The Works of the Flesh

[Twinky]

I've been applying for a new job(s) lately, and the agency (as agencies do) sent me a suggested list of "difficult questions to prepare answers to" - you know the sort of thing, "What difficult situation have you had to deal with and what did you learn from it? (blah, blah)" And I got to reflecting on my time with and post-TWI and how life is now.

Not laboring under the extreme stress of guilt and condemnation, daily living now has an undercurrent of joy bubbling all through it; I've very much more patience; am kinder; am very peaceful in heart; etc (all of these observable and commented upon by colleagues and friends) - the list reminded me so much of the "fruit of the spirit" from Gal 5:22. :)

Which got me thinking: what, then, of the "works of the flesh"? :(

(Note, I rarely read KJV any more and am exploring just about any other version I can find. The added insight can be quite startling). The Comparative Study (parallel) Bible offers the following for Gal 5:19-21 (reading across the versions) and I checked in a few other versions as well (NW is New World Translation put out by the JWs). RV doesn't add anything.

"The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these:

• Adultery (KJV); sexual immorality (NIV)

• Fornication (KJV); impurity (other versions)

• Sensuality (NAS); loose conduct (NW)

• Idolatry (all versions)

• Witchcraft (KJV, NAS); Sorcery (Amp, NIV); practice of spiritism (NW) ["genuine spiritual suspicion", perhaps?]

• Hatred (KJV); Enmities (NAS)

• Strife (Amp, NAS)

• Jealousy (Amp, NAS, NIV)

• Outbursts of anger (NAS); fits of rage (NIV)

• Selfish ambition (NIV)

• Divisions (Amp)

• Sects with peculiar opinions (Amp) (love this one!)

• Envying

• Murders (only in KJV, not in other versions) [anybody got an interlinear?]

• Drunkenness

• Orgies (NIV)

And the like."

Hmmm. Does this remind you of anybody? Anything? Wednesday evenings?

For those into more modern English yet, try this from The Message (“crafted to present the tone, rhythm, events and ideas of the Bible in everyday language”):

"“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 [or perhaps, isolation?];

“Cut-throat 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."

(Chortles of recognition ) Can't say we weren't warned!

All versions are pretty clear that "those who practice/do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." ("If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Msg). It's a promise, folks!

Edited September 8, 2006 by Twinky

[rascal]

Fancy that.....

How many of twi`s top leadership (starting with vp himslf) answere those descriptions?

Makes me feal pretty stupid when I see it all laid out in print like that.

[penguin]

Very good points Twinky!

I had noticed/thought about the anger/spiritual anger aspect of being the only "acceptable" emotion but never saw those verses and how they relate and that fits of anger is a work of the flesh.

Pretty wild how there were plenty of warnings in our Bibles if we could have seen through our twit colored glasses. It takes us allowing our brains to actually come to a conclusion on their own in order for us to see some of those very clear verses!