Galatians 5:19-21 — Fruits of the Flesh

READ THIS: Galatians 5:19-21

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.
 
WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

Ever heard of the fruits of the Spirit before? If so, SWEET! If not, that's okay... we will be reading about them tomorrow!!! The Bible uses the phrase "fruit of ___" to mean the result or the actions of something. In this passage, Paul describes the actions, or the fruit, of the flesh (our selfish, worldly desires). I don't know about y'all, but these fruit don't seem as good as the ones I have read in other parts of the Bible... these are some rotten fruits! These actions all seem a little different from each other, but they all have one thing in common: these things hurt people.

When we act out on what we want or what the world wants, we end up hurting ourselves, other people, and God. Every day, and really every moment, we are given two choices. We can live for Jesus, or we can live for something else. Our actions, our words, and our thoughts reflect that decision of who/what we live for. Paul's last words in this section sound similar to what Jesus said during his most famous sermon: you cannot serve two masters. If we are living for ourselves, the world, or anything but Jesus, we can't say we are living for God.

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. It's pretty easy for us to see (or smell) the differences between rotten fruit and good fruit. What is one difference you see between living for Jesus and living for ourselves?

2. Are you trying to serve two masters right now? What is one thing that you accidentally make a master in your life? 
 
TRY THIS:

We probably all struggle with at least one thing on this list of rotten fruit. Take a second to look over the list of bad fruit again, and pick one that you identify with the most. Ask God to help you leave that thing behind today and for good!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians 2:1-5 — Marathon Training

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:1-5 1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Yesterday, we learned about how Paul went to Jerusalem and shared the incredible things Jesus did, but today, we are hearing about Paul's second time visiting Jerusalem... 14 years later. Paul talks about a bunch of things that happened ...
Read more

Luke 8:19-21 — Jesus's Fam!

R EAD THIS:  Luke 8:19-21 19 Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21 He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Ummmm, hold up, is Jesus dissing on His family here? I mean, I know He is God's Son and all, but at first glance, this passage makes it seem like He is kind of hating on His family! However, if we really look into this passage, it's actually a lot more about us than it is about the family of Jesus.  In case you forgot, the last few passages have features Jesus telling and explaining different parables to a large crowd as well as His disciples. Clearly, the crowd has gotten so large that Mary and Jesus's brothers (yes... Jesus had brothers!) couldn't even reach Him. When someone told Jesus "hey dude, your fam is here an...
Read more

WELCOME BACK! Hebrews Introduction

WELCOME BACK TO DEEPLY ROOTED!!! Greetings fellow Bible readers and Jesus journey-ers! We're stoked to get back in the swing of things with y'all. For any new readers, this section would usually be where our handful of Bible verses will be. The section below would break down what in the world the verses mean. Then, there are some debrief questions for you to dive deeper and an application point. A new addition this year is the Song of the Week! We'll share a song that ties into the theme of the next few verses...if you gaze ahead and have song suggestions, comment below or text! HEBREWS INTRODUCTION: As with any book of the Bible, different Biblical scholars say different things about this letter, but we'll tell you the most probable take. So here it is: Hebrews is a letter written to a group of Jews who were being persecuted for deciding to follow Jesus. It is a letter to encourage them and to show that Jesus truly is the best person to follow despite how hard it was g...
Read more