If it should be asked, What course must we take that the better interest may get the better? There was no such thing as a gradual training. He revealed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. The result of this is, that neither God has His place, nor they. Along with himself he takes care expressly to couple others: "and all the brethren which are with me." 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. What a subversion, not only of the truth of God revealed in the gospel, but also of redemption, which is its basis! 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. If understood, it completely cut all the earthly swaddling-clothes of the heavenly church, and of the Christian. And now your spirit is alive. If ye bite and devour one another These Churches seem to have been in a state of great distraction; there were continual altercations among them. "Devour" describes hurtful actions that linger on and on as far as time is concerned. On the other hand, where unity becomes an object, it is never understood; and at the same time the walk of faith cannot be maintained. 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. They're wanting to strive, they're wanting to argue; they're wanting to prove their points how that baptism is essential for salvation. "But neither Titus [he takes occasion to say parenthetically], being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." Now these things are an allegory. It was his to bear in his body a very different brand" the marks of the Lord Jesus," the scars of the only warfare that is precious in the sight of God the Father. As for himself, he gloried only in the cross. "Then after three years," he says, "I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter." As we go down these things here, these are the things that God will exclude from His kingdom. 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: The Galatians are warned earnestly and intently to view their predicament and to decide not to destroy each other spiritually. For what the law is actually saying to you is that you should love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself. There was no difference: all had sinned. 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 apostle states it with perfect calmness, and without comparing others. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." The law forbids these things, but the law of love also forbids them. 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. 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. God did not intend man to live that way, because man living that way is alienated from God who is a Spirit. He does not charge them with anything of an openly gross or immoral nature; but what a proof that the truth of God, that the grace of Christ, is exclusive of everything but itself! Pungent, abrupt, indignant, he none the less was led of God. Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ." (i) One he does not mention here but it is implicit in all his thinking. And they ate, giving over to their fleshly appetites and in so doing, the flesh dominated. Fornication; it has been said, and said truly, that the one completely new virtue Christianity brought into the world was chastity. But he was not thus disobedient to the heavenly vision. But in truth the Lord "gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. However, this behavior is hurting them as much or more as it is those they are attempting to hurt. 1. Jesus has set us free - free from the slavery of sin, free from slavery to the law. For if a man "keeps the whole law, yet he offends in one point, he is guilty of all" ( James 2:10 ). An undue regard to the approbation and applause of men is one great ground of the unhappy strifes and contentions that exist among Christians. Don't become seekers after empty reputation; don't provoke each other: don't envy each other. No man was ever more conscious of the tension in human nature than Paul. THE INTRODUCTION ( Galatians 1:1-10) 1. It's a solemn warning to every one of us who would live after the flesh or would want to live after the flesh to know that you cannot do these things and inherit the kingdom of God. As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. Acts 15:1, 5 ). He had made as much proficiency as any of his day it may be, more. You got to walk the tight rope. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" My responsibility is defined by the place in which I am found. Mark, again, the strength of the expression. If I sow to the flesh, I shall of the flesh reap corruption; if I sow to the Spirit, I shall reap life everlasting. The writer ( Galatians 1:1-2a ) i. Paul, the Apostle ( Galatians 1: 1 ) ii. He is governed by principles by which he lives. Those in Christ must stand firm against anyone who would try to drag them into slavery under the law (Galatians 5:1). Man is only the receiver; and truly, as we know, "it is more blessed to give than to receive." At the same time he insists in the most peremptory manner that our liberty in Christ is to be used for holiness. 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. Thus, going up with Barnabas, he took Titus, a Gentile, along with him; and even so by revelation. It is a joy whose foundation is God. Galatians 5:17 From the nature of the subject, as well as from the language employed, we may conjecture that the Galatians had disputes among themselves; for they differed about doctrine. Invariably, where man seeks to bring in a successional apostleship, the twelve become the great model. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ( Galatians 5:9 ). It might seem entirely despising his brethren. If I am a Christian, I acquire a new kind of responsibility. Surely now there was some link with the twelve! The apostle urges that all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Don't despise the chastening of the Lord. When we seek to interpret a passage like this we must remember that for the devout and scholarly Jew, and especially for the Rabbis, scripture had more than one meaning; and the literal meaning was often regarded as the least important. David said, "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" ( Psalms 23:4 ). The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me; but contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter," etc. That there is in every one a struggle between the flesh and the spirit (Galatians 5:17; Galatians 5:17): The flesh (the corrupt and carnal part of us) lusts (strives and struggles with strength and vigour) against the spirit: it opposes all the motions of the Spirit, and resists every thing that is spiritual. 2 Mark my words! In Galatians 4:1-31 the relation is taken up, not of the law to the promise, but of the Christian now to the condition of the saints of old a very important point also. . Galatia was near Phrygia and the great worship of that part of the world was of Cybele. Galatians 5:15 - John Darby's Synopsis It is in this liberty, the liberty of Christ, alluding to the free woman and Jerusalem above, that they were to stand fast, and not put themselves again under the yoke of the law. Of none else could it be so said that "it Pleased God to reveal his Son in him." Oligarchy means government by the few and can be justified by arguing that only the few are fit to govern. against such there is no law ( Galatians 5:23 ). He had the faith that could by grace cleave to God if he had not a companion; but God blesses that faith, and acts by it on the conscience of others, even on those that, alas! God reserves to Himself this great blessedness in the gospel; whereas under the law there was nothing of the kind. Impossible to serve two masters! Both sides of the dispute are guilty. Christianity came into a world where sexual immorality was not only condoned, but was regarded as essential to the ordinary working of life. And this is the thing that you try to describe to people, and they don't understand. Such is the reasoning in which the apostle uses this very remarkable prophecy. What makes you righteous before God is your faith, which works in love within your heart and life.Now, it is interesting to me how that those who opt for rules, those who opt for laws, those who want to lay down the laws upon the people, or those who want to live under the laws that are laid down upon them, always seem to be striving. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:3.). suggests if they themselves should act the part of wolves to one His spirit died, and Adam broke fellowship with God. , . When He gave the promise to Abraham, He said, "I will give." Some would have received the inheritance because of promise, and others on the ground of law. Galatians 5:1-15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. And that's the message here in Acts 14:8-20. But we have a good deal more. The apostle does not say, if grievous 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. My business is to act consistently with the new place in which grace has put me. In that chapter of Romans we have a man converted indeed, but without liberty, and consequently powerless. 5:16-21 I tell you, let your walk and conversation be dominated by the Spirit, and don't let the desires of the lower side of your nature have their way. "Hey, that old nature, that old Chuck is dead. It also described the bands of the devotees of Bacchus, god of wine. 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.". He had been brought to a place of blessing outside himself and by another, the Saviour, which in itself gives the soul motives indeed but not power; whereas, for the soul who is brought to God by the gospel, and planted in the liberty wherein Christ makes free before God, it is no more a question of flesh, but of the Holy Ghost who is given to him. His Father had made a revelation to Peter. Again I give my word to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. In the New Testament it has three main meanings. it. He does not even deign to fill up the sketch. In the epistle to the Galatians a deeper question was raised nothing less than the fountain of grace itself. Anything else would have been imperfect; but still it had essentially a transitional character. The gospel, not the law, owns its kindred with the promise. The Greek says only "brothers," but it is not wrong to assume "sisters" in the same way that mankind includes womankind. This is Christianity; and when the soul thankfully accepts from God this blessed liberty, the Holy Ghost is given to and acts in the believer as a Spirit of peace and power; so that if there is the flesh lusting against the Spirit, the Spirit resists this, in order that (for such is the true meaning) they should not do the things that they would. It might have been inferred that Paul was to do what he could with the Gentile churches, but that the twelve exclusively cared for the churches in Judea, he consequently having nothing to do with them. 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. Impossible to find a blast more withering to all that they were aiming at. If the promise be the only means of enjoying the inheritance, what is the good of the law? The apostle had heard enough of circumcision: it was repulsive to him henceforth. It is never used in the New Testament at all. They're covered by the fact that you're walking in love. Paul was pleading for the real interests of the Jew just as much as of the Gentile; but he presses this most clenching argument that Peter's conduct involved the making Christ Himself the minister of sin; "for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.". Finally, he concludes by putting the sentence of death, if I may so say, on circumcision, and all such as might adopt it. But to the end of the day there remained for Paul two obligations. It is interesting to note the earnestness and strength with which the apostle speaks, now the question had been fairly raised. Idolatry; this means the worship of gods which the hands of men have made. It is to be noted that the summit of all meanings was the allegorical meaning. Thus, then, God directed and ruled that the apostle should go up and have the evil condemned on the spot, and at the centre from which it had emanated. then is the offense of the cross ceased ( Galatians 5:10-11 ). "Love suffereth long and is kind." It is Christian ground, certainly, but not the church as such. By biting and devouring (89) he means, I think, slanders, accusations, reproaches, and every other kind of offensive language, as well as acts of injustice arising either from fraud or violence. You can't be both. But it degenerated; came to mean the desire to have what someone else has, wrong desire for what is not for us. "We, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world; but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." take heed that ye be not consumed one of For kindness the word is chrestotes ( G5544) . The most difficult thing in Christendom is for people to know what it is to be Christians, and to take this place by the faith of Christ themselves. In our dealings with our fellow men we must reproduce this loving, forbearing, forgiving, patient attitude of God towards ourselves. What gives power is the heart surrendering itself in everything, and thus set at liberty by Christ. 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. The apostle accepts the fact in all its strength. He makes one first thoroughly happy in the sense of His grace and the liberty Christ has won, and then the Holy Ghost becomes an indwelling spring of power, though His power is put forth in us only as we have Christ kept before us. He wouldn't bother correcting me. You were running well. And to try to explain to people the things of the Spirit to the natural man, to try and explain the things of the Spirit has got to be one of the most frustrating things in the world. Lastly, he desires for his brethren, that "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" might be with their spirit. That is, if you are circumcised ritually for the purpose of having a righteous standing before God. God is a superior Trinity; man is an inferior trinity. Verse Meaning Apparently the believers who advocated grace and the believers who advocated law bitterly opposed one another in the Galatian churches. Then comes the seed, and the promise is made Yea and Amen in Him all the promises of God. Accordingly the apostle lays stress on the fact that he was "unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ: but they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. consequences of a contrary spirit and conduct. Meanwhile another and a better sort of blessing is given, as a better Seed also is given the true Heir of all the promises of God, even Christ the Lord. It was an offence in the eyes of the Jewish Christians, and perhaps specially of the Christians that Judaize, that the apostle had been so little at Jerusalem that his intercourse was so scanty with the twelve. And they are quite zealous in their beliefs, very fervent in the proclamations of their beliefs. heard of the law. The brethren with him ( Galatians 1:2a ) b. Thus he accepts the challenge that was given by unbelief. Remember what it must have been to one like Paul to censure the most honoured of the twelve. He does not condescend to reason about their place in the matter, but puts them at once in their due relationship. Villages had an official who was called the superintendent of the village's eirene ( G1515) , the keeper of the public peace. 5:1-12 Look now it is I, Paul, who am speaking to you I tell you that if you get yourself circumcised Christ is no good to you. You remember as Paul defined love for us in I Corinthians chapter thirteen, he uses longsuffering. Now, the law always brings fallen man into importance: such it must be in its principle. And that's why Paul was persecuted by the Jews, because he was saying, "The law of Moses is not necessary for righteousness or for salvation. Wantonness; this word (aselgeia, G766) is translated licentiousness in the Revised Standard Version ( Mark 7:22; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19; 1 Peter 4:3; Jd 1:4 ; Romans 13:13 and 2 Peter 2:18). It was something painful to bear. . This he means here by "faith." It is eritheia ( G2052) and originally meant the work of a hired labourer (erithos). There it is not traced to God the Father, that raised Christ from the dead; but it descends from Christ ascended to heaven (which, we shall soon see, perfectly fits in with that epistle). The Stoics defined it as "grief at someone else's good." So Paul argued that if a man were circumcised he had put himself under an obligation to the whole law to which circumcision was the introduction; and, if he took that way, he had automatically turned his back on the way of grace, and, as far as he was concerned, Christ might never have died. If Christ's, they were Abraham's seed already, "and heirs according to the promise;" for Christ, he had shown before, was the one true Seed; and if we are Christ's, we belong to that one true Seed, and therefore are the children of Abraham without circumcision at all. Righteous standing before God 're covered by the place in the most peremptory that! Heed that ye be not consumed one of for kindness the word is chrestotes ( )! 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Forbids them apostle states it with perfect calmness, and said truly that! Wolves to one his spirit died, and they are quite zealous their.
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