_Exhortation to Steadfastness in Christian Freedom_, _and Warning against Legal Bondage._ Here begins the practical part of the Epistle, consisting of exhortations and warnings appropriate to the occasion. First, the Apostle exhorts them to hold fast their spiritual freedom which they enjoy in Chri... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:1. FOR FREEDOM DID CHRIST MAKE (OR SET) US FREE: STAND FIRM, THEREFORE, AND BE NOT ENTANGLED AGAIN IN A YOKE OF BONDAGE. [1] This exhortation is the inferential close of the argumentative, and a suitable beginning of the hortative, part of the Epistle. Some editors and commentators put t... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:2. BEHOLD, I, PAUL, SAY UNTO YOU, THAT IF YE BE CIRCUMCISED (suffer yourselves to be circumcised), CHRIST WILL PROFIT YOU NOTHING. Your course is pot only foolish, but dangerous, yea ruinous. A circumcised man may become a Christian, but a Christian who deliberately undergoes circumcisio... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:3. N AY, I TESTIFY AGAIN TO EVERY MAN THAT IS CIRCUMCISED (suffers himself to be circumcised), THAT HE IS A DEBTOR TO DO THE WHOLE LAW. Circumcision is an initiatory rite by which the person circumcised becomes a Jew, and assumes the solemn obligation to keep the whole law of Moses, mora... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:4. YE ARE OUT OFF FROM CHRIST ALL YE WHO ARE BEING (OR, WOULD BE) JUSTIFIED BY (THE) LAW; Y e ARE FALLEN AWAY FROM GRACE. ‘ Ye are cut off from Christ,' completely separated from Him. The Greek verb means to be annulled, to be done away with. Your union with Christ was dissolved and came... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:5. FOR WE, BY THE SPIRIT, FROM FAITH WAIT EAGERLY FOR THE HOPE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. ‘For' introduces an argument from the opposite for the judgment passed in Galatians 5:4 against those who seek justification by the law. ‘By the Spirit,' the Holy Spirit, who is the Divine source of faith an... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:6. FOR IN CHRIST JESUS NEITHER CIRCUMCISION AVAILETH ANYTHING, NOR UNCIRCUMCISION; BUT FAITH WORKING (or OPERATIVE) THROUGH LOVE. A most important passage both doctrinally and practically, a remedy against sectarianism, and a key for the solution of many bitter controversies in the histo... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:7. Ye WERE RUINING BRAVELY. The martial and heroic spirit of Paul often compares the course of Christian life with the running of a RACE in the stadium. Comp. Galatians 2:2; Philippians 3:14; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Timothy 4:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:8. OF HIM THAT CALLETH YOU, God; comp. note on Galatians 1:6; and Philippians 3:13, ‘the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' The Father draws to the Son by the Spirit through the gospel.... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:9. A LITTLE LEAVEN LOAVENETH THE WHOLE LUMP. A proverbial expression for the all-pervading influence of a good or bad principle. Here used in a bad sense, as 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Mark 8:15, and often by rabbinical writers. The Judaizing doctrine of the necessity of circumcision poisons... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:10. I HAVE CONFIDENCE TOWARD (OR IN REGARD TO) YOU IN THE LORD, etc. Paul hopes that the Galatians will return from their error, and this hope is grounded in his communion with Christ in whom he lived and moved. Comp. Philippians 2:24; 2 Thessalonians 3:4; Romans 14:14. HE THAT TROUBLE... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:11. IF I STILL PREACH CIRCUMCISION, WHY AM I STILL PERSECUTED? THEN HATH THE OFFENCE (or STUMBLING BLOCK) OF THE CROSS BEEN DONE AWAY. The first ‘still' refers to the time since his conversion from Judaism. If circumcision is preached as a condition of salvation, then the cross, that is,... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:12. I WISH THAT THEY WHO ARE UNSETTLING YOU WOULD EVEN GO ON TO ABSCISSION; that the circumcisers would not stop with the half measure of circumcision, but go beyond it even to abscission or mutilation (make themselves eunuchs), like the priests of Cybele. A severe irony similar to the o... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:13. FOR YE WERE CALLED UNTO FREEDOM, BRETHREN. The word ‘for' justifies the indignant scorn of the preceding verse. ‘Unto' denotes the object of the Christian calling. ONLY (turn) NOT YOUR FREEDOM INTO IN OCCASION (or, OPPORTUNITY) for THE FLESH. A sudden check: freedom, but not license... [ Continue Reading ]
_Warning' against the Abuse of Freedom, and Exhortation to Brotherly Love._ In the spirit of true Christian wisdom and moderation, the Apostle now warns the readers against the danger of abusing Christian freedom and running it into antinomian license. This passage is chiefly directed to those Gala... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:14. FOR THE ENTIRE LAW IS (hath been and is) FULFILLED IN ONE WORD (even), IN THIS: THOU s HALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF. The law commands supreme love to God (in the first table), and love to our neighbor as to ourselves (in the second table). Love to our neighbor springs necessaril... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:15. BUT IF YE BITE AND DEVOUR ONE ANOTHER, like wild beasts. How applicable this to all sectarian and partisan strifes which turn the church into a battle-field and impair its force against the common enemy!... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:16. Paul returns to the warning in Galatians 5:13, not to abuse the freedom for an occasion to the flesh. WALK BY THE SPIRIT, according to the rule and direction of the Holy Spirit who is the higher conscience and controlling principle of the Christian. Comp. Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Walking by the Spirit. The Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit._ Paul exhorts the Galatians to lead a truly Christian life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and contrasts the vices of the flesh with the graces of the Spirit. Such exhortations and contrasts are impossible on heathen... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:17. FOR THE FLESH LUSTETH AGAINST THE SPIRIT, AND THE SPIRIT _(strives)_ AGAINST THE FLESH. There is a conflict between reason and appetite, between conscience and depravity, between the higher and lower aspirations, between heaven and hell, going on in every man who is roused to a sense... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:18. BUT IF YE ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT, YE ARE NOT UNDER (THE) LAW. Comp. Romans 8:14: ‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' The Spirit ‘leads' and guides men as moral and responsible beings, but does not drive or force them; hence it is possible to resist and... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:19-21. NOW THE WORKS OF THE FLESH ARE MANIFEST, OF WHICH KIND (or such as) ARE. The practical test of the fruits by which a tree is known (comp. Matthew 7:16). ‘Manifest,' plain and obvious to everybody. Paul does not sum at a complete and systematic catalogue of sins, but singles out th... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:21. OF WHICH I FOREWARN YOU, AS I DID TELL YOU BEFORE, on my former visits (Galatians 1:9; Galatians 4:13; Galatians 4:16), when I preached to you the gospel which is death to all forms of immorality, and demands conformity to the holy character of Christ. THEY WHO DO SUCH THINGS SHALL N... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:22-23. BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, BENIGNITY, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, MEEKNESS, TEMPERANCE. A string of pearls. One ‘fruit,' in distinction of the many ‘works of the flesh,' indicates the unity of the spiritual graces which are comprehended in love (Ga... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:24. NOW THEY THAT ARE OF CHRIST JESUS DID CRUCIFY THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND LUSTS. Union with Christ is a complete separation from sin; hence the baptismal formula of renunciation of the flesh, the world, and the devil, and devotion to the service of Christ Conversion is death of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:25. IF WE LIVE BY THE SPIRIT, LET US ALSO WALK BY THE SPIRIT. Application to the Galatians, Paul included. To live and to walk are related here as condition and action, or as the inward and the outward life. If we live in the higher element of the Holy Spirit, we must also show it _by_ a... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 5:26. LET US NOT BECOME VAINGLORIOUS, etc. This is the opposite of humility (Philippians 2:3). ‘St. Paul works round again to the subject of Galatians 5:15, and repeats his warning. It is clear that something had occurred which alarmed him on this point' (Lightfoot). Vanity and quarrelsome... [ Continue Reading ]