Galatians 5:21

Gal_5:19; Gal_5:21

Now the works of the flesh are manifest.

The works of the flesh our own

It is the same with all the passions and appetites. No one of them ever leaves a man, who indulges them, just where he was before. No one of them is a mere dry, isolated fact, that drops into his record and stops there. If a bank-clerk steals his employers money, we do not put our funds in his hands, as if that were a simple fact, and he the same as before. If a woman loses her purity by a single act, no sensible man seeks her in marriage, on any theory that he can afford to condone the fall. Such is the nature of the soul that it lives in its own issues, or dies in its own empoisoned evil deeds. They are all our works--ours only. God has no part in them; good angels have no part in them; yea, that thing in us, which is truest self, the conscience, resists and struggles against them. As the eye weeps and inflames at the irritation of a grain of sand, so the conscience resists and inflames before the works of the flesh--before adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and such like. I do not wonder at the despair, the black despair, which, like a dark night in winter of clouds and sleet and chill, settles down on such souls as are victims to bodily lusts, namely, hatred, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and such like; and men hear the howling of fiends, and see lurid lights, and moan of a hell of fears, horrible to think of, as yawning before them. These things are the inheritance of their election. (C. H. Hall, D. D.)

The works of the flesh

I. What is flesh? It is taken for--

1. The whole man (Gen_6:3).

2. The mortal body (2Co_7:1; Gal_2:20).

3. The ceremonies of the law (Gal_3:3; Gal_6:12; Php_3:3), because performed by the body.

4. The human nature of Christ (Rom_1:3; 1Pe_3:18; 1Pe_4:1) as spirit for the Divine (Rom_1:4).

5. All mankind (Gen_6:12; Isa_40:6).

6. The human nature, as corrupt, or a state of sin (Eph_2:3; Rom_7:5). This denotes the corruption of soul as well as body (Rom_8:6 Col_2:18).

7. The unregenerate part in the regenerate man (Rom_7:18).

II. What are works? Whatsoever proceeds from the body of death.

III. How are they manifest?

1. By the light of nature.

2. They cannot be hid (Heb_4:13).

Conclusion:

1. Take notice of them.

(1) The power of the flesh in your heart.

(2) The works of the flesh in your life,

2. Labour against them. They are

(1) pleasing to Satan,

(2) offensive to God,

(3) tormenting to the conscience,

(4) injurious to religion,

(5) destructive to the soul. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Though some have all flesh and no spirit, none have all spirit and no flesh. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Adultery

I. Its nature. It is a vice opposed to chastity, and may be committed--

1. In the heart (Mat_5:28); and therefore

(1)look not oh yourselves as innocent because not actual idolaters.

(2) Repent of unchaste thoughts.

(3) Labour against them.

2. In the act.

II. its greatness as a sin.

1. It is frequently forbidden.

2. It is destructive to self and others.

3. It is the occasion of many sins.

4. It is a punishment as well as a sin (Pro_22:14; Rom_1:24).

5. It consumes a mans estate (Pro_5:10; Pro_6:26; Job_31:12).

6. The body also (Pro_5:11).

7. It defiles the body (1Co_6:18).

8. It darkens a mans judgment and understanding Hos_4:11).

9. It destroys the whole soul (Pro_6:32).

10. It brings irreparable is grace (Pro_6:33).

11. Ordinarily it is punished in this life (Num_25:6; 1Co_10:8).

12. Certainly in the life to come (Heb_13:4; 1Co_6:9-10).

III. Its prevention.

1. Avoid the occasions.

(1) Idleness (Eze_16:49; 2Sa_11:2);

(2) Bad company (Pro_7:25);

(3) All other sins (Pro_1:25).

2. Make a covenant with thine eyes (Job_31:1).

3. Watch over thy thoughts (Mal_2:16),

4. Keep in with God (Pro_22:14).

5. Delight in the Word of God (Pro_2:10-16).

6. Be much in prayer and meditation (Psa_119:37). (Bishop Beveridge.)

Fornication

I. What It Is. When two single persons come together out of the state of matrimony (Deu_22:28).

II. Its Sinfulness.

1. Contrary to Gods command (1Co_6:18; Eph_5:3; 1Th_4:3).

2. Provokes Gods anger (Col_3:5-6; Jer_5:7; Hos_4:14).

3. God will judge it (Heb_13:4; 1Co_3:9). (Bishop Beveridge.)

Uncleanness

I. Inward.

1. The desire of strange flesh, with a resolution to enjoy it if he could (Col_3:5; 1Th_4:5).

2. Sinful lusts and affections (Jam_1:15).

3. Unclean thoughts.

II. Outward. Adultery, fornication, incest or nameless infamies. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Lasciviousness

Wantonness, whereby the soul is inflamed to the other sins, expressed:

I. In apparel.

1. Excess.

2. Lightness (Pro_7:10).

3. Singularity (2Sa_13:18).

4. Of a contrary sex,

II. Gestures.

1. Wanton looks, etc. (2Pe_2:14; Job_31:1).

2. Wanton walking, etc. (Isa_3:16).

III. Meat and drink.

1. The quantity (Eze_16:49).

2. The quality (Luk_16:19).

IV. Words.

1. Foolish (Eph_5:3-4).

2. Obscene talking (1Co_15:33). (Bishop Beveridge.)

Idolatry

I. Its nature. The worshipping of anything besides God, so as--

1. To pray to them (Isa_44:17),

2. To sacrifice to them (2Ki_17:35).

3. To build temples and altars to them (Hos_12:11).

4. Asking counsel of them (Hos_4:12).

5. Thanking them (Jdg_16:23-24; Dan_5:4).

II. Those who are guilty of it.

1. Heathens, who worship--

(1) Men; as Jupiter, Saturn, etc.

(2) Devils.

(3) Beasts.

(4) Stars.

(5) Images.

2. Christians.

(1) Popish, who worship the sacramental bread, saints, images, relics.

(2) Protestants: the covetous (Col_3:5; Eph_5:5); voluptuous (Php_3:19); ambitious; sinful.

III. the greatness of the sin.

1. It is frequently forbidden (Exo_20:3-4).

2. Severely punished (Exo_22:20 : Deu_17:3-5).

3. No sin can bring greater dishonour to God (Jer_2:13).

4. It will certainly bring thee to hell (Rev_21:8; Rev_22:15).

Witchcraft

I. The biblical estimate of it.

1. As a stern and diabolical reality (Lev_20:27; Deu_18:19).

2. As unlawful trafficking with the unseen world (Lev_19:31; Isa_8:19).

3. As sometimes trickery and imposture (Isa_8:19).

4. As filthy defilement (Lev_19:31).

5. As deserving death (Lev_20:6; Exo_22:18).

6. As one of the crimes for which the Canaanites were destroyed.

7. As inconsistent with a trust in God (Isa_8:19).

8. As frustrated by God (Isa_44:25).

9. As a power from which the godly have nothing to fear.

II. Its prevalence.

1. Amongst the heathen. Pythagoras, Plutarch, Pompey, Croesus, Caesar, were all under its spell.

2. The progress of modern civilization has not exterminated it.

3. But whilst it assumes the form of astrology, with its star-gazing; palmistry, with its handwriting; or spiritualism, with its media and trances and dark seances; it is the same abomination reprobated in the Word of God.

Hatred (of God)

I. What is this? (Rom_1:30).

1. God is the chiefest good (Luk_18:19): the essential, original, universal, infinite, satisfying, necessary, and eternal good.

2. Therefore He ought to be loved supremely.

3. The want of this love is accounted as hatred.

II. Who are guilty of it.

1. Those who wish there were no God (Psa_14:1).

2. Who hate the knowledge of Him (Psa_50:17; Job_21:14; Pro_8:36).

3. Who hate His ways and ordinances.

4. Who love other things more than God (2Ti_3:4).

5. Who love sin.

6. Who break His commandments (Exo_20:5-6; Joh_14:15). (Bishop Beveridge.)

Hatred (of man)

I. Its nature: the transgression of the commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves.

II. Its sinfulness.

1. It is contrary to the law.

2. It is the cause of many sins, as--

(1) Anger (Eph_4:26; Eph_4:31).

(2) Envy (Jam_3:14).

(3) Unmercifulness (Rom_1:31; Amo_6:6).

(4) Cruelty (Psa_5:6).

(5) Pride (Pro_13:10).

(6) Desire of revenge (Rom_12:19).

(7) Uncharitable suspicions (1Co_13:5-7).

(8) Refractoriness (Rom_1:31).

3. It is the breaking of the whole law (Rom_13:9; Gal_5:14).

III. Who are guilty of it? All who--

1. Wish their neighbours evil, or not good.

2. Who do not what good they can.

3. Who do not reprove of sin and excite to good (Lev_19:17; Heb_10:24).

4. Who bear any secret grudge and malice. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Variance

I. Its nature. A sin opposed to amity.

1. In opinion (Eph_4:13).

2. Affection (Eph_4:3).

II. Its sinfulness.

1. It is contrary to Gods law.

2. It springs from--

(1) Pride and ambition (Pro_13:10).

(2) Want of true love.

3. Its effects are sinful.

(1) Vexation and trouble to self and others.

(2) Hatred.

III. Those guilty of it.

1. Infidels.

2. Such as fall out for trifles.

3. Such as being fallen out refuse to be reconciled. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Emulation

I. What is it? Twofold.

1. Good (Gal_4:18).

2. Evil.

(1) To grieve for anothers excelling us.

(2) To desire to excel him.

II. IT IS A SIN.

1. It proceeds from an evil root.

(1) Error.

(2) Pride.

2. It brings forth sinful fruit.

(1) Contention.

(2) Envy.

III. Who are guilty of it.

1. Such as are zealous in a bad cause.

2. In a good cause in a bad manner (Rom_10:2).

3. More for themselves than God.

4. Such as love to see nobody above them. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Anger

It is sinful when with--

1. The providence of God.

2. The laws of God.

3. The doctrines of the gospel.

4. The good we see in others.

5. Those who differ from us in religious sentiments.

6. Reproof.

7. Our reprover, wishing him evil.

8. When we use unlawful means to avenge ourselves. (J. Beaumont, M. D.)

I. What is it? A passion raised up in the mind against some present evil that cannot easily be removed.

II. Whether a man may be ever lawfully angry? Yes (Eph_4:26).

1. When it proceeds from a lawful cause (Mar_3:5).

2. When it is placed on a lawful object (Exo_11:8; Exo_32:19; Lev_10:16-17).

3. In a lawful manner (Mat_8:22).

4. To a lawful end.

III. Who sin in their anger? Such as are angry--

1. Not so much at the offence as the offender.

2. At anything rather because it dishonours them than God.

3. Without a cause (Mat_5:22).

4. Excessively, though in a good cause (Gen_49:7).

5. And hateful.

6. And curse (Psa_106:33).

7. And therefore indisposed to duties.

8. From sinful causes.

9. For a wrong end.

10. And continue long in their auger (Eph_4:26).

IV. Motives against it.

1. God forbids it (Eph_4:31; Col_3:8).

2. It disturbs soul and body.

3. It is not only a sin but a folly (Ecc_7:9; Pro_14:17; Pro_14:29).

4. It may prove thy ruin.

5. It may keep thee out of heaven. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Strife

I. Lawful.

1. Which should bring the most glory to Gods name.

2. Perform the exactest obedience to His precepts (Php_3:10-13).

3. Believe the firmest in His Son.

4. Grow the fastest in His grace (2Pe_3:18).

5. Make our calling and election surest (2Pe_1:10).

II. Sinful.

1. When proceeding from anger and malice.

2. About trifles.

3. In opprobrious terms.

4. Ending in hatred and revenge. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Seditions

I. To oppose lawful governors (Rom_13:1).

II. To consent to and connive at those who do it.

III. To raise tumults in a kingdom, commonwealth, or parish. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Heresies

There is no heresy in the long list of heresies which have invaded the Church, like the heresy of negativeness, of inaction, of death. The dead man is the great heresiarch. (H. W. Beecher.)

Envyings

I. In what consists the sinfulness of envy.

1. It is contrary to Gods command (Rom_13:13; 1Pe_2:1).

2. Repining at Gods providence and goodness.

3. The fruit of pride.

4. The root of confusion and evil (Jam_3:16).

5. The cause of hatred.

II. Have a care of it.

1. Thou art never the worse for others being better.

2. Envy makes him never the worse, nor thee the better.

3. Thou hast more cause to rejoice than to be troubled at anothers goodness.

4. Thy envying Gods goodness to others may hinder it to thyself. (Bishop Beveridge.)

I. Its nature.

1. Its object is something good, natural, or acquired, even religious excellence.

2. Something in the possession of another which is grudged and desired,

3. Something not altogether unattainable.

II. Its properties.

1. It is common.

2. Odious.

3. Destructive.

III. Its cure.

1. A scriptural estimate of the objects which excite envy. They are not so valuable as they appear to be.

2. A just opinion of ourselves. We do not deserve as much as we imagine.

3. An entire change of heart.

Application:

1. Do not needlessly provoke envy.

2. Do not wickedly indulge it.

3. Do net basely fear it.

4. Do not angrily resent it. (G. Brooks.)

Envy is the daughter of pride, the author of revenge and murder, the beginning of sedition and the perpetual tormentor of virtue. (Socrates.)

Murders

Life is threefold of the body, mind, and spirit; and murder against each may be deliberate or careless, resulting from action or inaction.

1. Deliberate murder is life taken by malice aforethought.

2. Careless murder, resulting from careless or culpable ignorance; e.g., the builder who neglects the drains; the parent who spreads an infectious disorder through sending his children to school while tainted with it.

3. Inactive murder (Jam_4:17), e.g., a man who allows another to commit murder, or who neglects to save life physical or moral. (C. A. Goodheart.)

Murder is not mere blood-shedding.

1. Anger without cause is murder.

2. So is oppression of the weak.

3. So is depriving a man of the means of getting his livelihood to gratify revenge.

4. Whosoever hateth his brother in his heart is a murderer. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Drunkenness

I. What is it? An immoderate use of any liquor (Eph_5:18).

II. Its sinfulness.

1. It transgresses the law (Eph_5:18; Rom_13:13).

2. Abuses the creature.

3. Destroys the body (Pro_23:29).

4. Disturbs the soul (Hos_4:11).

5. Spends time.

6. Unfits for employment (Luk_21:34).

7. Entails woe (Isa_5:11). (Bishop Beveridge.)

Evil of hatred

If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you. (Plutarch.)

All sin is seen by God

In Mr. Ralph Wellss school the other day, the lesson was about Gods all-seeing eye. On the blackboard, Mr. Wells placed the words, Thou God seest me. He then held up a vase of water, in which a gold-fish was swimming about. Now, children, said Mr. Wells, see this fish hide. Do you see him now? Yes, sir, the children shouted. Do you see him now? Yes, sir. Now do you see him? Yes, sir: yes, sir, they all said. Cant he hide from you? No, sir. Why? Because we see right through the glass. So, said Mr. Wells, God sees right through our hearts. We cannot hide from Him. (Picture Paper.)

Fleshly sins

The list of fleshly sins here given is not an exhaustive one; merely samples. Seventeen distinct sins are specified, which may be roughly grouped in four classes.

1. Sensuality--viz., adultery, fornication, uncleanness, wantonness.

2. Idolatry, or unlawful dealing in things spiritual; consisting of idolatry, or the open recognition of false gods, and sorcery or witchcraft, the secret tampering with the powers of evil.

3. Malice, or violation of the principle of brotherly love; such as hatreds, strife, rivalry, outbursts of wrath, cabals, dissensions, heretical factions, envyings, murders.

4. Intemperance--viz., drunkenness and riotous revelry. These vices are probably named by St. Paul as being those to which the Galatians had been specially addicted, and to which they might now be tempted. From early habit a Gentile Church would be exposed to sins of the first two classes, sensuality and idolatry. Sins of the third class, consisting of breaches of brotherly love, would be a probable consequence of their religious dissensions. Vices of the fourth class, when once established, are not easily shaken off, and, as we know from the example of the Corinthian Church, may even find their way into the holiest services of the Christian religion. But we must not confine this catalogue of sins to the Galatians, as though it had no application to ourselves (1Co_10:11-12). (Emilius Bayley, B. D.)

The old life

As St. Paul looks back at that bad life out of which he had snatched the souls of his Gentile converts, it is its bitter brutality that he most vividly remembers and recalls. It was a jarring life, in which there was no tenderness, no courtesy, no kindliness, no peace. It was full of collisions, of frictions, of wounds, of sores. It was a loud and violent life, in which men fought, and hit, and swore. As he runs over his list of old habits once familiar to them, his picture is as of some back alley in our crowded towns, in which all is shrill, rough, boisterous, with women screaming, with children shrieking, a nest of noises, a swarm of jangling cries. This is what they have left behind, this which had made life one long quarrel, pitiless and brutal. They had left it, mastered and enthralled by the sweet vision of Him, the Man of peace, and meekness, and lowliness, who had been led, quiet and patient, as a lamb to the slaughter, and, as a sheep before its shearers, had never opened His mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; and when He was threatened, threatened not; One who never gave back railing for railing, but only blessing. You all remember it, he keeps crying to them, those old days, so merciless, so angry, so cruel; how you grated on one another, how you rasped one another, how you bit and devoured one another like snarling dogs. It had been one long quarrel, a life of wrath, full of bitterness, clamour, evil speaking; they knew it all but too well what he meant, for the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these--hatred, etc. Works of the flesh, he calls them His keen eye sweeps over the whole range of this loud quarrelling; to him, it is no senseless storm that rages on without rhyme or reason. Nay! it has, all of it, a story and a cause; it is the witness, on the surface of life, to inner disorder. These rough oaths, these venomous taunts, this bitter tumult--these are the natural issues of the root from which they spring. They are works--normal, and anticipated, and legitimate deeds, which appear in obedience to a law of rational production. They are fruits--results that grow out of certain creative activities, as accurately and inevitably as grapes from vines and figs from fig-trees. And what is this root which so legitimately flowers into these uncomfortable blossoms? The flesh, St. Paul names it; the flesh is as much the seat and home of this passionate violence as it is of those other passions and appetites with which we commonly identify it. This petulance, this savagery, this hail of malice, this outcry of rage, this havoc of revenge, this recklessness of cruelty--all this finds its principle, its origin, its motive-cause in that same activity of the flesh. Set the law of the flesh in action, and you must have quarrels. Out of the flesh they fly, these oaths and screams, just as sparks out of a smitten flint. It would be a miracle if men who lived after the methods of the flesh failed to envy and to hate one another. (Canon Scott Holland.)

St. Pauls conception of the flesh

Try to enter into the solid and broad meaning which St. Paul attaches to this, his favourite term for the root-principle of human sin--the flesh. Obviously, it is much more to him than the mere matter of animal passions. It expresses to him the typical nature, the essential form, of all that can be set in antithesis to spirit. It includes the pride and the falsity of intellect. It embraces the disorder and stubbornness of the will. What, then, is this flesh? How can we describe and define it?… The flesh represents all that a man is, when he is his own aim, his own end. His power of self-observation, that Divine gift, in possessing which he is the image of his God, has about its use this terrible risk--that he may cease to observe himself as he is in God, as he is in Gods ordered world, set to fulfil an office in combination with his fellows, the member of a vast body, pledged to a peculiar or disciplined service; he may forget all this, and only observe himself, himself just as he stands, with his own private appetites, likes, gifts, feelings. And, so observing, he may separate himself off from all else, hold himself up before his own eyes, and fasten upon himself all his interest, all his thought, and his imagination, and his pains; and may spend his every effort in scheming how best to serve, in richness of pleasurable experience, this self, who has become his idol, and before which he bows himself to minister as to a god. This he may do; and that which a man has then in front of him as his aim or end whether it be low and gross, or whether it be delicate and intellectual--that is the flesh. And the life that he lives in obeying its behest, that is the life after the flesh; that is minding the things of the flesh; that is walking after the flesh. And the end of that walk is Death. (Canon Scott Holland.)

Result of walking after the flesh

We can easily understand why life in the flesh is a life of jars and quarrels, as much as a life of passion and lust. The man who walks after the flesh is absorbed in self-interests. He has dropped his eyes from their outward gaze at that busy and social world which encompasses him. That world is calling to him with all its voices, but he hears them no longer; it is appealing to him to act, to hope, to aspire, to give, but he pays no heed to its invocations. He has forgotten its wants and its movements; he is dead to its touch and to its cry. His brothers look to him for help, but they have ceased to interest him: his sisters turn to him for tenderness, but he is chill as a blind stone. All this crowded scene of our human story has lost for him its charm, its colour, its warmth, its neighbourly friendliness. He has turned his eyes within; he has bent all his gaze in upon himself; it is his own feelings that alone have an interest to him, his own needs that alone entice. He is busy night and day in considering himself; he is picturing his own success; he is planning his own pleasures; he is brooding over his own possibilities; he is filled with his own imaginations. Round and round himself he is always weaving the ever-thickening web of his own fancies, and his own schemes; and fainter and more distant grows the sound of outward things. He walks abroad, brimming with self-interests; and he is bent on things fulfilling themselves according to his fostered expectations; and so, walking, he must of necessity jar at once against a world that he has not taken the pains to study, or understand, or revere. He clashes against it, as against a wall; he is pushed and squeezed by the crowd of bustling men, who have no time to give to his breedings, and are at variance with his designs, and upset his favourite plans, and traverse his ambitions. He is disappointed, as he must be; for this earth demands of us a social temper,.and he is hopelessly and helplessly individual; it asks us to give, and he is proposing only to take. He is wholly out of tune with a world that exists only through self-sacrifice, and is bonded together by the grace of humility; he must be repudiated by it, he must be disregarded, he is bound to be checked at every turn, and he gets cross, angry, bitter. The world ignores him, laughs at him, brushes him aside, bowls him over. And the man, so treated, grows more and more wounded, hurt, indignant. Perhaps he rails and storms at the world that he finds so hard, at the men whom he thinks so unsympathetic and so cruel. Perhaps he retreats into sulky silence, and shuts himself up in clouds of vaporous passion, and fumes out his angry soul in secret breedings, and hugs himself the closer, and vents his grudge against life in spite, and scorn, and uncomfortable depression. (Canon Scott Holland.)

Remedy for selfishness

Self-pre-occupation, self-breedings, self.interest, self-love--these are the reasons why you go jarring against your fellows. Turn your eyes off yourself; forget your own pet schemes, the hopes you are always nursing to yourself, the self-importance that you hug. Forget them, throw them aside, push through them. Look up, and out! There is a larger world outside you, brimming over with far other hopes than yours, illumined by a vaster sun, travelling to some far historic goal. Look up, and out upon it! It has its interests, its purposes, its ends, which it is your glad privilege to learn, and, by learning, to obey and follow. Give it your heart, and it will show you its own. Take its road, and it will, then, take yours. Look up, and out! There are men, your brothers, and women, your sisters; they have needs that you can aid. Listen for their confidences; keep your heart wide open to their calls, and your hands alert for their service. Learn to give, and not to take; to drown your own hungry wants in the happiness of lending yourself to fulfil the interests of those nearest or dearest. Break through your own moody musings, and run out abroad, from these closed and darkened chambers of self-consideration--out into the wide and teeming earth, where not your scheme, but Gods great hope, is working out its world-wide triumph. Look up and out, from this narrow, cabined self of yours, and you will jar no longer, you will fret no more, you will provoke no more, you will quarrel no more; but you will, to your own glad surprise, find the secret of the meekness and the gentleness of Jesus; and the peace of God which passeth all understanding will drop down like dew upon your happy-hearted days; and the fruits of the Spirit will all bud and blossom from out of your life--love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, goodness, long-suffering, faith, temperance. (Canon Scott Holland.)

The spirit above nature

I. Natural desires are never to rule, always to be ruled.

II. By the help of the Spirit of God they are kept in subjections.

III. Unrestrained, they produce all kinds of wickedness.

IV. Present goodness and happiness are the fruit of the Spirit of God.

V. Self-denial and suffering are requisite for the highest good.

VI. By faith in Christ men follow Him and become like Him. (J. H. Godwin.)

Drunkenness, revellings

The apostle is not speaking merely of the habit and custom of drinking; therefore it is a false excuse if any one thinks that a debauch is no sin if one does not make a business of it. The devil invented this excuse. When any one so overfills himself that he is unfit for prayer and the business of his calling, that is drunkenness. What, then, are we to think of the respectable world with its sinful and damnable Christian drinking bouts? and what, too, of this continual drinking of healths, but as of a temptation to swill down liquor? (Starke.)

The list of vices

These works of the flesh have often been divided into four classes. Any classification or system, however, is scarcely to be expected; but each term of the catalogue may have been suggested by some law of association, especially as some of the terms are similarly arranged in other places. In the first class are sensual sins--fornication, impurity, wantonness; in the second class are sins of superstition--idolatry and sorcery; in the third class, sins of malice and social disorder--hatred, strife, jealousy, wraths, caballing, divisions, heresies, envying, murders; and in the fourth class-are sins of personal excess--drunkenness and revellings. In the first class, the first term, which has a distinct meaning, may have suggested the other and allied vices--miscellaneous and grosser aspects of forbidden indulgence. The two terms of the second class are somewhat similar--the first more precise in meaning, and the second more comprehensive--all occult dealings with the powers of evil. In the third class there is a climatic enumeration--hatreds ripening into strife; jealousy venting itself in passionate outbursts; cabals yet darker and more selfish; divisions, the result of deepening hostility; envyings quite fiendish in nature; and murders--the extreme result, and no uncommon thing in such countries, to obtain an end and consummate an intrigue by the removal of a rival. In the fourth class are first the simple term drunkenness, and the more inclusive term after it, referring either to scenes of dissipation so gay and wanton, or to orgies so gross and sensual, that they may not be described. (John Eadie, D. D.)

Gal_5:21

That they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Sins dominion fatal to the soul

It is not said: They that do such things daily; for even though one does any such thing only now and then, on certain occasions, yea even only once, but voluntarily, he forfeits the Kingdom of God, so long as he remains under the dominion of this work of the flesh. Nor is it said: They that do all this. It is not needful for a man to do all these sins, or many such, to fall under the penalty; it is enough if he lets one single sin rule over him, let it be what it will. Now it rules over him, not only while he is committing it, but so long as the purpose never to commit it again is not fully fixed They shall not only not procure eternal life by their works of the flesh (as may well be supposed), but, if they set their hopes, not upon earning eternal life by their works, but receiving it as a gift to be received by faith, they will not, leading a dissolute life, inherit it any more than earn it. Such a man inherits not the kingdom of grace, still less the kingdom of glory, even though his funeral sermon extols him as blessed. (Starke.)

Shall not inherit the Kingdom of God

I. What is the Kingdom of God? Twofold.

1. Of grace (Mat_5:19-20).

2. Glory (Mat_18:1; Mat_18:3; Mat_19:23). Where

(1) Jehovah is king

(2) the laws are just;

(3) the subjects unanimous;

(4) sin and misery banished;

(5) righteousness triumphant;

(6) the citizens happy.

II. How it appears that the vicious cannot inherit it.

1. From the Word of God (Eph_5:5; 1Co_6:9-10; Heb_12:14).

2. The rules of justice.

3. The conclusions of reason; because not capable. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Heaven will be inherited by every man who has heaven in his soul: it is equally true that there are materials enough in every mans mind to make a hell. (H. W. Beecher.)

Sin cuts men off from God

Were a cup of pleasant wine put into your hands, and you knew for certain that a deadly poison was mixed up with the wine, which would rack you with the fiercest pains, and ere long tear soul and body in sunder, who would drink it?--who would not dash it from him forthwith? Yet, if we had but faith, we should know and feel that sin is deadlier than the deadliest poison, that it racks us with fiercer pains, and gives us over to a more terrible dissolution; for it cuts us off from God--from Him who is the only source of all blessing and peace. (Hare.)

Sin and death

The tale of the goblet, which the genius of a heathen fashioned, was true; and taught a moral of which many a death-bed furnishes the melancholy illustration. Having made the model of a serpent, he fixed it in the bottom of a cup. Coiled for the spring, a pair of gleaming eyes in its head, and in its open mouth fangs raised to strike, it lay beneath the ruby wine. Nor did he who raised that golden cup to quench his thirst, and quaff the delicious draught, suspect what lay below, till, as he reached the dregs, that dreadful head rose up and glistened before his eyes. So, when lifes cup is nearly emptied, and sins last pleasure quaffed, and unwilling lips are draining the bitter dregs, shall rise the ghastly terrors of remorse, and death, and judgment, upon the despairing soul. Be assured, a serpent lurks at the bottom of guilts sweetest pleasure. To this awful truth may God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, open your eyes! (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:21 Drunkenness has no place in the Christian life (see Luke 21:34; 1 Cor 11:20-22; Eph 5:18). • wild parties: Festivals in honor of pagan gods were often accompanied by drunken orgies (cp. 1 Pet 4:3). • other sins like these: This list is only representative of the vices of the sinful nature (cp. Mark 7:20-23; Rom 1:29-31; 1 Cor 6:9-10; Eph 5:3-5; Col 3:5-8; 1 Tim 1:9-10; 2 Tim 3:2-5; Jas 3:13-18; Rev 21:8). People living that sort of life are not living by the Spirit, and thereby demonstrate no relationship with God by faith. Such people will not inherit the Kingdom of God: They are still slaves of their sinful nature (Gal 4:8-9, 22-25; cp. Rom 6:16-22; 1 Cor 6:9-10) and are not under God’s rule.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal_5:21. Φθόνοι, φόνοι] paronomasia, as in Rom_1:29; Eur. Troad. 736.

κῶμοι] revellings, comissationes, especially at night; Herm. Privatalterth. § 17. 29. Comp. Rom_13:13; 1Pe_4:3; Plat. Theaet. p. 173 D: δεῖπνα καὶ σὺν αὐλητρίσι κῶμοι. Symp. p. 212 C; Isaeus, p. 39. 21: κῶμοι καὶ ἀσέλγεια. Herod. i. 21: πίνειν κ. κώμῳ χρέεσθαι ἐς ἀλλήλους. Jacobs, Del. epigr. iv. 43: κώμου κ. πάσης κοίρανε παννυχίδος.

καὶ τὰ ὅμοια τούτοις] and the things which are similar to these (the whole matters mentioned in Gal_5:20-21). Addit et iis similia, quia quis omnem lernam carnalis vitae recenseat? Luther, 1519.

The προ in προλέγω and προεῖπον is the beforehand in reference to the future realization (Herod. i. 53, vii. 116; Lucian. Jov. Trag. 30; Polyb. vi. 3. 2) at the παρουσία; and the past προεῖπον reminds the readers of the instructions and warnings orally given to them, the tenor of which justifies us in thinking that he is referring to the first and second sojourn in Galatia.

πράσσοντες] those who practise such things; but in Gal_5:17 ποιῆτε: ye do. See on Rom_1:32; Joh_3:20.

βασιλείαν Θεοῦ οὐ κληρονομ.] Comp. 1Co_6:9 f., 1Co_15:50; Eph_5:5; Jam_2:5; and generally, Rom_6:8 ff. Sins of this kind, therefore, exclude the Christian from the kingdom of the Messiah, and cause him to incur condemnation, unless by μετάνοια he again enters into the life of faith, and so by renewed faith appropriates forgiveness (2Co_7:9-10; Rom_8:34; 1Jn_2:1 f.; observe the present participle). For the having been reconciled by faith is the preliminary condition of the new holy life (Romans 6), and therefore does not cancel responsibility in the judgment (2Co_5:10; Rom_14:10).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 5:21 . προεῖπον . No particular admonition is here specified: warnings against these sins had, of course, formed the staple of many former discourses.

The Epistle has already claimed for Christians the inheritance of sons. That this inheritance included a kingdom needed no proof; for the conception of a Messianic kingdom ran through Hebrew prophecy and covered the whole range of Gospel teaching.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

tell . . . before--namely, before the event.

I . . . told you in time past--when I was with you.

you--who, though maintaining justification by the law, are careless about keeping the law (Rom 2:21-23).

not inherit . . . kingdom of God-- (Co1 6:9-10; Eph 5:5).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. Envyings] φθονοι. "Pain felt, and malignity conceived, at the sight of excellence or happiness." A passion the most base and the least curable of all that disgrace or degrade the fallen soul. See Clarke on Ro 13:13.

Murders] φονοι. Similarity of sound to the preceding seems to have suggested the word in this association; it is wanting in several MSS. Murder signifies the destruction of human life; and as he who hates his brother in his heart is ready to take away his life, so he is called a murderer. After all the casuistry of man, it does not appear that the right of taking away a human life on any pretence, except for the crime of murder belongs to any but the Maker and Judge of all men.

Drunkenness] μεθαι. Taking more wine or any kind of inebriating liquor than is necessary for health; whatever unfits for public, domestic, or spiritual duties; even the cares of the world, when they intoxicate the mind. See Clarke on Ro 13:13.

Revellings] κωμοι. Lascivious feastings, with obscene songs, music, c. See Clarke on Ro 13:13.

And such like] και τα ομοια τουτοις. All that proceeds from the evil passions of a fallen spirit, besides those above specified and all that the law of God specifies and condemns.

Of the which I tell you before] When I first preached the Gospel to you.

As I have also told you in time past] When I paid my second visit to you; for the apostle did visit them twice. See Ac 16:6; Ac 18:23; and see preface, p. 385.

Shall not inherit] They are not children of God, and therefore cannot inherit the kingdom which belongs only to the children of the Divine family.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Of which I tell you before. By this awful threatening he intended not only to alarm the Galatians, but likewise to glance indirectly at the false apostles, who had laid aside the far more valuable instruction, and spent their time in disputing about ceremonies. He instructs us, by his example, to press those exhortations and threatenings, agreeably to the words of the prophet,

“Cry aloud, spare not; proclaim to my people their sins.” (Isaiah 58:1)

What can be conceived more dreadful than that men should walk after the flesh, and shut themselves out from the kingdom of God? Who will dare to treat lightly the “abominable things which God hates?” (Jeremiah 44:4.)

But in this way, we shall be told, all are cut off from the hope of salvation; for who is there that is not chargeable with some of those sins? I reply, Paul does not threaten that all who have sinned, but that all who remain impenitent, shall be excluded from the kingdom of God. The saints themselves often fall into grievous sins, but they return to the path of righteousness, “that which they do they allow not,” (Romans 7:15,) and therefore they are not included in this catalogue. All threatenings of the judgments of God call us to repentance. They are accompanied by a promise that those who repent will obtain forgiveness; but if we continue obstinate, they remain as a testimony from heaven against us.

They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The word κληρονομεῖν signifies to possess by hereditary right; for by no right but that of adoption, as we have seen in other passages, do we obtain eternal life.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(21) Murders.—There is considerable doubt as to whether this word ought to stand in the text. It is wanting in the two oldest MSS. and in some other good authorities. Internal considerations may be made to tell either for its omission or for its retention.

I tell you before.—I foretell (or, forewarn) you; I tell you before the event proves my words to be true—i.e., before the day of judgment.

As I have also told you in time past.—As I also told you before. The idea is the same as that in the last phrase. In the Greek all that corresponds to “in time past” is the use of the past tense. The occasion appears to have been on St. Paul’s last or second visit to Galatia.

The kingdom of God.—The Messianic kingdom; so called frequently in the Gospels (especially the second and third), and also by St. Paul in 1Co_6:9-10; 1Co_15:50.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the fruit of the Spirit,.... Not of nature or man's free will, as corrupted by sin, for no good fruit springs from thence; but either of the internal principle of grace, called the Spirit, Gal 5:17 or rather of the Holy Spirit, as the Ethiopic version reads it; the graces of which are called "fruit", and not "works", as the actions of the flesh are; because they are owing to divine influence efficacy, and bounty, as the fruits of the earth are, to which the allusion is; and not to a man's self, to the power and principles of nature; and because they arise from a seed, either the incorruptible seed of internal grace, which seminally contains all graces in it, or the blessed Spirit, who is the seed that remains in believers; and because they are in the exercise of them acceptable unto God through Christ, and are grateful and delightful to Christ himself, being "his pleasant fruits"; which as they come from him, as the author of them, they are exercised on him as the object of them, under the influence of the Spirit; and because they are profitable to them that are possessed of them, seeing the promise of this life and that which is to come is annexed to them; and the good works which are done in consequence of them are profitable to men: once more, as the works of the flesh are the unfruitful works of darkness, and make men so, and therefore cannot be called fruit properly; these, as they are fruits, and are rightly and properly so called, so they make men fruitful, and to abound in divine things, and are as follow:

Love. This the apostle begins with, it being the fulfilling of the law, the bond of perfectness, and without which a profession of religion is insignificant; it may be understood of love to God, of which every man's heart is destitute, being enmity against God, until regenerated by the Spirit of God; when he sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and which is the ground and reason of any man's truly loving God: and also of love to Christ, which the natural man feels nothing of till the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Christ, opens his eyes to see the loveliness of his person, the suitableness of his grace, righteousness, and fulness, and the necessity of looking to him for life and salvation; and likewise of love to the saints, which a carnal man is a stranger to, until he is renewed by the Holy Ghost, who in regenerating him teaches him to love the brethren; and which is the evidence of his having passed from death to life, through the mighty power of his grace. Moreover, love to the house and worship of God, to the truths and ordinances of the Gospel, all which men have naturally an aversion to, may be included in this first fruit of the Spirit: the next follows, which is

joy, even that which is in the Holy Ghost, and has him for its author. The object of it is God, not as an absolute God, but as a covenant God and Father in Christ; as the God of salvation, as clothing with the robe of his Son's righteousness, and as pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, full atonement being made by the sacrifice of Christ; who also is the object of this joy in his person, fulness, righteousness, offices, relations, and when beheld, embraced, and enjoyed in a way of communion. This joy, likewise, which is the produce of the Spirit, lies in spiritual things, and arises from an apprehension or good hope of interest in them, as justification, pardon, peace, adoption, and eternal glory; and is peculiar to such who have the Spirit, for a stranger intermeddles not with this joy, nor can he form any judgment of it, and is even unspeakable by the believer himself. Moreover, joy in the good of others, of fellow creatures and fellow Christians, in their outward and inward prosperity, in their temporal, spiritual, and eternal good, which, as it is a grace of the Spirit, may well enough be thought to be at least part of the sense of the word here; since it follows upon, and is joined with love, and stands between that and

peace, which is another fruit of the Spirit: and designs peace with God in a man's own conscience, produced there by the Spirit of God, in consequence of peace being made by the blood of Christ; and that through the application of the blood of Christ for pardon, and of his righteousness for justification to the soul of a sensible sinner by the blessed Spirit, the effect of which is peace, quietness, and tranquillity of mind; also peace with men, with the saints, and with all others; for such who are under a work of the Spirit of God, and are influenced and led by him, seek after the things which make for peace and edification among the brethren, and are desirous if possible to live peaceably with all men: hence appears another grace in them,

longsuffering; which intends not so much a patient waiting for good things to come, for more grace, and for glory, through the Spirit; but a patient bearing and enduring of present evils with joyfulness, being strengthened by the Spirit with all might, according to his glorious power; being slow to anger, ready to forgive injuries, put up with affronts, and bear with, and forbear one another: and which is usually accompanied with gentleness, humanity, affability, courteousness, shown both in words, gestures, and actions; in imitation of the gentleness of Christ, and agreeably to that wisdom, that heavenly doctrine of the Gospel, which, among other things, is said to be gentle, and easy to be entreated. To which is added

goodness; and what else can come from the good Spirit of God, the author of the good work of grace upon the soul? and which disposes it to acts of goodness unto men, in a natural, civil, moral, spiritual, and evangelic way, for the benefit both of soul and body; and which must here be understood, and which is well pleasing to God when done in the exercise of the following grace,

faith; for though fidelity, both in words and actions, which is very ornamental to the Gospel, and a profession of religion may be meant; yet faith in Christ is not to be excluded, as it is generally by interpreters; for this is not of a man's self, nor have all men it: it is a gift of God, the operation of his power, and the work of his Spirit, whence he is styled the spirit of faith; and which therefore must have a place among his fruits; and which lies and shows itself in believing in Christ for salvation, in embracing the doctrines of the Gospel, and making a profession of them, which is called the profession of faith; all which, when right, comes from the Spirit of God.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ver. 21. Murders, drunkenness] This is often the mother of murder. Domitius, the father of Nero, slew Liberius, an honest man, because he refused to drink so much as he commanded him. (Sueton.) Alexander killed many of his dear friends in his drunkenness, whom he would have revived again (but could not) with his own heartblood. Once he invited a company to supper, and provided a crown of 180 pounds to be given to those that drank most. One and forty killed themselves with drinking to get that crown. Mr Samuel Ward in his Woe to Drunkards maketh mention of many brought by this swinish sin to untimely shameful ends in a brutish and bestial manner; among the rest, one of Aylesham in Norfolk, a notorious drunkard, drowned in a shallow brook of water with his horse by him. The like whereunto has occured in the place where I now live, this instant November 14th, A. D. 1650. At a blind clandestine alehouse, a company of odious drunkards having drunk all the three outs (that is, ale out of the pot, money out of the purse, and wit out of the head), one of them, making homeward, was drowned in a shallow ditch, his body not yet buried: upon his soul I pass no definitive sentence; but what hope can we comfortably conceive of such? Another of the same crew (rebuked by his father at the same time for his ill husbandry) swore he would hang himself; which also he did presently, and had perished by his own hands, had not his father come seasonably and cut the halter. Oh, these ale houses! the pest houses of our nation, the very sinks and sources of all villany.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Envyings - see the note at 2Co 12:20.

Revellings - 2Co 12:20, note; Rom 13:13, note.

And such like - This class of evils, without attempting to specify all.

Of which I tell you before - In regard to which I forewarn you.

As I have also told you in time past - When he was with them.

Shall not inherit the kingdom of God - Cannot possibly be saved; see the notes at 1Co 6:9-11. In regard to this passage, we may remark:

(1) That it furnishes the most striking and unanswerable proof of human depravity. Paul represents these things as “the works of the flesh,” the works of the unrenewed nature of man. They are such as human nature, when left to itself, everywhere produces. The world shows that such is the fact; and we cannot but ask, is a nature producing this to be regarded as pure? Is man an unfallen being? Can he save himself? Does he need no Saviour?

(2) This passage is full of fearful admonition to those who indulge in any or all of these vices. Paul, inspired of God, has solemnly declared, that such cannot be saved. They cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven as they are. Nor is it desirable that they should. What would heaven be if filled up with adulterers, and fornicators, and idolaters, with the proud and envious, and with murderers, and drunkards? To call such a place heaven, would be an abuse of the word. No one could wish to dwell there; and such people cannot enter into heaven.

(3) The human heart must be changed, or man cannot be saved. This follows of course. If such is its tendency, then there is a necessity for such a change as that in regeneration, in order that man may be happy and be saved.

(4) We should rejoice that such people cannot, with their present characters, be admitted to heaven. We should rejoice that there is one world where these vices are unknown, a world of perfect and eternal purity. When we look at the earth; when we see how these vices prevail; when we reflect that every land is polluted, and that we cannot traverse a continent or an island, visit a nook or corner of the earth, dwell in any city or town, where these vices do not exist, O how refreshing and invigorating is it to look forward to a pure heaven! How cheering the thought that there is one world where these vices are unknown; one world, all whose ample plains may be traversed, and the note of blasphemy shall never fall on the ear; one world, where virtue shall be safe from the arts of the seducer; one world where we may forever dwell, and not one reeling and staggering drunkard shall ever be seen; where there shall be not one family in want and tears from the vice of its unfaithful head! With what joy should we look forward to that world! With what ardor should we pant that it may be our own!

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Envyings; repinings at that good which is enjoyed by our brethren:

murders; unjust taking away the lives of others, with any actions tending or subservient thereunto: drunkenness; immoderate drinkings:

revellings, and such like; immoderate eatings; all abuses of the creatures of God beyond necessity, or a moderate delight.

Of the which I tell you before; I tell you of it before the day of judgment comes, when you will find that which I tell you to be truth.

As I have also told you in time past; as you know I have in my preaching to you in times past told you.

That they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God; that they who ordinarily do these things, and do not only live in such practices, but die without repentance for them, shall never be saved: see 1Co 6:9,10; Re 21:7,8.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Envyings—Distinguished from emulation. The latter is a desire to equal or excel another; the former to reduce another below ourselves.

Murder—The completion of all the previous malignities. Next follow the indulgences of appetite.

Revellings—Inclusive of drinking, feasting, dancing, etc. And here we record our testimony against all dancing, even in private circles. It is a branch of a whole system of connected revelry, just as card playing is a branch of a whole connected system of venture and gambling. Precisely to the degree that these prevail, especially with the connivance of the Christian Church, will frivolity, gliding into revelry, extravagance, and irreligion, prevail. It is never conducive to health, and in the best sanitary institutions is not practised.

Told you in time past— Referring, doubtless, to his testimonies in his earlier preaching in Galatia. They had been warned already in vocal announcement; they are now warned in recorded testimony. It is a deep and solemn warning.

Inherit— Note on 1Co_6:9.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Envyings, murders (fqonoi, Receptus adds fonoi, rejected by most editors). These belong properly to the third group, and should have been placed in the same verse with them. We have the like alliterative combination of the Greek words in Rom_1:29, nou fqo fonou. Judging from the evidence of manuscripts, the genuineness of fonoi, is extremely doubtful. Regard being had to the particular circumstances of the Galatian Churches, which the apostle no doubt had in his eye in this enumeration, "murders" seems too strong a word to be appropriate; and this consideration seems to prove the word here not authentic.

Drunkenness, revellings (meqai kwmoi); drunkennesses, revellings. We have the same two plural nouns inmoiv Rom_13:13, kw kaiqaiv. This fourth group represents sins of excess. Here, too, the apostle touches a form of vice, to which abundant testimony shows the Galatians, as well as other branches of Celts, to have been especially prone. It was, perhaps, this marked feature of the Galatian nationality in particular that led St. Peter, in addressing the Churches of "Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," to speak (1Pe_4:3) of their having formerly walked in "lasciviousness, lusts, wine-bibbings, revellings, carousings (oijnoflugiav kwmoiv potoiv), and abominable idolatries." And such like (kai tatoiv); and those (works) which arc like to these. Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past (a prolegw uJmin kaqwv Receptus, kaqwv kai proeipon); of the which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you. The construction of the accusative a is precisely similar to that of on ingete, (Joh_8:54, On uJmeiv le oti Qeov uJmwn ejsti. The pro in prolegw) as also in the proeipon which follows, has reference to the time when it shall actually be proved who are to enter into the kingdom of God. "As I did forewarn you;" this previous warning was probably given at his very first preaching of the gospel to them he would no doubt at once speak plainly to people, very commonly sunk in vice and excess, of the awards of the "judgment to come." That they which do such things (oti oiJ tassontev): that they which practise such things. The present tense of prassontev is more suitable than the aorist, as being the language of warning with reference to future conduct (cf. Rom_2:2, Rom_2:3, Rom_2:7-10) Shall not inherit the kingdom of God (basileian Qeou ouj klhronomhsousin). The apostle uses the same words in writing to the Corinthians with reference to the sins to which they were the most prone. (1Co_6:9, 1Co_6:10) So Eph_5:5, "No fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." This "kingdom" is also referred to in 1Th_2:12, "Walk worthily of God who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory" ("His own!" Astonishing prospect!) 2Th_1:5, "That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer;" 2Ti_4:18, "will save me unto his heavenly kingdom." The like designation of the future felicity is given by St. Peter, (2Pe_1:11) "entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," and by St. James (it. 5), "heirs of the kingdom which he God promised to them that love him." It is derived from our Lord"s own teaching, as, e.g. Mat_25:34, "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you;" Luk_12:32, "It is your Father"s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." It is the manifestation and consummation of "that kingdom of heaven," or "kingdom of God," heralded by Christ and his forerunner as "at hand," which the Prophet Daniel had pointed forward to. (Dan_2:44 Dan_7:13, Dan_7:14, Dan_7:18) Bondage to "the flesh" in this life is constantly declared throughout the New Testament to form an insuperable bar to an entrance into that exalted state. And what is the alternative prospect? This the Apostle Paul does not here specify, though elsewhere he does so with awful emphasis; as e.g. Rom_2:8.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Revellings - Luxurious entertainments. Some of the works here mentioned are wrought principally, if not entirely, in the mind; and yet they are called "works of the flesh." Hence it is clear, the apostle does not by "the flesh" mean the body, or sensual appetites and inclinations only, but the corruption of human nature, as it spreads through all the powers of the soul, as well as all the members of the body. Of which I tell you before - Before the event, I forewarn you.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

VERSE 21. Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in the past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

This is a hard saying, but very necessary for those false Christians and hypocrites who speak much about the Gospel, about faith, and the Spirit, yet live after the flesh. But this hard sentence is directed chiefly at the heretics who are large with their own self-importance, that they may be frightened into taking up the fight of the Spirit against the flesh.

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. [These sins are too well known to need analysis or comment. It is startling to find "factions, divisions, parties," in so black a list, and coupled with so clear a declaration that these sins exclude the perpetrator of them from the kingdom of God. Verily all professing Christians would do well to take heed to what the Bible designates as sins, and not trust too much to their own fallible sentiment and judgment in such matters.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Drunkenness. A common sin of all ages. Revellings. Any kind of riotous or unseemly conduct; carousals. As I have also told you in time past. As before, when in Galatia, so now he tells them again that none who do these things can expect to be saved.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

21. φθόνοι without φόνοι אB. 17. φόνοι is added by Text. Rec. with ACD etc. syrr.

καθὼς προεῖπον. So א*BG. καὶ is inserted by W.H. margin with Text. Rec.

21. φθόνοι, “envyings.” See notes on Textual Criticism. The plural, 1Pe 2:1[145]. Wetstein quotes Soph. Oed. Col. 1234 sq. φόνοι, στάσεις, ἔρις, μάχαι, καὶ φθόνος,

[145] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

μέθαι. The plural also in Rom 13:13; the singular in Luk 21:34[146].

[146] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

κῶμοι, Rom 13:13; 1Pe 4:3[147]. “Carousals,” whether private, or, more probably, public revels connected with the worship of the gods, in particular of Bacchus. “Even the excellent Plutarch thought that it was absurd to be squeamish over wine, and that it was not only excusable, but a religious duty, to let tongues go; the gods required this compliment to their mythological characters” (Bigg on 1Pe 4:3).

[147] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

καὶ τὰ ὅμοια τούτοις. Thus preventing his readers supposing that they might go beyond the list with safety.

ἃ, “with respect to which things.”

προλέγω ὑμῖν, 2Co 13:2; 1Th 3:4[148], “I tell you before any commit them.”

[148] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

καθὼς προεῖπον. See notes on Textual Criticism. Such a warning belonged to the elementary instruction of converts (1Th 4:1 sqq.; 1Co 6:9 sq.; Rom 6:17) and may have been given on the first or the second visit. Contrast Gal 1:9.

ὅτι οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα πράσσοντες cf. 2Co 12:21.

βασιλείαν θεοῦ. On the absence of the article in the phrase βας. θ. κληρ. (1Co 6:9-10; 1Co 15:50) see Win.-Schm. § 19. 14. Perhaps in silent contrast to the kingdom of Caesar, as probably νόμος βασιλικός in Jas 2:8 to the same phrase used of imperial decrees: see Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, p. 265.

οὐ κληρονομήσουσιν, cf. Eph 5:5.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. φθόν., (φόν.)] see Rom 1:29, where we have the same alliteration.

ἃ προλ.] The construction of ἅ is exactly as Joh 8:54, ὃν ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι θεὸς ὑμῶν ἐστιν:—it is governed, but only as matter of reference, by προλέγω,—not to be joined by attraction with πράσσοντες, as Olsh., al.

προλ. κ. προεῖπον] I forewarn you (now), and did forewarn you (when I was with you): the προ- in both cases pointing on to the great day of retribution.

τὰ τοιαῦτα] The article generalizes τοιαῦτα, the things of this kind, i.e. all such things. See Ellic.’s note.

βασ. θ. οὐ κλ.] See reff.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Murders. Omit from the text.

Revelings [κωμοι] . Comp. Rom 13:13; 1Pe 4:3. In both passages coupled with drunkenness as here. See on 1Pe 4:3.

I tell you before [προλεγω] . Better beforehand, or as Rev. I forewarn you. P o. Comp. 2Co 13:2; 1Th 3:4.

The kingdom of God. See on Luk 6:20.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.