Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
All Commentaries on Galatians 5:19 Go To Galatians 5
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Answer me now, you that accusest your own flesh, and supposest that this is said of it as of an enemy and adversary. Let it be allowed that adultery and fornication proceed, as you assert, from the flesh; yet hatred, variance, emulations, strife, heresies, and witchcraft, these arise merely from a depraved moral choice. And so it is with the others also, for how can they belong to the flesh? You observe that he is not here speaking of the flesh, but of earthly thoughts, which trail upon the ground. Wherefore also he alarms them by saying, that they which practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If these things belonged to nature and not to a bad moral choice, his expression, they practice, is inappropriate, it should be, they suffer. And why should they be cast out of the kingdom, for rewards and punishments relate not to what proceeds from nature but from choice?
