Galatians 6

1 “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such

an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.’

Brethren, if (or, although) a man be overtaken in a fault (ἀδελφοί ἐὰν καὶ προληφθῇ

ἄνθρωπος ἔν τινι παραπτέματι – adelphoi ean kai prolaephthae anthropos en tini

paraptemati - brethren, if even a man hath been overtaken in some trespass.

"Brethren;" the compellation so introduced betokens a somewhat pathetic urgency:

compare above, ch. 3:15; 4:31; 5:11. But Philippians 3:13, 17 suffice to show that

its occurrence at the beginning of a sentence does not necessarily indicate the

commencement of a new section of discourse - to which notion we, perhaps owe

the division of chapters here made. In fact, this paragraph is most closely connected

with the preceding; the apostle's object being to point out that not even a moral

delinquency into which a brother has fallen should lead us to indulge ourselves

in any feeling of superiority in dealing with him, or to vaunt even to our own

selves (see v. 4) our greater consistency. In short, he is enforcing by a strong

instance the exhortation in v. 26, "Let us not be vain-glorious." "If even a man

hath been overtaken." The apostle supposes the case as one which might very

well present itself; the form of expression (ἐὰν – ean – if ever not εἰ - eiv- if),

however, not pointing to such a case having already occurred. How possible the

supposed case was, was plain enough from the enumeration of the "works of the

flesh" above given, so many and so multiform. Some critics have embarrassed

themselves by supposing that the καὶ ("even") must, of course, emphasize the

first succeeding word προληφθῇ, (hath been overtaken). But it may just as

probably be meant to emphasize the whole clause, "a man hath been overtaken

in some trespass." This is proved by a number of other instances: thus:

Luke 11:8, "if (καὶ) even he will not give them unto him beca
use he is a

friend;"

1 Corinthians 7:21. "but if even thou art able to become free;"

II Corinthians 4:3; 11:6.

The verb προλαμβάνω occurs besides in the New Testament in:

Mark 14:8, "she hath come beforehand to anoint ['or, 'she hath

anticipated the anointing of "my body;" and

I Corinthians 11:21, "taketh before other his own supper."

A more helpful illustration, however, is furnished by Wisdom of Solomon 17:17,

where, speaking of the horrible darkness falling quite suddenly upon the Egyptians,

the writer says, "Whether he were husbandman or shepherd or laborer in the field,

he was overtaken and endured (προληφθεὶς ἔμενεν – prolaephtheis emenen) the

ill-avoidable necessity;" the πρὸ in the compound verb meaning before he could

help himself in any way. So here, προληφθ῀ι means be surprised, overtaken,

before he' is well aware what it really is that he is doing. "Surprised;" but by

whom or what? Not by a person detecting the offender in the very act; as if it

were equivalent to καταληφθῇ ἐπαυτοφώρῳ - katalaephthae epautophoro –

was overtaken and detected (John 8:4); for the apostle is not at all concerned with

the evidence for the delinquency, which is the important consideration in John 8:4,

but simply with the fact. Rather, overtaken by the force of temptation; as the verb

"taken" is used with "temptation" in I Corinthians 10:13; hence the words which

follow, "lest thou also be tempted." The writer thus commends the delinquent to

sympathetic commiseration. But there is no palliation indicated by the word "fault"

or "trespass." Not once in the fifteen other passages in the New Testament in which

the noun παράπτωμα (trespass) occurs is there any token of such palliation being

intended. The petition, "forgive us our trespasses," is sufficient to exemplify this

statement. The trespass may be nothing less than one of the works of the flesh

before specified. The preposition ἐν (in), not "by" - points to the unhappy condition

in which the delinquent is supposed to be, out of which it is the business of Christian

charity to extricate him. Compare the expressions, "die in your sins;" "dead in

trespasses;" and the imagery of a "snare of the devil," in II Timothy 2:26.

Ye which are spiritual, restore such a one (ὑμεῖς οἱ πνευματικοὶ καταρτίζετε τὸν

τοιοῦτον – humeis hoi pneumatikoi katartizete ton toiouton – ye the ones spiritual

be ye attuning the such one). The apostle intimates that the business of recovering a

fallen brother is one which those Christians are not qualified to undertake who, by

reason of the strong tincture of the flesh still existing in their moral character, may

themselves be justly styled "carnal" (compare I Corinthians 3:1. Putting as it were

such persons on one side, the apostle summons to the work those in whom the Spirit

hath gained so marked an ascendancy that, compared with the generality of Christians,

they may be classed as "spiritual." It was incumbent on such (he says) not to stand

aloof, as if it were not their concern, or as if the delinquent were to be treated as an

enemy or outcast (compare II Thessalonians 3:15), far less to indulge themselves in

taking pleasure in his inconsistency as illustrating their own spirituality, but to come

forward to his assistance. Others, who might justly feel less qualified to act in the

case themselves, might, however, take from the apostle's direction the hint that at

least they should:

lend their sympathy to the work of their more capable brethren,
desire and pray for their erring brother's recovery,
and not exult over his fault.

The verb καταρτίζειν – katartizein - to make a thing fit, even, just that which it properly

should be), is used:

of repairing nets; (Matthew 4:21)
of a Christian community restored to its proper condition of unanimity;

(I Corinthians 1:10)

of making good any lacking of faith. (I Thessalonians 3:10)

It is used also (Liddel; and Scott) of setting a broken limb. But there is nothing to

show that the apostle has any one particular image of disorder in view. The present

tense of the imperative seems to mean, "apply yourselves to restore him;" the actual

achievement (καταρτίσατε – katartisate – be ye mending) may not be in their power.

In the spirit of meekness (ἐν πνεύματι πρᾳότητος – en pneumati praotaetos - in a

spirit of meekness). We have the same phrase in I Corinthians 4:21, "Shall I come

to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness?' The term "spirit" seems

as it were to hover between the sense of the Holy Spirit and of that particular

condition of our own spirit which is produced by His influence (compare

"spirit of adoption," Romans 8:15). But the latter seems here the one more

immediately intended. It is not identical, however, with the phrase, "meek spirit,"

which we have in I Peter 3:4. The meekness or tenderness meant is that of one

who, humbly conscious of human infirmity in general, his own infirmity included,

is prepared to be very considerate and gentle towards the ignorant and those out

of the way; loathe to use the "rod." Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted

(σκοπῶν σεαυτόν μὴ καὶ σὺ πειρασθῇς – skopon seauton mae kai su peirasthaes –

looking to thine own self, lest thou also be tempted; noting yourself also that ye

may not be being tried). The change from the plural to the singular makes the

warning more impressive and searching. The verb σκοπεῖν – skopein in the

New Testament always denotes looking intently:

sometimes on something to be guarded against, as Luke 11:35; Romans 16:17;
at other times, at something to be aimed at or imitated (II Corinthians 4:18;

Philippians 2:4; 3:17).

The former is meant here. The Christian is to be on his guard against his own

weak and corrupt nature; lest he withhold help, or adequate help; lest in helping

he get betrayed into the sin of Pharisaic self-righteousness - the sin of harshness,

censoriousness. The clause is to be viewed in conjunction with the thought of

the unceasing conflict between the flesh and the Spirit mentioned in ch. 5:17.

"Tempted," so as to fall (I Corinthians 7:5; I Thessalonians 3:5; Matthew 6:13).

Review of v. 1.

Apparently, one in the church had sinned in falling away from a commandment

of God - a case in which the offender yielded to temptation – perhaps one of

the sins or “works of the flesh” mentioned in the previous chapter. Paul’s object

being to point out that not even a moral delinquency into which a brother has fallen

should lead us to indulge ourselves in any feeling of superiority in dealing with him,

or to vaunt even to our own selves (see v.4) our greater consistency. The unhappy

condition in which the delinquent finds himself is the business of Christian

charity to try to extricate him. This is done by kind admonition, faithful

instruction and by prayer. There must be no blind love to intercept the friendly

remonstrance; there must be no careless disparagement of the fault; there

must be no suffering a sin upon our brother. It was the praise of the

Ephesian Church that “she could not bear transgressors” (Revelation 2:2).

Those urged to this duty must be “the spiritual” — those whose lives

illustrated the graces of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), for they only would

have the capacity and the inclination, while their action would be backed by

the full confidence of the Church. It is incumbent upon fellow Christians not to

stand aloof, as if it were not their concern, or treat the offender as an enemy

or outcast – (compare II Thessalonians 3:15). Neither are they to indulge

themselves in taking pleasure in their brother’s inconsistency as illustrating

their own spirituality but are to come forward to his assistance. The verb

katarti>zein, - from katartizo - “to make a thing fit, to mend, make perfect’. The

present tense of the imperative seems to mean, “apply yourselves to restore

him;”. The meekness or tenderness meant is that of one who, humbly conscious of

human infirmity in general, his own infirmity included, is prepared to be

very considerate and gentle towards the ignorant and those out of the way;

loth to use the “rod.” The Christian is to be on his guard against his own weak

and corrupt nature; lest he withhold help, or adequate help; lest in helping he get

betrayed into the sin of Pharisaic self-righteousness — the sin of harshness,

censoriousness. The clause is to be viewed in conjunction with the thought of

the unceasing conflict between the flesh and the Spirit mentioned in ch. 5:17.

“considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” – The case may be thine. You

who are spiritual may err. The saints of God have often failed in the very grace

for which they were most distinguished. Therefore “let him that thinketh he

standeth take heed lest he fall.” (I Corinthians 10:12) We are, therefore,

admonished to bring offenders with all love and tenderness to a due sense of

their sin, and to comfort them lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch

sorrow.

2 “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

Bear ye one another's burdens (ἀλλήλων τὰ βάρη βαστάζετε – allaelon ta barae

bastazete - carry ye, or, be ready to carry, the heavy loads of one another. The

position of ἀλλήλων (of one another) gives it especial prominence; as it stands

here it seems pregnant with the exhortation, look not every man only at his own

griefs, but at the griefs also of others" (compare Philippians 2:4). The word

βάρος – baros - weight, points to an excessive weight, such as it is a toil to carry.

Matthew 20:12, "who have borne the burden (βαστάσασι το βάρος – bastasasi

to baros – ones bearing the burden) and heat of the day." So in Acts 15:28.

In II Corinthians 4:17, "weight of glory," the phrase, suggested by the double sense

of the Hebrew word kabhod, indicates the enormous greatness of the future glory.

The supposition that the apostle was glancing at the burden of Mosaical observances,

superseded as a matter for care on our part by the burdens of our brethren, seems

far-fetched. These "heavy loads" are those which a man brings upon himself by

acts of transgression: such as:

an uneasy conscience;
difficulties in his domestic, social, or Church relations;
pecuniary embarrassments; or other.

But the precept seems to go beyond the requirements of the particular case of a

offending brother which has suggested it, and to take in all the needs, spiritual or

secular, which we are subject to. (For βαστάζειν of carrying a toilsome burden,

compare Matthew 8:17; John 19:17; Acts 15:10.) And so fulfil the law of Christ

(καὶ ὅτως ἀναπληρώσατε [or, ἀναπληρώσετε] τὸν νόμον τοῦ Ξριστοῦ - kai hotos

anaplaerosate [anaplaerosete] ton nomon tou Christou - and so fulfill [or, ye shall

fulfill] the law of Christ. The sense comes to much the same, whether in the Greek

we read the future indicative or the aorist imperative. If the imperative be retained,

it yet adds no new element of precept to the foregoing; the clause so read prescribes

the fulfillment of Christ's law in the particular form of bearing one another's

burdens. If we read the future, the clause affirms that in so doing we shall fulfill

His law; which in the other case is implied. Many have supposed the word "law"

to be here used for a specific commandment; as for example Christ's new commandment

that we should love one another (So St. James (2:8) writes of the "royal law." St. Paul,

however, never uses the term in this sense in his own writing, though in the Epistle

to the Hebrews (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16), the plural "laws" occurs in citation from

Jeremiah. It seems better to take it of the whole moral institution of Christ, whether

conveyed in distinct precept or in His example and spirit of action. Compare with

the present passage the advice which St. Paul gives the "strong" (Romans 15:1-4),

that they should bear (βαστάζειν, as here, "carry") the infirmities of the weak, and

not wish to please themselves; after Christ's pattern set forth in prophetical Scripture,

of old time written in order to instruct us HOW WE SHOULD ACT! It has been

often observed that the phrase, "the law of Christ," was selected with allusion to

the stir now being made among the Galatians respecting the Law of Moses.

"Satisfy ye the requirements of the Law - not of Moses which some are prating

about, but the law of Christ, a more perfect law than that other, and more our

proper concern." Possibly the words τοῦ Ξριστοῦ (of the Christ) were added as a

pointed surprise of style - παρ ὑπόνοιαν – par huponoian - as the scholiasts on

Aristophanes are wont to express it - "and thus fulfil the law of Christ!"

Review of v. 2

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

(ἀλλήλων τὰ βάρη βαστάζετε – allaelon ta barae bastazete - carry ye, or,

be ready to carry, the heavy loads of one another.

These “heavy loads” are those which a man brings upon himself by acts of

transgression: such as an uneasy conscience; difficulties in his domestic,

social, or Church relations; pecuniary embarrassments; or other. But the precept

seems to go beyond the requirements of the particular case of a peccant brother

which has suggested it, and to take in all the needs, spiritual or secular, which we

are subject to.

Loving one another and doing to others as we would they do unto us is fulfilling

the Law of Christ. (John 13:34, Matthew 7:12)

“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the

things of others” – (Philippians 2:4)

The Duty of Christians - Travelers have often to carry the burdens of their

comrades who become faint by the way. It would be a serious thing for the weak,

if believers were to draw away from them and allow them to carry their own

burdens. “A Christian must have strong shoulders and stout legs in order to

bear the flesh, that is, the weakness of the brethren” (Martin Luther). Christian

life is a burden-bearing, but, after all, it is something short of the supreme

Sacrifice. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His

life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (I John 3:17)

Let us, therefore, bear transgressors upon our hearts at the throne of grace,

and upon our shoulders by brotherly help and patience.

3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth

himself.” (εἰ γὰρ δοκεῖ τις εϊναί τι μηδὲν ὤν φρεεναπατᾷ ἑαυτόν – ei gar dokei tis

einai ti maeden on phreenapata heauton [Receptus, ἑαυτὸν φρεναπατᾷ - heauton

phrenapata – himself he is imposing upon] - for if a man is nothing and thinketh

himself to be something, he is deceiving his own soul. The conjunction "for" points

back to the practical direction just given to the "spiritual;" meaning that for those

who wished to be, and also perhaps to be thought to be, fulfilling Christ's law,

this was the behavior which they were to carry out, and without which their

claim was mere self-delusion. The phrase, δοκεῖ εϊναί τι μηδὲν ὤν, is well

illustrated by the passage cited by critics from Plato's 'Apologia,' p. 41, E:

Ἐὰν δοκῶσί τι εϊναι μηδὲν ὄντες ὀνειδίζετε αὐτοῖς... ὅτι,... οἴονταί τι εϊναι

ὄντες οὐδενὸς ἄξιοι "Something" is, by a common meiosis, put for "something

considerable" (compare ch. 2:6). The especial form of eminence, the claim to

which is here referred to, is eminence in spirituality and consistency as a servant

of Christ. Possibly the apostle has in his eye certain individuals among the Galatians

that he had heard of, who, professing much, were, however, self-complacently bitter

and contemptuous towards brethren who had gone wrong in moral conduct or who

differed from themselves in the disputes then rife in those Churches. The phrase,

μηδὲν ὤν (being nothing) is a part of the hypothesis relative to the individual case

spoken of, not a statement putting forth the aphorism that no one is really anything.

The passage quoted above from Plato shows, that in the latter case we should have

had οὐδὲν and not μηδέν. Some men, by the grace of God, are "something;" but

these persons only fancy themselves to be so. Whether any man is really

"something" or not is determined by his practical conduct - his "work" as the

apostle expresses it in the next verse. The verb φρεναπατᾷν (deceiveth) occurs

in the New Testament only here, though we have the substantive φρεναπάτης –

phrenapataes – deceivers, in Titus 1:10. James (James 1:26) speaks of a man

"deceiving his heart ' in seemingly just the same sense. In both passages it appears

to be meant that a man palms off upon his own mind fancies as if they were just

apprehensions of real facts; in both also these fancies are but illusive notions

of one's own religious character - here, as being "spiritual;" in James, as being

"religious" or "devout" (θρῆσκος – thraeskos - religious) - the activity of practical

benevolence being in both cases wanting; for "the bridling not his tongue" in v. 26

is proved by the contrasted behavior spoken of in the next verse to refer to those

sins of the tongue which are implicitly condemned in vs. 19-21.

Review – v. 3

“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he

deceiveth himself.”

A Warning Against Self-Deceit. The high but false estimate that men may

form of themselves is the great hindrance to this mutual burden-bearing.

Consider:

THE STRANGENESS OF SELF-DECEPTION. It is not remarkable

that a man should be the dupe of others, but strange that he should be the

dupe of himself. Yet there are many who think themselves to be something

when they are nothing — partly from the want of self-knowledge; partly

from the deceitfulness and pride of the human heart; partly from the

fallacious habit of measuring themselves by the attainments of others;

partly, too, from the influence of false teachings.

ITS EVIL EFFECTS UPON THE MAN HIMSELF. He deceives

himself, but he cannot deceive either God or man. It is a fatal delusion

while it lasts, for it stands in the way of all improvement. He lives in a

fool’s paradise. If he had once discovered that he was nothing he would be

put in the way of getting the foundation rightly laid, and he would be the

more likely to have points of sympathy with the outcast and fallen. The

sense of our own weakness is the best motive to an indulgent consideration

for others.

ITS EVIL EFFECTS AS REGARDS OTHERS. This is the crowning

idea of the passage. The self-deceived man is incapable of bearing others’

burdens, in fact, the imagination of superior piety leads him to be harsh and

censorious and overbearing to others. There are sects in our day which

pretend to a deeper communion with God than other Christians, and they

are only remarkable for a censorious pride which kills love. The self-

deceived man thinks meanly of others’ attainments, in opposition to the

gospel temper, which counsels Christians “in lowliness of mind to think

others better than themselves;” (Philippians 2:3) while he takes no delight

in their graces or gifts, and will accept neither instruction nor correction from

others. He seems self-supporting and self-contained, exempt from frailty,

sin, and sorrow, and therefore cares nothing for the sins or the sorrows of

others. It is only the disposition that can say, “Not I, but the grace of God in

me,” (ch.2:20-21) that will be ready for that mutual burden-bearing which

conduces so much to the comfort and cohesion of Christian society.

4 “But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing

in himself alone, and not in another.” But let every man prove his own work

(τὸ δὲ ἔργον ἑαυτοπῦ δοκιμαζέτω ἕκαστος – to de ergon heautopu dokimazeto

hekastos - but his own work let each man bringing to the proof; let him be

testing each one). "His own work;" his own actual conduct. Both "work"

and "his own" are weighted with emphasis; "work," as practical behavior

contrasted with professions or self-illusions (compare I Peter 1:17, "Who without

respect of persons judgeth according to each man's work"); "his own," as contrasted

with these others with whom one is comparing himself to find matter for self-

commendation. "Be bringing to the proof;" that is, testing his actual life by the

touchstone of God's law, especially of "Christ's law," with the honest purpose

of bringing it into accordance therewith. In other words, "Let each man be

endeavoring in a spirit of self-watchfullness to walk orderly according to

the Spirit." This notion of practical self-improving attaches to the verb

δοκιμάζω (prove; examine) also in Romans 12:2; I Corinthians 11:28;

Ephesians 3:10. And then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone (καὶ τότε

εἰς ἑαυτὸν μόνον τὸ καύχημα ἕξει – kai tote eis heauton monon to kauchaema

hexei - and then in regard to himself alone shall he have whereof to glory. The

preposition εἰς (into) is used as in Matthew 14:31, Eἰς τί ἐδίστασας – Eis ti

edistasas – into why did you hesitate; "What didst thou look at that thou didst

doubt?" Acts 2:25, "concerning him;" Ephesians 5:32; Romans 4:20; 13:14; 16:19.

It depends upon the whole phrase, "shall have his ground of glorying," and not

upon the word rendered "ground of glorying" alone. The distinction which ordinarily

obtains between verbals of the form of πρᾶγμα and those of the form of πρᾶξις

appears to hold good also in respect to καύχημα (boast) and καύχησις (boasting).

Compare the use of καύχησις in II Corinthians 7:4 and James 4:16, with that of

καύχημα in Romans 4:2, ἔχει καύχημα (hath whereof to glory) ; I Corinthians 9:16,

οὐκ ἔστι μοι καύχημα (I have nothing to glory of.) In I Corinthians 5:6, οὐ καλὸν

τὸ καύχημα ὑμῶν – ou kalon to kauchaema humon – your glorying is not good, the

substantive seems to mean "boast," that is, what is said in boasting, as distinguished

from καύχησις, the action of uttering a boast. The verb καυχῶμαι – kauchomai –

with its derivatives - a favorite term with St. Paul - often appears to mean rejoicing

rather than" boasting" (compare Romans 5:2; Hebrews 3:6); but it seems desirable

as a rule to render it by "glorying," with the understanding that the writer has

frequently the joyous state of feeling more prominently in his view than the

utterance of self-gratulation. What the apostle meant by "having one's ground of

glorying in regard to one's own self alone," is well illustrated by what he says

respecting himself in II Corinthians 1:12, "Our glorying is this, the testimony

of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom,

but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly

to you-ward." he had been himself in the habit of testing his conduct and spirit by

the standard of Christ's law; and this was the fruit. And not in another (καὶ οὐκ εἰς

τὸν ἕτερον – kai ouk eis ton heteron – and not in another; a different one; and not in

regard to that neighbour of his). The article probably points to that neighbor with

whom he has been comparing himself; and so, perhaps, also in Romans 2:1. But it

may be simply "his neighbor;" "the man who is other than himself;" as it is in

I Corinthians 6:1 and 10:24, in neither of which passages has any particular

"other person" been before referred to.

Review of v. 4

“But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have

rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”

Testing our own work - The result will be that “then,” on the supposition that

the work has stood the test, “he shall have his ground of boasting only in relation

to himself, and not in relation to the other” - the man with whom he was

comparing himself. He may test his own work, but he cannot test the work of

the other man. The apostle does not mean to say that the test would be favorable,

for, judging by himself, self-examination would discover, along with graces and

virtues, many frailties and follies, that would lead him to glory, not in

himself, but in the mercy and love of the Lord. Self-examination is not

designed to leave us satisfied with ourselves or even free from doubts and

fears, but to lead us to the Lord for fresh pardon and grace. It is a useful

corrective to the merely morbid self-scrutiny with which men torment

themselves, to have the test applied to their work.

“But let every man prove his own work” (τὸ δὲ ἔργον ἑαυτοπῦ δοκιμαζέτω

ἕκαστος – to de ergon heautopu dokimazeto hekastos - but his own work let

each man bringing to the proof; let him be testing each one). but his own work

let each man bringing to the proof. “His own work;” his own actual conduct.

Both “work” and “his own” are weighted with emphasis; “work,” as practical

behavior contrasted with professions or self-illusions.

“rejoicing in himself alone” - “Our glorying is this, the testimony of our

conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom,

but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more

abundantly to you-ward.” (II Corinthians 1:12) – Paul had been himself in

the habit of testing his conduct and spirit by the standard of Christ’s law; and

this was the fruit.

5 “For every man shall bear his own burden.” (ἕκαστος γὰρ τὸ ἴδιον φορτίον

βαστάσει – ekastos gar to idion phortion bastasei - for each man shall carry his own

pack). A man's business is with his own pack; and all depends upon his carrying that,

not putting it down. This "pack" (φορτίον) is the whole of the duties for the discharge

of which each man is responsible. It is thus that the image is employed by our Lord

(Matthew 11:30), "My yoke is easy, and my pack is light." So also in Matthew 23:4,

"For they tie up packs heavy and hard to carry, and lay them upon men's shoulders."

The phrase, τὸ ἴδιον φορτίον (the pack which is individually his own) implies that

men's responsibilities vary, each one having such as are peculiar to himself. This

"pack" is to be carefully distinguished from the "heavy loads" (βάρη) of v. 2.

Note: The difference between φορτίον (something carried) and βάρος (a weight)

of v. 2 (both translated burden) is that φορτίον is simply something to be borne,

without reference to its weightk, but βάρος always suggests what is heavy or

burdensome. Thus Christ speaks of His burden (φορτίον) as “light!” (Matthew

11:30) Whereas the burden of the transgresson is βάρος (heavy).

(excerpted from Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Our Christian obligations Christ makes, to them who serve Him well, LIGHT;

but our burdens of remorse, shame, grief, loss, which are of our own willful

procuring, these may be, must needs be, HEAVY! One part of our "pack" of

obligation is to help each other in bearing these "heavy loads;" and we shall

find our joy and crown of glorying in doing so; not only in:

the approval of our own consciences and,
in the consciousness of Christ's approval, but also in,
the manifold refreshments of mutual Christian sympathy.

On the other hand, our Christian responsibilities, including these of mutual

sympathy and succor, we must not attempt to evade. One man is able to do

more for others than another man can; the truly "spiritual" man, for example,

can do that which others may not even attempt to touch: each one has his own

part and duty. (Calling – CY – 2018) And Christ's mot d'ordre (a watchword

that is a word or phrase that sums up their (His) attitude or approach to a particular

subject or to things in general) to all His workmen, or possibly the apostle means

to all His soldiers, is this: "Every man carry his own pack!" The future tense of

the verb "shall carry" does not point to some future time, but to the absoluteness

of the law for all time; as in ch. 2:16 (see Winer, 'Gram. N. T.,' § 40, p. 251, 6th edit.).

The varying turn given to the same general image of carrying burdens in v. 2 and here

is quite in St. Paul's manner. Compare, for example, in II Corinthians 3. the varying

turn given to the images of "epistle" and "veil."

Review – v. 5

“For every man shall bear his own burden.” Though God has set us in

a wonderful scheme of human relations, we have an individual life that cannot

be touched by man. We are individually responsible to God. This individuality

sets man, as it were, in a solitude. He lives alone; he suffers alone; he dies alone.

If he has pain in his body, no sympathy of friends can destroy it; it is still his pain.

Our friends may soothe our dying moments by their prayers and their words of

affection; but still we die alone. Thus every man carries alone, and apart

from other men, his own burden of responsibility, or of frailty, or of

sorrow. “Every man the plague of his own heart” – (I Kings 8:38) The apostle

does not mean to mean the neglect of social concern nor to recommend a selfish

isolation in human relations, but he condemns the harsh judgments

pronounced upon others by men who have their own imperfections and

infirmities to answer for.

v. 6 – “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that

teacheth in all good things.” (koinwnei>tw de< oJ kathcou>menov to<n

lo>gon tw~| kathcou~nti ejn pa~sin ajgaqoi~v); let him that is receiving

instruction in the Word share with him that instructeth in all good things.

The apostle bad spoken of burdens, but he did not mean to exempt the Galatians

from the burden of supporting their teachers. Perhaps they were niggardly - for

Gaulish avarice was a proverb — and it was necessary to teach them their duty.

THIS PASSAGE IMPLIES THAT THERE IS AN ORDER OF

MINISTERS IN THE CHURCH.

ü It is implied that the ministers were teachers, not mere celebrants

of ritualistic devotion or spectacle. They taught orally, as the word

signifies. It was thus that the early disciples were “nourished up in

the words of good doctrine.”

ü It is implied that the Word of God was their text-book. The early

Christians were “taught in the Word.” They had the Scriptures in

their own tongue, and were in a position to test the teaching of their

guides as well as “to try the spirits” generally.

ü It is implied that the teachers relented to devoted themselves entirely

to the work of ministry. They had isolated themselves from secular

employments, else why should it be necessary to provide them with

an independent support?

THIS PASSAGE TEACHES THAT MINISTERS ARE TO RECEIVE AN

ADEQUATE MAINTENANCE. They are to share “in all good things;” not

as a gift or dole, but as a right; for Christ said, “The laborer is worthy of

his hire.” (Luke 10:7) The duty is clearly set forth by the apostle.

(1 Thessalonians 2:6, 9; - 2 Corinthians 11:7; 9 - Philippians 4:10;

1 Timothy 5:17-18). Luther says, “Whosoever will not give the Lord God

a penny gets his due when he is forced to give the devil a dollar.” Calvin

suggests that “it is one of the tricks of Satan to defraud godly ministers of

support that the Church may be deprived of their services.”

7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall

he also reap." Be not deceived (μὴ πλανᾶσθε - mae planasthe - be not being deceived ).

So 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 15:33. Let nothing lead you astray from the conviction, that in

the conformity of your real aims and actual practice with the dictates of God's Spirit,

and in that alone, can you hope for eternal life. God is not mocked (θεὸς οὐ

μυκτηρίζεται - Theos ou muktaerizetai - God is not derided; is not mocked; is not

sneered at. The verb μυκτηρίζειν - muktaerizein - to writhe the nostrils (μυκτῆρας -

muktaeras - ) at one in scorn, to sneer at him, occurs frequently in the Septuagint,

rendering different Hebrew words, which denote disdain; as naatz ("despise"),

Proverbs 1:30; bazah ("despise"), ibid. 15:20; la'ag, "laugh (in derision)," Psalm

80:6. St. Luke uses it in his Gospel twice (Luke 16:14; 23:35), where it is rendered

"deride," "scoff at." It is, in effect, a "derision" of God when we meet His

requirements of real piety and of practical obedience by the presentation of

lip-professions and outward shows of religiousness. But the derision will not

last long; it cannot hold good. Whatever in our hypocrisy we may pretend, or even

after a fashion believe, as to ourselves, the eternal principles of Divine government

ARE SURE TO WORK OUT THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENT! Bishop Lightfoot,

founding upon the use of the verb μυκτηρίζειν (mocked; derided) in Greek authors

on rhetoric - with whom it denotes a kind of fine irony, in which a feeling of contempt

is thinly veiled by a polite show of respect - proposes to apply this sense here; and it

would well suit the tenor of the passage; but as employed by so Hellenistic a writer

as St. Paul it appears safer to interpret the verb simply In the light thrown upon it by

the usage of the Septuagint. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap

(ὃ γὰρ ἐὰν σπείρῃ ἄνθρωπος τοῦτο καὶ θερίσει - ho gar ean sspeirae anthropos touto

kai therisei). The word σπείρῃ may be either an aorist, as in Ephesians 6:8,

"whatsoever good thing each one doeth (ποιήσῃ - poiaesae - should be doing);"

or a present. The latter seems to agree better with the ὁ σπείρω - ho speiro - the one

sowing) of the here, and the more pointedly directs attention to one's present immediate

behavior. The reaping-time is either the future life or its starting-point in the "day of

the Lord" which determines its future complexion, as in Romans 2:5-16; II Corinthians

5:10. The axiom here stated holds good, no doubt, in much that befalls us in the

present life, as is forcibly evinced by the late Fred. Robertson's sermon on this text;

but this application of it hardly lies in the apostle's present field of view. All human

activity is here recited under this image of "sowing," with reference to the

consequences which in the day of retribution will infallibly accrue from every part

of it. In II Corinthians 9:6, however ("He that soweth sparingly shall reap also

sparingly," etc.), the idea is applied to pecuniary gifts. Such an application seems

to possess a peculiar propriety, founded on the benefits that the giving of money -

which, viewed as gold, silver, or copper coins is in itself a dry and useless thing -

would be the means of effecting (see vs. 12-15 of the same chapter). But this does

not warrant our limiting the application of the word here to the bestowment of

money gifts, though this in the context furnishes the occasion for its introduction;

the next verse proves the wider application which the apostle's mind is making

of it, not, however, losing sight (vs. 9-10) of this specific reference. "Whatsoever

he is sowing, that shall he reap;" the quality of the harvest (its quantity does not

seem from the next verse to be particularly thought of, as in II Corinthians 9:6) is

determined by the quality of the seed sown. In the form of expression, the deed

which is done is said to be itself received back - received back, that is, in its

corresponding reward or punishment. In a similar manner the apostle expresses

himself:

· in Ephesians 6:8, "Whatsoever good thing each man doeth, this shall he

receive again (κομιεῖται - komieitai - he shall be being requited) from

the Lord."

· of evil doings in Colossians 3:25, "He that doeth wrong shall

receive again the wrong which he did;" and

· of both good and bad in II Corinthians 5:10.

These last-cited passages, together with others which will readily occur to the reader,

appear to contemplate a reference to be made in the day of judgment to each several

action, with an award assigned to each; which view is likewise presented by such

utterances of Christ Himself as we read in Matthew 10:42; 25:35-36,42-43.

On the other hand, in the passage now before us, the "eternal life," and probably

also the "corruption" mentioned in v. 8, seem to point to the general award,

of life or of destruction, which each man shall receive, founded on the review

of his whole behavior (see Revelation 20:12, 15). This is a somewhat different

view of the future retribution from the former. Considering such passages in the

light of moral exhortation, we are reminded that in each several action we are

taking a step towards either a happy or a disastrous end - a step which, if pursued

onward in the same direction, will infallibly conduct us to either that happy or that

disastrous end. In regard to the relation between the two somewhat differing views

of the future retribution above stated, when considered as subjects of speculative

inquiry, a few observations may not be out of place here. We need find no difficulty

at all in this diversity of representation so far as relates to the good actions of those

who shall then be accepted or to the evil actions of those who shall be rejected.

But a difficulty does seem to present itself with respect to the evil deeds done,

if not before yet after their conversion, by the ultimately accepted, and also with

respect to the good deeds done by the ultimately lost. Will the righteous receive

the award of their evil deeds? Will the lost receive the award of their good deeds?

For there is no righteous man who hath not sinned; as also neither is there an

unrighteous man whose life does not show good and laudable actions. A reference

to the actual experience of souls in this life suggests, not indeed a complete solution

of the difficulty which the nature of the case probably makes impossible to us at

devise, but a consideration which helps to lessen our sense of it. It is this, in Christians

who have a well-grounded consciousness of perfect reconciliation with God, assured

to them even by the seal of the Spirit of adoption, this happy consciousness is, however,

perfectly compatible with a vivid remembrance of wrong things done in the past.

And this remembrance is perpetually suggestive of sentiments of self-loathing -

self-loathing the more bitter in proportion as the soul, by its growing purification

through the Spirit, is enabled the more truly to estimate the evil character of those

evil deeds. This is exemplified by St. Paul's wailing recollection, near the very

end of his course, of those heinous sins of his, committed long years before,

against Christ and his Church (I Timothy 1:15). Now, we cannot conceive of a

continuous existence of the soul apart from a continued remembrance of its past

experiences. The redeemed, then, in their perfected state after the resurrection,

can never become oblivions of those foul blots in their spiritual history; the

recollection of them can never cease at once to abase them in their own

consciousness and to glorify the grace which has redeemed them. The Divine Spirit

Himself will still, we may believe, quicken these remembrances; and the infinite

benefactions of God, in that state of felicity experienced, will be still heaping fresh

coals of fire upon their heads. Their felicity will be no offspring of blindness or

misconception in reference to the past; on the contrary, they will know the truth

in respect to their own lives in respect to every part of them, with a clearness

unattainable in the present state; but they will know the truth too in respect to

THE INTENSITY OF THE DIVINE LOVE! God's love, it is true, cannot shed

the light of approval upon those dark spots of their earthly history; cannot shed

upon them those felicitating beams of "Well done, good and faithful servant,"

which will most assuredly flow down upon the acceptable portions of their conduct;

that love itself cannot deal with His servants otherwise than according to truth. But

the love of God will be clearly seen, canceling, for Christ's sake, the penal

consequences which but for Christ those several wickednesses would have incurred:

in those very instances of sinfulness magnifying in each saved one's consciousness

the infinite benignity of his Father, which loved him even then, in those very hours

of his extremest ill-deserving. If these speculations appear not unreasonable, then

they will serve to explain in what way the sinful doings even of those finally accepted

will, however, not fail of receiving their award; the award will be there, both in that

sense of loss - loss of Divine commendation, which will necessarily accompany the

recollection of them; and also in the sense of their debt of punishment, though

cancelled. Be we sure our sin will find us out. (Numbers 32:23)

vs. 7-8 – “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man

soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall

of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of

the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

8 “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that

soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” For he that soweth

to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption (Ὅτι ὁ σπείρων εἰς τὴν σάρκα ἑαυτοῦ

ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς θερίσει φθοράν - Hoti ho speiron eis taen sarka heautou ek eaes sarkos

therisei phthoran - for he that soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap

corruption. "For" the causal force of the particle ὅτι, (properly "because,") is here

greatly attenuated, being employed to introduce a sentence commending to acceptance

the foregoing one, simply by a detailed exposition of particulars illustrating its meaning.

This is the case also in I Thessalonians 2:14; 4:16; Ephesians 2:18; Philippians 4:16.

In regard to the connection of this first half of the eighth verse with the preceding

context, we must take note of the sternly monitory tone which marks v. 7. This

shows that in the sentence, "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,"

the apostle has more immediately in view the terrible harvest to be reaped by

those who acted as if they thought that God might be overreached (get the better

of someone by cunning). We may infer from this that this first clause of v. 8 is

mainly the thought which up to here the writer had it on his mind to inculcate –

the "corruption" which a man would reap from a life of self-indulgence. But,

after completing the statement of this thought, his tone forthwith changes; the

frown clearing away from his countenance, he adds, to the threatening admonition

of the first clause, the cheering promise of the second, while a more genial tone

marks his further remarks on the subject in vs. 9 and 10. The second limb of the

verse thus appears introduced in the same way as the second does in Romans 8:13;

and in both cases with the conjunction δέ. "Sowing unto his own flesh." Many

critics render, "into his own flesh," as if, with a shifting of the image, which is

certainly not uncommon with St. Paul, the flesh were now the ground into which

the seed is cast. This relation, however, to the verb "sow" (see Alford and Ellicott)

is in the New Testament expressed differently, by ἐν (in) or by ἐπί (upon); while

εἰς in Matthew 13:22 denotes "among." It is more obvious to take εἰς as "unto,"

“denoting the immediate object of the action, that to which it tends, that in which

it terminates" (Webster and Wilkinson, 'Commentary'). This way of construing suits

better in the phrase, εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα – eis to Pneuma – into the Spirit, which follows.

Applying the image of sowing generally, the apostle in v. 7 speaks of the quality

of the sowing (not precisely the quality of the seed) as determining the quality

of the harvest; and here, of one kind of sowing being "unto the flesh," the other

"unto the Spirit." "He that soweth unto his own flesh;" that is, he whose general

action in life is referred to his own personal gratification in his lower nature –

to his own profit, pleasure, honor. The addition of ἑαυτοῦ ("his own") has a

marked reference to the topic which led to this general statement: the apostle

has in his view a man's gratifying his own merely worldly inclinations, to the

disregard of the well-being, even the physical well-being, of other men.

(For example; drug trafficking; alcohol trafficking; sex traffic, etc. CY – 2018)

To sow unto the flesh of our brethren, in one sense, namely, for the promotion

of their physical well-being, would bear a different aspect from sowing unto

our own flesh. "Shall from the flesh reap corruption." This by some commentators

has been interpreted thus: In the harvest of That Day, naught will be found with him

of all those things on which his heart has been set - naught save, at the best:

· mere rottenness,

· disappointment, and

· illusion.

This would be analogous to the moral with which our Lord pointed His parable

of the rich fool, to whom God said, "Whose shall those things be which thou

hast provided?" "So is he," added Christ, "that layeth up treasure for himself,

and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:20-21). The word φθορά (corruption),

involves at least as much as this; but this view alone would furnish an inadequate

antitheton (a figure of thought) to "eternal life," as also it gives less force to the

word itself than it appears from its ordinary use to convey. One essential element

of this verbal noun φθορὰ is the notion of decay, or the condition of being impaired,

spoilt, wasted away (compare Colossians 2:20; Romans 8:21), It is used of corruption

in our moral nature in II Peter 1:4; 2:12, 19; as φθείρω (corrupt) and διαφθείρω

(thoroughly corrupt) are likewise applied in II Corinthians 7:2; I Timothy 6:5.

But the clear presentment of its sense, when connected as it is here with "flesh,"

is afforded by its antithesis, with respect to the "body" or "flesh," to ἀφθαρσία –

aphtharsia – incoruption) in I Corinthians 15:42, "It is sown in corruption.,

it is raised in incorruption," and ibid., v.50, "Neither doth corruption inherit

incorruption;" and by the opposed adjectives "corruptible" and "incorruptible '

(φθαρτός and ἄφθαρτος) in 1 Corinthians 15:53-54, as well as by the use of

διαφθορὰ of the rotting away of a dead body, in Acts 2:27, 31; 13:34-37. That the

apostle uses the word "corruption" with a direct reference to "flesh," and therefore

as alluding to or rather expressing a certain qualification of the flesh's condition,

is shown by his inserting the words, ἐκ τῆς σαρκός (of the flesh). Strictly speaking

those words are not necessary for the completeness of the sentence. To all appearance

they are added aetiologically (cause), to make prominent the thought that what is

sown unto the flesh may be expected to issue in corruption, because corruption

is the natural end of flesh itself. For an analogous reason, "of the Spirit" is

inserted in the antithetic statement; the Spirit being essentially not only living,

but vivific (imparting spirit or vivacity). The words, then, seem to mean this:

"shall from the flesh reap that corruption which the flesh, un-quickened by the

Spirit of God [compare Romans 8:11], must itself issue in." In endeavoring more

exactly to determine the sense of these words, it is well in the first instance to

confine our view to the conceptions relative to this subject presented by St. Paul.

In reviewing these, we observe that St. Paul never predicates ἀφθαρσία (incorruption,"

"incorruptibleness) of the future bodily condition of "those who perish; are destroyed

(οἱ ἀπολλύμενοι – hoi apollumenoi)." On the contrary, in I Corinthians 15:42-54

he clearly restricts this conception of bodily being to the case of those whose body

shall be assimilated to that of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, as indeed

it is only to them that the entire discourse (vs. 20-58) relates. So again in

Philippians 3:21, the "fashioning anew of the body of our humiliation into

conformity with the body of His glory" is evidently limited to those whose end

is not perdition (ἀπώλεια – apoleia) which indicates loss of well-being, not of

being; waste; ruin. Again, in Ii Corinthians 5:1 the "house not made with hands,

eternal," appears to be an exclusive designation of the resurrection-body of the

accepted believer. Once more, in Romans 2:7 the words, "to them that by patience

in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption (ἀφθαρσίαν)," imply that

incorruption is an attribute exclusively pertaining to the happiness after which

true Christians aspire. All that we meet with elsewhere in St. Paul's writings fits in

perfectly with his holding the view that, while "there shall be a resurrection both

of the just and unjust," as he stated to Felix (Acts 24:15) - a resurrection surely he

meant in the body:

· the bodies of the accepted alone wilt be incorruptible,

· the bodies of the lost being, for all that appears in his teaching, left in

some sense subject to corruption.

In what way the apostle in his own mind connected this conception, of incorruption

being a quality exclusively pertaining to the future condition of the just with that of

the "eternal destruction (αἰώνιος ὄλεθρος – aionios olethros )" AWAITING THEM

that know not God (II Thessalonians 1:9), we shall, perhaps, do wisely in not

attempting to determine. We can, it is true, imagine ways of conjoining the two

notions; 'but it will be best not to positively affirm that this or that that was

St. Paul's manner of viewing the subject. Possibly the Spirit had not revealed this

to him. If so, he might feel it incumbent upon him to forbear from giving forth

definite statements on matters not really disclosed to his view, and, therefore,

not intended to form a part of revealed truth. This, however, should not keep

us back from accepting what appears to be the only probable view of the sense

of the present passage, namely, that they who live a life of selfishness and carnal

self-indulgence will reap the final award of having a body with flesh, in some

most real and important sense, subject to corruption. The consideration that the

apostle is thinking of the awards of the day of judgment, at once meets the objection

that corruption is predicable of the Christian's body also. It is obvious to reply that,

though the body of a believer is sown in corruption even as the body of an unrighteous

man, it is revealed to us that it will be raised in incorruption; which it is nowhere said

that the body of him who dies in his sins will be. As applied to objects lying on the

other side of the veil which parts the spiritual world from that visible world whence

all our images of thought are derived, this term "corruption" must be understood

as describing a condition of bodily being, not necessarily identical with, but very

conceivably only in some respects analogous to, that which it describes in relation

to a corpse in our present state. The resurrection state, with all that pertains to it,

inscrutably blending, as the story, of the forty days commencing with Christ s

resurrection exemplifies, spiritual phenomena with corporeal, is one which we

are wholly unable to understand or to realize. This may be thought a very superfluous

observation. But it is not so. The attempts intellectually to realize the events which

we are hereafter to witness and to be the subjects of, and the dogmatic affirmations

relating to them, made, not merely in past ages, but in the very present, render it

necessary that we should distinctly keep this truth in view. The physical theory of

that future state, and the eventual history which is to be evolved in it, we not merely

do not know, but are absolutely incapable of forecasting. We dare not say one syllable

about them beyond what is distinctly told us; and what is told us, we are to remember,

is through the very nature of the case no other than images, presented in a dark dim

mirror, which shows them so obscurely, that to our intellective perception they seem

riddles rather than revelations: Ἄρτι γὰρ βλέπομεν δἰ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι – Arti

gar blepomen di esoptrou en ainigmati – for now we see through a glass darkly;

for we are observing at present through a mirror in enigma, (I Corinthians 13:12).

It is, in fact, not our intellect, but our moral sense, that the revelations of the future

state are designed to inform. Next, looking out from the field of purely Pauline

doctrine upon the teaching presented in other parts of the New Testament, we are

reminded at once of that awful and repeated word of our Lord concerning the

"Gehenna of fire" - "where their worm (σκώληξ – skolaex – a worm that preys

upon dead bodies) dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43-48).

It is known that, before our Lord appeared upon earth, this conception of Gehenna,

the terms of which beyond question were borrowed from the closing verses of Isaiah,

had already become current in the eschatological views of the Jews. This is evidenced

by Judith 16:17; Ecclesiasticus. 7:17. This imagery our Lord adopted, recognizing,

it should seem, in this portion of rabbinical teaching a just evolution of ideas which

had been presented in the inspired volumes of the Old Testament - a development

of them which we may fairly attribute to the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit

promised to God's restored people, as e.g, in Ezekiel 36:24-28. We cannot doubt

that the "worm" which our Lord spoke of means the worm which preys upon rotting

flesh. The image, therefore, exactly accords with the word "corruption" as interpreted

above. Whether the apostle glanced at that discourse of Christ, or was even aware of it,

is uncertain; but that he both knew of it and even inferred from it in using this word

"corruption," is by no means unlikely. One other reference to "corruption" as the

future doom of at least certain of the lost, is found in II Peter 2:12, which, according

to the now approved reading of the Greek text, runs thus: "But these, as creatures

without reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed - shall in their

destroying be destroyed [or, 'in their corruption shall even rot away'] (ἐν τῇ φθορᾷ

αὐτῶν καὶ φθαρήσονται – en tae phthora auton kai phtharaesontai – perish in their

own corruption)." Possibly the word φθορά, taken as "corruption," points here to

moral corruption; but the verb φθαρήσονται may very well point to the miserable

doom of rotting away by which they shall judicially perish, moral corruption

working physical corruption. But the exact sense is doubtful. With the clause

before us we must group Romans 8:13, "If ye live after the flesh, ye are certain

to die;" whilst the sentence which follows, "But if by the Spirit ye put to death

the doings of the body, ye shall live," answers to the closing sentence of the

present verse; as also does "death" as "the wages of sin," balanced against

the "eternal life" which is "the gift of God," in Romans 6:25. The contrasted

thoughts in Philippians 3:19-20 likewise closely touch those here presented to us.

But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (ὁ δὲ

σπείρων εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα ἐκ τοῦ Πνεύματος θερίσει ζωὴν αἰώνιον – ho de speiron

eis to Pneuma ek tou Pneumatos therisei zoaen aionion - but he that soweth unto

the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life eternal. That is, he that expends:

· thought,

· time,

· effort,

· money,

upon the furthering, in himself and in others, of the fruits of the Spirit, shall

receive, from that Holy Spirit to whose guidance dwelling within him he resigns

himself, that quickening of his whole being, body, soul, and spirit, for an everlasting

existence in glory, which it is the proper work of that Divine Agent to effect. For

the latter clause, compare Romans 8:11, "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus

from the dead dwelleth in you [as the guiding, animating influence in your lives],

He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies,

because of His Spirit dwelling within you;" in which passage the aetiologleal

(the cause) clause, "by reason of His Spirit dwelling in you," corresponds exactly

with the aetiological clause, "of the Spirit," in the words before us. The two verses

which follow show that one specific form of sowing unto the Spirit which the apostle

has definitely in view, while enforcing the general idea, is that of Christian

beneficence. How closely the practice of Christian beneficence was in the

apostle's mind, in conformity with Christ's own teaching (Matthew 25. etc.),

connected with the securing of the future blissful immortality, is markedly

shown in I Timothy 6:18-19; - not the less so if we adopt the now approved

reading, ἵνα ἐκιλάβωνται τοῦ ὄντως ζωῆς – hina ekilabontai tou ontos zoaes –

, "that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed."

Sowing and Reaping:

THE SOLEMN WARNING AGAINST SELF-DECEPTION. “Be not

deceived; God is not mocked.” Whether the self-deception arise from

pride or corruption of heart, or from the perversions of false teachers,

some might imagine that there would be no harvest after the present life;

others might suppose that they would not reap the same sort of seed they

were sowing; others, that the harvest would have no relation to the degree

or proportion of the goodness or badness of the seed. They are sternly

warned not to deceive themselves. God is not mocked, either by a

presumptuous neglect of a Divine command or with services that are

pretended and not real.

THERE IS A NECESSARY CONNECTION BETWEEN THE

SOWING AND THE REAPING. It is impossible for men to break the

Divine order established in the nature of things. There is a sowing-time;

there will be a reaping-time. The reaping will be as the sowing. He that

sows wheat will reap wheat; he that sows cockle will reap cockle. Nobody

expects, after sowing wheat, to have a crop of thistles. So it is in the acts

of human life. The actions of this life are as seed sown for the life to come.

The tare-sower cannot expect wheat; for “whatsoever a man soweth, that

shall he also reap.”

THE TWO SOWINGS AND THE TWO REAPINGS. “He that soweth to

the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to

the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” The flesh and the

Spirit represent, as it were, two corn-fields, in which different kinds of seed

are sown. The future and the present here stand in the strictest connection.

ü The sowing to the flesh. The flesh is the unregenerate nature. Every

act of life has a distinct relation to the gratification of that nature.

The idea of the apostle is elsewhere represented in vivid phrase. The

man who “sows to the flesh” is he who “walks after the flesh”

(Romans 8:4), who “minds the things of the flesh” (Romans 8:5),

who is “in the flesh” (Romans 8:5), who “lives after the flesh,”

who “minds earthly things,” who “fulfils the desires of the flesh

and of the mind,” who “presents his members unto sin as

instruments of unrighteousness” (Romans 6:13).

ü The terrible reaping. We see part of the harvest in this life. We

see drunkenness dogged by disease, idleness with rags, pride with

scorn, and the rejection of God by the belief of a lie. (II Thessalonians

2:10-12) But the passage clearly points to the harvest at the end of the

world, when the seed germinates into corruption. This is moral death

(2 Peter 2:12; 1 Corinthians 3:17). “To be carnally minded is death.”

(Romans 8:6) Great in consequence will be the misery of man upon

him. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and

the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the

book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which

were written in the books, according to their works. And

whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into

the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:12,15)

ü The sowing to the Spirit. All the acts of the believer have relation to

the life of grace: he lays up treasure in heaven; the life created by the

Spirit can have no pause — it renounces self and lives to God.

ü The blessed reaping. The harvest is everlasting life. The

connection between the reaping and the sowing in the first case is

that of desert; the connection in this case is established by grace;

for, while “the wages of sin is death,” “the gift of God is eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Though the

harvest is everlasting life to all sowers to the Spirit, it will not be the

same to all; for “For we must all appear before the judgment

seat of Christ: every one may receive the things done in his body,

according to that he hath done, whether good or bad.”

(II Corinthians 5:10)

CONCLUSIONS. The passage suggests:

ü That we ought to have a due consideration to the importance of our

present conduct,

ü That the hypocrite is a fool who imagines that he can sow to the

flesh and yet reap “life everlasting.”

ü That it is only by faith in Jesus Christ we shall ever be brought to

cease sowing to the flesh and begin sowing to the Spirit.

“He that soweth unto his own flesh;” that is, he whose general action in life is

referred to his own personal gratification in his lower nature - to his own profit,

pleasure, honor. The addition of eJautou~ (“his own” [selfishness –CY 2009]) has

a marked reference to the topic which led to this general statement: the apostle has

in his view a man’s gratifying his own merely worldly inclinations, to the disregard

of the well-being, even the physical well-being, of other men.

“shall of the flesh reap corruption” - One essential element of this verbal noun

fqora< - [corruption] is the notion of decay, or the condition of being impaired,

spoilt, wasted away (Colossians 2:20; Romans 8:21) That which is sown unto the

flesh may be expected to issue in corruption, because corruption is the natural

end of flesh itself.

With the clause before us we must group Romans 8:13, “If ye live after the flesh,

ye are certain to die;” whilst the sentence which follows, “But if by the Spirit ye

put to death the doings of the body, ye shall live,” answers to the closing

sentence of the present verse; as also does “death” as “the wages of sin,”

balanced against the “eternal life” which is “the gift of God,” in

Romans 6:23. The contrasted thoughts in Philippians 3:19-21 likewise

closely touch those here presented to us!

v. 9 – “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall

reap, if we faint not.”

ENCOURAGEMENT TO PERSEVERANCE IN WELL-DOING, THE

DUTY OF BELIEVERS.

ü “We are, as God’s workmanship, created unto good works.”

(Ephesians 2:10.)

ü It is “good and profitable to men” that believers should be

“careful to maintain good works. (Titus 3:8,14).

ü They are to follow the example of Christ, “who went about

every day doing good” (Acts 10:38)

THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSEVERANCE IN WELL-DOING. “Be

not weary in well-doing.” The same counsel is given in 2 Thessalonians

3:13. He does not hint that the Galatians were not already doing good; he

merely suggests that they must not weary in it. How much depends on

perseverance!

ü God’s glory is greatly promoted;

ü the prosperity of the Church powerfully enhanced;

ü our own reward proportionately increased.

THE CAUSES OF WEARINESS IN WELL-DOING. They are

numerous and complex in their operation.

ü The friction of life in a world with ungodly tendencies.

ü The ingratitude and unworthiness of those we befriend.

ü We are cooled by the coldness of other men.

ü Our patience is exhausted by the number seeking our help.

ü There is so much to be done that it seems useless to begin in the

hope of overtaking everything.

ü There is so much opposition to the best plans of goodness.

ü Physical fatigue has a tendency to generate moral weariness.

ENCOURAGEMENT TO PERSEVERANCE. Our work will not be

resultless. “In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

ü There is a regular time for the harvest. “The harvest is the end of the

world.” (Matthew 13:39)The sowing goes on all through our lives.

We must not be disheartened because the interval appears long.

“Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

(Luke 14:14) If you do not find the results of Christian service on

earth, you will find them in heaven. “Be patient therefore,

brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband-

man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long

patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain” (James 5:7).

ü 2. The reaping will surely come. It will come partly in this world,

in the blessing of God upon all we possess and all we do, in the

gratitude and prayers of those we help, and in the secret satisfaction

which a course of well-doing comes into the heart of the believer.

But our full reward will be at the resurrection of the just, and will

be proportional to the nature and extent of our labors. Therefore

believers ought to be “steadfast, unmovable, ever abounding in the

work of the Lord, seeing that our labor shall not be in vain in the

Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

In the long, long, weary, arduous conflict which St. Paul was waging throughout

his Christian career, the flesh must often have felt weak, and have required the

application of this goad. And this tone of personal feeling may, perhaps, be

further discerned in the use of the phrase, “in due season;” the blessed

reaping of joy may seem to us at times long in coming; but God’s time for

its coming will be the best time; let us, therefore, be resigned to wait for

that.

Christ has given us the example and we should follow His steps! (I Peter 2:21)

We should “consider Him that endured……lest ye be wearied and faint in

your minds” – Hebrews 12:3

v. 10 – “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,

especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”

The Sphere of Our Beneficence and Influence.

THE DUTY COMMANDED. “Let us do good.” Christian life is not a

mere easy and decent inoffensiveness. A man is not harmless who does

no good. The barren tree is hurtful, because it cumbers the ground and

draws to itself the fertilizing qualities of the earth, which would make a

better tree more fruitful. It brings forth no bad fruit; yet it is cast into the

fire. Therefore we must not only “cease to do evil,” but “learn to do well.”

(Isaiah 1:16-17) “To do good and to communicate forget not” (Hebrews

13:16).

THE DUTY BOUNDED BY OPPORTUNITY. “As we have therefore

opportunity.” Cotton Mather says, “The opportunity to do good imposes

the obligation to do it.” Also, “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth

it not, to him it is sin” – (James 4:17) It is not when our inclination or our

self-interest or the thirst for fame or gratitude dispose us that we are to do

good, but at every opportunity that opens on our path. These opportunities

are constantly around us in the common intercourse of life, but they

specially arise in connection with suffering and distress. Therefore “in the

morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.”

(Ecclesiastes 11:6)

THE SPHERE OF BENEVOLENCE. There is a wider sphere, and a

narrower within it: “Do good unto all men, and especially to them who

are of the household of faith.” There are distinctions even in the wider

sphere. We recognize them in the obligations of family life. “If any man

provide not for his own, he is worse than an infidel;” (I Timothy 5:8)

we recognize the claims of friendship and of gratitude; yet our beneficence

is to extend to all men within the range of opportunity. It is a significant fact

that the Apostle Peter, in naming the successive graces of life that are essential

to our partaking of the Divine nature, says, “Add to your brotherly kindness

charity.” There may be a selfish or sectarian feeling that leads us to forget

the wider relations in which we stand in the scheme of Divine providence.

Yet the brotherly kindness stands first. We are to do good, “especially to

them who are of the household of faith;” on the same principle as we are

bound to remember first the wants of our family or our friends. The spirit

of the Rousseau philanthropy would not tolerate any distinctions of this

sort. The household in question, which includes the whole collective body

of Christians, is a large, a growing, a loving household, and, in early times,

sorely scattered by persecution. There was, therefore, a special need to

show kindness to its members. The” collection for the saints” (1

Corinthians 16:1, 2) is a practical illustration of this nearer relationship.

We are taught to “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another” –

(Romans 13:8). Jesus said “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that

men should do to you, do ye even so to them” – (Matthew 7:12)

v. 11 – “Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own

hand.” A personal postscript - There is a mystery about these large

characters. It is conjectured that they may have been due to age, or to

infirmity, or to weakness of eyes, or to the want of habit in writing Greek.

But it is more interesting to see that, unlike other Epistles, which were written

by an amanuensis, this one was written entirely with Paul’s own hand.

vs. 12-13 – “As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain

you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for

the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised

keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory

in your flesh.”

v. 14 – “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord

Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto

the world.” - Paul gloried in Christ through His expiatory sufferings

on the cross which procured for us eternal life, which He applies by

the Holy Spirit.

Christ’s cross has sundered the relationship between Paul and the world. They are

dead to each other. Luther says, “The world and I are well agreed. The world cares

not a pin for me, and I, to cry quittance with it, care as little for the world.”

What is the world? It is that sphere of things in which the “lust of the

flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life” (I John 2:16) find their

natural development. It is the world as opposed to God. “The friendship

of this world is enmity with God” (James 4:4).

The world had lost its attractions for Paul, its power over him and its

influence to lead him astray.

The world regards him as a dead man, who has no longer any attractions

that it should desire him. It regards him no longer as its own, and therefore

hates him to the point of persecution. This inter-crucifixion came about

through his union with Christ, and that union was effected by the cross.

Well, therefore, might the apostle glory in the cross!

It was the cross which released Paul from the guilt and servitude of sin,

so also from all worry and distress of bondage to the Law and

ceremonial prescriptions!

The Galatians, and we also, have as much reason as Paul to glory in the

cross of Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin and from the Law.

In various ways was the cross of Christ the means of effecting this mutual

crucifixion between the apostle and the world. It is apparent, from the whole

tenor of his Epistles, that Christ crucified, as manifesting both Christ’s love

to sinful men in general, and to his own self in particular, “the chief of sinners,”

(I Timothy 1:15) and likewise the love of God his Father, wrought with so mighty

an attraction upon his whole soul — intellect, conscience, affections — that all

other objects which were only not connected with this one lost to him their whole

zest and interest, while all other objects which clashed with the moral and spiritual

influence of this became absolutely distasteful and repulsive. And, on the other hand,

the world at large met the man who was animated with this absorbing devotion

to God as manifested in a crucified Christ, with just that estrangement and

aversion which might have been anticipated

v. 15 – “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor

uncircumcision, but a new creature.” This “new creature” is the

result of “regeneration!” “in Jesus Christ neither circumcision

availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation”

Jews and Gentiles are made one in Christ. They are “fellow citizens,

of the same body, of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19).

They are made “one new man.” (Ephesians 2:15)

In Christ the old separating distinctions have lost all their value. Neither

circumcision nor uncircumcision ever availed anything for justification.

The Jew might be ready enough to concede the point as to uncircumcision,

but he would be offended to hear that his circumcision availed nothing.

The sentence of the apostle cuts up by the roots all the ritualism of the

Churches. Eating of meats, celibacy, holidays, are nothing; we are no better

for abstaining nor are we the worse for eating. This constitutes it an entirely

spiritual system, in which the outer is nothing, the inward is everything. It is

not a mere change of opinion, or of party, or of outward life. It is not of

“blood, nor of the will of the flesh”; - men may be noble by birth, but

they cannot be holy by birth; “not of the will of man,” as many a godly

father knows by bitter experience as he mourns over the waywardness

of ungodly children. “but of God” – (John 1:13)

The new life originates in Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new

creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). lies embedded in a passage which

describes in language of remarkable intenseness the transforming influence

of Christ’s death, wherever by faith it has been fully grasped. That passage,

occurring as it does in an Epistle written nearly at the same time as the

Epistle to the Galatians, leaves no doubt as to the ideas which in the

apostle’s mind cluster round the term “new creation,” mentioned, here too

as in effect there, in close connection with the cross of Christ, his sole

supreme glory. It points to the state of a sinner consciously reconciled to

God by the death of Christ, and finding himself thus translated into the

midst of new perceptions, new joys, new habits of life. new expectations.

“The old things are passed away” — guilt, the overmastering power

of sin, laborious effort after goodness frustrated after all and ineffectual,

the servile routine of a dead unquickening ceremonialism: “behold, all

things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled

us to Himself through Christ” The spiritual renewal springs from

union with Christ. It is “not of the will of man,” for man cannot change

his own heart. Christ is our very Life (Galatians 2:20).

The phrase, “a new creature,” appears to have been used by the Jews to

describe the change resulting in the case of a heathen becoming a proselyte.

That was no doubt a great change; but far greater seemed to the apostle to

be the transformation in the case of one translated from the bondage and

darkness of the “letter” into the “newness of the Spirit” (Romans 7:6).

Paul had himself experienced how marvellously great as well as how

blessed the transition was; and he has described it in glowing terms also in

Ephesians 1:17-2:10. In the present passage the particle “for” seems to

point back, not exclusively to v.14, but to the general tenor of the whole

passage in vs. 12-14, as rebuking that great ado about circumcision which

the innovators referred to were making in the Galatian Churches, thereby

diverting the minds of those that listened to them from the Christian’s true

business. This sense of the particle may seem somewhat loose; but it suits

well the rapid, decisive, summarizing strain with which the apostle is now

closing up his letter. The supreme concern, he means, for every one who

wishes to be a member of God’s kingdom is that he shall realize in his own

experience the “new creation;” alike in the freedom and joy of adoption

which appertains thereto (ch. 4.), and also in that walking of the Spirit

which includes the crucifixion of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-25). On this

point we may compare Ephesians 4:23-24 and Romans 12:2.

It is a new life; for it has new thoughts, new desires, new principles, new

affections, and stands in everlasting relation to the new name, the new

song, the new Jerusalem, the new heavens, and the new earth. The new

birth, in a word, has ushered the believer into a new world.

v. 16 - “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and

mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

In the new dispensation of Christianity, to be a Jew is no privilege, to be a Gentile

is no barrier.

THE BENEDICTION. “Peace be on them, and mercy.” The two

greatest blessings of the covenant. Peace is the distinctive theocratic gift —

“ Peace shall be upon Israel” (Psalm 125:5); mercy is the blessing in

which peace finds at once its origin and support.

THE OBJECTS OF THE BLESSING. Those “who walk according to

this rule” and “the Israel of God.” The first class was not Gentile

believers as such, nor the second Jewish believers as such. The blessing is

for the entire number who walk according to this rule, but the apostle finds

among them a class whom he describes with a tender and suggestive fitness

as “the Israel of God.” He had been all along proving that the true Israel was

“of faith,” but he evidently thinks of his countrymen as standing apart from

their Judaistic perverters in the glorious eminence of “the Israel of God.” It

is a peculiar expression, still more distinctive even than “Israel after the

Spirit,” and emphasizes the Divine ownership in those who are “the

circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus,

and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).

v. 17 - “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the

marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Paulnow turns round to his adversaries, and with one parting word asks to

be let alone.

A CLAIM TO BE LEFT UNMOLESTED. “Henceforth let no man

cause me troubles”.

THE GROUND OF HIS CLAIM. – “For I bear in my body the marks

of the Lord Jesus (ejgw< ga<r ta< sti>gmata tou~ jIhsou~ ejn tw~| sw>mati> mou

basta>zw); I am one who bear branded on my body the flesh-marks of Jesus.

The Greek word sti>gmata (stigma) here employed denotes a mark on the

flesh, either by puncture, its proper sense, with a hot, sharp instrument, very

often with hot needles. It served sometimes as a mark of permanent

ownership, as upon horses or cattle. In respect to slaves, it was not

considered humane to brand them, except for punishment, or as security in

particular cases against running away. Paul is not referring to tattooing

but the term points to those scars, seams, perhaps long-continuing sores,

which the long course of ever-recurring hardships and ill usage, through

which he had passed, must have left upon him - patent evidence to all who

looked upon him of the manner in which his fellow-men regarded and

treated him. “I bear in my body the marks of Jesus.” “I” - ejgw< is inserted

with emphasis. not the false teachers who plan to escape persecution by

their hypocrisy — “ bear in my body the marks” — in many scourgings,

wounds, and scars — of Christ’s ownership. These marks were the visible

vouchers of his apostleship.

v. 18 - “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Amen. Paul’s parting words – he had begun the Epistle with a salutation

of grace and peace; it ends with grace.

THE BLESSING. “Grace,” which is at once the beginning, middle, and

end of Paul’s theology; and the beginning, middle, and end of Christian life.

“The grace of Jesus Christ” denotes his Savior’s loving-kindness, not only

effectual in making a guilty soul acceptable to God through His atonement,

but also in purifying it from sin, enduring it with spiritual strength, and

securing its final salvation.

THE TOKEN OF PARTING TENDERNESS. “Brethren.” It comes

last in the sentence, as if, after all his grave censures, he would remember

they were still brethren in Christ. His spirit softens as his pen traces the

closing words of the Epistle, and the sweet “Amen” seals everything with

the token of his deep sincerity and his tender interest in their welfare.

Materials are reproduced by permission." - (here and following):

ADDITIONAL NOTES

vs. 6-10 - The mistake many make is in turning this life into harvest, selfishness,

Hedonism, “live for the gusto – you only go around once” mentality. It makes

a mighty difference if I am living in the autumn only and am for ever past the

spring. Now, Christianity, as the religion of hope, leads us to this view of the

present life. It is only seed-time. The harvest is not yet. No refinement of

speculation can be allowed to cheat us of our assurance of immortality. We

are only in the spring. The summer and the autumn are before us.

(My fellow man – one of the saddest verses in the Bible to me is “The

harvest is past, the summer is ended, AND WE ARE NOT SAVED” –

[Jeremiah 8:20] Will you not trust Jesus Christ today? HE will save YOU!

CY – 2009)

6 “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in

all good things. (κοινωνείτω δὲ ὁ κατηχούμενος τὸν λόγον τῷ κατηχοῦντι ἐν

πᾶσιν ἀγαθοῖς – koinoneito de ho kataechoumenos ton logon to kataechounti en

pasin agathois - let him that is receiving instruction in the Word share with him

that instructeth in all good things. The Authorized Version appears to have

exercised sound discretion in leaving the particle δὲ - de untranslated. It is, in fact,

here merely a conjunction of transition: not in any degree adversative; for the

exhortation to liberality towards our teachers is perfectly germane to the preceding

topics of carrying one another's loads, and so carrying our own pack. The verb

κατηχεῖν – kataechein - etymologically "to fill with sound," thence signifies

"to din a thing into another person's mind with inculcation or constant repetition,"

in which sense it occurs in Acts 21:21, 24, of the persistent repetition of a slanderous

report. (emphasize this and a person hearing things over and over in his head later –

implications for hell! CY – 2018) So early as in Hippocrates (Liddell and Scott)

the verbal substantive κατήχησις – kataechaesis is used for "instruction;" and the

verb, though not occurring in Attic writers, seems to have continued in use in other

dialects, to reappear at length in the Common Dialect of Greek. Accordingly, it is

found in the sense of "instruct" in Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25; Romans 2:18; I Corinthians

14:19. It does not denote instruction by question and answer in particular, but simply

the inculcating of knowledge. Recently as the Galatian Churches had been founded,

it appears from this passage that there were already persons among them whose

particular business it was to give religious instruction to their fellow-Christians;

so much their business, that they were on this ground entitled to receive from those

they taught liberal help in temporal things. Such persons were doubtless included

among the "elders" whom Paul and Barnabas appointed in the several Churches

which they planted (Acts 14:23). It is noticeable, further, that the order of men

alone singled out as entitled to such secular assistance is characterized as a teaching

order; so characterized, perhaps, because teaching religious truth was the most

prominent and characteristic of their functions. In his First Epistle to Timothy

(1 Timothy 5:17), written, probably, some years later, "the elders who labour in

Word and teaching (διδασκαλία – didaskalia – teaching; doctrine)" are particularized

as those among the "presiding elders" who are the "most especially" entitled to liberal

payment; the form of expression, however, implying that elders whose function lay in

other duties than that of teaching were likewise entitled to liberal consideration. The

teaching elders would require, more than other Church officers, leisure from worldly

avocations for the study of God's Word and His truth, and for the actual discharge

of their especial work in private as well as in public (compare Acts 6:4; 20:20).

(My friends, I will not emphasize my calling nor tenure. I realize after all this

time that I have fallen short of what I could have done or should have done in

this Adult Bible Class. However, I marvel at the providence of God that I have

been retired well into my 19^th year and how I have been free of physical and

material wants during this time even though I am not worthy to be compared

with these teachers of Galatia mentioned here by St. Paul. Though I spend some

time on my website at http://www.adultbibleclass.com it has been in the last

twenty years that I have been working on it. Satan wants me to think it is a

waste of time, but I know better, and commit it to the Lord hoping that the

people that come from all over the world and serve at Ft. Campbell, our close

neighbor to the south, I commit the website to God as to whether it will be

carried worldwide or not! CY – 2018)

The direction here given would apply, as to the case of resident teachers, so also to that of persons who travelled about in the dissemination of the faith; as we learn from 1 Corinthians 9:4-14; 2 Corinthians 11:7-12. In 1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13 the apostle commends to the "high estimation" of the disciples "those who laboured among them, and were ever them in the Lord, and admonished them (κοπιῶντας προι'σταμένους νουθετοῦντας); The expression "the Word" is used without any further qualification to designate the Christian doctrine, as in Mark 2:2; Mark 4:14; Acts 8:4; Acts 11:19; Philippians 1:14. So the Christian religion is styled "the Way" in Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9. "Share;' the verb κοινωνεῖν and its derivatives are frequently used with reference to that kind of "fellowship" or "partnership" which is evinced by our liberally sharing with the object of it in our worldly means. If we "count a minister our partner (κοινενόν)," as St. Paul writes to Philemon (ver. 17), we shall not begrudge him frank and generous help in any direction. Thus Romans 12:13, "Communicating to the necessities of saints," is properly "sharing with them in generous sympathy." So Philippians 4:14, "had fellowship with (συγκοιήσαντες) my affliction" points to liberal temporal assistance. Similarly, generous sympathy embodied in money gifts is styled "communion," or "partnership," in Romans 15:26; 2 Corinthians 9:13; Philippians 1:5; Hebrews 13:16; as also κοινωνικός, "ready to communicate," expresses one ready to show such sympathy, in 1 Timothy 6:18. The apostle regards, and would have others regard, such offices of kindness with a fine delicate feeling, not as giving as if from a higher level of condition, but as sharing with brothers, with whom all things are held in common. Chrysostom and others consider the word to point to an interchange or barter of goods, spiritual and temporal, referring to 1 Corinthians 9:11. "In all good things;" in all good things of this life which he himself possesses. "Good things" as in Luke 12:18, 19 ("my goods"); Luke 16:25; the preposition "in," as in Matthew 23:30, "partakers in the blood of the prophets." The exact import of this clause, which has been variously interpreted, is best appreciated by our taking account of the warmth of indignant feeling with which the apostle is writing. This clearly transpires both from the words, "be not deceived," and from the assurance, "God is not mocked." The apostle had evidently in his eye a certain course of conduct which he indignantly denounces as a "sneering at God." This feeling prompts him to accentuate his exhortation addressed to the cold-hearted, niggardly Christians whom he has in view, by adding this clause, which is in effect, "in every possible way;" namely, by giving them respect and good will as well as maintenance. To no other Church does he address such direct admonition respecting the liberal treatment of its teachers, though, perhaps, indirect admonition may be detected in 1 Corinthians 9:7-11. No doubt the news he had just heard from Galatia made him feel the necessity of dealing with them roundly on this point.

all this goes to Oct 14 lesson

Galatians 6:9

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Verse 9. - And let us not be weary in well-doing (τὸ δὲ καλὸν ποιοῦντες μὴ ἐγκακῶμεν [Textus Receptus, ἐκκακῶμεν]); but in doing that which is good, let us not flag. That is, some sow unto their own flesh, some unto the Spirit; let us be of those who do that which is commendable; and not that only; let us do it with an unflagging spirit. Such seems to be the swaying of thought in the sentence; hence the position of the participial phrase before the verb: the participle is not a mere qualification of the verb, as it is in the rendering, "Let us not be weary in well-doing," and as it is in 2 Thessalonians 3:13; but, with an implied exhortation that such should be the case, it supposes that we are of the better class, and founds upon the supposition the exhortation not to flag. "That which is commendable (τὸ καλόν)" recites, not works of beneficence only, but every species of moral excellence, comprising in brief the enumeration given in Philippians 4:8, all of which is included in "sowing unto the Spirit," The verb ἐγκακεῖν occurs in five other places of the New Testament - Luke 18:1; 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16; Ephesians 3:13; 2 Thessalonians 3:13. In every one of these six passages some of the manuscripts present the variant reading of ἐκκακεῖν, which in all is adopted in the Textus Receptus, but is in all replaced with the general consent of recent editors by ἐγκακεῖν. It is, indeed, questioned whether ἐκκακεῖν is ever used by any Greek author. The difference in meaning is material: ἐγκακεῖν is to be bad in doing a thing; while ἐκκακεῖν, would probably mean to be so bad at a course of action as to leave it off altogether. In the first four of the above-cited passages it is tendered in the Authorized Version by "faint;" whilst in 2 Thessalonians 3:13 and here it is rendered "be weary," that is, "flag." In all the notion of flagging appears the most suitable, and in 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16 necessary. In the present passage the course of thought requires us to understand it as not so strong a word as ἐκλύεσθαι. Critics point attention to the play of phrase in connecting the expression, doing that which is commendable or good, with the verb denoting being bad at doing it. So in 2 Thessalonians 3:13, μὴ ἐγκακήσητε καλοποιοῦντες. The epigrammatic combination would seem to have been a favourite one with St. Paul, occurring as it does in two letters written several years apart. Such playfulness is not foreign to his style. The use of the first person plural may be merely cohortative, as above in Galatians 5:24. But it may also he a real self-exhortation as well. In the long, long, weary, arduous conflict which St. Paul was waging throughout his Christian career, the flesh must often have felt weak, and have required the application of this goad. And this tone of personal feeling may, perhaps, be further discerned in the use of the phrase, "in due season;" the blessed reaping of joy may seem to us at times long in coming; but God's time for its coming will be the best time; let us, therefore, be resigned to wait for that. This seems to be the tone of the καιροῖς ἰδίοις, "in its own times," of 1 Timothy 6:15. For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (καιρῷ γὰρ ἰδίῳ θερίσομεν μὴ ἐκλυόμενοι). for at its own season we shall reap, if we faint not. Καιρὸς ἴδιος is the season assigned to an event in the counsels of God; as in 2 Thessalonians 2:6, ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ καῖρῳ, "in his season," of the revelation of the "man of lawlessness." Καιροῖς ἰδίοις is used in 1 Timothy 6:15 with reference, as here, to the day of judgment; and in 1 Timothy 2:6 and Titus 1:3, of the manifestation of the gospel. In every case the phrase appears to intimate that the season appointed by God, though not what man might have anticipated or wished, was, however, to be acquiesced in as wisest and best (see last note). The reaping is the same as that referred to in the previous two verses. "If we faint not." The verb ἐκλύεσθαι in Matthew 15:32 and Mark 8:2 is to faint physically from exhaustion. In Hebrews 12:3, 5 it is used of succumbing, giving in, morally; not merely feeling weak, but in consequence of weakness giving up all further effort. In this latter sense it occurs in the Septuagint of Joshua 18:3 and in 1 Macc. 9:8. And this last is its meaning here. It expresses more than the flagging of spirit before mentioned; for that would not forfeit the reward of past achievement, unless it led to the actual relinquishment of further endeavour; this last would forfeit it (comp. Revelation 3:11 and 2 John 1:8). Taking it thus, there is no occasion for understanding this phrase, "not fainting," as several of the Greek commentators do, including apparently Chrysostom, as if it meant thus: "We shall reap without any fear of fainting or becoming weary any more;" which surely, as Alford observes, gives a vapid turn to the sentence.

Galatians 6:10

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Verse 10. - As we have therefore opportunity (ἄρα οϋν ὡς καιρὸν ἔχιμεν); so then, while (or, as) we have a season for so doing. Ἄρα οϋν: this combination of particles is frequently found in St. Paul's writings, being so far as appears (cf. Winer, 'Gram. N.T.,' § 53, 8a) peculiar to him (1 Thessalonians 5:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; Romans 5:18; Romans 7:3, 25; Romans 8:12; Romans 9:16, 18; Romans 14:12, 19; Ephesians 2:19). In every instance it marks a certain pause after a statement of premisses; in several, following a citation from the Old Testament; the writer, after waiting, so to speak, for the reader duly to Lake into his mind what has been already said, proceeds to draw his inference. The ἄρα seems to point backward to the premisses; the οϋν to introduce the inference. "Well, then," or "so, then," appears a fairly equivalent rendering. In 1 Thessalonians 5:6 and Romans 14:19 ἄρα οϋν introduces a cohortative verb, as here; in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, an imperative. The words Which follow seem to be commonly understood as meaning "whenever opportunity offers." But this fails short of recognizing the solemn consideration of the proprieties of the present sowing-time, which the previous context prepares us to expect to find here; the term "season," as Meyer remarks, having its proper reference already fixed by the antithetical season of reaping referred to in ver. 9. Moreover, instead of for, would not the apostle, if he had meant "whenever," have used the intensified form καθώς? Chrysostom gives the sense well thus: "As it is not always in our power to sow, so neither is it to show mercy; when we have been borne hence, though we may desire it a thousand times, we shall be able to effect nothing." Indeed it is questionable whether the sense now pleaded for is not that which was intended by the rendering in the Authorized Version. The particle ώς probably means "while," as it does in Luke 12:58 and in John 12:35, 36, where it should replace the ἕως of the Textus Receptus; but this needs not to be insisted upon. Anyway, we are reminded of the uncertain tenure by which we hold the season for doing that which, if done, will have so blessed a consequence. Let us do good unto all men (ἐργαζώμεθα τὸ ἀγαθὸν πρὸς πάντας); let us be workers of that which is good towards all men. The verbs ἐργάζομαι and ποιῶ appear used inter-changeably in Colossians 3:23 and 3 John 1:5; but the former seems to suggest, more vividly than the other, either the concrete action, the ἔργον, which is wrought; or else the part enacted by the agent as being a worker of such or such a description - as if, here, it were "let us be benefactors." The adjective "good" (ἀγαθός) is often, perhaps most commonly, used to designate what is morally excellent in general; thus, e.g., in Romans 2:10, "the worker of that which is go,d" is contrasted with "the worker-out of that which is evil," as a description of a man's moral character in general. But on the other hand, this adjective frequently takes the sense of "benevolent," "beneficent;" as e.g. in Matthew 20:15, "Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" 1 Peter 2:18, "masters, not only the good and gentle, but also the froward;" Titus 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Timothy 6:18; Romans 12:21. In the remarkable contrast between the righteous man and the good man in Romans 5:7 (see Dr. Gifford's note on the passage, 'Speaker's Commentary,' p. 123), the latter term appears distinctly intended in the conception of virtuousness to make especially prominent the idea of beneficence. Naturally, this sense attaches to it, when it describes an action done to another, as the opposite to the "working ill to one's neighbour," mentioned in Romans 13:10; "good" in such a relation, denoting what is beneficent in effect, denotes what is also benevolent in intention (see 1 Thessalonians 5:15). Indeed, that the present clause points to works of beneficence" is made certain by that which is added, "and especially," etc.; for our behaviour should be in no greater degree marked by general moral excellence in dealing with one class of men than in dealing with any others; though one particular branch of virtuous action may be called into varying degrees of activity in different relations of human intercourse. "Towards all men;" πρός, towards, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:14; Ephesians 6:9. The spirit of universal philanthropy which the apostle inculcates here as in other passages, as e.g. 1 Thessalonians 5:15, is one which flows naturally from the proper influence upon the mind of the great facts stated in 1 Timothy 2:3-7, as also it was a spirit which in a most eminent degree animated the apostle's own life. Witness that noble outburst of universal benevolence which we read of in Acts 26:29. Such an escape from bigotry and particularism was quite novel to the Gentile world, and scarcely heard of in the Jewish, though beautifully pointed forward to in the teaching of the Book of Jonah (see Introduction to the Book of Jonah, in 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. 6. p. 576). Espescially unto them who are of the household of faith (μάλιστα δὲ πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως); but especially towards them that are of the household of faith. The adjective οἰκεῖος occurs in the New Testament only in St. Paul's Epistles - twice besides here, namely, in Ephesians 2:19, "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household (οἰκεῖοι)of God;" and in 1 Timothy 5:8, "if any provideth not for his own, and specially his own household (οἰκείων)." In the last-cited passage, the adjective, denoting as it plainly is meant to do, a closer relation than "his own (ἰδίων)" must mean members of his household or family; and we can hardly err in supposing that in Ephesians 2:19 likewise the phrase, οἰκεῖοι τοῦ Θεοῦ denotes those whom God has admitted into his family as children. So the word also signifies in the Septuagint of Isaiah 3:5; Isaiah 58:7; and Revelation 18:6, 12, 13. It is, therefore, an unnecessary dilution of its force here to render it, "those who belong to the faith," though such a rendering of it might be justified if found in an ordinary Greek author. The meaning of τῆς πίστεως is illustrated by the strong personification used before by the apostle in Galatians 3:23, 25, "before faith came;" "shut up for the faith which was yet to be revealed;" "now that faith is come." The apostle surely here is not thinking of "the Christian doctrine," but of that principle of believing acceptance of God's promises which he has been insisting upon all through the Epistle. This principle, again personified, is here the patron or guardian of God's people afore-time under a pedagogue: "of the household of faith," not "of the faith." The apostle is thinking of those who sympathized with the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ without legal observances; and very possibly is glancing in particular at the teachers under whose care the apostle had left the Galatian Churches. At first, we may believe, the Galatian Churchmen, in the fervour of their affection to the apostle himself, had been willing enough to help those teachers in every way. But when relaxing their hold upon the fundamental principles of the gospel, they had also declined in their affectionate maintenance of the teachers who upheld those doctrines. He now commends these, belonging to faith's own household, to their especial regard (comp. Philippians 3:17). "Especially;" this qualification in an intensified form of the precept of universal beneficence, is the outcome of no cold calculation of relative duties, but of fervent love towards those who are truly brethren in Christ. That to these an especial affection is due above all others is a sentiment commended and inculcated in almost all St. Paul's Epistles; as it is also by St. Peter, as e.g. in 1 Peter 1:22, etc.; and again by St. John. With all, "love of brethren (φιλαδελφία)" is a different sentiment from that sentiment of charity which is due to all fellow-men; that is, it is an intensified form of this latter, exalted into a peculiar tenderness of regard by the admixture of higher relations than those which antecedently connect true Christians with all members of the human family. Christ has himself (Matthew 25:31-46) taught his disciples that he deems a peculiar regard to be due from them to those "his brethren" who at that day shall be on his right hand; meaning, evidently, by "these my brethren," not suffering men, women, or children as such, but sufferers peculiarly belonging to himself (comp. Matthew 10:42; Matthew 18:5, 6). Thus we see that, after all, there is a particularism properly characteristic of Christian sentiment; only, not such a particularism as a Gentile, and too often a Jew likewise, would have formulated thus: "Thou shalt love thine own people and hate the alien;" but one which may be formulated thus: "Thou shalt love every man, but especially thy fellow-believer in Christ." The reader will, perhaps, scarcely need to be reminded of Keble's exquisite piece on the Second Sunday after Trinity in the 'Christian Year.'

Galatians 6:11

Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.

Verse 11. - Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand (ἴδετε πηλίκοις ὑμῖν γράμμασιν ἔγραψα τῇ ἐμῇ χειρί); see with what large pieces of writing (or, with what large letters) I have written (or, I write) unto you with mine own hand. There can be hardly any doubt that the rendering "ye see" of the Authorized Version, supposing, as it seems to do, that this is meant as an indicative, must be wrong (cf. John 4:29; 1 John 3:1). The ἴδετε of the Textus Receptus in Philippians 1:30 is replaced by recent editors with one consent by εἴδετε. Each one of the four next Greek words, πηλίκοις ὑμῖν γράμμασιν ἔγραψα, has been subjected to a variety of interprerations. What appears to the present writer the most probable view he must explain as briefly as he is able. The interrogative πηλίκος means "how great," as in Zechariah 2:2 (Septuagint); Hebrews 7:4. Accordingly, πόσα καὶ πηλίκα in Polyb., 1:2, 8 (cited in Liddell and Scott's 'Lexicon') means "how many and how large." Many, as e.g. Chrysostom, have supposed that the word includes a reference to clumsiness, ungainliness, as attaching to the apostle's handwriting ("with what big letters!'). But no example of the word being used in this sense of "ungainliness" has been adduced; and it seems safer not to import into its rendering this additional shade of meaning. The dative ὑμῖν Bishop Lightfoot proposes to connect closely with πληίκοις as μοὶ and σοὶ are often used in familiar style, with the sense mark you! But there is no instance of this use of the dative pronoun in the Greek Testament (see Winer, 'Gram. N. T.,' § 22, 7, Anna. 2, p. 140); and here surely it more naturally connects itself with ἔγραψαψ. It is not uncommon with St. Paul to insert some word or words between a substantive and its adjective or dependent genitive, as here between πηλίκοις and γράμμασιν (see Galatians 2:9; Galatians 3:15; Philippians 4:15, etc.). In the instances now cited there appears no more logical occasion for such a seeming disarrangement of the words than there does here. The verb ἔγραψα is used with no objective accusative following, as in Romans 15:15; 1 Peter 5:12; the substantive γράμμασιν being in the dative, because the apostle is referring merely to the form of the medium of communication, and not to the substance of the communication itself. The rendering of the Authorized Version, "how large a letter I have written," cannot be defended as a literal translation, though it may be allowed on one view of the passage to give the sense rightly. But though the plural noun γράμματα, in ordinary Greek, like literae in Latin, sometimes occurs in the sense of a single epistle or letter, it is never so used by St. Paul, who always employs the word ἐπιστολὴ to express this notion, which he does no less than seventeen times. In Acts 28:21 it is rendered "letters," in the plural number; being properly "communications in writing." The noun γράμμα was the word ordinarily employed in Greek to designate a letter of the alphabet. It also denotes "a writing," as when in the plural we read in John 5:47, "if ye believe not his writings," and in 2 Timothy 3:15," the sacred writings," or Scriptures. In Luke 16:6, 7 "take thy bill" is literally, "take thy writings" (γράμματα being the now accepted reading in the Greek text). In 2 Corinthians 3:7, "the ministration of death in writings," the word probably refers to the ten commandments, each forming one writing; though it may mean "in characters of writing." In ordinary Greek it sometimes denotes a passage of a treatise or book (Liddell and Scott, under the word, 2:4). Next

(1) the verb ἔγραψα ("I have written") may be understood, as in Romans 15:15, "I have written the more boldly unto you," etc., with reference to the entire letter, now nearly complete, as it lies before him. In that case the apostle's words may be rendered, "See, with what long writings [or, 'pieces of writing'] I have written unto you with mine own hand." Through some cause or other, we know not what the cause was, writing with his own hand was not a welcome employment to him; so far unwelcome that he generally devolved the actual penning of his letters upon an amanuensis, merely authenticating each letter as his own by a postscript added in his own hand (see 2 Thessalonians 3. fin.). Perhaps Philemon forms the only' exception (see ver. 19), apart from this letter to the Galatians. We may, therefore, imagine the apostle as painfully and laboriously penning one portion after another of the Epistle; often pausing weariedly in the work as he came to the end of each γράμμα, that is, to the end of each section of his argument, each seeming to him a long and toilsome effort. And now at last he exclaims," Look, what long, laborious performances of handwriting I have achieved in writing to you! And from that learn how deeply I am concerned on your behalf, and how grave your present spiritual peril appears to me to be!" Ordinarily it was only a brief "piece of writing" that he wrote with his own hand; here, long pieces, added one after another with painful effort. Or

(2) the verb "I have written" may be referred to what the apostle is now beginning to pen, not merely because the epistolary style of the ancients, Greek and Roman, was wont to place the writer of a letter in the temporal standing-point of its recipient, as when Cicero dates his letters scribebam Id., etc., but because under some circumstances it is natural that the writer should thus refer himself to the view of his correspondent. Thus in Philemon 1:19, "I Paul have written it (ἔγραψα) with mine own hand, I will repay it." It would be quite obvious to ourselves to express our meaning in the same manner. So far, then, as such considerations reach, it appears quite supposable that the apostle, having employed an amanuensis as usual as far as the end of ver. 10, then himself took up the pen for the customary addition of an authenticating postscript; and that, for the purpose of adding especial emphasis to the postscript which he here thought advisable to add, he made his handwriting most unusually large, and that it is to this emphatic style of penmanship that he here draws attention. Many modern critics have acquiesced in this explanation; and if γράμμασιν means "letters," that is, characters of the writing, it seems the most probable; for it does not seem likely that the whole Epistle was written in letters of an extraordinary size; while, if the characters were those of his ordinary style of penmanship, the remark would be too trivial to come from him. The present writer inclines to the former method of interpretation.

Galatians 6:12

As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

Verse 12. - As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh (ὅσοι θελουσιν εὐπροσωπῆσαι ἐν σαρκί); all those who wish to make a fair show in the flesh. In this verse and the next the apostle singles out for especial animadversion certain Christians, Galatian Christians no doubt, who were actuated by the aim of standing fair with the religious world of Judaism. They were Gentile Christians and not Jews; this appears from their not themselves wishing to keep the Law; for if they had been Jews, the external observance of the Law, being natural to them from their infancy, would have been with them a matter of course: St. Paul himself would probably not have urged them to relinquish it. The verb εὐπροσωπεῖν is not found by the critics in any earlier Greek writer, though the adjective εὐπρόσωπος, fair-faced, is used of "specious" answers in Herodotus (7:168), and "specious words" conjoined with "fables" in Demosthenes ('De Corinthians,' p. 277). Aristophanes uses the word σεμνοπροσωπεῖν ('Nub.,' 362) to "carry a solemn and worshipful face." The notion of falsity, plainly hinted by εὐπροσωπῆσαι, reminds us, Bishop Lightfoot observes, of our Lord's words respecting whited sepulchres, which "outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly," etc. (Matthew 23:27). Compare the use of πρόσωπον, face, in 2 Corinthians 5:12, "glory in appearance, and not in heart." As the aorist of verbs denoting a certain state frequently expresses an entrance upon such a state (see ζήσω above, Galatians 2:19 and note), it probably is intimated that the persons referred to were conscious that their "outward appearance" was hitherto not acceptable to Jewish minds, but that they now were desirous of making it so. Time had been when they did not care so much about it. "In the flesh." This word "flesh" not unfrequently designates men's condition as unmodified by the Spirit of God; as when the apostle speaks of "being in the flesh" (Romans 7:5; Romans 8:8, 9): thence also circumstances or relations pertaining to this unspiritual condition, as in Philippians 3:3, 4; where the apostle speaks of "having confidence in the flesh," and goes on, in vers. 5, 6, to enumerate some of those circumstances or relations. Thus, again, in Ephesians 2:11, "ye, the Gentiles in the flesh," that is, who in that state of things in which men lived before the spiritual economy intervened, were the "uncircumcision (ἀκροβυσρία)," while the Jews were the "circumcision." But as the distinction between these two classes was signalized by an external corporeal mark, the apostle in that passage immediately after uses the expression, "in the flesh," in a varied sense, with reference to this latter, "that which is called circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands." With similar variation of meaning the word "flesh" is used here. The Christians spoken of, losing sight of the cross of Christ and the Spirit's work, were becoming possessed by feelings belonging to the old "carnal" relations between Jews and Gentiles, and so were making it their ambition to figure with advantage in the eyes of the circumcision, as well as to escape their enmity. And then, as in the passage just referred to (Ephesians 2:11), the apostle passes from this sense of the phrase, "in the flesh," to another relating to corporeal flesh; for this he does in the next verse, in the words, "that they may glory in your flesh." They constrain you to be circumcised (οϋτοι ἀναγκάζουσιν ὑμᾶς περιτέμνεσθαι); these compel you to be circumcised. "Compel;" the same verb as was used above (Galatians 2:14) of St. Peter's attitude towards the Gentile believers at Antioch. As here applied, it means "advise," "urge," argue for it as right and necessary for salvation, insist upon it as a condition of friendship. "These;" not, perhaps, meaning "these only," "none but these;" it appears enough to suppose that the apostle, from definite information which he had received, was persuaded that some of those who took the lead in urging onward the Judaizing movement were led to join in it by the cowardly motives here described. With indignant scorn, he says," As surely as a man wants to stand well with the world, so surely will he be found with these circumcisers."Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ (μόνον ἵνα τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Ξριστοῦ μὴ διώκωνται [Textus Receptus, μόνον ἵνα μὴ τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Ξριστοῦ διώκωνται]); only that they may not by means of the cross of Christ suffer persecution. "Only that;" that is, for no other reason than that. The μὴ is thrust out of its proper position in the sentence (which is that assigned to it in the Textus Receptus) by the fervent of the writer's feelings. To himself the cross of Christ seemed the centre of all glory and blessedness; to be connected with it he would be well pleased to suffer martyrdom; but these men could be well content to shelve it out of sight, and, in fact, were doing so; and what for? because the Jews did not like it, and they did not wish to get into trouble by offending them! A grand disdain prompts the apostle, at the cost of impairing the smooth run of the sentence, to (as it were) balance against each other the "cross of Christ" and "not being persecuted." The construction of the dative to express "by means of," that by which a certain result is brought about, is not very common; but we have it in Romans 11:20, τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ ἐξεκλάσθησαν and ibid., 30, ἠλεήθητε τῇ τούτων ἀπιστίᾳ: 2 Corinthians 2:12, τῷ μὴ εὑρεῖν. Our attention is in this passage again drawn to the manner in which the Jews regarded "the word of the cross" (1 Corinthians 1:18), as that "word" was unfolded by St. Paul and received by his disciples among the Gentiles. The great point of offence (σκάνδαλον) in the apostle's teaching respecting it lay in his presenting its pollution in the view of the Law, as inferring the abrogation of the ceremonial institute itself. On this account the Jews could not abide him nor those who attached themselves to him as their teacher, though in a degree able to put up with Christians not anti-Judaists. To the Galatians he had presented "Christ crucified" (Galatians 3:1) as he saw him to be, and they had accepted the doctrine. But now some, at least, of them were beginning to feel uneasy at observing how the Jews in their neighbourhood regarded Paul and those who attached themselves closely to Paul. Had not the Jews (they felt) high claims to consideration? Were they not the original depositaries of the oracles of God? Was not their religion venerable for its antiquity, magnificent in its temple and ritual, and in origin Divine? To these new converts from the gross spiritual darkness and degradation of heathenism, some of them, perhaps, drawn from it originally by the teaching of non-Christian Jews, the adherents to the ancient faith would naturally appear entitled to high respect - respect which they themselves were also not backward in claiming (see Romans 2:19, 20). When the personal influence exercised upon their minds by the holy love and fervour of the apostle had through his absence begun to wane, they also, we may imagine, began to get disheartened, by feeling that their Christian discipleship was viewed with disfavour by their Jewish neighbours, by reason of its Pauline complexion; that on this account the Jews looked upon themselves, though worshippers of the same God, as unworthy of notice; nay, were even disposed to point them out to the surrounding heathens, only too willing to follow up the hint, as proper objects of contempt and ill usage (see for illustration, Acts 13; Acts 14:22; Acts 17; Acts 18; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16). And herewith we have to bear in mind also that Judaism was in Roman jurisprudence treated as a tolerated religion (religio licita); and that, as long as Christians were regarded as belonging to a sect or branch of Judaism, they might seem to be entitled, in the eyes of Roman law, to the same toleration as the Jews themselves enjoyed. But if the Jews cast them off or disowned them they might forfeit such immunity, and become liable to be treated, not only by mobs, but by the Roman law itself, as offenders. The persons, then, here censured by the apostle may be supposed to have pursued the course they did with the idea that, by making themselves acceptable to the Jews through the adoption to a limited extent of Jewish ceremonies, and especially through the acceptance in their own person and the urging upon others of circumcision, they would relieve themselves of "the offence of the cross" (ch. 5:4). Without ceasing to be Christians, they would wipe themselves clear of the odium which with the Jews attached to Paul and those who held with Paul. Such seems to be the situation to which St. Paul's words allude. Bishop Lightfoot interprets it somewhat differently.

Galatians 6:13

For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.

Verse 13. - For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the Law (οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ περιτεμνόμενοι αὐτοὶ νόμον φυλάσσουσιν); for neither do they who are being circumcised themselves keep the Law; or, for not even. they who are being circumcised, themselves keep the Law. It is doubtful whether the οὐδὲ accentuates the main idea of the clause (see note on Galatians 1:12), or only the single term, "they who are being circumcised," as in John 7:5 it accentuates "his brethren." "For;" pointing back to the words," only that," "for no other reason than that," of the previous verse. The apostle means, it is from no zeal for the Law itself that they do what they do, for they are at no pains to keep the Law; but only with the object of currying favour with the Jews. The present participle περιτευνόμενοι is the reading more generally accepted, though the perfect περιτετμημένοι has a competing amount of documentary authentication. The perfect is so much the easier reading to understand ("not even those who have actually been circumcised") as to be much more likely to be a correction displacing περιτεμνόμενοι than the converse hypothesis of the latter being a correction of the other borrowed from ver. 3. "They who are being circumcised" may be understood of a party, including those who first set the movement ageing, who were one after another undergoing the rite. Another turn is given to this participial phrase, as meaning "who are eager for circumcision," "who are all for being circumcised, the circumcision party." Bishop Lightfoot is in favour of this view, referring to "the apt quotation" from an apocryphal book, in which the phrase appears used in this very sense (see his note). It is a sense grammatically difficult to sustain from the usage of the New Testament; for ὁ διώκων of Galatians 1:23, which has been cited on its behalf, does not bear it out. But the passion of scorn with which the apostle writes make the supposed strain upon strict grammatical propriety not altogether improbable. "Themselves;" this is inserted with allusion to the zeal shown by those men, both the first promoters and those drawn in by them, in urging upon others the observance, not indeed of the whole Law, but of certain of its prescriptions. The verb φυλάσσω is used similarly in Romans 2:26; Acts 21:24. The sense seems founded upon the notion of watching the Law to see what it requires, as one is endeavouring to carry it out. The article is wanting before νόμον, though specifically denoting the Law of Moses, as in Romans 2:25, 27, and often. But desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh (ἀλλὰ θέλουσιν ὑμᾶς περιτέμνεσθαι ἵνα ἐν τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ σαρκὶ καυχήσωνται); but they desire you to receive circumcision, that in your flesh they may have whereof to glory. The conjunction ἀλλὰ is used in its proper original sense, "instead of that." All that they want is that in their intercourse with the Jews they may have your circumcision to refer to as evidence of the high respect which they and you as influenced by them have for the Law. "See! so far from trampling upon the Law, we and these our brethren too are adopting the very badge of the servants of the Law." The word "flesh" is in this clause used in its strictly literal signification. The account which the apostle here gives of the motives actuating this particular section of Judaizing reactionaries was no doubt grounded on specific information which he had just received. But such information, both in respect to its general probability and to its grave importance, was doubtless corroborated to his own mind by large experience which he had had elsewhere among the Gentile Churches of the behaviour of unsteady and imperfectly instructed Gentile converts. In almost every important place where Gentiles were won to the faith, there were previously existing communities of Jews (Acts 15:21); and contact with these must have given rise to an endless diversity of relations both of attraction and of repulsion. Everywhere, from the very first, the contact of Christianity with Judaism gave birth to varying phases of Judaico-Christian-ism such as afterwards developed into monstrous forms of error. It was no new thing with the apostle that he should find himself called upon to check, on the part of weak or insincere brethren, a tendency to draw towards Judaism at the cost of not merely unseemly but even fundamentally fatal compliances. The peril was always very near, and had to be constantly watched and guarded against.

Galatians 6:14

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Verse 14. - But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (ἐμοὶ δὲ μὴ γένοιτο καυχᾶσθαι εἰ μὴ ἐν but as for me, God forbid, etc. For the construction of the dative ἐμοὶ with γένοιτο, Alford cites Acts 20:16, Οπως μὴ γένητα αὐτῷ χρονοτριβῆσαι, and Meyer Xenophon, 'Cyrop.' 6:3. 11, Ω Ζεῦ μέγιστε λαβεῖν μοι γένοιτο αὐτόν. But neither passage matches the tone of abhorrence which attaches to the phrase, μὴ γένοιτο, on which see note on Galatians 2:17. Here only in the New Testament does it form a syntactical part of a sentence. But in the Septuagint this construction is of repeated occurrence, following the Hebrew construction of chali'lah with a dative and an infinitive verb with min. Thus Genesis 44:7, Μὴ γένοιτο τοῖς παισί σου ποιῆσαι κ.τ.λ..; id., 17. So Joshua 24:16. The pronoun ἐμοὶ is strongly emphasized both in this first clause of the verse and in that which follows. The apostle is vividly contrasting his own feeling and behaviour in relation to the cross of Christ with those of the leaders of the circumcision party whom he has been denouncing. They would fain put the cross as far as possible out of sight, not to offend the Jews they were so anxious to conciliate - that "obnoxious object" (σκάνδαλον, 1 Corinthians 1:25) itself, as well as the inferences which the apostle taught them to draw from it in relation to the ceremonial law: their καύχημα, that whereof they would glory, should be in preference the mutilated flesh of their misled Galatian brethren; his boast, rejoicing, glory, was, and God helping him should ever be, the cross of Christ - that, and that alone. It quite emasculates the energy of his utterance to paraphrase "the cross" as being "the doctrine of the cross or of Christ's atonement." Rather, it is the cross itself which rivets his admiring view; sneered at by Gentile, abhorred by Jew, but to his eye resplendent with a multiplicity of truths radiating from it to his soul of infinite preciousness. Among those truths, one group, which to us is apt to appear of but small interest, was to the apostle's heart and conscience productive of profoundest relief. In former days he had experienced the burden and the chafing or benumbing effect of the Law, both as a ceremonial institute and as a "letter" of merely imperative command. It was the cross which released him, as from the guilt and servitude of sin, so also from all the worry and distress of bondage to ceremonial prescriptions. And this group of truths, as well as those relating to man's reconciliation with God, he felt it to be his mission, even perhaps his own most especial mission, boldly and frankly to proclaim; not only to rejoice in them on his own behalf, but to hold them forth to the view of others, as replete with blessing to all mankind; to glorify and vaunt them. His motive at present in thus vehemently protesting his own rejoicing in the cross of Christ was doubtless to rouse into fresh activity the slumbering sympathy with those feelings which had probably in some degree once animated his Galatian converts. Therefore it is that he writes, "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," instead of "the cross of my Lord," which it would else have been in this case natural to him to say, as he does in Philippians 3:8, "for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord," and according to the tone of Galatians 2:20 of this Epistle. This "our" hints to the Galatians that they have as much reason as he has to glory in the cross as redeeming God's people alike from sin and from the Law. By whom (or, whereby) the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (δἰ οῦ ἑμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται, κἀγώ κόσμῳ [Receptus, τῷ κόσμῳ]); through which the world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world. The omission of τῷ before κόσμῳ, which is now generally agreed in, adds to the terseness of the sentence. The article is wanting before κόσμος elsewhere, as 2 Corinthians 5:19; Philippians 2:15; Colossians 2:20; 1 Timothy 3:16. The construing of the passage which takes the relative οῦ as reciting "our Lord Jesus Christ," loses sight of the image which is now the one most prominent to the apostle's view: this surely is not Christ himself, but his cross; as in 1 Corinthians 2:2 the apostle determines the more general term, "Jesus Christ," by the more specific one, "and him crucified." The reference of the relative is to be determined, here as often elsewhere, not by the mere propinquity of words in the sentence, but by the nearness of objects to the writer's mind at the moment. In language of singular intensity the apostle bespeaks the all-involving transformation which, through the cross of Christ, his own life had undergone. The world, he says, had become to him a thing crucified: not only a dead thing, ceasing to interest or attract him, but also a vile, accursed thing, something he loathed and despised. And conversely, he himself had become a crucified thing unto the world; not only had he ceased to present to the world ought that could interest or attract it, but also become to it a thing scorned and abhorred; as he says 1 Corinthians 4:13, "We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things." The whole context of those words in the Corinthians (vers. 9-13) is here compressed into the single clause, "I have been crucified unto the world." "The world;" the term denotes unregenerate mankind taken in connection with that entire system of habits of life and of feeling in which man, as un-quickened by the Spirit of God, finds his sphere and home. As the apostle is speaking of his own personal experience, we must understand him as referring in particular to all those circumstances of civil, social, and religious being which had once surrounded him, the honoured Jew and Pharisee. These he enumerates at length in Philippians 3:5, 6. To these we might add, though it would, perhaps, have hardly occurred to Paul's own mind to add it, the ordinary possession of worldly comforts and immunity from want and suffering. All, he proceeds in that passage to say, he had "forfeited" (ἐζημιώθην Philippians 3:8). Nor did he look back upon his loss with regret: "I do count them as dung (σκύβαλα)." This twofold description, "I forfeited all things," and "I do count them all as dung," is here summarized in the phrase, "the world is a crucified object to me." The world, further, thus described as crucified to him, included in particular the entire system of Jewish ceremonialism, so far as it existed apart from the vitalizing influence of the Spirit of God. The "natural man (ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος)" sets great store by religious ceremonialism; it is to him, in fact, his religion. The apostle has himself felt it to be so. But his sentiment now is the very opposite: he accounts it a dead, lifeless thing; nay, even loathsome and abhorred, whenever in the smallest degree placed even by a Christian Jew in the category of Christianly obedience. That he did regard such religious ceremonialism as belonging to the "world," from which as in Christ he had become dissevered, is plain, both from Galatians 4:3, "in bondage under the rudiments of the world," and from Colossians 2:20, "why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourself to ordinances, Handle not," etc. That this particular ingredient in the whole system recited as "the world" was at this moment present to the apostle's mind, appears from his singling out circumcision for mention in the next verse. While, however, this was a part of the "crucified world" just now prominent to his view, this term comprised to his consciousness much beside; namely, the entire mass of ungodliness and vice which appertains to "the course, or age, of this world" (αἰὼν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, Ephesians 2:2), from which αἰὼν, the Christian is by the daily transforming of his character to be removed (Romans 12:2). (See above, Galatians 1:4, and note.) "Through which;" in various ways was the cress of Christ the means of effecting this mutual crucifixion between the apostle and the world. It is apparent, from the whole tenor of his Epistles, that Christ crucified, as manifesting both Christ's love to sinful men in general, and to his own self in particular, "the chief of sinners," and likewise the love of God his Father, wrought with so mighty an attraction upon his whole soul - intellect, conscience, affections - that all other objects which were only not connected with this one lost to him their whole zest and interest, while all other objects which clashed with the moral and spiritual influence of this became absolutely distasteful and repulsive. And, on the other hand, the world at large met the man who was animated with this absorbing devotion to God as manifested in a crucified Christ, with just that estrangedness and aversion which might have been anticipated. The influence exercised by the cross in crucifying the world and the apostle to each other was intensified by the especial bearing which, in the apostle's view, the cross had towards Jewish ceremonialism (see Galatians 2:19, 20, and notes). The vivid, intense manner in which the apostle proclaimed such sentiments alienated from him the adherents and champions of Judaism, and made him of all Christians the one who was to them the most obnoxious. And how this affected his standing, even in the Gentile world, there have been above repeated occasions for noting.

Galatians 6:15

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Verse 15. - For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (οὔτε γὰρ περιτομή τι ἔστιν οὔτε ἀκροβυστία ἀλλὰ καινὴ κτίσις); for neither is circumcision anything, nor un-circumcision, but a new creature (or, creation). The reading of the Textus Receptus, followed in our Authorized Version, is this: ἐν γὰρ Ξριστῷ Ἰησοῦ οὔτε περιτομή τι ἰσχύει οὔτε ἀκροβυστία ἀλλὰ καινὴ κτίσις. But by almost all recent editors this reading is replaced by the one given above. That ἔστιν is the true reading, and not ἰσχύει, all are agreed in thinking; ἰσχύει being regarded as a correction imported from Galatians 5:6. The evidence for the rejection of ἐν Ξριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, which is found in all the uncial manuscripts except the Vatican, is by no means equally decisive. The presence of those words in Galatians 5:6, where they are very suitable to the context, has with great probability been supposed to explain their being also found here, being introduced, like ἰσχύει from the former passage, by the copyists; but here the qualification made by them is not so certainly required. The apostle felt it to be not merely true relatively, that is, for those "in Christ Jesus," but, since Christ died on a cross, true absolutely, that for salvation neither circumcision was aught, nor uncircumcision, but only a new creature. For the discussion of the terms of the aphorism as here stated, as compared with its form in Galatians 5:6 and in 1 Corinthians 7:19, the reader is referred to the notes on Galatians 5:6. The words καινὴ κτίσις may mean either "a new creature," or "a new act of creation making a man a new creature." It is hardly admissible to take κτὶσις as "creation" in a collective sense, as in Romans 8:19; though this may, perhaps, be its meaning in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If any man is in Christ, there is a new creation," that is (perhaps), he finds himself, as it were, in a new heaven and a new earth. Christians as such are elsewhere described by the apostle as the product of God's creative hand; thus in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship (ποίημα), created (κτισθέντες) in Christ Jesus for good works." As "begotten again" (1 Peter 1:23, ἀναγεγεννημένοι), or "born anew" (John 3:3, γεννηθέντες ἄνωθεν), subjects of a "regeneration" (παλιγγενεσία, Titus 3:5), they must, of course, be the products of a new act of creation. In 2 Corinthians 5:14-18 the sentence, "If any man is in Christ, there is a new creation," or "he is a new creature," lies embedded in a passage which describes in language of remarkable intenseness the transforming influence of Christ's death, wherever by faith it has been fully grasped. That passage, occurring as it does in an Epistle written nearly at the same time as the Epistle to the Galatians, leaves no doubt as to the ideas which in the apostle's mind cluster round the term" new creation," mentioned, here too as in effect there, in close connection with the cross of Christ, his sole supreme glory. It points to the state of a sinner consciously reconciled to God by the death of Christ, and finding himself thus translated into the midst of new perceptions, new joys, new habits of life. new expectations. "The old things are passed away" - guilt, the overmastering power of sin, laborious effort after goodness frustrated after all and ineffectual, the servile routine of a dead unquickening ceremonialism: "behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself through Christ." The phrase, "a new creature," appears to have been used by the Jews to describe the change resulting in the case of a heathen becoming a proselyte. That was no doubt a great change; but far greater seemed to the apostle to be the transformation in the case of one translated from the bondage and darkness of the "letter" into the "newness of the Spirit" (Romans 7:6). lie had himself experienced how marvellously great as well as how blessed the transition was; and he has described it in glowing terms also in Ephesians 1:17-2:10. In the present passage the particle "for" seems to point back, not exclusively to ver. 14, but to the general tenor of the whole passage in vers. 12-14, as rebuking that great ado about circumcision which the innovators referred to were making in the Galatian Churches, thereby diverting the minds of those that listened to them from the Christian's true business. This sense of the particle may seem somewhat loose; but it suits well the rapid, decisive, summarizing strain with which the apostle is now closing up his letter. The supreme concern, he means, for every one who wishes to be a member of God's kingdom is that he shall realize in his own experience the "new creation;" alike in the freedom and joy of adoption which appertains thereto (ch. 4.), and also in that walking of the Spirit which includes the crucifixion of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-25). On this point we may compare Ephesians 4:23, 21 and Romans 12:2.