Thoughts From Galatians 5 - Part 4

 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.22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Gal. 5:19-23

            I once confronted a kid in the youth group about his sexual immorality. This was a boy who, as the youth group leader, I had taken a special interest in because he had an absent dad, so he'd come over and play basketball quite often and I even took him on a couple of medical mission trips to Mexico and Dominican Republic. He had prayed to receive Christ but now was drawn to premarital sex with his girlfriend. I remember telling him that based on this passage and others that if he really was a Christian he wouldn't behave like this, and I was doubting his salvation. Well, this somehow got back to his mother who wrote me a lengthy letter blasting me for telling him he was going to hell." How dare you question his salvation. Don't you remember when he went forward and prayed to receive Christ? Don't you remember his baptism? The Bible teaches once saved always saved..." and so on. The boy left the youth group, and I've seen him sparingly although when we reconnect, we still have a good relationship. He has since married, is a very successful businessman, isn't in church has a daughter who I delivered that recently got engaged to a woman. His mom goes to my church and has never mentioned the letter, and we get along OK.

           Maybe I could have done things differently. I don't know. There are just so many passages that say that people who live a lifestyle like this aren't members of the Kingdom of God. Sure, we all occasionally will lust, be jealous, road rage, be envious, etc., but if someone were to describe your life would it be one following the flesh or the Spirit. Hopefully the course of our life and the projection of our life is toward the Spirit rather than debauchery. Hopefully when the Spirit convicts us of behavior that is fleshly, we will grieve, stop it, and make efforts and place guardrails to prevent a relapse, not just excuse it, permit it, and claim "once saved always saved." If God is inside of us we can't help but to start to look like Him. Just like an apple tree will begin to get apple blossoms and then grow apples, a Jesus tree will not grow evil but rather righteousness.

         What kind of fruit are you bearing? If you are convicted about your behavior being fleshly, repent. Maybe you never truly let Christ in to take control. He has nothing but good planned for you so don't be scared - just surrender.