Bible Groups - Digests of Bible Commentaries

Paul's Letter to the Galatians - Chapter 5

1 Centre of Galatians. Emphasises the truth of the gospel as the freedom Christ has given us. Don't be caught again into slavery - either that of the Law or of "elemental things". But notice that the opposite of the various forms of slavery Paul wants us to avoid is not personal autonomy, but freedom in Christ, ie to be under his lordship, to be in a community of believers who are mutually responsible to each other. Faith is necessary condition for this freedom, created by the Spirit, giving complete confidence in God, no longer needing to try to justify selves before God. Because this freedom comes through the promise, we cannot affect or merit it - it is free gift from God. But freedom is not independence, we are open to the risks of mutual dependance.
Rare ethical/social teaching from Paul: how to put faith into effect by love for each other. (Cf James).
2 A forcible reminder of Paul's assumed authority - and a reminder to readers at Mass not to intrude their own voice into Paul's message. The advantages and disadvantages of returning to the Law.
3 Losing the benefit (ophelesei) of freedom makes one a debtor (opheleites), obliged to do the whole Law. Not so much that he must keep the whole Law perfectly to be acceptable to God, but after circumcision one accepts the obligation to live according to the Sinai covenant in every social and cultural way.
4 But in doing so, one is severed from the inclusive Christian community where ethnic distinctions no longer have any effect. You have "come to nothing", removed from Christ's jurisdiction. Separated, out of grace.
5 Whereas we of faith eagerly "await the hope of righteousness". Ambiguous, but suggests while righteousness may be here now, it is still to be hoped for - we can fall away from it. "Being justified" is not irreversible - we can still turn our backs on God. One can fall out of grace. The Christian life is therefore goal oriented. Faith is our receptivity to God's grace that allows the Spirit to work in our lives, and which sustains us in hope for the final judgement.
6 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision have anything to do with our relationship or standing with God - the ONLY thing that matters is "faith working through love". Note that works of the Law are not adequate, but our works expressing our faith in love are essential (Cf James). Faith is how we become people of God, but it has to be expressed in love. The model of love we should take is that of Jesus Christ, whose faith was such that he died for me (2:20). Probably the most telling verse in all Paul's letters. The directionality is critical: faith is vertical, up to God; love is horizontal, between persons. Faith is a disposition, but not open to public viewing. The only visible evidence of faith is love. Faith that does not express itself in love cannot sustain a relationship with God, because it knows nothing of the God who "loved me and gave himself for me" (2:20). A right relationship with God necessarily makes itself visible in love - it cannot help but do so. It cannot remain private, it has to erupt into communal life as love.
7 Slightly milder rebuke with athletic metaphor recalls freedom of running naked (as Greeks did), straining for a goal. Who "cut in" and got in your way? The word translated as "obeying" has much wider overtones: be persuaded, listen, believe, trust, - and especially - rely on.
8 This persuasion is not from God: it is from the agitators, but Paul hints that they are instruments of a higher power, Satan.
9 The agitators' views are like yeast, threatening the distinctiveness of the Christian community in Galatia and the very nature of their church. Another call to expel the agitators (Cf 1:8-9; 4:30).
10 The agitators may suffer on judgement day, as well expulsion now. The generic singular forces attention on identifiable individuals - from 1:7 it is unlikely to be only one person. Paul expresses confidence that the Galatians will see things his way because of their common allegiance to Lord Christ - ie they will accept both the risk of a dangerous yeast, and that the agitators must bear Paul's judgement and be expelled - as were the sons of the slave girl.
11 Difficult to see reason for this interjection. Perhaps the agitators had alleged that Paul had preached circumcision, but this was probably only before his conversion. Perhaps it was one of any number of allegations - we cannot know now. If he is now preaching circumcision, the scandal - trap, stumbling block - of the Cross would be removed, the Cross serving to emphasise the distinctive character of the community of those who have died to Christ.
12 A very graphic comment on the agitators, wishing that during their own circumcision the knife would slip! Note this would not lead to castration, but the resulting mutilation would still cut them off from the people of God (Deut 23:1). This savage humour caricatures the rite and highlights the absurdity of believing that one cut of a knife can incorporate a person into the people of God while another cut can exclude him.
13 Paul now turns from dissuading the agitators to enjoining actions which show the fruits the Spirit should bear in the fleshly lives of believers, patterns of conduct which show freedom from the Law and other rules. Not necessarily distinctly Christian but all modelled on crucified Christ. V13 restates letter's key: called to freedom - now to clarify what this means. "Flesh" means more than self-indulgence - has echoes of circumcision, Ishmael born of the flesh, Jewish ethnicity. Flesh is a power that can take advantage of the freedom God gives, has its own desire (v 16), is in conflict with the Spirit (17), produces its own works (19-21), in contrast with the fruit of the Spirit (22-23).
Freedom, as Paul sees it, is not a natural right but God's gift. Not a good in itself, but a means to an end - the great good of human relationship. Opportunity & possibility - to love neighbour without hindrance, creating human communities based on mutual self-giving.
14 The key is love, which enables us to give ourselves as slaves to others. This is a mutual enslavement, not master-slave. After saying all that the Law does not do, his summing up "the whole Law is fulfilled in one word" is surprising. But his verb here is "fulfill": the command to love neighbour fulfills the Law - fully expresses its purpose. Command to love is essence of the Law - its essential universal purpose. Ritual aspects of the Law are ethnic, but not of universal application. Note Paul does NOT say obey the Torah command to love neighbour: Jesus' believers love because of the Spirit's fruit in them (22) - they will do the right and loving thing because the Spirit is producing fruit within me, not because of the Law, even though the outcome might be the same. Paul is not inconsistent: Christians are no longer under the Law.
15 Rather a sharp metaphor - sounds like these are relationships that have developed in the Galatian church.
16 The antidote to biting each other is to follow the Spirit's guidance in personal conduct. "Walk" implies movement, purpose. V16b is not a command: gratifying the desires of the flesh will not happen if you a guided by the Spirit.
17 Spirit and flesh pull you in opposite directions - you cannot follow both. 2 clauses to explain v16: v17b = walking by the Spirit in order not to follow the flesh. Paul is not talking about our will, but the opposing purposes of Spirit and flesh. It is simply a matter of willpower: the deciding self operates in - is - a messy arena, beset by opposing powers.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit the Spirit will prevail. Again an assertion, not command. Following the Spirit necessarily means you cannot take the Law as your guide - you cannot follow 2 leaders. For Paul both Law & flesh are on the side opposing the Spirit. Hence the Law is not needed as a moral guide: the works of the flesh are clear, without needing the Law to point them out.
19 List would be familiar to Greeks then, and condemned by any Jew.
20 Note that many of these works disrupt community, and more than half are sins of mind and heart, not sexual.
22 The singular "fruit" is the result of effort led by the Spirit. Not the fruit is sometimes this, sometimes that, but the Spirit-led person constantly behaves in these ways - perhaps as a result of love. Again familiar in Jewish literature. Again, not the result of human determination, but the unnatural and inevitable result of God's Spirit working through believers' lives. Particular emphasis on what nourishes community. Would these be the "miracles" (3:5) that are evidence of the Spirit's influence?
23 Self-control, a Greco-Roman ideal, which Jews claimed would come through the Law, balances love to enclose this list. The Law is not against these virtues, indeed Aristotle said a person like this makes the - any - law unnecessary, by constituting in themselves a standard.
24 Repeats vv19-20 in a different way. Implicit is 2^nd warning (cf v 21): those who do not manifest the fruit of the Spirit have not crucified the flesh and so do not belong to Christ.
25 "Since" is better than "if". Spirit is not only life-giving, also life-directing, towards righteousness.
26 Appears aimed at their apparent behaviour (v 16). Do not base self-view on hollow opinion, not based on fact.