Galatians 5:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Now you, accuser of your own flesh, tell me: if you think this is said about its struggle and enmity, even if, in your view, adultery and fornication depend on the flesh...

"The works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication." These, he says, are the works of a corrupt fleshly will, among which adultery and fornication are recognized. It is clear how much adultery differs from fornication. "Uncleanness, licentiousness." By this he hints at shameful practices that he did not even dare to name.

The Apostle's words, "Now the works of the flesh are known," show that these works are known to all, because they are obvious in themselves as evil and to be avoided. They are so obvious that even those who do them wish to hide what they do. Or perhaps they are known only to those who have believed in Christ. For many among the Gentiles glory in their shameful deeds and think that, if they have satisfied their desires, they have won a victory over dishonor.

On verses 19-21: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest. They are fornication, uncleanness, incontinence, service of idols, sorcery, enmities, strifes, jealousy, anger, factions, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, untimely indulgence in abundant food, and the like. I warn you, as I told you before, that those who do such things shall not possess the Kingdom of God."

Above, when we explained the passage concerning flesh and spirit, we spoke of a threefold understanding. Fleshly men are either those who are like children and fleshly, and cannot receive solid food concerning Christ or the nourishment of mature age. Or they are those who, according to the custom of the Jews, follow only the actual examples of former life and the letter of Scripture.

Or, without doubt, according to the direct sense, he speaks here of flesh and spirit in the composition of man. According to the distinction of their substance, there are works either fleshly or spiritual. Now the things called works of the flesh, namely fornication, uncleanness, incontinence, and what follows, seem to me to refer more to this simple understanding of flesh and spirit than to the flesh of the Law or the infancy of men in Christ.

Yet in the passage where we earlier translated word for word the discussion from the tenth book of Origen's Stromata, it is stated that this meaning too can be considered. The Apostle's words, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest," show that these works are known either to all, because they are obvious in themselves as evil and to be avoided, and so obvious that even those who do them wish to hide what they do.

Or perhaps they are known only to those who have believed in Christ. For many among the Gentiles glory in their shameful deeds and think that, if they have satisfied their desires, they have conquered dishonor and been freed from disgrace.

It is also excellent that he assigns works to the flesh, but fruits to the Spirit. Vices have their end in themselves and perish. Virtues grow into abundant fruits. Yet we must not suppose that the soul has no work, since vices are called works of the flesh and virtues are assigned to the Spirit.

As we said above, the soul, placed as though in an intermediate position, either joins itself to the flesh. Then it is said of it, 'My Spirit shall not abide in these men, because they are flesh' (Gen 6:3). Or it is united to the Spirit and then becomes spirit. For 'he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit' (1 Cor 6:17).

Thus the first work of the flesh is fornication. It is placed at the beginning as something obvious, so that we may have no doubt about what is placed in the middle. Everything a man does, he does outside the body. But he who commits fornication sins against his own body, in suum corpus.

We do not belong to ourselves, for we were bought with a great price and bear God in our body. Therefore the fornicator commits a greater crime than others. He takes the members of Christ and makes them members of a harlot, for the two become one body.

He who is unfaithful and does not believe in Christ makes his own members members of a harlot. But he who believes in Christ makes the members of Christ members of a harlot. Yet I do not know whether, conversely, the unbeliever builds up or corrupts the temple of an idol by his fornication, because through vices the demons receive very great honor.

I know this one thing: he who commits fornication after faith in Christ corrupts the temple of God. The second work of the flesh is called uncleanness, and its companion is incontinence. In the Old Testament, concerning unspeakable crimes committed in secret, of which it is very shameful to speak, lest the mouth of the speaker and the ears of the hearer be defiled, Scripture says generally, 'Make the sons of Israel modest before every uncleanness' (Lev 15:31).

So also here he calls incontinence and uncleanness the other extraordinary acts of desire. This includes even marital relations, if they are shameless and dishonorable, as though they were not to occur before the eyes of God for procreation.

The fourth place in the list of the works of the flesh is occupied by idolatry. For he who has once surrendered himself to incontinence and desire does not look toward the Creator. And otherwise, in every idolatry man takes pleasure in festivals, in satisfying the throat, the belly, and what is beneath the belly.

Lest it should somehow seem that sorceries and wicked arts are not forbidden in the New Testament, they too are named among the works of the flesh. For by magical means it often happens that miserable people cause others to love and are themselves caused to love.

The degree of guilt possessed by enmity, placed after sorcery, is shown by the clear notion of this crime's manifest character. As far as it depends on us, we ought to be enemies of no one, but to have peace with all. Therefore, if by speaking the truth we acquire certain enemies, we are not so much their enemies as they are enemies of the truth.

This is what is said in the book of God to Abraham: 'I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will oppose those who oppose you.' It must be understood, as above, that Abraham was not so much their enemy as they were enemies of Abraham's virtues and faith. By that faith, after trampling down idols, he began to worship the God whom he had come to know.

So also the command given to Israel, that they should be enemies to the Midianites with eternal hatred and with enmity passed on to descendants (Num 31:17-18), is spoken as to those under a tutor. They deserved to hear another word: 'You shall hate your enemy' (Mt 5:43).

Perhaps here the point is not so much enmity between persons as disagreement in their ways. God placed enmity between the woman and the serpent, so that their friendship would not harm man. Through that friendship man had been driven out of paradise. Likewise, between the Midianites and the Israelites there was more a difference of life than a condemnation of one nation.

The seventh place among the works of the flesh is held by strife. It is placed among the vices in a certain sacred, as it were elevated, number. But the servant of the Lord must not begin a quarrel. He must be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, and with meekness instruct even those who oppose him (2 Tim 2:24-25).

After strife, jealousy appears as the eighth vice. It is better and more precisely named by the Greek word ζῆλος. I do not know who among us is free from this evil. The patriarchs showed jealousy toward their brother Joseph. Miriam and Aaron, the prophetess and the priest of God, were seized by this passion toward Moses (Gen 37:4; Num 12:1).

Miriam was so seized that she, of whom Scripture first tells us, 'And Miriam the prophetess, taking a timbrel' (Ex 15:20), was later cast outside the camp and struck with the disease of leprosy. She had to undergo prolonged repentance, remaining in exclusion for seven days (Num 12:10-15).

Then follows anger, which does not work the righteousness of God (Jas 1:20) and is a form of fury. Between irascibility and anger there is this distinction: the irascible man is always angry, but the angry man is stirred only for a time.

I do not know whether any irascible man can inherit the Kingdom of God, because he who is angry is separated from the Kingdom (Mt 5). Likewise quarrels, which the Greeks denote by another term, ἐριθεῖαι, remove a man from the Kingdom of God. Yet rixa, quarrel, is called mach, battle.

There is an ἐριθεία when someone, always ready to contradict, delights in another's stomach, argues with womanish captiousness, and provokes an opponent to disputes. Among the Greeks this is called by another word, φιλονεικία, love of contention.

Dissensions also are works of the flesh. This happens when someone, still imperfect, says with one and the same meaning and with determination, 'I am of Paul,' 'I am of Apollos,' 'I am of Cephas,' and 'I am of Christ' (1 Cor 1:12).

This kind of dissension also appears in household life: disputes of husband with wife, father with son, brother with brother, one fellow-servant with another in the house, one soldier with another who lives in the same tent, or one craftsman with another fellow craftsman.

Sometimes dissension also arises in the interpretation of the Scriptures. From this come divisions, or heresies, which are now placed among the works of the flesh. For if wisdom hostile to God is hostile, and all false teachings contrary to God are hostile, then all divisions, or heresies, hostile to God are consistently counted among the works of the flesh.

The Greek word heresy comes from the word for choice, because each person chooses for himself the teaching that seems best to him. Thus everyone understands Scripture otherwise than the understanding from the Holy Spirit requires, by whose inspiration it was written. Even if such a man has not departed from the Church, he can still be called a heretic and a man of the works of the flesh, because he chooses what is worse.

After divisions follows envy. We must not think of it as the same as jealousy, because jealousy can also be understood in a good sense. This happens when someone strives to be a zealous follower of one who is better. But envy is tormented by another's prosperity.

It is divided into two passions. Either the envious man is in a condition in which he does not wish another to be, or, when he sees another better than himself, he grieves that he is not like him. One of the more recent writers, translating a Greek verse, mocked envy in these elegiac lines: 'Nothing is more just than envy, which at once gnaws its own author and tears his soul.'

Blessed Cyprian also wrote a splendid book On Zeal and Envious Malice. Whoever reads that book will not doubt that envy should be numbered among the works of the flesh. The distinction between the envious man and the one who is envied is this: the first envies the more fortunate, while the second suffers from another's envy.

The fourteenth place among the works of the flesh is held by drunkenness, for drunkards do not inherit the Kingdom of God. The Lord said to His disciples, 'Take heed, lest your hearts be weighed down with excess in wine and food' (Lk 21:34). By wine a man's understanding is distorted, his feet are weakened, his thought is shaken, and desire is stirred.

Therefore the Apostle cries out, 'And wine, in which is dissipation' (Eph 5:18). Each man can pronounce his own opinion. I follow the Apostle: in wine there is dissipation, in wine drunkenness. That drunkenness and dissipation are counted among the works of the flesh cannot be denied even by one conquered by these passions.

Some say that I am liable to reproach for the book I wrote On the Preservation of Virginity, because I said that young people must avoid wine as poison. Yet I do not repent of this judgment. We condemned rather the effect of wine than God's creation. We do not permit a maiden, burning with the fire of her age, to drink, lest under the pretext of a little drinking she drink more than is allowed and perish.

On the other hand, we know that wine is consecrated into the Blood of Christ, and that Timothy was permitted to drink a little wine. But intoxication can come from wine and from other kinds of drinks prepared in various ways. Therefore it is said of the holy man, 'He shall drink neither wine nor strong drink' (Lk 1:15).

Lest someone who does not taste wine think that he may drink something else, every occasion is removed. Together with wine, everything capable of causing intoxication is forbidden.

All these and similar things are sins, and the Apostle calls them works of the flesh because all such errors come from the world, from which the flesh also comes. For all these sins are born from the side of the flesh, not from the side of the spirit. Therefore they are not vainly called works of the flesh.

"Now the works of the flesh are evident." Again he calls fleshly-mindedness "flesh." "They are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, shameful conduct, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strifes, jealousies, wraths, outbursts, disputes, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, disorderly revelries, and things like these." It is clear that idolatry, sorcery, and the like belong not to the flesh but to the soul. Therefore he does not accuse the flesh, but carelessness in the disposition of thought. "Of these I forewarn you, as I also foretold, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God." The divine Apostle said this also in the Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 6:9-10).

First of all, let us learn who such sinners are. They are those who have fallen under sinful habits, who have become completely entangled in the nets of carnal deeds.

Of them the Apostle says: “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness,” and so on (Gal 5:19).

Those entangled in all these carnal passions and sinful pleasures do not quickly rise, even if they have the thought and intention of repentance. Even if they say with David, “O that our ways were directed!” (Ps 118:5), they do not rise quickly.

Habit has already become for them a second nature, and even a necessity. They no longer do what they will, but what they do not will, that they practice. It is no longer they, but sin dwelling in them and reigning in their members (Rom 7:19-20).

That such people do not rise quickly or easily can be seen in the example of David.

"The works of the flesh." The Apostle lists several vices by which the life of the flesh is marked. From this list one may conclude that for him not only coarse sensual pleasure is called a work of the flesh, but also refined passions of the soul: hatred, envy, and even heresies.

If Christ had granted us complete freedom in every respect, and had freed us from every law whatever, what would keep us from pleasing our flesh? If we must not please the flesh, then we have not been freed from every law whatever. Not everything is permitted to us.

Therefore the freedom of which the Apostle speaks must be understood only as freedom from the law of Moses. In Christianity another law has taken the place of that law: the law of Christian faith and life.

Having then listed the works of the flesh, such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and the rest (cf. Gal 5:16), and the fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, and the rest (Gal 5:16-18), St. Paul continues.

In listing the works of the flesh, “the Apostle names only the most prominent self-pleasing deeds, and in their coarsest and most repulsive form.

“The holy Apostle lists eighteen kinds of sinful works. Yet they are clearly divided into two halves: the works of the desiring power and the works of the incensive power.

“First the Apostle lists the evil works of the desiring power, and then those of the incensive power: enmities, strifes...”

“The last two, drunkenness and disorderly revels, are not added because the Apostle wished to complete the list of lustful works. Rather, in these two both lust and rage find satisfaction.

“A drunkard is ready both to commit shameful deeds and to quarrel. Likewise, at drinking feasts both lust and anger have free play” (Bishop Theophan).

The Apostle had taught that, in our inward warfare, we must resist selfhood and self-pleasing and always follow the demands and movements of the spirit. Now he shows the scope and arena of spiritual warfare, and what we must abandon and oppose.

In listing the works of self-pleasing, the Apostle does not bring everything forward. Even in what he sets out, he does not indicate subtle shades, but names only the most prominent self-pleasing deeds, in their coarsest and most repulsive form.

This is because pagan carnal life revealed itself in such deeds most of all, as everyone saw and knew. Also, when revulsion is stirred against blameworthy deeds, rejection of their thoughts and desires is formed together with it. One cannot succeed well in the first without the second.