It was rather to have Gentile liberty secured by the twelve apostles, and that the Judaizers should be condemned by the church at Jerusalem. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. Now. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. But though the apostle here only mentions the crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts, as the care and character of real Christians, yet, no doubt, it is also implied that, on the other hand, we should show forth those fruits of the Spirit which he had just before been specifying; this is no less our duty than that, nor is it less necessary to evidence our sincerity in religion. 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. 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? Look at Abraham and his house; look at the maid Hagar; look at Isaac and Ishmael. Uh-huh, you did that five minutes. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." And at the end of each day, I can paste my gold stars on those that I've kept. You weren't persuaded to be circumcised because God was speaking to your heart and convicting you of this. But because they are not born of the Spirit and have no understanding of the spiritual dimension of life, you're talking riddles to them. (Acts 15:1-41) As it is said here, "They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision.
Is not this just the law for you! The truth of the gospel, to the apostle Paul's mind, was at stake. Later, and in a far fuller way now, the gospel was the blessed answer to this early grace. you've taken a position Jesus is the only One. The solemnities of Christ's judgment await men in the day of the Lord. "Christian freedom is not licence [sic] for the simple but tremendous reason that the Christian is not the man who has become free to sin, but the man, who, by the grace of God, has become free not to sin." There is now much confusion of things that differ; and so, more or less, error runs through the whole of it in all its parts; but I know not anything more ruinous than this. It was they who had changed, not he. "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." But there is more for us. Another thing, too, let me just point out in passing. The apostle does not say, if grievous wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock; but suggests if they themselves should act the part of wolves to one another; having reference to their controversies about the law and circumcision, and the necessity thereof to justification and salvation; which were managed with great heat and bitterness, occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, parties, and factions; and were attended with envy and malice, with reproachful words, biting sarcasms, scandalous invectives, and injurious actions, which must be of bad consequence: hence he adds. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. I don't believe that." Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you who are justified [or seeking to be justified] by the law; ye are fallen from grace ( Galatians 5:4 ). It is past dispute that the things he here speaks of are the works of the flesh, or the product of corrupt and depraved nature; most of them are condemned by the light of nature itself, and all of them by the light of scripture. So here Paul is "an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, that raised him from the dead.". And the old flesh likes to get people excited and stirred up like that. You ever seen a person in love and all of the joy that they have? No person can intelligently read the New Testament without perceiving the utter fallacy of such a system; for Peter was expressly, as the next chapter of this epistle tells us, apostle of the circumcision. The reason is, that he has not yet come to own by faith that he has no strength any more than righteousness, and that Christ is all and in all. And so then I had to go out to them and say, "Hey, you haven't convinced me of the truth of what you're declaring. The Spirit against the flesh. We are free, but our freedom loves its neighbour as itself. As for himself, he gloried only in the cross. The law came in meanwhile, serving its own object, which was to bring out what was in the heart of man. When He had anything unfailing to do or say, He loved to appear in grace; He said it Himself, and did it for Himself. By this he plainly means free from law. , . And a little leaven soon leavens the whole lump. Whereas the Holy Ghost by the apostle draws attention to the contrast of "thy seed" (as one) with the numerous seed, with earthly blessing attached to them; whilst to "thy seed " simply, without reference to stars or to sand, no more is annexed than the blessing of Gentiles. It was by revelation, not by summons from Jerusalem, or to acquire a title thereby. "Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." Consequently, without further preamble, and with an ominous silence as to their state (for, indeed, it could not be spoken of), he at once breaks the ground. What is the difference? You're talking nonsense. "Are ye so foolish? And as, by specifying these works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit, the apostle directs us both what we are to avoid and oppose and what we are to cherish and cultivate, so (Galatians 5:24; Galatians 5:24) he informs us that this is the sincere care and endeavour of all real Christians: And those that are Christ's, says he (those who are Christians indeed, not only in show and profession, but in sincerity and truth), have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. The names of the different forms of government are suggestive. But immediately after this it is added, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. The world of spirits can never be comfortable to those who plunge themselves in the filth of the flesh; nor will the righteous and holy God ever admit such into his favour and presence, unless they be first washed and sanctified, and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,1 Corinthians 6:11. They thus acted and pronounced according to the evident intention of God conveyed in the character of their apostolates respectively. He does not deny that others preached it; but if so, they preached the same truth. Here it is the total judgment of flesh in its religious pretensions, and more particularly a blow to that which is an essential principle of law. Undoubtedly such is the assurance of God's word to His children; and thus Galatians 5:1-26 is in contrast withRomans 7:1-25; Romans 7:1-25. "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" 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. Which means: Peaceable Christians realize that apart from Jehovah God, they have no lasting peacemaking ability. In our dealings with our fellow men we must reproduce this loving, forbearing, forgiving, patient attitude of God towards ourselves. 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. The Bible says, "The natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit: neither can he know them, they are spiritually discerned" ( 1 Corinthians 2:14 ). For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, which answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. WebGalatians 5:115 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. has an affinity for both. Then, further, attention is drawn to another topic his own writing of this letter. But responsibility is always according to the relation in which one stands, and the measure of knowledge which each possesses, or ought to possess. The deeds of the lower side of human nature are obvious fornication, impurity, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, enmity, strife, jealousy, uncontrolled temper. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. 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. English Standard Version 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 ). All of the law is fulfilled. It is no question now of being subject to the Jews, who shall never possess the gate of their enemies, but be peeled and scattered and few, while the gospel is going forth. Had a man come down from the teaching of the twelve, albeit inspired of God to write, as we know some of them were, and all of them having a most truly apostolic place, he might have been startled by the teaching of St. Paul. The power of Christ must rest upon him. WebThe surrendered believer who is walking in spirit and truth, is yielded to the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit Who works through our new life in Christ, and over time we discover an inner discipline at work. 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. I have confidence in you in the Lord; I am sure that you will take no other view. Another reason inducing to love is taken from the pernicious consequences of a contrary spirit and conduct. These are sins which will undoubtedly shut men out of heaven. It was from and in connection with Christ in heaven. Now, evidently these Paul people were saying, "Well, Paul was circumcised and he's preaching circumcision. 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. He saith not, And to seeds, as to many; but as to one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. They were only, as they supposed, beginning to cherish a becoming attitude toward the religion of the fathers, and of all who had before Christ honoured God on earth. When the prophet speaks of any one living, it is by faith "The just shall live by faith." First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. And now in Christ He has accomplished it I mean already. Hereon the apostle puts before them another expostulation: "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." 50.]. For his own special call was an indisputable fact; and it is a great joy to the heart to think how Christianity (while it leaves the deepest and the highest space in all directions, so to speak, for the working of the Holy Ghost, while there is more room in it than anywhere else for the play both of the renewed mind and the affections that the Spirit of God gives, while, consequently, it admits of the richest possible exercises of both mind and heart), nevertheless, in its grand truths rests on the most patent and certain facts. The warfare going on. This is the very evil which the Spirit of God so earnestly and energetically denounces here by the apostle Paul. 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. She is as one that has no husband. Christ on high had called him. A group known as the Judaizers were pressuring the Galatians to submit to physical circumcision in order to be acceptable to God. devourthe substance by injuring, extortion, &c. (Hab 1:13; Mt 23:14; 2Co 11:20). The consequence is, that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God; and this he proves, not only from the promise, but from the prophets. That's where God touches me. When a Gentile Christian, mark, takes up such Old Testament elements, according to the Holy Ghost, it is not to him merely Judaism, but a return to his Gentile idols, little as he may think so. The works of the flesh. If I am a Christian, I am responsible according to that position and privilege. Paul has in mind the issue of circumcision. You got to be circumcised." The most illuminating thing about it is that it is commonly used in the New Testament of the attitude of God towards men ( Romans 2:4; Romans 9:22; 1 Timothy 1:16; 1 Peter 3:20). Hence, you see, all exactly suits the gospel as Paul insisted on it. This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you ( Galatians 5:7-8 ).
Love; the New Testament word for love is agape ( G26) . We find that offensive in our society today, but in those days, the area of Galatia was the center of the worship of Sybil, and the priests of Sybil would castrate themselves. Thus it appears that the Galatians as well as the Corinthians had been similarly affected. And this comes up every day in many situations, and I have actually the choice in this situation. If it should be asked, What course must we take that the better interest may get the better? Now, if you're walking in love, supreme love for God and supreme love for your fellow man, then there is no law. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention. Paul said to the Galatians; You reached the point in your life where you realized you cannot make yourself righteous - that you cannot accomplish your own salvation through religious rituals and any type of good works that you do. He was bound to do what he ought; but, in point of fact, all was a failure, and could be nothing else, because man was a sinner. Uncontrolled temper ; the word Paul uses means bursts of temper. Who put up a road-block to stop you obeying the truth? You are bound to carry it out consistently. 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. He said, "What do you mean? 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. Thus, it is seen, the truth was established. Galatians 5:15 by Grant Richison | Apr 11, 2000 | Galatians | 1 comment Read Introduction to Galatians But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! The Galatian church entered a stage of conflict because of legalistic thinking. They're contrary, and I do not always walk after the Spirit. That is, liberty in Jesus Christ. And they ate, giving over to their fleshly appetites and in so doing, the flesh dominated. The "Israel of God," I apprehend, would mean, that the only part of Israel whom God owns now consists of those that really are of faith those that .received Jesus. So the stumbling-block of the Cross is removed, is it? So, joy is love's consciousness. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. To the Galatians there was an exception. To deny yourself for Christ means to renounce yourself as the center of existence and to recognize Jesus Christ as your new and true center. When he declared that the end of the reign of law had come and that the reign of grace had arrived, it was always possible for someone to say, "That, then, means that I can do what I like; all the restraints are lifted and I can follow my inclinations wherever they lead me. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith ( Galatians 5:5 ). 17 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. He was an enemy stopped in sovereign grace. (d) Agape ( G26) , the Christian word, means unconquerable benevolence. Paul was preaching that Jesus paid the complete price for your redemption on the cross. Observe the place the cross has here, not merely Christ's blood, but His death on the cross. His Father had made a revelation to Peter.
See Luke 9:54. Paul did not stand alone. The law necessarily makes the man, and the man's doings, to be the prominent object. Galatians 5:15 by Grant Richison | Apr 11, 2000 | Galatians | 1 comment Read Introduction to Galatians But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! The Galatian church entered a stage of conflict because of legalistic thinking. And you will observe the immense importance attached to this simple account; for all here is plain matter of fact, but pregnant with the weightiest consequences as long as the church and the gospel last here below. Therefore, when a man is baptized, he is not, of course, baptized into his own death; there is no sense in such a thought. And he gives to us here a listing, incomplete to be sure, because he ends it by saying, "And do such things." "Before faith came we [Jews] were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Impurity, then, is that which makes a man unfit to come before God, the soiling of life with the things which separate us from him. What are you talking about?" And they say, "Oh, well, I was just waiting upon the Lord and reading the Scriptures, and the Lord showed this to me." WebThe surrendered believer who is walking in spirit and truth, is yielded to the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit Who works through our new life in Christ, and over time we discover an inner discipline at work. These were his lineal posterity. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life" ( 1 John 2:16 ). Hagar herself was a slave and all her children were born into slavery; and that covenant whose basis is the law turns men into slaves of the law. 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. Agape ( G26 ), is it necessarily makes the man 's flesh! 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The true link is with Jerusalem above, as our prototype is Isaac, the child of the freewoman. 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, you know, I mean, you're having now go to . Instead they are unkind and cruel to each other. You cannot be ruled and dominated by your flesh.Now, it is interesting, a list similar to this is given to us in Revelation the twenty-first chapter, as it tells us those who are going to be excluded from heaven and outside were those who were doing these things: "The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and the liars," those who are outside. And what is the end of them?
Their lives should demonstrate the truth that their sinful nature has been crucified with Christ and has no further power over them. And your spirit being alive, again you can experience fellowship with God, the joy, the blessing of fellowshipping with God.So, "walk in the Spirit." And let's go on. Strong expressions of partisan hatred exerting itself for mutual injury. But if I have a whole page of gold stars but yet there's one little point over here where I blew it and I can't put a gold star, then I'm unrighteous. Anything else would have been imperfect; but still it had essentially a transitional character. 13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Flesh alas! Then comes the seed, and the promise is made Yea and Amen in Him all the promises of God. It is liberty and not law that the Christian stands in. We know how feeble and slow the heart is, and how apt disciples in general are to narrow the riches of the grace and truth of God. He will gain transgression thereby; nothing more, nothing better. WebThe meaning of this proverbial warning (see on 1 Corinthians 5:6) is: If the false apostles have, by means of their persuasion, succeeded in making even but a small beginning in the work of imparting to you erroneous doctrines or false principles, this will develope itself to the corruption of your whole Christian faith and life. heard of the law. One of them fell from his place, but the vacancy was filled up directly. It means unrestrained revelry. 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. Galatians 1:1-24. The law was given them with all pomp and solemnity. Yea, hence it appears that they are not under the law, but under grace; for these fruits of the Spirit, in whomsoever they are found, plainly show that such are led by the Spirit, and consequently that they are not under the law, as Galatians 5:18; Galatians 5:18. But at the same time it is plain that the apostle Paul here starts with the instructive fact, that the very thing for which some Judaizers then blamed him was the distinctive glory of that to which the Lord had called him. That is, the most simple and most obvious truth is just the last thing a man thinks about.
That they should not strive with one another, but love one another. They don't come to man from God.And the Jehovah Witnesses, just the Arian heresy of the early church. Dissension; literally the word means a standing apart. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" ( John 4:24 ). The fate of any group permitting such a development issues inevitably in that of "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat": The apostle said as much in this very passage. A double intervention comes between God and man, in contrast with the simplicity of His ways of grace. And so Paul is standing against this teaching in his letter to the Galatians, and in chapter five, he said. Don't revive him. I admit that this was all in place and season then for Jerusalem. The law and the promise are both from God, but the law's use is only negative and condemnatory. Makrothumia ( G3115) ; this is a great word. "Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are." Saints they may have been; and such, we know, moved about from Jerusalem. What the Jews would have liked, no doubt, was power (and the Galatians, after all, were in danger of slipping into the same snare; for the law suits the world, as grace does not), and in the world present power and honour. You got to walk the tight rope. "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another. (1.) "Here, I'll show it to you in this book." For God considers the poor; He has regard to the simple; He has children in His eye. Note, 1. It is . Am I going to yield to my flesh, or am I going to yield to the Spirit? THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP ( Galatians 5:1-12 ). 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. The offense of the cross would cease." Envy; this word (phthonos, G5355) , is a mean word. By-and-by will be fulfilled the promised earthly blessing, and power, and glory for Israel like the sand and the stars. against such there is no law ( Galatians 5:23 ). Paul says, "If you go on in this way, of which circumcision is the beginning, you might as well end up by castrating yourselves like these heathen priests." 2. Thank God Jesus Christ has set me free from my bondage to my flesh. No man was ever more conscious of the tension in human nature than Paul. All question of natural ties drops in death; as the cross is the disproof of any right to Christ in either. As the soldier in Studdert Kennedy's poem said; For Paul it was essential that Christian freedom should mean not freedom to indulge the lower side of human nature, but freedom to walk in the life of the Spirit. The law, accordingly, never was the truth, either on God's side, or man's. So here it is said that God was pleased to reveal His Son in him, that he might preach the good news of Him among the heathen. The Christian's faith is founded not on a book but on a person; its dynamic is not obedience to any law but love to Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:1-21. (b) Philia ( G5373) is the warm love which we feel for our nearest and our dearest; it is a thing of the heart. Paul said to the Galatians; You reached the point in your life where you realized you cannot make yourself righteous - that you cannot accomplish your own salvation through religious rituals and any type of good works that you do. All sprang, no doubt, from the same God, from the same Lord Jesus Christ; but even so from God and from the Lord in other relationships. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" Ritualism is the present most patent comment on the apostle's statement. The action of biting and devouring is mutual. Paul has in mind the issue of circumcision.
Hagar stands for the old covenant of the law, made on Mount Sinai, which is in fact in Arabia, the land of Hagar's descendants. Finally, he concludes by putting the sentence of death, if I may so say, on circumcision, and all such as might adopt it. It is not a question of law at all. As we saw it in the Corinthians applied to judge the worldliness of the saints there, so here it judges their legalism. Love (as Jesus taught, Mark 12:31 and parallels) includes everything Galatians 5:15 - Barclay Daily Study Bible (NT) It's the operation of God's Spirit within our heart that works through love. He's temperant. And you find that these people espousing them are plagiarizing from other people who have espoused them, and it goes back and back and back. The spiritual Christian discovers the righteous requirements of God's law being fulfilled in and through him. The rod was the thing the shepherd used to hit the sheep on the flanks when they started getting out, you know, roaming out. And, doubtless, God had all this in view when He pledged Himself with an oath to Abraham. 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.