Galatians 5:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

such as enmity, quarrels, envy, disputes, heresies, and sorcery. All this, like the rest, certainly depends on the will, though on a corrupted will. How then can these things depend on the flesh?

Let those who slander the flesh answer us. Let shamelessness and adultery be sins of the body. But enmity, heresies, and the like, how do they depend on the flesh?

Therefore it is clear that all this is the work of a corrupted will. If they were works of the flesh as our natural properties, how would they deprive us of the Kingdom of God? For punishments and rewards belong not to nature, but to the will.

Moreover, if the passions were properties of nature, he would not have said, “those who do such things,” but “those who suffer such things,” because action presupposes will.

By enmity he means unjust enmity. There is also a righteous hostility, which arises for the sake of the faith and is directed against all who turn away from the straight path.

Let no one think that envy is the same as zeal. They are indeed neighbors, and precisely because of this nearness one is often substituted for the other, either envy for zeal or zeal for envy.

But since each concept here differs from the others, we also must make this distinction.

Zeal is a sickness of soul that occurs when someone acquires a thing sought by two or even more people, though only one can possess it. Zeal is healed by peace (Gal 5:22), in which all can obtain what is sought and thereby be united into one.

Envy is a sickness of soul in which it seems that an unworthy person has obtained something, even if others were not seeking it. Envy is healed by meekness.

Then a man, calling upon the judgment of God, does not resist His will and trusts His justice more than his own judgment about the worthiness of others.

So that sorcery and wicked contrivances might not seem to be unprohibited in the New Testament, they are named here among the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19). Sometimes disagreement arises even in the interpretation of Scripture, and from this come heresies, which are listed here among the works of the flesh. For if the wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God (Rom 8:1-16), and all false teachings opposed to God are hostile, then heresies hostile to God also belong to the works of the flesh. See also the interpretation on Gal 5:19.

"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).

Therefore flee evil growths that bear death-dealing fruit. Whoever tastes of it dies at once. For heretics are not the planting of the Father. If they were, they would be branches of the Cross, and their fruit would be incorruptible. Through His Passion Jesus Christ calls us to Himself as His members. The head cannot be born separately, without the members. And God promises us the union that He Himself is.

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).

Idolatry belongs here on the side where lust was most active. Among the pagans there were deities whose very service was performed by satisfying this passion.

Sorceries are also mentioned here because part of them was assigned to aid carnal sins. Such were mixtures of potions and herbs, and various incantations, intended to produce mutual enchantment, or, as we say, a love spell. In the life of Cyprian and Justina one can see how this was done.

The works of the incensive power, or of anger, are indicated as follows. Enmities arise when one person is at enmity with another, or family with family, or clan with clan.

They do not see one another, meet, or speak. If they do not plot evil, they wish it would befall the other side and rejoice when it happens.