Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Parallel translations
- WEB Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
- BSB The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
- NKJV Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
- NASB Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior,
- NLT When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The works of the flesh are plainly visible, beginning with sexual sins like adultery, immorality, impurity, and sensuality. Paul exposes the obvious fruit of life apart from the Spirit.
Overview
Paul begins a list of the deeds that flow from the sinful nature, opening with sins of sexual disorder. These are 'obvious,' showing that a life dominated by the flesh reveals itself in conduct. The catalog stands in deliberate contrast to the fruit of the Spirit that follows, helping believers discern which power is governing their lives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 29
- 1 Cor 6:9–10Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
- Col 3:5–8Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
- Matt 15:18–19But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
- 1 Pet 4:2–4That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
- Rev 21:8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
- Eph 5:3–6But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
- Gal 6:8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
- 1 Cor 3:3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
- Titus 3:3For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- Mark 7:21–23For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
- Rom 8:13For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
- Rom 8:5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
- Jas 3:14–15But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
- Rev 22:15For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
- 1 Tim 1:9–10Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
- 1 Cor 6:18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
- Rom 7:5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
- 2 Cor 12:20–21For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
- Gal 5:13For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
- Rom 1:21–32Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
- John 3:6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Gal 5:17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
- Rom 8:9But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
- Ps 17:4Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.
- Rom 7:18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
- Rom 8:3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
- Rom 7:25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
- Eph 4:17–19This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
- Ezek 22:6–13Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 5:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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