Sermon Tone Analysis

Context

I want to remind of the exhortations Paul issued earlier in this chapter that we will conclude today.

and also

What we see here is the conflict between our flesh and the Spirit of God which resides in all who have placed their faith in Christ.

This is why Christians find it difficult to live for Christ.

It’s not that we struggle, as those who have received new life in Christ, actually struggle to believe that God’s will is best, but to actually live as if that is true requires us to gratify the desires of our flesh.

Christians have been given the Spirit of God but we continue to contend with our flesh.

It is all out warfare.

As we approach today’s text, I want us to do our best not to make assumptions about it because of how familiar it may be to some of us.

The fruit of the Spirit is outlined here, but we also see the works of the flesh.

And it is no small detail that Paul chose to discuss the two lists in different terms:

The works of the flesh are the products of human effort to devise, connive, manufacture and self-actualize.

As Timothy George points out, whether it is the Tower of Babel or modern totalitarianism, or Aaron’s golden calf or contemporary idols like sex, money and power, the works of the flesh are clear enough and they bring misery, violence and death.

The fruit of the Spirit is framed different.

The shift from works to fruit was intentional.

First, works are plural where fruit is singular.

The works of the flesh are many (and things like these v. 21), but the fruit of the Spirit is one fruit that manifests itself in 9 characteristics.

But what I want us to see here as we go to consider this passage of Scripture is that the shift from works to fruit points to the nature of people.

Our nature, that is, who we are on the inside is a reference to our identity.

And Paul’s point in this is to say that if we are people who practice the works of our flesh, then our true selves are rejectors of God and pursuers of our own satisfaction… whatever that may be.

But if the fruit of the Spirit is evident in our lives, that suggests that our true selves, that is our nature, reflects the nature of the Spirit of God.

So we have the outward and the inward.

Who we are on the outside and who we are on the inside.

It is important we understand the connection.

Introduction

FCF: We have difficulty understanding the relationship between our behavior and our nature

I could say I love you, but you know I do already.

(you know my nature so behavior isn’t important)

You say you love me, but those words are empty to me.

(your behavior does not seem to be authentic)

Main Idea

Our nature and our behavior are inseparable.

How are we to understand the relationship between our nature and our behavior?

Our behavior reveals our nature (24)

The fact that I am beginning at v. 24 revels the way I understand Paul flow of argument here.

Paul makes it clear that those who belong to Christ, have crucified their flesh with it’s passions and desires.

He made a similar statement back in

The flesh with its passions and desires are explained in verses 19-23, and we will consider them in our next point.

So verse 19-23 describe what verse 24 references.

But when it comes to our behavior revealing our nature, I want us to answer:

What are the possible natures revealed by our behavior?

What I am suggesting we see in Galatians and in the Bible is that people have one of two natures.

Either one that rejects Christ or one that surrenders to Christ.

Our behavior reveals which one.

So again, what are the possible natures revealed by our behavior.

One that presumes autonomy

Consider the first part of v. 24: those who belong to Christ.

This literally says, those of Christ.

This is a reference to ownership and allegiance.

It’s a reference to surrender.

And for those who live according to the works of their flesh, do not consider themselves as belonging to, loyal to, surrendered to anyone… especially God.

Certainly Christ.

And this is because this behavior reveals a nature that presumes to autonomous.

Autonomy, which is the presumption of self-governance, is really a lie.

No one is really autonomous.

Remember what Paul said about people who do not know God? Who reject Him?

Slavery is the descriptor for those who presume to be independent of God

And those who live according to their flesh along with its passions and desires instead of crucifying their flesh after the order of what Christ accomplished through His crucifixion do so because their nature presumes autonomy, pursues an autonomous life-style, and it is a vicious cycle that enslaves people to this futile effort.

Our behavior reveals our nature

One that embraces surrender

And so the nature that v. 24 describes is one that has been changed so that it belongs to Christ, and the behavior follows.

Instead of indulging the flesh, it seeks to crucify the flesh.

It is at war with the passions and desires of the flesh.

It is a nature that recognizes that we can do nothing in our own strength and expect to be victorious over our flesh.

We do the work of crucifying our flesh alongside of our crucified Savior.

So our old selves, that is, our former, autonomy-hungry natures have been been killed, but the works of the flesh die a slow death.

It is still a battle, but one day those works will die.

But again, what our current behavior does is it reveals our nature.

Either one that is surrendered to Christ and embraces surrender to Him or one that rejects Christ and embraces the flesh along with its desires and passions.

But not only does our behavior reveal our nature it also

Our behavior reflects our nature (19-23)

What’s the difference between revealing & reflecting or at least, what do I understand to be the difference here?

That our behavior reveals our nature is to expose our true selves for who we really are.

But our behavior, will also comply with who we really are.

Yes, we attempt to mask ourselves to some degree.

Yet, when it comes to a nature that rejects Christ or one that has been transformed by Christ, the behavior of either nature will always be consistent with that nature.

Now before we get into these two lists, one of vices and one of virtues, I want us to see something

Here the works of the flesh are outlined and many commentators suggest, and I agree, that it appears Paul groups them into categories.

violations of sexual boundaries: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality

violation of the spiritual: idolatry & sorcery

violations of brotherly love: strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions & envy

violations of restraint: drunkeness, orgies

What’s interesting to note here is that the Judaizers, who again were those who came in among the Galatian churches and began to teach that being right with God required not only faith in Christ, but continuing to honor some of the Jewish law, in particular, circumcision.

And these false teachers would have agreed that sexual immorality, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, drunkeness and orgies were all out of bounds.

Were all practices that should be avoided at all costs.

But it probably did not occur to them that evidence of our flesh, that is, evidence of that part of us that rebels against God shows up in strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions and envy.

Most, if not all of these things were a problem in the Galatian churches to some measure because of their presence among the people.

Their influence among the people was what Paul was addressing.

What are the possible natures reflected?

An entitled nature (19-21a)

Now, I want us to revisit the idea of works here.

The works of the flesh may bring with it the idea that they are done to earn something.

In fact, that idea is what underlies what the Judaizers were teaching.

Get circumcised (work) and then you will earn peace with God.

But when it comes to say, anger (loosing our tempers), are we trying to earn anything?

Does loosing our tempers require any effort from us?

The works of the flesh are not works in that particular sense, but they are works in that they are carried out as an attempt to satisfy our nature.

When we loose our tempers or become jealous or behave in a way that causes strife among people, we do that because we think we did not receive something that we should have.

We loose our tempers because something didn’t go the way we wanted or someone did not behave the way we thought they should, so to compensate for that, at least on an emotional level, we give our anger free range as an attempt to compensate for that failed expectation.

And see this is the way the works of our flesh works.