The Bad List

Last night, some friends and I were taking about a challenging set of verses in Paul's letter to the Galatians 5:16-21 NIV:

[16] "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

[19] "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

These are some of the verses where we often only read part, because if we read the whole verse it would potentially hit to close to home. The list of the acts of the flesh gets down right uncomfortable in places, such as selfish ambition, envy, and dissensions. We tend to like to classify our sins, into categories of bad, and not so bad. I wouldn't put envy in the same category as idolatry or witchcraft, yet Paul does, and then he says that those who live this way won't inherit the Kingdom of God. This clearly is uncomfortable talk.

Paul writes a very similar message to the Church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6:8-11 NIV:
[8] "Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. [9] Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men [10] nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

In this list, Paul adds the greedy to the same list as idolaters and sexually immoral. Again, uncomfortable talk, and talk that probably hits a bit close to home. The truth is that sin is sin in God's eyes. God apparently sees sin differently than we do, and from His perspective greed and idolatry are just as bad as each other, selfish ambition and witchcraft are also the same. So what are we to do when we find greed, envy, selfish ambition, anger, grumbling (dissension), or any of the other sins listed, in our own hearts?

The good news is found in verse 11 of the second group of verses from above, namely that we have been made new in Christ, being washed (cleansed from our sins), sanctified (selected and set apart by God) and justified (seen as righteous, without any marring of sin) by Him and by the Holy Spirit. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks about walking by the Spirit, which is in direct contrast to the flesh. Later in the 6th chapter (Gal 6:7-10), he says we should sow to the Spirit, in other words invest in a life pursuing the Holy Spirit's action on our behalf, opening our lives to the direction and guidance of the Him and becoming full of the fruit of that pursuit.

We are not expected to immediately become perfectly like Christ the moment we experience salvation, but we are expected to move in His direction. By His works we are already seen as righteous by the Father, and now it should be our life's pursuit to become like Him. As Paul says, you were once these things, but now that we have experienced salvation we are washed, sanctified and justified. As we pursue Him, we will find that more and more of the old gets washed out of our life and is replaced by that which is from Him. We are no longer identified by our sins, but rather by our identity in Christ.

As we pursue Him, our lives will begin to be filled with a different list - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Gal 5:22-23 NIV. This is what our lives will be full of, this will be what people experience when they interact with us. In greater measure, our lives will be transformed, as we sow into the Spirit.

So let us not fret, or focus on the things in our lives that are found on the bad list, but rather let us focus on the good news that in Jesus we are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). We are washed, sanctified and justified, and the fruit we bear is good. Let us release those other things and grab hold of Christ, pursuing Him, and allowing the Holy Spirit to renew us, refresh us and fill us wth His life! We will inherit the Kingdom because we are no longer identified by our sins, but rather are found in Christ Jesus, and are His co-heirs (Rom 8:17). Now that is some GOOD NEWS!