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. #1 "It is for freedom" By "freedom," this verse means that we can serve others in the name of the Lord and reap the reward of joy that comes from it (Galatians 5:13-15). Jewish elements were borne with in a Jew. The writer ( Galatians 1:1-2a ) i. Paul, the Apostle ( Galatians 1: 1 ) ii. All this vanishes in Christ; we are all one in Him; and if you are Christ's, what need to be circumcised! I get an attitude that is not of the Lord. All of the bases are covered. Note, The best antidote against the poison of sin is to walk in the Spirit, to be much in conversing with spiritual things, to mind the things of the soul, which is the spiritual part of man, more than those of the body, which is his carnal part, to commit ourselves to the guidance of the word, wherein the Holy Spirit makes known the will of God concerning us, and in the way of our duty to act in a dependence on his aids and influences. 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?" Christendom is built upon this footing. Note, (1.) "Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." But the fruit of the Spirit ( Galatians 5:22 ), Now, "walk in the Spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh." "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." It is not only that we are put now where we can be the witness to grace in all its outgoings, but, besides that, we are where flesh might show itself. 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. 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. If they took that gr. It is not the joy that comes from earthly things, still less from triumphing over someone else in competition. All that I have as a living man in the world is gone, not, of course, as a mere matter of fact, but, what is far more important, as a matter of faith. There you have in a figure the two parties that are still found on the earth: the law party symbolized by Ishmael, the child of flesh; and those that cling to the grace of God, who have their pattern in Isaac, the child of promise. And Paul, far from deriving his apostleship or aught else from Peter, was obliged to rebuke him, and this publicly. And so, the people of Galatia understood exactly what Paul was talking about. "Now, a lot of times when people come to me with some weird concept, I'll say, "Where in the world did you get that idea?" It will create a lot of enemies. So, "do not use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love," the real key is love, "serve one another.". He's temperant. Once, the Galatians had known that, but now they were turning back to the law. 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." 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. This is not a word which classical Greek uses commonly. That's where I come in touch with God. 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. II. 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. That is, if the Holy Ghost was given as the seal of their redemption, and as the joy of the sonship, wherein they now stood, in the exercise of their nearness to God and enjoyment of His love, they cry, "Abba, Father," the very words of Christ himself (but in how different circumstances!) Arabia was regarded as the land of slaves where the descendants of Hagar dwelt. 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. As in their baptism they were obliged hereunto (for, being baptized into Christ, they were baptized into his death, Romans 6:3), so they are now sincerely employing themselves herein, and, in conformity to their Lord and head, are endeavouring to die unto sin, as he had died for it. Be it so: such was true. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. No effort, no work on your part. Paul had a characteristically practical mind. Need it be added that he was right and Peter wrong? Soon all will believe in Christ, and all Israel be saved. The Galatians did not think of this; people that are thus blinded by the enemy never do. For the Jewish Rabbis a passage of scripture had four meanings. What Satan aims at is, that people should not count themselves what they are, and that they should be always slipping into what they are not. He also warned them against using their liberty as a license to sin to prevent them from overreacting. That is, he links on the heavenly character of Jerusalem for us before touching on the desolate place of Jerusalem after the flesh, or of the predicted change of heart and blessing in grace, when she will be glad to appropriate, as it were, the Christians born now after the Spirit. who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? 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. "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." In other words, if the believer simply were one forgiven by grace, without having either life in Christ or the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, he might, perhaps, plead that he could not avoid sinning. Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. (1.) The Galatian Christians should have been the most peaceful people in the province. The persuasion which is being exercised on you just now is not from him who calls you. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.". Sense of duty is not power. You never come to believe in what the Mormons believe through reading the Bible. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Galatians 5:4-5) It is the virtue which makes a man so master of himself that he is fit to be the servant of others. Once the spirit has come alive, now there comes this striving for the mastery of me. He had been himself (could they deny it?) The inheritance, therefore, depends on the grace of God fulfilling His promise, not on man's accomplishment of the law, even if possible. By the Spirit here may be meant either the Holy Spirit himself, who condescends to dwell in the hearts of those whom he has renewed and sanctified, to guide and assist them in the way of their duty, or that gracious principle which he implants in the souls of his people and which lusts against the flesh, as that corrupt principle which still remains in them does against it. Now take care that you do not use your wonderful . Galatians 5:14. 5:13-15 As for you, brothers, it was for freedom that you were called, only you must not use this freedom as a bridgehead through which the worst side of human nature can invade you, but in love you must serve one another; for the whole law stands complete in one word, in the sentence, "You must love your neighbour as yourself." "Because ye are sons." You do not want to become the children of Abraham in that sense, which would be the revival of the flesh. 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 apostle takes notice of the latter here, because he is speaking of their behaviour towards one another; and, when he makes use of this as an argument to persuade them to mutual love, he intimates both that this would be a good evidence of their sincerity in religion and also the most likely means of rooting out those dissensions and divisions that were among them. And God held the reins that the truth might be kept unsullied and pure; and he goes south and north as the Lord guided His servant, but not to Jerusalem to those that were apostles before him. "Here we have the Gentiles expressly named, and to this the apostle refers. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. And you can't do this, and this, and this, and this, and this." But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. "Well, yeah, I read that book but, you know, God showed it to me." The result of this is, that neither God has His place, nor they. 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. Now, if you're trying to be justified before God or being made righteous before God by the keeping of the law, then Christ is of no effect to you. Therefore, no wonder that he says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.". It was a misuse of the respect naturally accorded to some who came from Jerusalem; and so God took care to correct the evil by a formal, public, authoritative sentence of the body there, instead of a pure and simple rejection of the error among the Gentile churches, which might have looked like a schism, or at least a divergence of feeling between them and the apostle Paul. He was an enemy stopped in sovereign grace. In Paul's case there was nothing of the sort. And mark the difference. And I'm washed and I'm cleansed and I go on. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life" ( 1 John 2:16 ). And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:13-15 The gospel is a doctrine according to godliness, 1Ti 6:3, and is so far from giving the least countenance to sin, that it lays us under the strongest obligation to avoid and subdue it. he gives us this one general rule, which, if duly observed, would be the most sovereign remedy against the prevalence of corruption; and that is to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:16): This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. It was not that they communicated to him the gospel they had learned from Jesus here below, but he communicated to them that gospel he was in the habit of preaching among the Gentiles. Christian freedom is not licence, for the simple but tremendous reason that the Christian is not a man who has become free to sin, but a man, who, by the grace of God, has become free not to sin. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And thus the blessing of Abraham could flow freely towards the Gentiles who never were there. It is wholly apart from works of law. This was at work even in those early days. The man who practises it has been said to know no restraint, but to do whatever caprice and wanton insolence may suggest. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Or I can walk after the Spirit and say, "Oh Lord, it doesn't matter. God did not intend man to live that way, because man living that way is alienated from God who is a Spirit. That is, if you are circumcised ritually for the purpose of having a righteous standing before God. Paul takes that old story and allegorises it. Thus, if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the desires of the flesh. All is confusion. 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. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. The action of biting and devouring is mutual. This they never thought of doing. Keeping God's commandments is not bondage. Get Access To 3 Exclusive Articles (for FREE) Want articles like this one delivered straight to your email? salvation; which were managed with great heat and bitterness, God himself.". Liberty from the law and from the bondage of the law, because that cannot make you righteous. Is it against the promise of God? 5) Psalm 88:13 (NIV) But I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 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. 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? Jesus has something incredible for you. He through law died to law, that he might live to God! And, doubtless, God had all this in view when He pledged Himself with an oath to Abraham. To depart from this was fatal. He's talking about rituals and the power of rituals to make you righteous before God, and the issue is, they can't. Our conversation will always be answerable to the principle which we are under the guidance and government of: as those that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, so those that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit,Romans 8:5. We must set ourselves in good earnest both to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life. In this case, happily, the brethren near at hand went along with him in heart. 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