Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Galatians · About this commentary
The Works of the Flesh
Galatians 5:19-21
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, · WEB
The list is plural and countable, and its middle section is entirely about what people do to each other in a congregation.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious. The noun is plural — works, separable acts that can be enumerated — and fifteen are named. The grammatical contrast with the singular fruit three verses later is deliberate and is treated in the note on that passage.
The list falls into groups, and the proportions are the surprise. Four sexual and bodily items open it, and two more close it. Two are religious: idolatry and sorcery. And the entire middle — eight of the fifteen — concerns relationships: hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, factions, envy.
More than half the catalogue is social, in a letter to churches tearing themselves apart over a requirement. Divisions and factions name what was happening in Galatia. Anyone taking the flesh to mean bodily appetite alone has not counted the list.
The phrase and things like these keeps it open. It is a sample, not a code, and Paul does not intend it to be exhaustive.
The warning that closes is severe and its verb tense matters: those who practice such things will not inherit God's Kingdom. Not those who have done them — the participle describes ongoing practice, a settled way of living. And inherit connects to the letter's argument about heirs Galatians 4:7: what is at stake is the inheritance the whole letter has been securing by faith.
Parenthetically, Paul says he had told them this before, in person. It is not a new severity produced by the crisis.
settled What this mark means