"To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed.". My very nature is dealt with. or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress But if you snap at one another, and devour one another, you must watch that you do not end up by wiping each other out. how lamentable the extraordinary number of those, of whom the one cuts off the life of the other. Villages had an official who was called the superintendent of the village's eirene ( G1515) , the keeper of the public peace. informs all of Pauls exhortations vis--vis the Galatians libertine tendencies . The apostle stands to the truth preached and received. You see, you don't need any laws. Christianity came into a world where sexual immorality was not only condoned, but was regarded as essential to the ordinary working of life. "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man's covenant, yet, if it be confirmed, no man annulleth or addeth thereto." It was by revelation, not by summons from Jerusalem, or to acquire a title thereby. Strange as all this may seem to us, it enshrines one great truth. The truth is, that they had their relationship to the twelve tribes of Israel. (d) Agape ( G26) , the Christian word, means unconquerable benevolence. is this all? And the mind of the flesh is alienated from God; it cannot know God. And "Titus," as he says here, "who was with me, being a Greek," etc. It cannot and ought not to spare sinners. He gives freely the Holy Ghost on their acceptance of Christ's name; or, as it is here written, "He sent forth the Spirit of his Son in your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." In verse 17 it is written, "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." And to try to explain to people the things of the Spirit to the natural man, to try and explain the things of the Spirit has got to be one of the most frustrating things in the world. What does matter is faith which works through love. The cross has sentenced the world; and this very sentence of the world is our deliverance from the world. Flesh alas! though he had prayed thrice, as his Lord had done on another and wondrous occasion, so the apostle was to have communion with Christ in this way, and learn that there is something better than the taking away of that which makes nothing of the flesh. He will gain transgression thereby; nothing more, nothing better. If a person is living by right principles, he doesn't need any laws. The other part remains, and must be accomplished in its own day, when Israel's heart turns to the Lord. The persuasion which is being exercised on you just now is not from him who calls you. Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. It has been defined as "readiness for any pleasure." Remember what it must have been to one like Paul to censure the most honoured of the twelve. Christ is forgotten. Suddenly, I have been born of the Spirit; things suddenly are illuminated. But when we look toward Jesus we can find freedom. Thus it was the ardour of love and grief; it was the earnestness of his purpose that could not bear in this instance to employ an intermediary. Can it be doubted that the special form of spiritual thought and feeling formed, for instance, by James's or Peter's teaching, yea, even by that of John, while harmonizing, where the heart was open, with the instruction of Paul, nevertheless would appear at first very different? Paul did not stand alone. Then he gives a closing blow to those who doted about the law. As the child of the slave girl persecuted the child of the free woman, the children of law now persecute the children of grace and promise. The man who makes law the principle of his life is in the position of a slave; whereas the man who makes grace the principle of his life is free, for, as a great saint put it, the Christian's maxim is, "Love God and do what you like." Aristotle defined praotes ( G4236) as the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness, the quality of the man who is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. They had been idolaters before they became Christians; and to take up Jewish principles in addition to Christ is to turn back again to their cast-off idols. The Spirit against the flesh. Euripides called it "the greatest of all diseases among men." There was no believer, Jew or Gentile, who had not gladly submitted to that very blessed sign of having part with Christ, and of that which is made good by Christ. The very utmost that could be said was, that God had been pleased to reveal His Son to Peter and the others. The inheritance, therefore, depends on the grace of God fulfilling His promise, not on man's accomplishment of the law, even if possible. It's amazing, isn't it, what difference being born of the Spirit really makes. They were better off spiritually than some other congregations to which he wrote, or possibly he did not want to deal with other needs of theirs in this letter. And so, Rev 21:8 if you want the reference on that. And devour one another - As wild beasts do. To Paul all that mattered was faith which works through love. What is good fruit in the Bible? Their lives should demonstrate the truth that their sinful nature has been crucified with Christ and has no further power over them. wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock; but Sense of duty is not power. Strife; originally this word had mainly to do with the rivalry for prizes. That is why I encourage you just to read the Bible. Merge them, as unbelief does, and all is confusion and ruin. Paul now warns them about a consequence of this. And if you have interpreted it that way, you have completely missed the message of the scripture. Being found only in Christ, it supposes the manifestation of grace; light does not in the same way that truth does. Finally, he concludes by putting the sentence of death, if I may so say, on circumcision, and all such as might adopt it. Paul urged his readers to live unbound to the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:1-12). The sad and dangerous tendency of a contrary behaviour (Galatians 5:15; Galatians 5:15): But, says he, if instead of serving one another in love, and therein fulfilling the law of God, you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. But this will be Jerusalem, under not law but promise and liberty, restored by grace after having lost everything by the law, and reduced to utter desolation. How distressing, how mad is it, that we, who are members of the same body, should be leagued together, of our own accord, for mutual destruction! Dictionary entry details GALATIANS (noun) Sense 1 Meaning: A New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Galatians Classified under: The brethren with him ( Galatians 1:2a ) b. One of the most dangerous errors in Christendom is, that these two things are lumped together. occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, And thus the blessing of Abraham could flow freely towards the Gentiles who never were there. Carousing; this word (komos) has an interesting history. "Here, I'll show it to you in this book." Now, there are two ways that I can be righteous. He shows that God would give us a deliverance from self-importance; and what a mercy it is to be so blessed, that one can afford to forget one's self! So, Peter uses this same phrase to describe the law as a yoke of bondage. And I encourage you to just read your Bible.Now, why is it that Jehovah Witness can't tell you that? The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and joy and peace. He took care also that the twelfth apostleship should be filled up; for it is a profound mistake to suppose that Peter and the other apostles had been hasty in numbering Matthias with them, and that Paul was really the twelfth apostle according to the mind of the Lord. The man who practises it has been said to know no restraint, but to do whatever caprice and wanton insolence may suggest. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ." This is what the law commands, but those who want to put themselves under the law cannot do it. And how true all this is! The writer ( Galatians 1:1-2a ) i. Paul, the Apostle ( Galatians 1: 1 ) ii. There can be no compromise; but to be exclusive in any sense save as the expression of the truth in Christ would be in its own way an utter and heartless falsehood. His theology always ran one danger. "Be as I am." There is a work of God's Spirit within his heart, and he is born of the Spirit, and now again has a spirit that is alive and is conscious of God. Further. Galatians 5 - Standing Fast In the Liberty of Jesus A. The flesh will not be ruling over you anymore. Why not adopt what was wanting in Christianity? He does not say that it is the complement of it; but most decidedly it flows from the same divine spring of grace. All question of natural ties drops in death; as the cross is the disproof of any right to Christ in either. Under law all is lost; under grace all is saved. At first sight it seems most extraordinary, if the apostle referred to such a Scripture for the proof of the importance of one seed; because, if there is anything that lies on the surface of the passage, it is the multiplicity of the seed a seed expressly said to exceed all reckoning. He is a new creature in Christ. Jewish elements were borne with in a Jew. You see, it isn't a once-in-forever kind of a thing. On the other hand, where unity becomes an object, it is never understood; and at the same time the walk of faith cannot be maintained. And he justifies this strength of warning: "For do I now persuade men or God? He mentions another fact, and of the greatest gravity, closing this part of his argument that when Peter subsequently came down into the Gentile quarters, he had been himself affected by the subtle spirit of Judaism, i.e., the chief of the twelve! In Galatians 4:1-31 the relation is taken up, not of the law to the promise, but of the Christian now to the condition of the saints of old a very important point also. Here they might flatter themselves were plain tangible facts; here the amplest testimony on the Lord's part that the twelve are really His chosen apostles. That's the old nature that wants its way, that wants to insist on its own way and all. It will create a lot of enemies. This is the constitution of your priceless liberty. It is the spirit which has mastered its desires and its love of pleasure. heard of the law. In the New Testament it has three main meanings. It meant emulation, the desire to attain to nobility when we see it. I'm, you know, not stupid. For ye have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. And it is in the realm of the spirit where man meets God. But we have a good deal more. I would [wish that] they were even cut off which trouble you ( Galatians 5:12 ). We are crucified unto it by grace, as the world is crucified unto us by judgment. To this he gives the most solemn asseveration: "The things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not." And, doubtless, God had all this in view when He pledged Himself with an oath to Abraham. It is not merely that I have found in Christ a Saviour, but I am crucified with Christ. The apostleship of Paul, therefore, was entirely independent of Jerusalem and the twelve. That they should all strive against sin; and happy would it be for the church if Christians would let all their quarrels be swallowed up of this, even a quarrel against sin--if, instead of biting and devouring one another on account of their different opinions, they would all set themselves against sin in themselves and the places where they live. Jesus has something incredible for you. I call your attention particularly to this, brethren, that an act apparently so simple as Peter's ceasing to eat with the Gentiles had such a solemn character in the eye of the apostle Paul, that he considered it a question of the truth of the gospel. What did hinder you? If Christ's, they were Abraham's seed already, "and heirs according to the promise;" for Christ, he had shown before, was the one true Seed; and if we are Christ's, we belong to that one true Seed, and therefore are the children of Abraham without circumcision at all. (2.) The message of redemption through the cross was offensive. Causes me to become judgmental. And what sort of life can this be? Continue to work in me and through me so that I may live a life that is pleasing to You and glorifying to Your holy name, and keep me from falling back under bondage to legalistic practices, knowing that I have been set free by grace through faith in Christ's finished work on Calvary. The word Paul uses for goodness (agathosune, G19) is a peculiarly Bible word and does not occur in secular Greek ( Romans 15:14; Ephesians 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:11). The apostle himself meets that difficulty in the face, and in effect concedes to his detractors that he was not made an apostle by Christ here below. 5:1 Tell me this--you who want to be subject to the law, you listen to it being read to you, don't you? Accordingly, the language would have been premature and entirely beyond the conscious experience of the saints, or the real truth of the matter in the sight of God. To have been with the Messiah, the hearer of His words and the witness of His work, up to His departure, was ever a condition to those who were accustomed to the twelve apostles. Christian faith and behavior are never more frustrated and disgraced than by spiteful criticisms, derogatory remarks, snide observations and poison-tongue fulminations of Christians against each other. For every man shall bear his own 'burden." Things which were once a mystery and I couldn't understand are now very understandable. The sense is, "if you contend with each other;" and the reference is, probably, to the strifes which would arise between the two parties in the churches - the Jewish and the Gentile converts. You are bound to carry it out consistently. Monarchy is government by one, and began in the interests of efficiency, for government by committees has always had its drawbacks. That there is in every one a struggle between the flesh and the spirit (Galatians 5:17; Galatians 5:17): The flesh (the corrupt and carnal part of us) lusts (strives and struggles with strength and vigour) against the spirit: it opposes all the motions of the Spirit, and resists every thing that is spiritual. This is peculiar to our epistle. Thus, then, God directed and ruled that the apostle should go up and have the evil condemned on the spot, and at the centre from which it had emanated. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ( Galatians 5:17 ). He had before been exhorting these Christians by love to serve one another (Galatians 5:13; Galatians 5:13), and had put them in mind of what would be the consequence if, instead of that, they did bite and devour one another,Galatians 5:15; Galatians 5:15. For the world there is nothing yet executed, any more than the great results of grace for the saints as yet appear in their fulness. Now the Galatians were unwittingly in danger of giving up the truth. person's state and condition God-ward may be safe; or lest their In grace, God in the person of His Son speaks and accomplishes ALL; and thus He is glorified from first to last. The noun GALATIANS has 1 sense: 1. a New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Galatians Familiarity information: GALATIANS used as a noun is very rare. The law of Christ makes the going out of love towards another, so to speak, to be his joy. The action of biting and devouring is mutual. It was not the worldly presumption of man, nor the slight which this would inevitably cast on apostolic authority, as well as on the order of the church, on morality even, at least on Christian morality, on the comely ways of brethren one with another in private as well as in their public assemblies. This is not a word which classical Greek uses commonly. It can even be used in a good sense in that connection, but much more commonly it means the rivalry which has found its outcome in quarrellings and wrangling. Eternal life is spoken of in this double way in scripture (Romans 6:22-23); and I also press this as a truth of no small importance and but too much forgotten. So, they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. You see, laws are for unprincipled people. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ( Galatians 5:14 ). It is predicated upon the work of God. All this vanishes in Christ; we are all one in Him; and if you are Christ's, what need to be circumcised! It's sort of comforting, you know. and devour one another -- As wild beasts do. I admit that this was all in place and season then for Jerusalem. And I can choose whether or not to walk in the flesh, or then again, to commit it and walk after the Spirit. But it was true from the first. Rather, if man had been able to obey the law and so acquire a title, then two systems would have interfered with each other as being to the same end. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law ( Galatians 5:3 ). In point of fact, to bring in Christ is also best of all to secure the blessing, the privileges, the glory that God has in His grace for every one that believes. What gives power is the heart surrendering itself in everything, and thus set at liberty by Christ. Thus is seen sovereign grace, and nothing else, as well as a heavenly link instantly formed between the Lord in glory and His servant on earth. And they glorified God in me.". Now these things are an allegory. Don't be entangled again with rules, regulations, a yoke of bondage. Then, further, attention is drawn to another topic his own writing of this letter. They're covered by the fact that you're walking in love. If we are living in the Spirit let us also keep step with the Spirit. Nor did they understand the prophets better. the only system of earthly worship which had ever possessed God's sanction. But there was no sense of union then. So "stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ has made you free." I am crucified with Christ: consequently all that remains for me is living this new life which Christ is in me. What! The very reverse of their system is true. It is the virtue which makes a man so master of himself that he is fit to be the servant of others. The Jews will surely be exalted, as well as converted nationally, and they will then put down their enemies, being made the head when other nations become the tail. I have not. Dissension describes a society in which the very opposite is the case, where the members fly apart instead of coming together. It is for the purpose of bringing in transgression, answers the apostle. God is a superior Trinity; man is an inferior trinity. He saw that the tree was pleasant to look upon, it was tasty to eat and it would make him wise as God. 4 You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. In the epistle to the Ephesians we shall find that the apostle claims a still higher character for all ministry. it had a resurrection-source, instead of being from Christ on earth, and in relation to the work God was doing when He sent His Son here below. Thus all had been duly prepared of God, with a far-reaching wisdom, to make the call of Paul an evidently and entirely separate thing, to make his apostleship as distinct in fact as in form; to give him fresh communications, even as to the Lord's supper, and to convey anew the very gospel that he preached as the revelation of the Son in him. It went on to mean canvassing for political or public office, and it describes the man who wants office, not from any motives of service. It can mean the beneficent use of drugs by a doctor; but it can also mean poisoning, and it came to be very specially connected with the use of drugs for sorcery, of which the ancient world was full. One of these covenants--the one which originated on Mount Sinai--bears children who are destined for slavery--and that one is represented by Hagar. Thus, going up with Barnabas, he took Titus, a Gentile, along with him; and even so by revelation. Crucified with Christ. And so, I have to reckon the old man to be dead each day, and oftentimes, many times through the day.The flesh is lusting against the Spirit. In his case the breach with man was evident; the association with heaven, and not Jerusalem, was too plain to be disputed or evaded. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." 18 but if you are led by (verse 16-18) the spirit, you are not under law. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. To worship the living and true, creator God - and not the false gods, false religions we pursue. Plutocracy means government by the wealthy and is justified by the claim that those who have the biggest stake in the country have a logical right to rule it. (1.) Writing was a somewhat laborious task in those days, and it was a kind of profession to be a writer or scribe, before printing, of course, was known. Being, of course, dying men, whether it be the general privileges of Israel, or the special place of the priest, all was transmitted from father to son. Christ has set us free! Democracy means government of the people, by the people, for the people. Help me, Lord, to just keep the right attitude." In fact, what Jerusalem had done, as far as this was concerned, was to let slip men that would impose circumcision evil workers, as he in a later epistle contemptuously calls such like of the concision; for they were corrupting the Gentile churches by Judaism, instead of helping them in Christ. Be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. It was not merely that Paul was lowered by the carping Judaizers God's grace was being sacrificed. For the desires of the lower side of human nature are the very reverse of the desires of the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are the very reverse of those of the lower side of human nature, for these are fundamentally opposed to each other, so that you cannot do whatever you like. He had before told us that the Spirit of Christ is a privilege bestowed on all the children of God, Galatians 4:6; Galatians 4:6. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female;" all is Christ and only Christ. No man was ever more conscious of the tension in human nature than Paul. "Are ye so foolish? You have fallen from grace. Note, If we should approve ourselves to be Christ's, such as are united to him and interested in him, we must make it our constant care and business to crucify the flesh with its corrupt affections and lusts. Love is the sum of the whole law; as love to God comprises the duties of the first table, so love to our neighbour those of the second. But immediately after this it is added, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And they want to get on our case because we don't run down every night and baptize people the moment they're saved. The long lapse of time ought to have guarded men from mixing up the law with the promise, and thus from the appearance of annulling the promise by the law, for this would be most dishonouring to God. take heed that ye be not consumed one of another; that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and comfort be destroyed, which is oftentimes done this way, though a person's state and condition God-ward may be safe; or lest their church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love is the cement of it, which being loosened, threatens a dissolution; for as no civil community, either public or private, divided against itself, can stand long, so no religious one; and for want of love the Lord threatens to remove, and sometimes does remove, the candlestick out of its place.