches the first two times he was in the region (Acts 13:13-14:23).
This is more than a gentle reminder. He's grabbing us by the shoulders and giving us a violent shake. Sometimes it takes that kind of warning to wake us up.
We need people holding us accountable and speaking into our lives. Too many times, our sinful side effects are our blind spots.
Paul gives us the most practical advice when it comes to these side effects. "Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (v21).
The verb here for "do" is πρασσω/prasso. It's the idea of continual, habitual behavior.
The way we know we're in trouble is when one or more of these activities become a way of life.
We center our lives around them. We make plans to do them. They have become gods we worship instead of Jesus.
This is what John talked about. "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil" (1Jn 3:4-10). Relax, an occasional stumble is NOT an indication of habitual, continual behavior.
There are certainly other such lists in the New Testament. Paul writes of similar sinful side effects in Ephesians 5:3-7; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 2 Timothy 3:2-5 and Romans 1:24-32. But since this is his first letter he ever wrote, this is his first list.
One very important point to make is found in the 1st Corinthians list. He lets us know that Jesus can cure us of the disease of sin and self.
At the end of his Corinthian list, Paul says to them, "And such were some of you" (1Cor 6:11). What awesome news is that! There’s hope in Jesus that we can put these in our rearview mirror!!
When it comes to this list here, if these side effects persist, we need to call our physician. We need to call the Great Physician.
©2012
Jay Jennings
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