Fruit of the Sinful Nature

Galatians 5:19-21  Comparisons of NLT & NIV & NASM & NKJV

1. sexual immorality         sexual immorality           immorality                       adultery
2. impurity                        impurity                          impurity                          fornication
3. lustful pleasures            debauchery                     sensuality                        uncleanness & lewdness
4. idolatry                          idolatry                          idolatry                            idolatry
5. sorcery                          witchcraft                       sorcery                            sorcery
6. hostility                         hatred                             enmities                           hatred
7. quarreling                     discord                            strife                                contentions
8. jealousy                        jealousy                           jealousy                          jealousies
9. outbursts of anger         fits of rage                       outbursts of anger           outbursts of wrath
10. selfish ambition            selfish ambition                disputes                          selfish ambition
11. dissension                    dissensions                       dissensions                      dissensions
12. division                        factions                            factions                           heresies
13. envy                             envy                                 envying                          envy
14.  drunkenness                drunkenness                     drunkenness                   drunkeness
15. wild parties                  orgies                                carousing                       revelries
16. other sins like these      the like                             things like these              and the like

The Vital Divine Habit

Galatians 5:16   So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  17  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

Wuest:  But I say, through the instrumentality of the Spirit habitually order your manner of life, and you will in no wise execute the passionate desire of the flesh,   17  for the flesh constantly has a strong desire to suppress the Spirit, and the Spirit constantly has a strong desire to suppress the flesh.  And these are entrenched in an attitude of mutual opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you desire to do.


I like how Wuest fills this out.

• We are to make it our habit of letting the Holy Spirit guide our lives.
• These desires of the sinful nature or flesh are passionate.
• the sinful nature needs suppression since the desires are so passionate.  What can suppress the sinful nature, only Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, not modern psychology, not our own will, not guilt or condemnation, not good intentions.
  

Don't Allow Sin to be King

Romans 8:12 relates well with Galatians 5

The words in verse 12, "let not sin reign," are in a construction in the Greek which forbids the continuation of an action already going on. The word "reign" is in the Greek "reign as king." The tense speaks of habitual action. "That you should obey" is literally, "with a view to habitually obeying." The word "lusts" is literally "cravings." "Therefore" does not go back to "sin" but to "body." . . . "Lusts therefore" refers to the cravings of the human body, which cravings come from the sinful nature. The translation reads, "Therefore, stop allowing sin to reign habitually as king in your mortal bodies, with a view to your habitually obeying the cravings of that body." God is never unreasonable in His demands upon His own. What He asks of us is always within our ability to fulfill as we appropriate the divine resources of grace. Since the power to sin is broken and the divine nature is implanted, we are well able to keep sin from reigning in our bodies

(Treasures from the Greek New Testament, pp. 96-98).

Don't be Immature in Using Your Freedom

But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature.

At Robertson word pictures: "turn not your liberty into an occasion for the flesh" (eiv apormhn thi sarki), as a spring board for license.

The Old Identity

Galatians 5:13
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

Sinful nature is how NLT describes the greek word sarkos.  KJV uses "works of the flesh", Barclay uses "the lower side of human nature", Amplified has "doings (practices) of the flesh", Phillips "activities of the lower nature", and Wuest "actions of the evil nature".

Understanding our Identity

Galatians 5:13

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

We are called.  Our calling is the new identity we have in Christ.  In this new identity as a child of God, as a born again person, as a new creation, freedom is a characteristic trait.  We have been given freedom.  In our immaturity we can use that freedom to satisfy our sinful natures or use it in a mature way to serve one another in love.


And Identity is what identifies us with something.  Our new nature in Christ should identify us with God.  We are learning to walk in His nature, we are becoming like Him.

Three Phases

Galatians 3: 1-5

Paul give focus to one of the key characteristics of the true gospel here in Galatians 3.  Salvation happens through the empowering of the Holy Spirit as well as continued growth happens in the same way.

In 1 and 2 Paul clarifies that we recieve the Spirit initially because of belief in the message of the gospel and then in 3 and 4 he reinforces that this is how we continue to operate and grow.  And in 5 he goes on to talk about the power of the Spirit in working miracles happens because of this same belief in the gospel of Christ.

Faith is never created from human works, but in belief in Christ.