Galatians 5 - Introduction
(Third Division of the Epistle.) Practical Exhortations based on the preceding Doctrinal Teaching... [ Continue Reading ]
(Third Division of the Epistle.) Practical Exhortations based on the preceding Doctrinal Teaching... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:1. Exhortation to stand fast in the Liberty of the Gospel 1. Many editors place this verse at the end of ch. 4, connecting it immediately with Galatians 4:31 of that chapter; -we are not children of a bondwoman, but of her who is free with that freedom wherewith Christ hath emancipated... [ Continue Reading ]
St Paul here speaks with the Apostolic authority which he had vindicated at the opening of the Epistle, but which he has hitherto kept in abeyance while using argument, and remonstrance, and entreaty. _if ye be circumcised_ St Paul and the other Apostles, and indeed every convert from Judaism, were... [ Continue Reading ]
By receiving circumcision a man voluntarily put himself under the conditions of the law, which were, -fulfil perfectly and live: fail and die". The tremendous responsibility thus incurred may have been disguised by the false Apostles: or the Galatians may have been slow to realise it. St Paul's appe... [ Continue Reading ]
The same great and solemn truth is repeated in different terms. "Christ shall profit you nothing" = "a debtor to do the whole law" (and therefore under a curse in consequence of failure) = "Christ is of no effect unto you" = "ye are fallen from grace". Similarly, "if ye become circumcised" = "every... [ Continue Reading ]
-For _we_on the contrary, we who are Christ's, through the Spirit are waiting for the hope of righteousness from faith". The connecting particle -for" has reference to the falling from _grace_. The gospel is a gospel of grace (Acts 20:24). The Spirit is the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29). We have a... [ Continue Reading ]
Anxious to remove all possibility of a misconstruction of his meaning, St Paul gives a reason for thus connecting the _inheritance_with _faith_. The fact of being circumcised or of being uncircumcised in itself is of no avail to a man's salvation. If he is -in Christ Jesus" he is safe; and he is in... [ Continue Reading ]
The abruptness of thought and style is a marked feature of these two Chapter s. It is not always possible to trace the connexion with certainty. _Ye did run well_ -You were running nobly". The metaphor is taken from the stadium a favourite one with St Paul, c. Galatians 2:2; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27,... [ Continue Reading ]
_This persuasion_ nearly equivalent to -submission, obedience". Others take it in an active sense -this suasion on the part of the false teachers, to which you are yielding". The objection to this view is that -persuasion" is a weak term to apply to those who had hindered them by throwing obstacles... [ Continue Reading ]
Leaven is that small portion of fermented dough which is introduced into the fresh lump of dough, and communicates lightness to the whole mass. It is employed figuratively in Scripture to denote the working of both good and bad influences, and is used both of persons and of principles or teaching co... [ Continue Reading ]
An abrupt return to a more favourable judgment of the Galatian converts, while strongly noting the guilt of those who sought to unsettle their faith. _I have confidence … the Lord_ - _I_" (emphatic) have confidence with respect to you in the Lord". The words -in the Lord" are rightly explained by J... [ Continue Reading ]
Another abrupt transition of thought, rendering the connexion obscure and uncertain. It is however evident either that a charge of inconsistency had been brought against St Paul, or that the possibility of such a charge flashed across his mind. He could find no language too strong to condemn those w... [ Continue Reading ]
The Apostle gives vent to his righteous indignation. _they were even cut off_ Two explanations of this expression are given. All expositors however agree in translating the verb as a _middle_, not as _passive_. (1) -I would that they who are such advocates for circumcision would go further and pra... [ Continue Reading ]
Liberty must not be abused 13. St Paul seems to be recurring to what he had said in Galatians 5:7, the intermediate verses being a sort of parenthesis in which he wanders from the main line of thought. -This submission cometh not from Him that _calleth_you a little leaven, &c. for ye were _called_u... [ Continue Reading ]
-You would go back to bondage; there is a servitude which constitutes liberty. You desire to be under the law; there is a law the law of love to which ye will do well to submit yourselves; for all the requirements of the law are met by the fulfilment of one precept Thou shalt love thy neighbour as t... [ Continue Reading ]
To _bite_and to _devour_is to act like wild beasts. The words are of course used figuratively to denote attacks made under the influence of evil passions, and especially through the rancour of party spirit. These attacks would consist of abuse or slander, invective or innuendo, followed up perhaps b... [ Continue Reading ]
The spiritual life of liberty inconsistent with the indulgence of the works of the flesh 16. _This I say then_ After affirming the great law of Christian perfection in Galatians 5:14 and pointing out the effects of its violation, St Paul proceeds to shew how alone the former may be obeyed and the l... [ Continue Reading ]
I say -fulfil" for I well know that the spiritual life is, and must be, one of conflict you must fight manfully under Christ's banner and continue His faithful soldiers unto your life's end. The flesh, -the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts", is in deadly antagonism to the Sp... [ Continue Reading ]
St Paul supplies a test whereby men may ascertain whether they are under the curse of the law or heirs of the promise. First, the Apostle gives a list of the _works of the flesh_not complete but comprehensive the commission of which excludes men from the inheritance. They cannot plead the promise.... [ Continue Reading ]
The second class of sins are those which concern religion idolatry and sorcery, or witchcraft. The word -idolatry" is probably to be understood here in its literal sense, the worship of false deities, and not in the metaphorical and wider sense in which it is employed by St Paul, e.g. Ephesians 5:5,... [ Continue Reading ]
The works of the flesh are many, the fruit of the Spirit is one, yet manifold. The works of the flesh are in a measure independent of each other. It cannot be said that every unregenerate man commits all of them. But he who has the Spirit of Christ has in him the root of all Christian graces. The -f... [ Continue Reading ]
_they that are Christ's_ They who belong to Christ, who are His by redemption or perhaps as in Galatians 3:29, who are part of Christ. The same expression occ. 1 Corinthians 15:23. The R.V. reads -They that are of Christ _Jesus_", which has the support of the earlier MSS. _have crucified_ The _aoris... [ Continue Reading ]
The mention of crucifixion suggests death the death of -the old man", which is the condition and birth of the new life in Christ. Very similar is the train of thought in Colossians 2:3. foll. _If we live in the Spirit_, &c. The word -Spirit" in the Greek is a simple dative in both clauses of the ver... [ Continue Reading ]
To soften the rebuke, St Paul uses the 1st pers. plur., including himself with those by whom the warning is needed. A walk directed by the Spirit of God will not lead to the display of strife and vain-glory or the indulgence of envy, all which are works of the flesh. Compare Ephesians 4:1-2, -I bese... [ Continue Reading ]