"But evident is the works of the flesh, which is sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness..."
-Plain as the nose on your face in the light of day, Paul now proceeds to unpack some of the things which reveal that a person is being led not by the Spirit but rather by the flesh. We would certainly expect to find these things manifest in the lives of unbelievers, but sadly we find these works also manifesting in the lives (and even assemblies) of (professing) Christ-followers, struggling souls who may have trusted in Him for salvation but who are living in an unsurrended state when it comes to following Him on a daily basis. Such that the Spirit of Christ is rather quenched in their lives, shut down from doing what He do.
-First on the list of fleshy works is a group of words which pertain to how we use (or misuse, in this case) God’s gift of sex. He has richly given us all things to enjoy (1Timothy 6.7), and yet we must understand that there is glorious design and purpose behind all of God’s good gifts to man. The gift of sex is perhaps that gift which is most often abused and twisted in so many broken ways (understandably so, as the experience of pleasure therein is incomparably intense) - altho sex was not the first of the gifts to be misappropriated (we see the first woman and man misusing the gift of food, as well as that gift of intimate connection with the Creator, and then the second son abusing the gift of life itself). But with sex, behind the ecstasy there is indeed glorious purpose and design. God gave man the gift of sex not only as the means for carrying out His plan to fruitfully multiply and fill the earth, but also as a key component of what would become the primary building block of society and of strong community - the family. Sex is given as that which strengthens the lifelong bond of oneness and trust between one man and one woman, an indescribable experience of intimacy and mutual pleasuring. But it does not in and of itself produce the requisite trust and give-and-take and communication found in an enduring healthy marriage, but rather becomes an indicator of it. It is a thermometer more than a thermostat. It doesn’t turn up the heat as much as it tells how hot things are (or aren’t).
-Now what invariably happens with this gift when the flesh is in charge is rather more selfish, self-serving, sex and sexuality operating outside of God’s design. So Paul here mentions three areas where that happens, describing not only any sexual activity outside of a marriage between one man and one woman, but also various forms of sexual expression which encourage and accentuate the experience of sex outside of God’s design - impurity and uncleanness in our words and actions as well as in our thought life, even a flaunting of an erotic lifestyle in ways both immodest and increasingly brazen. And there is no doubt that the world apart from God has this going on in spades. Premarital sex, extramarital sex - there is no need to list all the ways in which the world pursues sexual pleasure and expression outside of the covenant of marriage. What we see in the world - again, plain as the light of day - is the reinforcing of an identity which is sexual (physical/animal) as opposed to spiritual. Quite the opposite of how God has designed people (and has redesigned His people) to live.
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