Commentary on Galatians 5.1–6.17

“Stand fast, then, and do not be held again by the yoke of slavery.” He warns them to stand in the grace they received, so that, not returning to the old things, they may not lose the gift of freedom they had obtained.

“Behold, I Paul say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.” Now he does not keep silent about the force of open truth and of his authority, saying: “Behold, I Paul say to you”, that is, I, the teacher of the gentiles, whose work you are in Christ, tell you openly: “Christ will profit you nothing if you are circumcised.” For the Lord himself says: “The law and the prophets were until John; since then the kingdom of heaven is preached” (Luke 16:16). Before the new preaching began, then, it was right to be circumcised; but now, with the law of faith succeeding, those things must be followed which the new truth commands; for old and new ought not to be mixed, by the authority of the Lord, who preaches: for he says: “No one sews a patch of new cloth on an old garment; for it takes its strength from the garment, and the tear becomes worse” (Matt 9:16). And therefore circumcision added to a believer will not only profit nothing but will even harm; for it is a greater evil to become a slave from free than to be born one.

“And I testify to every man who has himself circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.” Some can keep the law to some extent and not be circumcised; for many Romans in Judea kept the law uncircumcised. Hence the apostle Paul says to Agrippa, king of Judea: “I know, King Agrippa, you believe the prophets; I know that you believe” (Acts 26:27). And the centurion whose slave was about to die, who, sending to Jesus, asked him to come and heal his slave; to whom the Jews bore witness, saying to Jesus: “He is worthy that you should grant this to him; for he loves our nation, and he built the synagogue for us” (Luke 7:4–5). Yet no one who is circumcised does not keep the whole law; for he is a debtor, because the law was given to the circumcised. He said this because they showed themselves so dull that they deserved to carry all the burdens of the law. “You have been emptied from Christ.” Those whom Christ profits nothing have been emptied from Christ; for they were full of his grace, and when it withdrew, they were emptied. For he speaks to those who, after receiving the gift of God's grace, preferred to be circumcised. “You who glory in the law have fallen from grace.” The righteousness of the law is if the things given are kept. And so one who wishes to be justified in these after faith loses grace; for God's gift came for this, that, the burdens of the law ceasing, it might justify believers before God.

“For we by the Spirit, from faith, await the hope of righteousness; for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor foreskin, but faith which works through love.” What he says is plain: that the hope of justification is in faith through the Spirit, not through the works of the law; for in faith God is served spiritually, by devotion of mind and purity of heart. Hence the Lord says to the Samaritan woman: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). And therefore neither foreskin avails anything, nor circumcision; but faith alone is needed, in love, for justification; for faith ought to be fortified with brotherly love, so that the believer may be perfect. Indeed the Saviour answered the scribe who asked what the first commandment was: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments”, he says, “hang the whole law and the prophets” (Matt 22:37–40). The rest, then, are imperfect, since perfection is contained in these two commandments.

“You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” He testifies that their exercise in the works of faith had been good, but that they were held back by the wickedness of evil men, so that they did not complete their course with persevering effectiveness. Hence he exhorts them to come to their senses, from now on believing none of those who, persuading them to keep the works of the law, did not allow them to obey the truth of the gospel.

“Your persuasion is not from God, who calls you.” It is true that the Jews did these things by human counsel, so as to put them under the yoke of the law; not by the judgment of God, who called them to grace through his Apostle.

“A little leaven corrupts the whole lump.” He says this because those who mix even something of the law with faith violate faith, so that it has no fruit or is not acceptable. He added this lest perhaps they think they kept the grace of faith unimpaired if they observed a few things of the law.

“I am confident about you in the Lord that you will think nothing else.” He says he trusts in them with this hope, because they had entered the way of error not of their own accord but deceived. Therefore, the true road having been shown, he is confident that they can easily return. “But the one who troubles you will bear the judgment, whoever he is.” As one who causes an erring person to be converted is to be rewarded, as the apostle James says in his letter: “Whoever causes a sinner to be converted will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (Jas 5:20); so too one who forces a person walking on the right way to turn aside from the road obtains condemnation, whoever he may be. He adds this because of those who claimed merit for themselves because they were sons of Abraham according to the flesh. Indeed, exalting themselves, they say to Jesus: “We are sons of Abraham” (John 8:33).

“But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution?” What he says is plain; for he was held as an enemy by the Jews, and they did not cease from persecuting him, because he taught that circumcision no longer stood. Indeed, when the Jews pressed him and often brought false accusations against him, seeing the judge biased, he was compelled to appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:11). “Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.” The preaching of the cross was a stumbling block to the Jews, because it did away with the sabbath and circumcision. But if he admitted circumcision, there would be no stumbling block, and the Jews would be at peace with us. For they said of the Saviour: “This man is not from God, who does not keep the sabbath” (John 9:16).

“Would that those who are subverting you were even cut off!” This is like what he says in the first letter to the Corinthians: “Whoever”, he says, “does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema” (1 Cor 16:22). These too are of the same diseased flock, whom he joins to their sentence; so that those who stripped the Galatians of God's grace may be cut off from the Lord's mercy; and he curses them not only spiritually but also carnally; so that, because they forced the Galatians to be circumcised, they themselves might be cut off, so that the pain of the body might be multiplied for them.

“For you were called to freedom, brothers.” They were called to freedom, because, when they were liable to sins, receiving by God's grace the forgiveness of offences, they were freed. “Only do not give freedom as an occasion to the flesh.” He says this lest an occasion of the flesh take away the freedom they had received; for they wanted them to be circumcised precisely so that they would enter into the condition of the law. Therefore he warns them not to give an occasion by consenting to them. “But through the love of the Spirit serve one another.” With one word he exhorts that love is to be had not through carnal affection but through the love of the Spirit, so that they may be subject to one another.

“For the whole law is fulfilled in you in one word: You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18). This is written in Leviticus, as was said above, that the perfection of salvation is worked through love; for whoever does not love his brother does not love God, says the apostle John (1 John 4:20).

“But if you bite and accuse one another, see that you are not consumed by one another.” It is plain that dissension among brothers is the enemy of love; therefore he warns them to be peaceable, advancing in good. For contentions breed quarrelling, whose fruit is the consumption of life.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfil the desire of the flesh.” After forbidding them the law of deeds, in which are carnal precepts, he now commands them to restrain themselves from the vices of the flesh. For he walks by the Spirit who flees sins. “For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you wish.” He sets forth two laws, as he also does in the letter to the Romans (Rom 7:23), which are opposed to each other: one of God, the other of sin. This is signified in the flesh because it delights in visible things, greedy for sins; so that, these being opposed to each other, man in the middle does not do what he wishes. For the divine law presses and puts to flight the law of sin, counselling man to keep the vigour of his nature, so as not to be caught by enticements; the other, on the contrary, acting in ambush, provokes man with blandishments to spurn the precept of the divine law. When, then, man consents to the law of God, the law of sin contradicts, persuading man not to do what the divine law commands; and conversely the law of God calls man back, so that he does not do what the law of sin suggests. Man does not see that this is absurd; for he knows that it suits his nature if he does what the law of God commands. Indeed he rejoices when he does these things; but when he does the things the law of sin suggests, he sees himself shameful and shudders after the deed. And therefore the precepts of the law of the spirit must be kept and carnal things fled; for conscience itself accuses, if one consents to it, knowing that what the law of sin suggests is a horror.

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” It is not obscure that one who has the Holy Spirit as guide does not err; for the law rules over those who err, as he says in another place: “The law is not laid down for the righteous” (1 Tim 1:9).

“Now the works of the flesh are plain, which are adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, obscenity, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, contentions, dissemblings, angers, quarrels, dissensions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, as I have told you before, that those who do such things will not obtain the inheritance of the kingdom of God.” All these and things like them are members of the law of sin, which the Apostle calls works of the flesh; because these errors are from the world, from which the flesh also is. For all sins arise from outside, on the side of the flesh, not on the side of the spirit; therefore they are not absurdly called works of the flesh.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, hope, gentleness, continence, chastity, goodness; against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and desires.” He did not say, “The works of the Spirit are love”, but the fruit of the Spirit; for the law of the Spirit bears these things he mentioned as fruit, so that from them the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven may be sought; for those devoted to Christ he calls christs, that is, anointed. These crucify the flesh, that is, the world, when they condemn the things from which errors arise. The apostle John too, following this sense, says: “Do not love this world, nor the things that are in this world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in this world is the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes” (1 John 2:15–16). One who does not desire the world and what is in the world, then, crucifies the flesh. For these vices, that is, idolatry, sorcery, heresies, envies, enmities, angers and the like, are not to be ascribed to the human body; but they are called carnal because they are on the side of the world, as I mentioned above. Meanwhile he set down no more than ten things which he signifies as the fruit of the Spirit, so that in them he may seem to have embraced all things, according to the tablets of the Testament of God, in which no more than ten words of commandments were handed down.

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not be seekers of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” He says this because, if we live well and honourably, we ought also to have good conduct; for this is to live by the Spirit: to have an undefiled life; and so we walk by the Spirit if we strive for peace; for this gives birth to love. Vain glory, however, is wanting to win where there is no prize; so that someone is keen on contention and rivalry, knowing that these generate discords and quarrels: “But the servant of the Lord”, he says, “must not quarrel” (2 Tim 2:24). For it makes the fruits of a good life dry, losing the promised hope of chaste conduct; for a good and chaste life must be adorned with conduct and enriched with goodwill.

“Brothers, even if a man has been overtaken in some fault, you who are spiritual instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens.” Now he addresses those who were firmer, lest, puffed up by their good life, they think the one who had perhaps been ensnared by sin should be spurned and cast off; and therefore they must take thought for them. For they are to be called to reform themselves with gentleness; for if they are rebuked too sharply, with authority, they will not allow themselves to be rebuked, but will begin to defend themselves, lest they seem shameful; and they begin to become worse. For take a man away from contention and boldness, and you will have him subject; for humility usually bends even the proud. And so that it be done with all gentleness of mind, he added: “lest you too be tempted”; so that at least for this reason he would not spurn the sinner, knowing that he too could sin. “And so you will fulfil the law of Christ”; for the law of Christ wants all to be saved; and therefore one who takes thought for a sinning brother, so that he may return to his resolve, fulfils the will of Christ.

“For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work; and then he will have glory in himself only, and not in another.” It is true, and escapes no one, that if we consider our acts and mind, we set ourselves before no one, and readily judge no one. For one who is exalted as if he were something errs; for he does not know that one grows from humility. For he does not have before his eyes the words and deeds of the Saviour, who, though he is Lord of all, humbled himself (Phil 2:8), so as to give us a pattern of what we should follow if we wish to grow; and if we raise ourselves up we are brought low, which the inexperience of a puffed-up heart does, so as to seem more commended among men. For, spurning and despising sinners, he strives to seem righteous, like that Pharisee whom the Lord marks (Luke 18:10). Is not this man truly ignorant, who is greedy for present glory? Does he not truly despair of the future, who wants to obtain the reward of righteousness in the present? Why? Because he is not righteous in deed, but feigns righteousness through deceit; for one who wishes to be righteous sets another before himself, so as to be truly righteous. For each one knows his own evils better than another's.

“For each will carry his own load.” Finally he wanted to make this known to the proud: that no one is defiled by another's sin, provided he disagrees with it; so that no one should fear to join himself to a sinner, or to receive one who approaches him, so as to gain him.

“Let him who is catechized in the word (that is, who is a hearer of the word of God) share with him who catechizes in all good things.” He says this so that hearers may share with their teachers in all good things. But if these act otherwise than they teach, in these things one is not to share with them, but to disagree; so that the law may be your guide rather than a man. For it will harm him, not you, because you observe what he has taught.

“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.” No one doubts that deceit cannot be practised on God, but that each obtains from him what he deserves.

“For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows in his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh.” Here he means the carnal vices which are usually committed in the flesh; so that one who has corrupted his flesh may know that he will be liable to corruption. He corrupts the body who presumes to do forbidden things. “But he who sows in the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” The Christian man consists of spirit and flesh; for man compared with the Holy Spirit is flesh. When, then, he gives assent to the Spirit, restraining himself from the things that are contrary, he sows spiritually, so that he may reap eternal life. For he receives the testimony of the Spirit, and immortality in place of a reward. For as one who corrupts, dishonouring his body, will belong not to eternity but to corruption, so one who keeps himself undefiled will obtain eternal life. For this is eternal life: to live without punishment, and to have glory. For if here, at present, one who is in anxiety denies that he lives, how much more where, estranged from God, he will suffer the torturing fire!

“But in doing good let us not grow weary; for in due time we shall reap, unwearied.” He says this because one who is strong for sowing will be strong also for reaping, that is, he will receive as he does. Therefore he urges that we be ready to do good, and ought not to suffer weariness, secure that for small things we will receive great, and for earthly eternal, at the time God has promised.

“So, while we have time, let us do good to all.” The gentiles have time to do evil; for how can people without God do good? But having become Christians, they have time to do good to all people; so that, after receiving the faith, good work may serve the promised reward. For time is granted to life precisely so that we may now live justly, giving an example to the gentiles. “But especially to those of the household of faith.” It is true that we ought to be readier and more inclined to good toward the brothers, because we are members of one another. This, then, which profits, must be served; not circumcision, a thing now empty. “See with what letters I have written to you with my own hand.” He gives authority to his letter; for when he says, “I have written with my own hand”, he wants these letters to be obeyed. For where there is an autograph hand, it cannot be called false; lest perhaps those who had been deceived should make excuses about the letter, as if it were either false or not the Apostle's, not wishing to be rebuked.

“Whoever wish to please in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only so that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.” To please in the flesh means to please men. For so that they might live with the Jews favourable to them, or at least not hostile, those whom he calls false apostles preached Christ in such a way as also to teach that the law must be kept; which the Apostle never feared, but constantly did not keep silent about what is true, providing both for himself and for those whom he taught. Indeed he says: “I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 21:13).

“For not even those who are circumcised keep the law; but they want you to be circumcised so that they may glory in your flesh.” This is like what was said to the apostle Peter: “If you, being a Jew, live like a gentile, how do you compel the gentiles to judaize?” (Gal 2:14). So these too, though they themselves did not keep the law, living unjustly, were zealous for circumcision, so as to seem accordingly defenders and lovers of the law; whereas it is agreed that he defends and keeps the law who carries out its righteous requirements, and does not pass over the commandment which was given as pertaining to life. Such, then, was the excuse of the Galatians. He says these things so that at least in this way they may understand that they were mocked as foolish and dull, over whose pains those men gloried.

“But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” As the false apostles bought off through hypocrisy the tribulations for the name of Christ, as if they would profit nothing, blushing at them, so the Apostle gloried in them, knowing there would be a great reward for them; as did his fellow apostles, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: “Then the apostles went out from the council, beaten, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer insult for the name of Christ” (Acts 5:41). One whose every hope is in Christ, then, glories in his cross; and to him the world is crucified, certain that love of Christ's cross is life, but love of the world brings forth death. They are, then, dead to each other, both the world to the Apostle and the Apostle to the world; since the Apostle desires nothing of the world, and since the world has nothing of its own that it recognizes in the Apostle, as the Lord also says: “Behold, the ruler of this world comes, and will find nothing in me” (John 14:30).

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision is anything, nor foreskin, but a new creation. And as many as follow this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” The new creation is our regeneration; this is what gives progress to those who persevere; for upon these is the peace of God. For one who is at peace with God fears no one's enmity; for he is safe by the protection and mercy of God, which has been promised and remains upon the Israel of God, not upon the Israel of man; for unbelieving Jews are Israelites according to the flesh. He signified, then, two parts on which God's peace and mercy remain: of believing Jews and of faithful gentiles.

“From now on let no one trouble me.” He did not want trouble to be caused him from now on, so that he might perhaps be compelled to write again; but he wants them now to become more corrected, so that, their errors cut away, he might have a pause after such great weariness. But if they showed themselves harder and inflexible in turning, they should leave him alone, so that he might spend his labours and effectiveness on those from whom he could hope for reward or gain. “For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He says this in anger, because he saw that the sufferings he endured for believers' sake were ineffective in them; since, by the constancy and faith of his teaching, he did not fear to suffer blows and chains for Christ, but suffered, out of love for believers, to have the scars of blows in his body; so that he preached to them no less faithfully than the false apostles who had deceived the Galatians. He wants no one, then, to trouble him who is not devoted to this matter; for these marks, that is, scars of blows, are testimonies for those believers who suffer, that they are worthy of the future promise. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.” He does not say the grace of the law, but of our Lord Jesus Christ be with their spirit, whom he calls spiritual brothers; for not all had been entirely overturned.