Galatians 5:19

THE MESSAGE

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: committing sexual sin, being morally bad, doing all kinds of shameful things,

Revised Standard Version
Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
The dedes of the flesshe are manyfest whiche are these advoutrie fornicacio vnclenes wantannes

Hebrew Names Version
Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,

New American Standard Bible
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior,

New Century Version
The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: being sexually unfaithful, not being pure, taking part in sexual sins,

Update Bible Version
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]: fornication, impurity, sexual immorality,

Webster's Bible Translation
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these], Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

English Standard Version
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

World English Bible
Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,

Weymouth's New Testament
Now you know full well the doings of our lower natures. Fornication, impurity, indecency, idol-worship, sorcery;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And werkis of the fleisch ben opyn, whiche ben fornicacioun, vnclennes, vnchastite, letcherie, seruice of false goddis,

English Revised Version
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Berean Standard Bible
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;

Contemporary English Version
People's desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds.

Amplified Bible
Now the practices of the sinful nature are clearly evident: they are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality (total irresponsibility, lack of self-control),

American Standard Version
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Bible in Basic English
Now the works of the flesh are clear, which are these: evil desire, unclean things, wrong use of the senses,

Complete Jewish Bible
And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency;

Darby Translation
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness,

International Standard Version
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity,1 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; James 3:14-15;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For the works of the flesh are known, which are (these), fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Murdock Translation
For the works of the flesh are known, which are whoredom, impurity, lasciviousness,

King James Version (1611)
Nowe the workes of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adulterie, fornication, vncleannesse, lasciuiousnesse,

New Living Translation
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,

New Life Bible
The things your sinful old self wants to do are: sex sins, sinful desires, wild living,

New Revised Standard
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,

Geneva Bible (1587)
Moreouer the workes of the flesh are manifest, which are adulterie, fornication, vncleannes, wantonnes,

George Lamsa Translation
For the works of the flesh are well-known, which are these: adultery, impurity, and lasciviousness,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Manifest, however, are the works of the flesh, which, indeed, are - fornication, impurity, wantonness,

Douay-Rheims Bible
Now the works of the flesh are manifest: which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
The deedes of the flesshe are manifest, which are these, adulterie, fornication, vncleannesse, wantonnesse,

Good News Translation
What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions;

Christian Standard Bible®
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity,

King James Version
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Lexham English Bible
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness,

Literal Translation
Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness,

Young's Literal Translation
And manifest also are the works of the flesh, which are: Adultery, whoredom, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The dedes of ye flesh are manifest, which are these: Aduoutrye, whordome, vnclenes, wantanes,

Mace New Testament (1729)
now the effects of vicious passions are manifestly these, fornication, uncleanness,

New English Translation
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity,

New King James Version
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, [fn] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,

Simplified Cowboy Version
The trail of sinful nature is easy to follow. It's marked plain with immoral sexuality, unclean acts, dirty pleasures,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,

Legacy Standard Bible
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

Contextual Overview

¹³It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? ¹⁶My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? ¹⁹It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom. ²²But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. ²⁴The Life of Freedom Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn't come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don't toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment. As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn't matter one way or the other. Why don't these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves! It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom. But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. ²⁵Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the works: Galatians 5:13, Galatians 5:17, Galatians 6:8, Psalms 17:4, John 3:6, Romans 7:5, Romans 7:18, Romans 7:25, Romans 8:3, Romans 8:5, Romans 8:9, Romans 8:13, 1 Corinthians 3:3, 1 Peter 4:2

Adultery: Ezekiel 22:6-13, Matthew 15:18, Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21-23, Romans 1:21-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 6:10, 2 Corinthians 12:20, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Ephesians 4:17-19, Ephesians 5:3-6, Colossians 3:5-8, 1 Timothy 1:9, 1 Timothy 1:10, Titus 3:3, James 3:14, James 3:15, 1 Peter 4:3, 1 Peter 4:4, Revelation 21:8, Revelation 22:15

Reciprocal: Genesis 39:9 - how then Leviticus 18:20 - General Proverbs 2:18 - General Proverbs 5:22 - sins Proverbs 24:1 - not Jeremiah 7:9 - steal Jeremiah 23:10 - full Ezekiel 18:6 - neither hath defiled Ezekiel 22:11 - committed Ezekiel 33:9 - if thou Malachi 3:5 - the sorcerers Luke 6:44 - For of John 5:44 - which Acts 15:20 - fornication Romans 3:10 - none Romans 13:13 - chambering 1 Corinthians 5:1 - fornication 1 Corinthians 5:11 - fornicator Galatians 5:16 - and Ephesians 2:3 - fulfilling Ephesians 5:5 - this Colossians 2:18 - fleshly 1 Thessalonians 4:3 - that 1 Thessalonians 4:7 - uncleanness 1 Timothy 5:24 - General Hebrews 6:1 - dead Hebrews 12:16 - any fornicator Hebrews 13:4 - and the bed Revelation 21:27 - there

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now the works of the flesh are manifest,.... By "flesh" is meant corrupt nature, as before, and by the works of it, not only external acts of sin, but inward lusts; for such are here mentioned among its works, as "hatred", "wrath", "envyings", c. and both external and internal acts are so called, because they spring from the flesh, or corrupt nature, and are what that urges and solicits to, and are wrought thereby, and are what denominate and show men to be carnal: these are said to be "manifest" not that they are all, and always publicly done, and are open to the sight of men; for they are works of darkness, and often done in secret, though they are always manifest to God the searcher of hearts, and will be brought to light in the day of judgment; but they are known to be sins in some measure by the light of nature, and especially by the law of God; and a clear case it is, that they are contrary to the Spirit, both to the Spirit of God, and to the principle of grace he forms in the heart; and that such who live in the commission of them are not led by him, nor are under the influence of his grace:

which are these; though all are not mentioned, only some of the chief, by which judgment may be made of the rest:

adultery; this is left out in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and in the Alexandrian copy; it is a defilement of the marriage bed, and is the sin of uncleanness committed by two persons, one of which at least is in a married state, is condemned by the law of God and light of nature:

fornication; which though by many of the Gentiles was reckoned no sin, or a very small one, stands here among the works of the flesh, that are manifest and to be avoided; it is the sin of uncleanness committed by persons in a single state;

uncleanness, it is a general name for all unchastity, in thought, word, or action; and may here design more especially all unnatural lusts, as

sodomy, self-pollution, c.

lasciviousness or wantonness, all lustful dalliance, everything that leads on to acts of uncleanness, or attends them, as impure words, filthy gestures, and the like.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Now the works of the flesh - What the flesh, or what corrupt and unrenewed human nature produces.

Are manifest - Plain, well-known. The world is full of illustrations of what corrupt human nature produces, and as to the existence and nature of those works, no one can be ignorant. It is evident here that the word σὰρξ sarx, “flesh,” is used to denote corrupt human nature, and not merely the body; since many of the vices here enumerated are the passions of the mind or the soul, rather than of the body. Such are “wrath,” “strife,” “heresies,” “envyings,” etc., which cannot be said to have their seat in the body. If the word, therefore, is used to denote human nature, the passage furnishes a sad commentary on its tendency, and on the character of man. It is closely parallel to the declaration of the Saviour in Matthew 15:19. Of the nature of most of these sins, or works of the flesh, it is unnecessary to offer any comment. They are not so rare as not to be well known, and the meaning of the words requires little exposition. In regard to the existence of these vices as the result of human nature, the notes at Romans 1:0 may be examined; or a single glance at the history of the past, or at the present condition of the pagan and a large part of the Christian world, would furnish an ample and a painful demonstration.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest — By flesh we are to understand the evil and fallen state of the soul, no longer under the guidance of God's Spirit and right reason, but under the animal passions; and they are even rendered more irregular and turbulent by the influence of sin; so that man is in a worse state than the brute: and so all-commanding is this evil nature that it leads men into all kinds of crimes; and among them the following, which are manifest-known to all, and most prevalent; and, though these are most solemnly forbidden by your law, the observance of its ordinances gives no power to overcome them, and provides no pardon for the guilt and condemnation produced by them.

Adultery — μοιχεια. Illicit connection with a married person. This word is wanting in this place in the best MSS., versions, and fathers; the next term often comprehending both.

Fornication — πορνεια. Illicit connection between single or unmarried persons; yet often signifying adultery also.

Uncleanness — ακαθαπσια. Whatever is opposite to purity; probably meaning here, as in Romans 1:24; 2 Corinthians 12:21, unnatural practices; sodomy, bestiality.

Lasciviousness — ασελγεια. Whatever is contrary to chastity; all lewdness.