Exposition on Galatians

… whom the false apostles were subverting by this cunning: they said that all the apostles preached otherwise, and that Paul himself taught people elsewhere to be circumcised. "In short," they said, "he circumcises those of his disciples whom he truly loves"; and they said he was not even an apostle, since he was not one of the Twelve and had never followed Christ with Peter and the others. To these plausible arguments and this cunning disparagement, by which the little ones were being deceived, he must answer point by point, in order, by the authority of the Holy Spirit, lest the Galatians, through contempt and hatred of him, perish utterly.

"Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through man." That is, not by human presumption, as they say, nor through other apostles, as Aaron was through Moses, but through the Lord himself, like Moses and all the apostles or prophets. For many are indeed ordained by men, when unworthy people, through the favor of the people and despising God's patience, are ordained to the divine priesthood contrary to merit. "But through Jesus Christ." Who chose Peter and the others for the ministry of the apostleship. "And God the Father." It is shown that the working of the Father and of the Son is one. "Who raised him from the dead." According to that which could die, namely the flesh.

"And all the brothers who are with me." Lest he alone be thought to take it ill that his teaching was being trampled on.

"Grace to you." By which alone you were saved through faith. "And peace from God the Father." By which, with all their offenses forgiven, they had been reconciled to God. "And the Lord Jesus Christ,"

"who gave himself for our sins." He shows the benefits of Christ, to which they were ungrateful, wishing to live under the law, which had been given to sinners, when all their sins had been forgiven them. "To rescue us from the present evil age." From the evil works of the age, which are committed in it. "According to the will of God our Father." Not according to our merits.

"To whom be glory forever." Infinite glory is owed for infinite benefits.

"I marvel that you are so quickly being transferred from him who called you into grace." Having shown the benefits, he says he marvels that they could be drawn away by the words of men from him from whom they ought not to have been separated by any torments. "To another gospel, which is not another; except that there are some who trouble you," Those who trouble you exist; for the true gospel can be no other than Christ's. "And wish to pervert the gospel of Christ." Whereas the law advanced to the gospel, they, in perverse order, try to call the gospel back to the law.

"But even if we or angels from heaven preach a gospel other than what we preached to you," Briefly he wished to forestall every person, since he allowed neither apostles to be heard against what they had first preached nor the voice of an angel speaking; and this sentence silently stands against all heretics who try to change the apostolic traditions. "Let him be anathema." That is, let him be abominable to you.

"As we said before, I now say truly: if anyone preaches to you other than what you received, let him be anathema." It is commended more strongly by repetition.

"For do I now persuade men, or God?" Do I persuade you for the sake of men, as I did before for the sake of the Jews' traditions? He wishes to show that, not fearing human hatred, he defends the truth freely. "Or do I seek to please men?" Wherever "men" are named in the scriptures without any addition, it is taken in a bad sense, as in: "Every man is a liar," and: "Who do men say that I am?" and: "Are you not men, and walking according to man?" So whoever wishes to please such people must do their will; but the saints please God only, and those who love God, who have deserved to be more than men. "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ." For they hate me because I am a servant of Christ.

"I make known to you, brothers, the gospel that was preached by me," He wishes to clear himself of the bad report of usurpation and of human tradition. "That it is not according to man;"

"for I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ." I neither invented it myself nor received it from a man nor learned it from anyone: that the gentiles are saved by faith alone.

"For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, that I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it." I do not think what I say is hidden from you either. He wishes to show how firmly he held Judaism and how faithfully he attacked the church for the traditions of his fathers, so that we may understand that he could have been separated from it not by human counsel but only by divine revelation.

"And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my race." Not beyond all, lest it be thought boasting. "Being more abundantly a zealot for my ancestral traditions:"

"But when it pleased him who set me apart from my mother's womb." He who had already set me apart from the womb in foreknowledge did, when he willed, what he knew would happen. "And called me through his grace." Not by my merits.

"To reveal his Son in me." To reveal his Son to the gentiles through me. "Immediately I did not consult with flesh and blood." At once "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision," because I heard the voice not of flesh and blood but of God.

"Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and again returned to Damascus." It was not necessary for me to be taught by them, but from Damascus I went straight to Arabia, to teach what had been revealed to me.

"Then after three years." He shows that he did not need to be taught, who had already preached to others for three years. "I came to Jerusalem." When he was trying to join the disciples. "To see Peter." For the sake of seeing, not of learning. "And I stayed with him fifteen days." He shows both that he was received by him in love and that in so short a time he could have learned nothing.

"But I saw none of the other apostles." Lest he seem to have learned from others. "Except James the brother of the Lord." Against those who say that blessed Mary had other sons: for we read that there were two apostles called James, one the son of Alphaeus and the other of Zebedee, neither of them a son of Mary or Joseph; but they are called brothers of the Lord by kinship.

"And what I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie."

"then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;"

"and I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea." It is to be noted that after three years he was unknown to the churches of Judea. "Which were in Christ." Those from the Jews had their churches apart and were not mixed with those from the gentiles.

"But they only heard that 'he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy,'"

"and they glorified God in me." From a difficult thing the greatest wonder arises, and God was praised, who alone could bring this about.

"Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also." When the question about the burdens of the law was being raised.

"And I went up according to a revelation." Not by my own will, but by the necessity of a divine command. "And I set before them the gospel which I preach among the gentiles." I did not learn the gospel but compared it, the gospel through which the gentiles are saved by faith alone. "But privately to those who seemed," Lest the disciples think that he doubted about the gospel. "Lest perhaps I should be running or had run in vain." This is not the word of one who doubts, but rather of one who confirms.

"But not even Titus, who was with me," ran in vain. "though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised,"

"but because of false brothers brought in secretly." He gives the reasons why he circumcised Titus: not because circumcision profited him, but so that an imminent scandal might be avoided. "Who slipped in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, so as to bring us into slavery." Because we have been freed from the yoke of the law. "We yielded in subjection for an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you." To avoid danger, and so that there might be those who would confirm the truth of the gospel among you.

"But from those who seemed to be something." I received nothing. "Whatever they once were makes no difference to me; God does not accept the face of man. Those who were esteemed contributed nothing to me." It is no concern of mine that they walked with the Lord, because neither time prejudges faith nor person labor.

"But on the contrary, knowing that the gospel of the uncircumcision had been entrusted to me, as that of the circumcision to Peter." That I should preach to the gentiles, as they to the Jews.

"For he who worked in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision worked also in me for the gentiles." I am in nothing inferior, because we were ordained by one God to one ministry.

"And when they recognized the grace that had been given to me, Peter and James and John, who seemed to be pillars," On whom the church had been established. "Gave the right hands." They agreed that we ought to teach so. "Of fellowship to me and Barnabas." For both had been sent together to preach to the gentiles. "That we should go to the gentiles, and they to the circumcision,"

"only that we should remember the poor." Those who, selling all their goods, laid the price at the apostles' feet. Or: those whose goods had been seized by the Jews, as we read in Hebrews. "Which I was also eager to do." This is what he writes in almost every letter.

"But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was blameworthy." The weakness of the Galatians compels him to tell that he did not spare even Peter, the chief of the apostles, when he did not freely defend the truth of the gospel; just as, for the progress of the Corinthians, he disclosed the vision he had concealed for fourteen years. He does all this to show that he was never a supporter of circumcision, as the false apostles invented about him; hence he says elsewhere: "But I, brothers, if I preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?"

"For before certain men came from James, he ate with the gentiles." He ate with those who were from the gentiles, knowing that it had been shown him to call no man of any race unclean. "But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision." He was blameworthy because he afterwards withdrew for the sake of men.

"And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led away in the pretense." He who, sent with me to the gentiles, had taught that there was no distinction among them.

"But when I saw that they were not walking straight toward the truth of the gospel." Although he did this because of the scandal of the Jews, yet I confronted him publicly, so that pride might be taken from the Jews and despair from the gentiles. "I said to Peter before all." A public scandal could not be cured privately. "If you, being a Jew, live like a gentile." If you do not keep what you were born to, how do you make them keep what they were not born to? He gives a reason; he does no injury. "And not like a Jew." You know that you found life in Christ not by works of the law but by faith alone, as the gentiles did. "How do you compel the gentiles to Judaize?" When you withdraw as if from sinners.

"We, Jews by nature, and not sinners from the gentiles." Yet we were sinners, because "Scripture has shut up all under sin."

"But knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law." The works of the law are circumcision, the sabbath, the feast days, and the rest, which were commanded not for righteousness but to tame the hardness of the people. "Except through faith in Christ Jesus; we too have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith and not by works of the law; because by works of the law no flesh will be justified,"

"But if, seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? Far from it!" If faith alone does not save the gentiles, neither does it save us, because no one is justified by works. Then we are still sinners, and Christ is a minister of sinners, as though he could not forgive.

"For if I build again what I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." I destroyed the claim that the Jew has anything more. If I build this again, as they say, I am found a transgressor of my own judgment.

"For through the law I died to the law." Through the law of Christ, to the law of the letter. Or: through the old law itself I died to it, because it foretold that it would cease. "So that I may live to God." Who renewed his law. "I have been crucified with Christ." I have died to all the sins for which the law was given: so the law is not necessary for me at all. "And I live, now not I." The old man. "But Christ lives in me." In whom Christ's conduct and life flourish. "And the life I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of God and of Christ." In faith alone, because I owe nothing to the law. "Who loved me and gave himself for me." Not money, not some other price, but himself.

"I do not reject the grace of God." I ought not to be ungrateful to him who loved me so much as even to die for me: for grace is rejected if it alone does not suffice me. "For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing." If the law could justify, Christ died needlessly. "O foolish Galatians." This is not contrary to the Savior's word by which he forbade calling a brother a fool: for here it is not said without cause. "Who has bewitched you?" By a popular word he meant envy, as Solomon says: "The bewitching of trifling obscures good things." "Before whose eyes Christ Jesus [was proscribed]," To whom his passion was so manifested by my preaching that you thought he was hanging before you; "proscribed" means that he received the sentence of condemnation. "Crucified among you." As though everything had been done among you. Or thus: whom you truly regard even now as worthless, as one condemned and dead, since you think that he does not suffice you for salvation.

"This only I want to learn from you." This one thing I ask you. "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" If you received the Spirit by the merit of faith, what more will the law be able to give you?

"Are you so foolish that, having begun with the Spirit, you are now being perfected by the flesh?" Since not even the Jews receive the Spirit otherwise than through faith, do you, on the contrary, think that the Spirit does not suffice you without the law?

"Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed in vain?" Did you endure so much for Christ in vain, if you do not correct yourselves again? Or: "if indeed" here is not the word of one doubting but rather of one confirming, according to the saying: "if indeed it is just with God to repay those who afflict you."

"So he who supplies the Spirit to you and works powers among you, does he do it by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" If you received the Holy Spirit by faith alone, who is received only by the righteous, it is clear that you are righteous without the burdens of the law.

"As Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." So for you too faith suffices for righteousness.

"Know therefore that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham." Whether Jews or Greeks, not circumcised in the flesh.

"And Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the gentiles by faith, announced beforehand to Abraham that in you all nations will be blessed." Not the one Jewish nation.

"So those who are of faith will be blessed with faithful Abraham." For the nations are not circumcised, so as to be able to be blessed by works.

"For all who are of the works of the law are under a curse." Because the habit of sinning has so prevailed that no one now fulfils the law. "For it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the book of the law, to do them." That is, who has not kept all the commandments to the end. The question is indeed asked in this place whether faith alone suffices for a Christian, and whether he is not cursed who despises the precepts of the gospel. But faith avails for this: at the beginning of belief it justifies the one who comes to God, if he thereafter remains in justification; otherwise, without works of faith (not of the law) faith is dead: for "he who believes God attends to the commandments," and the Savior taught that those who despise the precepts of the gospel are cursed, saying: "Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire"; and the apostle James showed that the transgressor of one commandment is guilty of all. "But that no one is justified by the law before God is manifest." Because no one keeps it, it was foretold that believers would be justified by faith alone. "Because the righteous lives by faith." Perfect faith is not only to believe in Christ but also to believe Christ.

"But the law is not of faith." It does not justify by faith alone. "But he who does them shall live in them." They sought righteousness by their own labor, so as to live forever.

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." He who was not under the curse, because he fulfilled the law in all things; and so by his undeserved curse our debt was paid, so that, passing freely to faith, we need not care for the works of the law. "For it is written: Cursed is the man who hangs on a tree." It is written thus: "If anyone has a judgment of death, you shall hang him on a tree, and his body shall not remain on the tree, because cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." Not cursed because he hangs, but he hangs because he is cursed. So Christ, for whom there was no judgment of death, no cause for undergoing the cross, and no guilt of the curse, took the curse upon himself for us, because we were all cursed and owed to the tree as cursed, we who did not continue in all that was written in the law: for the same law had decreed both curses.

"So that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ," as had been promised to Abraham. "So that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Which was promised through the prophet Joel to all flesh, that is, to the whole human race.

"Brothers, I speak in human terms: yet no one annuls or adds to a man's ratified testament."

"The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say 'and to seeds,' as of many, [but as of one, 'and to your seed,' which is Christ]." I use a human example: for human things can be compared to divine for the sake of clearer understanding, but they cannot be made equal.

"This I say: a testament ratified by the Lord, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul, so as to make the promise void." The law, given after so long a time, cannot make void that testament which God ratified to Abraham in Christ.

"For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from promise; but God granted it to Abraham through promise." Not through the law, which did not yet exist.

"Why then the law?" Why then was it given? "It was put in place because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made." It was given for this reason: to compel or teach people not to transgress, until Christ should come. "Ordained through angels." Because we read that angels were present to the people through the law. "By the hand of a mediator." Either Moses, as some think, or Christ: "for Moses too," they say, "was a mediator between God and the people."

"But a mediator is not of one." Not of one party, because he was mediator between God and man. "But God is one." He added this lest anyone think that Christ had been divided from the unity of the divine nature because he had taken on the office of mediator.

"Is the law then against the promises of God? Far from it! For if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would truly be from the law." As he says to the Romans: "What was impossible for the law, in that it was weak," namely because no one kept it.

"But Scripture has shut up all things under sin." That is, it has caught them out. "So that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." So that it would be necessary for believers to be saved by faith alone.

"But before faith came." Before he came in whom we should believe. "We were kept under the law, shut up for that faith which was to be revealed." We were kept by the law for this faith, which was to be revealed in its own time.

"So the law was our tutor in Christ, so that we might be justified by faith." Holding us more strictly to discipline, it kept the perfect teaching for the true master.

"But when faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." Disciples of mature age do not need a tutor.

"For you are all faithful ones of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Jews and gentiles equally, through faith alone, by which you believed Christ.

"For all of you who were baptized in Christ have put on Christ." Having put on the Son of God, and been made wholly his members, you must be sons of God. Why then do you want the law, which was given to slaves and sinners, you whose sins have all been forgiven through baptism?

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free." For before there was great difference not only between Jew and Greek, but also between tribe and tribe. "There is neither male nor female: but you are all one in Christ Jesus."

"And if you are all one in Christ Jesus, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise." If you have all been made one body of Christ, you are Abraham's seed, as true heirs, begotten not from carnal seed but from the divine promise.

"Now I say: as long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all,"

"but he is under guardians and managers until the day appointed by the father."

"So we too, when we were children." Because the priests and princes exercised dominion over them, whom he calls guardians and managers. But now they are commanded not to dominate but to provide a pattern, because we are a priestly race, and all things are common, although we receive the sacraments through them. "We were enslaved under the elements of the world." Of days and times, which were necessary for their weakness, given the character of the time.

"But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son." The time was fulfilled when no one could any longer keep the law because of bad habit. "Made of a woman." Here the name "woman" signifies not corruption but sex, as Eve too, as soon as she was made, "is called woman." "Made under the law,"

"to redeem those who were under the law." Because if he had not been made under the law, he could not save the Jews; but he could redeem the gentiles while placed under the law. "So that we might receive the adoption of sons." For not all would have received adoption, if he had not been made under the law.

"Because you are sons of God, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba, Father.'" From this he proves that we are sons of God: that we have received the Spirit of Christ.

"So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, also an heir through God." Why do you wish to be a slave again, you who have already been made son and heir?

"But then, not knowing God, you served those who are not gods:"

"but now, when you have known God." He turns to those who had believed from among the gentiles, and rebukes them because they wished to observe the feast days and times of the Jews, as they had done before for idols: for these days were granted to the Jews too for this reason, lest out of love of festivity they offer them to idols. "Or rather have been known by God." You who before were not known by him who does not know the wicked; and you did not seek him, but he sought you out when you were lost. "How do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, which you wish to serve again?"

"You observe days and months and times and years." We do not observe them in the same way: for we do not keep the calends or the feast days, as they do in luxury and feasting, but we celebrate with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

"I fear lest perhaps I have labored over you in vain." For I have achieved nothing by making you Christians, if you observe these things again.

"Be as I am, because I also am as you. Brothers, I beseech you, you have done me no wrong." That is, you have given me no ground for you to think that I am moved by enmity and not for the sake of your salvation.

"You know that through weakness of the flesh I preached the gospel to you before." Either of sufferings or even natural weakness, because he carried the treasure of grace in earthen vessels.

"And your trial in my flesh you did not despise or reject." It is a great trial for a disciple if a holy man is sick or harmed with impunity; but God allows these things to be suffered here so that they may perfect power in weakness, and so that, feeling this corruption, they may seek incorruptible life with greater zeal and love. "But you received me as an angel." When he rejoices at being compared to an angel, he proves that angels are greater than men. "As Christ Jesus." Not only as an angel.

"Where then is your blessedness?" With which you then received me so. "For I bear you witness that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me." He shows with how great love they loved him and how they gave themselves wholly to his teaching, since they wished to give him the dearest members of their body, thinking this the only worthy return for the light of the gospel: to give back their own eyes.

"So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?" This is the condition of truth, that enmities always follow it, as harmful friendships are acquired through flattery: for what delights is heard gladly, and everything we do not want offends. So these too had begun to love the leisure of the sabbath and the banquets of feast days, preaching against the apostle, who showed them all self-restraint by his example.

"They are zealous for you not well, but they wish to shut you out, so that you may be zealous for them." A rival and imitator can also be understood as an enemy; but he is not zealous well who is zealous in order to cast another down, not to advance himself.

"Be zealous for the good always, not only when I am present with you." Do not emulate them, but always emulate the good, not only in my presence.

"My little children." Born through the gospel into the light of truth. "With whom I am again in labor." You have made me suffer pain and groaning again. He shows that a person can be reborn through repentance. "Until Christ is formed in you." Christ is truly formed in him who understands the power of his faith, and in whom all Christ's way of life is expressed and painted.

"I wish I could be present with you now." Because I cannot write as much as you deserve to hear. "And change my voice." I would turn the voice of a coaxing father into the rigor of a rebuking master. "Because I am confounded about you."

"Tell me, you who wish to be under the law." The loss of disciples is the confusion of the master, as their progress is the teacher's glory; and he is confounded because, having already been made sons, they wished to be slaves again. "Have you not read the law?"

"For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman:"

"but the one by the slave woman was born according to the flesh; and the one by the free woman, through the promise." Ishmael was a son of the flesh, Isaac a son of faith: for Abraham begot the one in the carnal way, the other he received contrary to nature by believing the promise.

"Which things are said by allegory." That is, some things are figured by others. In this place the apostle gave a rule for understanding allegorical meanings: namely, that we expound the figures of the Old Testament while the truth of the history remains. For when he had said that Abraham truly had two wives, he afterwards showed what they prefigured; and he did this where honorable deeds of the saints are related, not where sins are recorded. For to call sins mysteries is to accuse God either of impossibility or of ignorance, as if either he could not show his sacraments otherwise, or certainly, not knowing that the sins of some were necessary for him, he first condemned them in general; but he also showed afterwards, by rebuking and punishing, that he did not wish them to be done for the sake of his mysteries. And you will hardly find the apostle expounding precepts in this way, lest he seem to weaken their force. "For these are the two testaments." The old and the new, each begetting its own people. "One from Mount Sinai, begetting for slavery." The Jews were compelled even by present fear, like slaves; but we are invited by rewards, like free men. They, like slaves, besides the moral precepts were also pressed by various works; but from us, as sons, once the moral admonitions are fulfilled, servile burdens are taken away. They, serving their priests by obligation, were also compelled to pay tributes; but we, owing nothing except love, honor our prelates voluntarily. "Which is Hagar." Whose type the synagogue bore.

"For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which is joined to the present Jerusalem." From the character of the places he wants the difference of the testaments to be understood. "And she is in slavery with her children." With the sons of Jerusalem she serves the gentiles.

"But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all." The church, which is the mother of believing gentiles as well as Jews, whose children cannot be slaves; and therefore the mediator and high priest of the new testament came from heaven, and the gospel was preached not in one place but in the whole world.

"For it is written: Rejoice, barren one, who do not bear." By a prophetic testimony he proves that we have a better mother than the Jews. "Break forth and cry, you who do not travail." "Cry" is put for gladness in this place. "For many are the children of the desolate one." Hannah prefigured this, who said: "The barren has borne seven, and she who was rich in children has grown weak." "More than of her who has a husband." Who, thinking that she has a husband, boasts of her fruitfulness; or because she had a husband before she was cast out with her son.

"But we, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise." As concerning Isaac, so concerning us was the promise made to Abraham, namely that in him all nations would be blessed.

"But as then he who was born according to the flesh." Carnal people always persecute those who are spiritual; hence it is no wonder if even now carnal and worldly people trouble and afflict the saints: rather, it is from this that they are to be recognized as righteous, if they are oppressed by such people. "Persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit." In Genesis it is indeed written that Ishmael played with Isaac; but the apostle shows that it was not simple play, since he calls it persecution. Hence it is understood that he wished to make him scurrilous and frivolous, as he himself was, so that Isaac could not be preferred to him in the inheritance. Therefore Abraham is told to listen to Sarah's voice about casting him out. "So it is now also." So these too are trying to make you slaves like themselves.

"But what does Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son: for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac." However much iniquity exalts itself, it is a slave woman and must be subject to the saints; so too the Jews: although they boast that they are sons of Abraham, as long as they are sons of the slave woman they cannot have the inheritance with you.

"So, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free, with the freedom by which Christ has set us free." We ought not to follow the slave woman, leaving our mother; because, though she was the wife of the same husband, it was for a time, because Sarah's time for bearing had not yet come.

"Stand, and do not again cling to the yoke of slavery." Stand in the faith of the gospel; for the time of the law has now run out. Do not draw with the Jews a yoke which not even they could bear.

"Behold, I, Paul, say to you." I say it to you boldly, fearing no one. "That if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." Because you do not think that he alone suffices you for salvation.

"And I testify again to everyone who circumcises himself that he is a debtor to do the whole law." Since he has taken on the head of the works of the law, he must also bear the other members, lest he be subject to the curse.

"You have been emptied from Christ, you who are justified in the law; you have fallen from grace." If you place your hope in the law and believe that you can be justified, you judge the grace of Christ weak, and what you have already obtained freely you wish to acquire by your own labors, as though you did not have it.

"For we, by the Spirit, from faith, await the hope of righteousness." [By a spiritual way of life of perfect faith we hope] to receive the reward of moral [righteousness].

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision." [Neither does circumcision profit nor uncircumcision] harm in Christian times. "But faith which works through love." So faith also works, but through love, not through fear: for "he who believes God attends to the commandments," and he who believes in things to come works more than he who fears present punishment.

"You were running well." In the steps of faith and in moral disciplines. "Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" Who was it that entangled you in the burdens of the law, so as to hinder the course of your faith? "Consent to no one:"

"your persuasion is from God, who called you." You ought to consent neither to them nor to me, except to the words of God, who has called you back again to repentance.

"A little leaven corrupts the whole lump." Lest anyone should object, he shows that a little leaven of malice can corrupt the whole lump of the church by its sourness.

"I am confident about you in the Lord." You who are not yet corrupted by depravity. "That you will do nothing else." Than what the truth of Christ holds. "But he who troubles you will bear the judgment, whoever he is." From the truth of the gospel.

"But I, brothers, if I preach circumcision, why am I still suffering persecution?" As the deceivers lied to you about me, that I preach thus to others: why do I suffer persecution as an enemy of circumcision, if I am its advocate? "Then the scandal of the cross has been made void." They take offense for this reason, because I say that salvation is in faith in the cross alone.

"Would that those who trouble us were even cut off!" If they think this profits them, let them not only be circumcised but cut off: for if stripping a member profits, much more its removal. Some say: "Would that, cut off from error, they might be grafted into the roots of truth!"

"For you were called to freedom, brothers; only do not give freedom as an occasion for the flesh." Only do not, through the occasion of circumcision, return to service. "But through love serve one another." I do not insinuate pride under the guise of freedom; but I want service to be spontaneous, not compelled.

"For the whole law is fulfilled in you in one word." Even the moral parts of the law which are required can be summed up in one word and fulfilled in this one precept. "You shall love your neighbor." Love or charity consists in four ways: in the love of God, which is first; second, if we love ourselves according to God; third, our neighbors; fourth, even our enemies. So we ought to love God more than ourselves, and our neighbor; the neighbor was loved in the law. And unless we first love God, we cannot love ourselves without sinning; and if we do not love ourselves, by what standard shall we love our neighbors? And if we do not love our neighbor, when shall we be able to love our enemy? So if we wish to have love, let us first love God more than our own lives; which is proved if, for God's sake, we despise even our safety and our very lives. "As yourself." He who loves his neighbor as himself fulfils both kinds of commandments: that is, he will do evil to no one, and he will do good.

"But if you bite one another," Through strifes, each of you judging himself better than others. "Take care that you are not consumed by one another." When one becomes the occasion of another's perdition. "But I say: walk by the Spirit." In spiritual actions, which he describes below. "And you will not fulfil the desires of the flesh." Not that the flesh desires without the soul; but the soul itself, when it thinks carnal things, is called flesh, and when it thinks spiritual things, it becomes one spirit with God. So as long as there is a double desire or will in us, the things of God are not attained. It is to be noted and lamented that he utterly excluded from the kingdom the contentious and dissenting and wrathful, together with idolaters, sorcerers, and murderers.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love." The first of all the virtues is love, which we noted is divisible into four parts. "Joy." Spiritual. "Peace." "Peace even with those who hate." "Long-suffering." To bear injuries done to us patiently. "Goodness." Always to wish to do good. "Gentleness." To do injury to no one.

"Faith." Either: to believe God. Or: to fulfil promises to all. "Modesty." Not to be angry when injured. "Continence, chastity." Continence is understood of spiritual marriages, chastity of virgins. "Against such there is no law." For the law did not forbid these things; and he who fulfils the new is not under the old testament.

"And those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires." If all vices together have been crucified, and the flesh, as it were hanging on the tree, does not desire, what need have we of the law, which was given to restrain vices? At the same time it is to be noted that he said this of them because they too believe that they can be weak and die.

"And bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ." The law of Christ is love, as he himself says: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, as I also have loved you." At the same time it is to be noted that grace is called a law.

"For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." He who thinks that he cannot be tempted. Or: he who believes one who praises him more than his own conscience.

"But let each one test his own work." By the testimony of conscience. "And then he will have glory in himself alone, and not in another." In his own conscience, not in another's flattery. Or: in his own righteousness, not in another's sin: for no one advances by another's loss, nor will anyone appear more righteous on the day of judgment than he was because of another's offense. "For each one will bear his own burden." For the praise of a flatterer will not take away his burden.

"Let him who is catechized in the word share with him who catechizes him in all good things." Either: obedience to the word and imitation in deeds. Or: the substance of livelihood.

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked." A person can be mocked by the serpent, who denies God's vengeance, as Eve was: for God carries out what he promises. For, to exclude all the serpent's cunning, he repaid the first sinners more than he had promised, and to Lot's wife he did even what he had not said.

"For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap; because he who sows in his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption." He who places his hope in carnal circumcision, or who sows vices, will reap punishment. "But he who sows in the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." He who sows in a spiritual way of life, or in faith.

"And let us not grow weary in doing good." As it says in Ecclesiasticus: "Let nothing hinder you from praying always, and do not fear to be justified until death, because the reward of God abides forever": for an unfailing reward will follow unfailing righteousness, because "he who perseveres to the end will be saved." "For in due season we shall reap, if we do not grow weary." Now is the time of sowing, not of reaping. So let us not seek to receive our reward now, lest the crop, still tender, be cut in winter and, being unripe, profit nothing in the present, and there be nothing to reap in the future: for it will be said to us: "You received good things in your life," and again: "They have received their reward."

"So while we have time." This time is the last sowing season: let us hasten, then, to sow all the fields, but above all fill those that are most fertile, lest at harvest time we begin to go hungry while others feast. "Let us do good to all, but especially to those of the household of faith." Let us show mercy to the needy, Jews and pagans and all Christians, good and bad, and not deny anyone what God gives in common; but especially to those who show a special service of faith.

"See with what letters I have written with my own hand." Understand how little I fear, I who have written out the letter with my own hand.

"Those who wish to please in the flesh compel you to be circumcised, only so that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." Those who desire to please carnal Jews, fearing persecution for the cross of Christ, not caring to provide anything for your salvation.

"For not even those who are circumcised keep the law." Or if circumcision made the law kept, this persuasion would seem to have some reason. "But they want you circumcised so that they may glory in your flesh." So that they may have praise among the Jews from your flesh. Or: so that they may glory that they have drawn disciples to themselves.

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Not in my own righteousness or teaching, but in faith in the cross, through which all sins have been forgiven me, so that I have died to the world and it to me. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." At this time only this profits: if one reborn in Christ lives a new life, as the prophet says: "Break up your fallow ground for yourselves, and do not sow among thorns, and circumcise yourselves to your God and circumcise the foreskin of your heart."

"And whoever follow this rule, peace be on them and mercy." Because the hope of souls is placed in faith alone. "And on the Israel of God." So there is an Israel that is not of God: "for not all who are from Israel are Israelites."

"From now on let no one trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus." Let no one question me further as if in doubt, because I have set out the whole truth: for I carry about in my body the signs and marks, not of circumcision, but of the cross and the passion.

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers." Such is the apostle's subscription; and he wishes the grace of the Lord, not the works of the law, to accompany them. At the same time it is to be noted that he said "with your spirit," not "with the flesh," in whose circumcision the carnal glory: but you live spiritually, as those spiritually circumcised. End of the letter to the Galatians.