CHAPTER 5 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER i. S. Paul proceeds to urge the Galatians not to submit to the yoke of the Old Law, lest they be deprived of the fruits of Christ's righteousness, since in Him neither circumcision nor uncircumcision will avail anything, but only faith which worketh by love. II.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage._ You once served idols and devils: why do you now wish to serve the shadows and burdensome ceremonies of the Mosaic law? The Greek for _entangled_ is rendered by the Vulgate _contained_, by Vatablus _implicated_, by Erasmus _ensnared._ The Judaisers,... [ Continue Reading ]
_If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing._ If you trust to circumcision as necessary to salvation, Christ and His religion will be of no avail to you; but you seem to be putting your trust in this under the tuition of the Judaisers, although you were Gentiles, and baptized as such. Why... [ Continue Reading ]
_I testify._ He who is circumcised thereby proclaims his allegiance to the Jewish Church, its laws and its obligations, just as one who is baptized does with regard to the Christian Church. The Apostle is seeking to dissuade the Galatians by a reason drawn from the burdensome character of the yoke o... [ Continue Reading ]
_A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump._ A little leaven communicates its bitterness to the whole mass of meal. This is a maxim describing the way that a vicious part spoils the whole, and of course is capable of general application. In 1Co 5:6 it is applied to the fornicator who was corrupting t... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have confidence in you._ I trust the Lord to stablish you in the faith you have received, and to save you from believing aught save what I have taught you, and from following these new teachers and their novel doctrines. _But he that troubleth you._ He who is stirring up this strife, and tending... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I, brethren, if I yet preach._ This is a reply to the calumny of the Judaisers, that Paul Judaised among the Jews, and opposed Judaism among the Gentiles. He asks, if this be so, why the Jews should so persecute him, and implies that the real reason is that he publicly opposes them, and condemn... [ Continue Reading ]
_I would that they were even cut off which trouble you._ Cut off from the Church and your fellowship, lest they corrupt the whole. Cf. 1 Corinthians 5:3. This is the obvious meaning, and one befitting the dignity of an apostolic writer. However, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Jerome, Augustine, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye have been called unto liberty._ Liberty from the burden of so many useless ceremonies of the law. Christian liberty throughout the Epistle is contrasted with Jewish slavery. It is obvious, therefore, how grossly the Protestants pervert the Apostle's words, when they argue from this that Christia... [ Continue Reading ]
_But_ _if ye bite and devour one another._ Beware, if you attack one another with calumnies, lest you be mutually consumed. Two men calumniating and enviously pursuing each other are like two dogs fighting, and biting each other. They consume each other, nay, they devour themselves. Well said the po... [ Continue Reading ]
_I say then, Walk in the Spirit._ The summary, the one aim of the whole of this Epistle, is this: Walk not in the law, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. The root of all your trouble is want of the Spirit: if you had Him, you would shut out as well the legal as the carnal life. To walk in the Spi... [ Continue Reading ]
_The flesh lusteth against the Spirit._ From this the Manichæans inferred that man has two souls one spiritual, which is good and the gift of a good god, and another carnal, which is evil and the gift of an evil god. Some philosophers, too, hold that man has two souls one sensational, by which he fe... [ Continue Reading ]
_But if ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law._ This anticipates a possible objection of the Galatians that they had apparently only exchanged one yoke for another heavier one, under which they had constantly to fight a tedious and irksome battle. The Apostle replies to this that if the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The works of the flesh are manifest._ The works that spring from the flesh, _i.e._, from concupiscence, as I said in the note to ver. 17. _Fornication._ On the works of the flesh in detail, see Jerome, Anselm, and S. Thomas. _Uncleanness._ Effeminacy. The effeminate are guilty of mutual pollution... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wrath._ Anger is the desire for revenge, and is a deadly sin when a bitter revenge is sought, or an object on which to bestow the angry feelings. It is venial only when it is instinctive, or when it aims at some slight revenge. The Apostle, therefore, is dealing here with the various sins enumerate... [ Continue Reading ]
_Revellings._ This seems to teach that immoderate indulgence in the pleasures of the table is a mortal sin, as it excludes from the Kingdom of heaven. On this I remark that some Theologians hold from this verse that gluttony and lust are mortal sins, not only if they impair the use of reason, but if... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the fruit of the Spirit is love._ The works of the Spirit are opposed to the works of the flesh, _i.e._, those works which are performed through the influence of the Holy Spirit, by which we merit that kingdom from which the works of the flesh exclude those who do them. Observe that these frui... [ Continue Reading ]
_If we live in the Spirit._ Ifwe have this inward life of grace, let us live outwardly as the Spirit dictates. The Greek word used here denotes to follow a settled plan or order. Cf. notes to chap iv. 25. But according to Chrysostom and Theophylact, it is an exhortation to follow the rule of the Spi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let us not be desirous of vain-glory._ Whoever seeks the praises of men seeks a vain thing. He pursues a bubble, swollen by wind, but void of all substance. The only true and lasting glory which alone can satisfy the mind, is with God. S. Jerome says: " _They are desirous of solid glory who seek th... [ Continue Reading ]