Had they been occupied with Christ, they would have really loved one another, and in other respects too fulfilled the law, without thinking about themselves or it. The apostle Paul himself, inRomans 14:1-23; Romans 14:1-23, insists upon the forbearance of a Gentile even towards the Jew that might be still encumbered by his days, meats, and so on. "The death of Christ for you isn't sufficient. The apostle Paul interferes in no way with the work which God had given the others to do. I'm still His child. I'd rather trust and be burned than not to trust. heard of the law. You got to walk the tight rope. After all, what God had at heart was the accomplishment of His own promise in grace. And so, it was something that was quite familiar the castration. Love; the New Testament word for love is agape ( G26) . The other part remains, and must be accomplished in its own day, when Israel's heart turns to the Lord. And in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, we read how that Peter stood up and told the brethren how that the Lord had called him to go to the Gentiles to the house of Cornelius. 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. Far from wishing to gain credit, either for the gospel or for his own apostolic place, in consequence of being linked with those that had been apostles before him, he insists on that very independence which they counted a reproach. 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. But the moment a Gentile takes the system up, or a Jew presses it on a Gentile, it is nothing but downright heathenism. Yet how true it is, the more we look below the surface; indeed, in our day it becomes more and more palpable to the eye. Thence he advances to another point of his argument. Walk on the spiritual side of your nature. It is not merely to seek in love a fallen brother, but to be the succourer of others in their difficulties. If your navigational instruments are one degree off, and you take your heading and you start for Hawaii, by the time you've gone that distance, you'll miss Hawaii by two hundred and forty miles.Oh, by the time you get to Santa Barbara, you won't even notice anything. Freedom, though, requires resistance against a return to bondage. It's sort of comforting, you know. The apostle urges that all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Men that have followed after my perverse teachings. But God has made you alive in Christ Jesus. All question of natural ties drops in death; as the cross is the disproof of any right to Christ in either. This immense privilege had no connection with law whatever. But he was not thus disobedient to the heavenly vision. The truth of the gospel, to the apostle Paul's mind, was at stake. Then he takes up Abraham; for this is always the stock argument of those who would bring in circumcision and the law, Abraham being emphatically the friend of God and the father of the faithful. You can't do anything to buy redemption. So much the more, then, we find the working of spiritual feeling as expressed by him in the second epistle, where he speaks of God lifting up those that were cast down, as He had delivered himself from the imminent danger to which he had been exposed even as to life. it has a, perhaps, a naivet about it in that it does trust.You know I've been burned so many times by trusting men, but I pray, "God, never make me jaundiced." There was no difference: all had sinned. And any kind of a relationship with God that causes me to strive with my brother, causes me to become contentious, is really something that I'm not interested in. And at the end of each day, I can paste my gold stars on those that I've kept. They often use drugs, potions; the potions that you'd take, you know, and it'd have their drug related experiences. By the Spirit of God, we're waiting for that hope of righteousness through faith. No doubt he heard Peter use it there in Acts 15 , and he said, "Stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ has set you free.". Because you have been born of the Spirit, you can see it, you can understand it; it's as plain as can be. Nor is there a greater evidence of God's tender and considerate care for us than such a fact as this. it. These were his lineal posterity. To make this evident by transgressions was the object of the law. He had been brought to a place of blessing outside himself and by another, the Saviour, which in itself gives the soul motives indeed but not power; whereas, for the soul who is brought to God by the gospel, and planted in the liberty wherein Christ makes free before God, it is no more a question of flesh, but of the Holy Ghost who is given to him. (2.) He speaks of "the grace of Christ." The meaning is that you never can get stability in blessing until you have simply God putting forth His own power according to His own grace. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. At the same time he insists in the most peremptory manner that our liberty in Christ is to be used for holiness. (1.) The mind of the flesh is death.But if my life is dominated by the Spirit, then I have the mind of the Spirit. As far as this temper prevails among Christians, they will be ready to slight and despise those whom they look upon as inferior to them, and to be put out of humour if they are denied that respect which they think is their due from them, and they will also be apt to envy those by whom their reputation is in any danger of being lessened: and thus a foundation is laid for those quarrels and contentions which, as they are inconsistent with that love which Christians ought to maintain towards each other, so they are greatly prejudicial to the honour and interest of religion itself. To him a theology was not the slightest use unless it could be lived out. And so, I would listen to these fellows, and I listened, you know, and just said, "Well, you know, that's what the scripture says, you know," when they would quote scriptures. "Devour" describes hurtful actions that linger on and on as far as time is concerned. Then we come to the closing chapter (Galatians 6:1-18); and here we find the Spirit of God calling for tenderness in dealing with those who are overtaken in a fault. "You've been called unto liberty." Thus He lived and moved here below. Far otherwise is God's way with souls. And now your spirit is alive. The kind that were always talking about numbers. In the case of the twelve, we do find an apostle chosen to supply the gap of Judas chosen, I admit, of God, though after a Jewish sort, as Chrysostom justly remarks, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given. It is a joy whose foundation is God. Now, as a means of engaging them to the one and preserving them from the other of these, he here cautions them against being desirous of vain-glory, or giving way to an undue affectation of the esteem and applause of men, because this, if it were indulged, would certainly lead them to provoke one another and to envy one another. The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural. And mark how the Holy Ghost turns Abraham into an additional and most unexpected proof of the grace of God and the truth of the gospel. Here one may be very brief: "The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors, until the time appointed of the father. What! On this the apostle reasons. And I encourage you to just read your Bible.Now, why is it that Jehovah Witness can't tell you that? at least as zealous for the Jews' religion as any Jew of the straitest sect. 5) Psalm 88:13 (NIV) But I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. The prosperity doctrines of the gnostic heresy of the early church. Christ is your liberty and life. This is Christianity; and when the soul thankfully accepts from God this blessed liberty, the Holy Ghost is given to and acts in the believer as a Spirit of peace and power; so that if there is the flesh lusting against the Spirit, the Spirit resists this, in order that (for such is the true meaning) they should not do the things that they would. The promise is therefore entirely distinct from the law, which was not heard of for four hundred and thirty years after. Thus, the idea is, in their contentions they would destroy the spirituality and happiness of each other; their characters would be ruined; and the church be overthrown. Here I've got this new twist on the scripture. Who would have ventured to say, without express scripture, that the old Jewish forms thus adopted by a Gentile believer have such an idolatrous character? Therefore the apostle adds, ,And as many as walk according to this rule [that is, the rule of the new creation], peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." But as in the end the child of the slave girl was cast out and had no share in the inheritance, so in the end those who are legalists will be cast out from God and have no share in the inheritance of grace. "To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed.". Then he gives a closing blow to those who doted about the law. Exhortation to Stedfastness; Persuasives to Stedfastness. The readers ( Galatians 1:2b ) c. The greeting ( Galatians 1:3-5 ) i. The human flesh is weak. He owned and valued, in its own place, the difficult, weighty, and momentous work which God had assigned to Peter, James, and the rest; but at the same time he stood firmly humbly, of course, and lovingly, but firmly for that which the Lord had assigned to himself and his colleagues among the Gentiles; and, so far from Christ's liberty having been in the least weakened, the apostolic conclave put their seal, with the whole church at Jerusalem, upon it most heartily. After one of his great victories Nelson attributed it to the fact that he had the happiness to command a band of brothers. Not to the place of being ridiculous. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention. Thus, it is seen, the truth was established. As made under the law He was for Israel; but He died and rose, and was thus free to bless a Gentile as much as a Jew. Self-control; the word is egkrateia ( G1466) which Plato uses of self-mastery. we know too well the result from sinful man. Very particularly was it marked by the manner of his call, that his apostleship had no connection with either the world or the flesh. They had been by degrees instructed according to the testimony which the Lord Jesus was pleased to give; and most suited it was, of course, to the time, people, and circumstances. In this case it was God that gave the promise; it was He that confirmed the covenant to Christ, without saying a word about the law till four hundred and thirty years after. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like ( Galatians 5:21 ): So, the such like covers a lot of things. One of the encouragements, as we know, which God furnished to Abraham was, that he should have a seed like the sand of the sea, and like the stars of the sky. Now, evidently these Paul people were saying, "Well, Paul was circumcised and he's preaching circumcision. Naughty Paul. Now, man was created and by God as a living spirit. Very powerful words for those who would seek justification through the law, through rules, through keeping rules, through keeping ordinances. (Compare John 1:9; John 1:17.). A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ( Galatians 5:9 ). #2 "were called" We should take great joy in the truth that we belong to the God who calls us chosen. "Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. Jesus said, "I'm not talking about that. ", At once the apostle launches into the troubled sea. Paul had written in the earlier part, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me" ( Galatians 2:20 ). The word faith here is trusting. If we are living in the Spirit let us also keep step with the Spirit. Need it be added that he was right and Peter wrong? Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem; for she is a slave and so are her children. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust [desires] of the flesh ( Galatians 5:15-16 ). The deeds of the lower side of human nature are obvious fornication, impurity, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, enmity, strife, jealousy, uncontrolled temper. I'm going to walk in love." 5:16-21 I tell you, let your walk and conversation be dominated by the Spirit, and don't let the desires of the lower side of your nature have their way. "Here, I'll show it to you in this book." Thus all things fall into their place, and the Spirit connects us in heart with that which God is doing and will do for the glory of Christ. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us [all?]. 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. He simply states, as I have said, that his apostolic character was not only from Jesus, but from God the Father, that raised Him from the dead. For devour, comp. Therefore reckon ye yourselves to be dead with Christ, but alive unto God through Him" ( Romans 6:6 , Romans 6:11 ). And now the apostle enters on another part of his subject. "The scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. He had been himself (could they deny it?) Christianity refuses to be mingled with anything but itself. beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and . The allusion is to Rare in N.T. Because you'll never come to their beliefs just by reading the Bible. The true link is with Jerusalem above, as our prototype is Isaac, the child of the freewoman. So, "do not use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love," the real key is love, "serve one another.". He has set you free from the power of the flesh. But I have confidence in you that you're not going to be persuaded by this. What does Galatians 5:15 Mean? an apostle, or at any rate one that says he is an apostle, setting aside what God inaugurated in Jerusalem, not even conferring with those whom the Lord Himself called by His personal summons here below? He through law died to law, that he might live to God! In the epistle to the Galatians we have another tone and style, a serious and grieved spirit, with feelings not less deep it may be, even more profoundly moved than in writing to the Corinthians; and for this reason, that the foundations were still more deeply affected by that which was working among the assemblies of Galatia. If I am a Christian, I am responsible according to that position and privilege. Alas! This the Jews are destined to have by-and-by; for the promises to Abraham are not exhausted yet. My business is to act consistently with the new place in which grace has put me. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh ( Galatians 5:24 ). Now you're, you know, chopping Jesus up, and said, "Well, He is God here, and but, for a while He wasn't God and the universe was without God for a little bit here, or whatever. And Peter said, "I suggest that we not place a yoke of bondage on them which neither we, nor our fathers were able to bear" ( Acts 15:10 ). The result of this is, that neither God has His place, nor they. By-and-by will be fulfilled the promised earthly blessing, and power, and glory for Israel like the sand and the stars. Dissension describes a society in which the very opposite is the case, where the members fly apart instead of coming together. If I sow to the flesh, I shall of the flesh reap corruption; if I sow to the Spirit, I shall reap life everlasting. The Greeks drank more wine than they did milk; even children drank wine. That would not be a good example of Christian love. But, further, he refers in a very affecting manner to some personal circumstances how in his own body he was a witness of having nothing to do with flesh; for what God had been pleased to put upon him as serving Him in the gospel was not great power of nature, but that which made him contemptible in his preaching. And Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength; and thy neighbor as thyself. Mark it well. Euripides called it "the greatest of all diseases among men." Galatians 5:15 - John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible BUT IF YE BITE AND DEVOUR ONE ANOTHER,.. You can't be both. Paul was preaching that Jesus paid the complete price for your redemption on the cross. But what does the scripture say? If God loved us like that then the love of Christ constrains us. What were they doing? The action of biting and devouring is mutual. done his duty; but it was precisely what he could not do, because he was a sinner. We have those that come around here. Now notice, works of the flesh, works plural. The very reverse of their system is true. The apostle shows that, so far from bringing in Christians and putting them on the ground of the Old Testament, God is really leading those who were in that connection out of it all by redemption. Don't marvel when I say, 'You've got to be born again.'" Indeed, we may say that now he thunders on the Galatians that were dragging in the law. of Then, further, attention is drawn to another topic his own writing of this letter. And this leads him to speak of another trial. His Father had made a revelation to Peter. Love finds its activity in caring for those that are cast down, "and so fulfils the law of Christ." Let him alone. The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural. And this is of immense moment to remember. Meanwhile another and a better sort of blessing is given, as a better Seed also is given the true Heir of all the promises of God, even Christ the Lord. I am perfectly delivered, and the measure of my deliverance is Christ, and Christ raised from the dead. But when men would have anything fraught with distress to His people, when through their folly confusion must ensue, contrary to all that His heart loved, then it was left to others. It's faith which works by love.Now Paul said, Again, you remember he said, "You did start well. dissolution; for as no civil community, either public or private, From the beginning Hagar had been inclined to triumph over Sarah, because barrenness was a sore shame to a woman; there was an atmosphere charged with trouble. They have not yet obtained a complete victory over it; they have still flesh as well as Spirit in them, and that has its affections and lusts, which continue to give them no little disturbance, but as it does not now reign in their mortal bodies, so as that they obey it in the lusts thereof (Romans 6:12), so they are seeking the utter ruin and destruction of it, and to put it to the same shameful and ignominious, though lingering death, which our Lord Jesus underwent for our sakes. And how true all this is! All right, I'm still one of His sheep, you know. Paul urged his readers to live unbound to the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:1-12). Hence it is that Rome, which most decidedly in principle rests on human succession (as all worldly religion must, to a certain extent, embrace the same principle) Rome, I say, seeks to derive her authority, as all know, from Peter. Impossible to serve two masters! They knew very well that he had nothing to do with the law or its ordinances. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Later, and in a far fuller way now, the gospel was the blessed answer to this early grace. However, this behavior is hurting them as much or more as it is those they are attempting to hurt. Peace; in contemporary colloquial Greek this word (eirene, G1515) had two interesting usages. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these ( Galatians 5:18-19 ). Monarchy is government by one, and began in the interests of efficiency, for government by committees has always had its drawbacks. "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" But it was true from the first. 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. But this is a future prophetic vision not touched on here. Thus the law was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator. Galatians 5 - Standing Fast In the Liberty of Jesus A. When God gives a pledge not of possessing the gate of enemies, when He speaks of the blessing of the nations, instead of the overthrow of Israel's foes, then he speaks simply of "thy seed." church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. May the truth of God sink into our hearts! Verse Meaning Apparently the believers who advocated grace and the believers who advocated law bitterly opposed one another in the Galatian churches. Look at Abraham and his house; look at the maid Hagar; look at Isaac and Ishmael. Now take care that you do not use your wonderful . Galatians 5:1-15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. To this he gives the most solemn asseveration: "The things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not." Whoever despises the facts of Christianity, as if nothing in Scripture were worthy of meditation, or of ministering to others but exercises and speculative deductions, will be found, if he do not find himself often, on the verge of dangerous delusions, both for the mind and for the walk. It is thus, then, that grace uses it to give me death in my conscience before God. divided against itself, can stand long, so no religious one; and As if he had said, "You must expect a struggle between flesh and spirit as long as you are in the world, that the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh; but if, in the prevailing bent and tenour of your lives, you be led by the Spirit,--if you act under the guidance and government of the Holy Spirit and of that spiritual nature and disposition he has wrought in you,--if you make the word of God your rule and the grace of God your principle,--it will hence appear that you are not under the law, not under the condemning, though you are still under the commanding, power of it; for there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Romans 8:1-14.
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