We just want to have fun, let loose, and enjoy our lives. Young (and not-so-young) people beat this drum regularly. What can be so wrong with that? Yet, this attitude reveals a life lived after the flesh for self-pleasure. As we conclude the works of the flesh, we discover two that address today’s party culture.

 

First, those who live in drunkenness walk after the flesh. Revealing no self-control and ceding control to alcohol, they reveal a short-sighted, self-centered life. Some do so intentionally. They spend the weekend drinking and seeking the stupor of drunkenness. Back in my younger days, I had the opportunity to play for an outstanding semi-professional soccer team. We spent several weekends during the summer in various cities at tournaments. Usually, my team would breeze through the initial rounds and the playoffs. But inevitably, several guys would party the night before the final and arrive at the game hung over. Because they could not function properly, we would lose the game we should have won handily. After this happened a few times, those of us on the team who didn’t drink became frustrated. We asked the guys why they would consistently do this. Their only response was that this was enjoyable. They had bought the lie the world peddles that remembering nothing is better than real life.

 

Others do so unintentionally. They fail to recognize the line between moderation and drunkenness. As a result, one drink turns into several. Before they realize it, they have ceded control to alcohol. Sadly, often, when these individuals are confronted about their drunkenness, they will deny that they have a problem. Alcohol is a sneaky mistress. She hides the point of drunkenness and leads the unwitting into her web.

 

Paul encourages us in 1 Corinthians 6:12 to fight anything that dominates (or controls) us. While something may technically be allowable, its tendency to control individuals makes it terribly unwise. The Christian cannot walk in the Spirit while being controlled by anything other than the Spirit. This is why, as a pastor, I always recommend abstinence from alcohol. You may think you can control it. However, I have not seen a case where, at some point, this terrible mistress did not take control. Why start down a road you know you cannot complete? Instead, take a different road and avoid this danger. Hank wondered why he was not producing the fruit of the Spirit. When he came for counseling, he was shocked when I addressed his nightly alcohol consumption. After all, it was just a beer with dinner. Yet, often, it then turned into another after dinner (and more after that), resulting in alcohol control, not Spirit control. You cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit when the Spirit does not control you.

 

The final work of the flesh follows right along. Some translations use the word orgies. However, this is too narrow. The word is also used in Romans 13:13. From that context (and the broader contexts in which the word is used in Greek literature), it referred to the drunken parties that would happen at night as people celebrated victories in life and thanked their gods. We call them raves, bar hopping, or even simply parties today. These lifestyles reveal that the Spirit is not at work in our lives.

 

In the final statement, Paul gives the umbrella statement, “Things like these.” With this statement, he summarizes that anything that controls us reveals that we are not walking in the Spirit. We are not walking in the Spirit when we make life about us. Walking in the Spirit requires an eternal mindset that these things undercut. It follows that those whose lives are marked by these actions will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

 

There is no category of Christian who regularly and unrepentantly surrenders to sin. That person is an unbeliever. They may have prayed a prayer at some point, but they have not surrendered to Christ’s Lordship. They have not repented of their sin. And they are deceived into thinking that they are a Christian. For this reason, when we find ourselves battling drunkenness, gossiping unrelentingly, displaying hearts of bitterness, creating divisions, resisting authority, or living in immorality, we must check our salvation. These things reveal that we walk in the flesh.