The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 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.
Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV)
The Middle of the List
The ensemble came apart in the second week of the semester and nobody announced it. Rehearsal would end, four of them would go get food, and the other three would stay to stack chairs and say nothing about the four. By the end of the month there were two group chats. The sophomore who played bass says the playing was fine all fall. The drive home got long.
The Galatians got a list of fifteen things, and the two ends of it get quoted far more than the middle. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery open it. Drunkenness and orgies close it. Idolatry and witchcraft are in there too, and then come hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, eight of the fifteen, and nearly all of them need a second person to exist at all.
He calls the whole list obvious. Other people can see all of it, including the eight in the middle, and we work hardest to keep the ones at the ends out of sight. The middle eight get explained instead, in sentences that sound fair to the person saying them and to the friends who already agree.
The warning follows, and he says he has given it before. Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. He wrote that to people he expected to walk by the Spirit, and he put it where they would all hear it. He means a life that has settled into a direction and stayed there.
He put hatred and discord in the same sentence as the orgies. Two weeks in, stacking chairs, the bass player asked the viola player whether the other four had said where they were going. “They didn’t ask me,” the viola player said, and reached for another chair. Both of them had a reason ready. The reasons were probably accurate. Discord went on his list all the same.
He said it as a warning. He still thought they could hear it.
A Prayer to Remember
If I have stopped speaking to someone, you have heard how reasonable I sound when I explain why. Show me the part of it that is obvious to everyone but me. This week, put me in the same room as that person with nothing prepared to say.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
