Verse: Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Devotion:
From outside the Church, the Bible can sometimes be viewed as a “rulebook”, a list of dos and don’ts that have to be lived up to in order to earn favor with God. While those of us who are part of the Church (hopefully) understand that is not true, we still have to deal with some passages of Scripture that seem to feed into that stereotype. This is one such passage.
So, has Paul taken it on himself to replace the 10 Commandments with 15+ sins that must be avoided in order to make it to heaven? Doesn’t sound much like Paul, does it? In fact, he just finished saying in verse 18 that “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law”. Instead, Paul is reminding Christians what a life lived in pursuit of worldly pleasures (the flesh) looks like. He has spent the first portion of Chapter 5 letting us know that we have freedom in Christ, but now he warns us not to squander that freedom by choosing to live in this way, rather than pursuing the Spirit.
As Christians we have been delivered from slavery to sin. Why then would we want to use our freedom to simply enslave ourselves once again? Of course we know that becoming a Christian doesn’t mean we’ll never sin again. But as Paul reminds us, Christians simply don’t live their lives in constant patterns of these behaviors. Because that’s incompatible with who we have become in Christ.
Prayer:
God, thank you for the reminder of the freedom we have in you. Give us the strength to use that freedom to choose to live by your Spirit, rather than by our flesh. Amen.
Author: Dave MacDonald
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