#FruitOfTheSpiritWives

[proverbsthirtyonewife]

Walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh.

Before the Bible mentions the fruit of the Spirit, it tells us things that God does NOT want us to do. Before I jump into each of the fruit of the Spirit, and focusing on one each week, I felt it was important to teach God’s Word on things that are contrary to the Spirit, the things of the flesh. Notice the dead tree in the image, because you cannot produce fruit if you are lost in these sinful natures and do not know Jesus. There are 17 works of the flesh mentioned, and these are things that should not be associated with God’s people. We ladies must be so careful that we don’t fall into these sins! I’ll list the definitions of each sin, since I am following the KJV and NKJV for this study, in case there is confusion.  

1. Adultery- “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person’s current spouse...” Cheating on your husband, OR being in a relationship with a man married to another woman.

2. Fornication- “consensual sexual intercourse between two persons not married to each other.” Basically, two UNMARRIED people, having sex out of wedlock. 

*The newer versions of the Bible combine those two sins above into “sexual immorality” and I don’t care for that, since I have heard of people saying fornication is never mentioned specifically in the Bible. Of course those people are looking for a loophole to not feel guilty about their sin, but if they would pick up a KJV, or NKJV it’s listed right there.* 

3. Uncleanness- “dirty, filthy; morally or spiritually impure.”

4. Lasciviousness (lewdness)- “lewd, lustful.” Lewd-“a : sexually unchaste or licentious lewd behavior b : obscene, vulgar.” Basically, lacking sexual restraint, dressing obscenely to draw sexual attention, making inappropriate comments to others. It makes you look trashy ladies, not classy.

5.Idolatry- “1 : the worship of a physical object as a god; 2 : immoderate attachment or devotion to something.” Placing importance of ANYTHING more than God.

6. Witchcraft- This is self explanatory. Don’t do it. Don’t take part in ANY religious practices that aren’t Christianity. It’s paganism.

7. Hatred- This is pretty self explanatory as well. We are not supposed to hate anything or anyone. I also don’t think there’s an accurate definition of hatred. Disliking things or people is okay, but hatred is meant by God as something more than a mere dislike. 

8. Variance (contentions)- “the fact, quality, or state of being variable”, “a point advanced or maintained in a debate or argument” 

9. Emulations (jealousies)- “a jealous disposition.” Jealous is defined as: “hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage.”

10. Wrath (outbursts of wrath)- Pretty simple, just don’t lose your temper and be out of control with anger.

11.  Strife (selfish ambition)- “bitter sometimes violent conflict or dissension.” Since the NKJV uses the terms “selfish ambition”, I’m going to lean toward strife here meaning , fighting and clawing to get your way.

12. Seditions (Dissensions)- “incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority”. Dissension is defined as: “Disagreement”. Be in agreement with the Word of God, and with your authority figures. God is your first authority figure, and then guess who God named as your earthly authority? Your husband. : )

13. Heresies- “adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma”. Believe only to what the Holy Bible says, and what Jesus teaches in it.

14. Envyings- Envy is defined as, “painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage” I would say this goes a little farther than jealousy, mentioned before.

15. Murders- Murder is defined as, “the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice”. This goes right back to “Thou shalt not kill.”

16. Drunkenness- Don’t drink to the point that you become drunk.

17. Revellings, and such like- The ESV calls this orgies. That’s a big sexual sin. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines revel as, “to take intense pleasure or satisfaction”. 

Meditate on God’s Word and these things will make sense to you and in your life. I understand some of these sins are things that we don’t do, but understand, some of them are things we do find ourselves doing. Don’t pass them off as normal. Kick them out of your life, (with God in your corner, you can!) and then you will be ready to produce fruit for God. :) The first fruit of the Spirit we will study and work on is going to be love. See you Monday!