The Galatians were gratifying their private feelings under pretext of rebuke. They appeared to be doing this to correct the sins of others. Paul wanted to put a stop to their love of being first. He says, Brothers, if someone is overtaken in any trespass. Note that he does not say if he trespasses but if he is overtaken, that is, if he is caught off guard.

One is overtaken on those occasions either when one sins without seeing at the time that it is a sin or when one sees this and is still overcome. One sins either in ignorance of truth or under the limitations of infirmity.

Now Paul speaks to those who were spiritually stronger, lest by becoming proud in their own good life they should think it right to despise and reject one who had perhaps been overtaken by sin. And so they must be told that people struggling with sin are to be spurred toward reform with kindness. If they were to be more harshly punished with coercive authority, they would not accept reproof. They would begin to defend themselves against seeming to be base and worse. If you protect a person from strife and arrogance, he will become meek in relation to you, since humility tends to make even the proud humble.

Paul does not say punish or pass judgment but restore. Nor did he even stop there, but showing that he strongly desired them to be patient with those who stumbled he adds in a spirit of gentleness. He does not say in gentleness but in a spirit of gentleness, showing that this also is the will of the Spirit and that the capacity to correct another’s faults is a spiritual gift.

The Spirit-led person should correct a sinner gently and meekly. He must not be inflexible, angry or aggrieved in his desire to correct him. He should stir him up with the promise of salvation, promising remission and bringing forth the testimony of Christ.

There is no surer test of the spiritual person than his treatment of another’s sin. Note how he takes care to deliver the sinner rather than triumph over him, to help him rather than punish him and, so far as lies in his capacity, to support him.

Maybe Paul is saying that you should identify with the sinner in order to do him good. This is not to imply, of course, that one should seemingly commit the same wrong and pretend that one is also subject to it. No, in another’s wrongdoing one should think of what might befall oneself. Help the other with the same compassion that one would hope to receive from another.

It is reasonable to ask why one should instruct the sinner in a spirit of gentleness. It is good to reflect that one might oneself be tempted. Would the righteous person, who is certain of his own resolve and confident that he cannot fall, therefore have no duty to instruct the sinner in the spirit of gentleness? To this we reply that even if the righteous one has prevailed, knowing with what difficulty he prevailed over his own temptations he should rather be ready to extend pardon to the sinner. . . . Overcoming or not overcoming is sometimes in our own power. But being tempted is in the power of the tempter. The Savior himself was tempted.^[1] So who of us can be sure that he might cross this sea of life without any temptation?

By burdens he means the needs of the body. So to the extent that anyone is richer in resources, he is called to bear the poor person’s burden and relieve poverty by his abundance.

Sin is a burden, as the psalmist affirms.^[1] . . . This burden the Savior bore for us, teaching by his life what we ought to do. He himself bears our iniquities and grieves for us and invites those who are cast down by the burden of sin and the law to take up the light yoke of virtue.^[2] Therefore the one who does not demean his brother’s salvation extends his hand as needed. So far as it lies within him he weeps with him as he weeps; he shares the neighbor’s weakness. He counts another’s sins as his own. Such is the one who fulfills the law of Christ through love.

The law of Christ means the law of love. The one who loves his neighbor fulfills the law. The love of neighbor is strongly commended even in the Old Testament.^[1] The apostle elsewhere says that it is by love that all the commands of the law are summed up.^[2] If so, then it is evident that even that Scripture which was given to the covenant people was the law of Christ, which, since it was not being fulfilled by fear, he came to fulfill by love. The same Scripture, therefore, and the same law is called the old covenant when it weighs down in slavery those who are grasping after earthly goods. It is called the new testament when it raises to freedom those who are ardently seeking the eternal good.

This means: You have one deficiency but not another. The neighbor’s case is the opposite. He has another deficit but not the one you have. You must bear his and he yours. For thus is the law of love fulfilled. By the law of Christ he means love, for he himself said, I give you a new commandment, to love one another.^[1]

It is true, and no one is unaware of it, that if we consider honestly our acts and thoughts we find ourselves superior to no one and cannot easily pass judgment on another. For the person who is puffed up as if he were something special is misled, since he does not know that humility becomes a means of growth. For he does not have before his eyes the words and deeds of the Savior, who, though he be Lord of all, humbled himself so as to give us a pattern that we might follow should we wish to grow. If we were to exalt ourselves, we would stumble as a result of the ignorance of a heart elated by the hope of presuming to be more worthy of praise.

This [verse] can be read in two distinct ways. . . . The sense of the first is If someone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. The second is deeper and more meaningful to me: If someone thinks he is something, by the very fact of thinking himself something and judging himself, not from his love toward his neighbors but from his own work and labors, contented with his own virtue, he himself becomes nothing through this very arrogance and is his own deceiver. . . . The meaning of this passage is also linked to circumcision and the law in the following way: One who is spiritual yet has no compassion for his neighbor, despising the lowly because of his own self-elevation, is his own deceiver, not knowing that the spirit of the law adds up finally to loving one another.

Here Paul shows that we must scrutinize our lives. We must test what we have done not cheaply but stringently. For example, suppose you have done something good. Consider whether it might have been through vanity or through necessity, or with animosity, or in hypocrisy, or through some other self-centered motive.

He says this not by way of command but by way of concession. It is as though he had said, It is absurd to boast, but if you must, do not boast against your neighbor, like the Pharisee.^[1] The person who learns this lesson will also soon give up boasting altogether. Thus Paul’s reason for conceding this was to drive out the larger malady by small steps. For the one who is accustomed to boast with regard to himself alone, and not against others, will soon reform this fault also. If he does not think himself better than others—for that is the meaning of not looking to the other—but is chastened by examining himself by himself, he will later stop this boasting too.

Finally he wants it to be clear to those who are proud that nobody is incriminated for another’s sin. So no one should be afraid to associate with a sinner or to aid him if he comes to him so that he may be of benefit to him.

This seems to contradict the words above.^[1] . . . But one must see that he was there telling us, as sinners in the present life, to support one another and be a help to one another in the present age. Here he is speaking of the Lord’s judgment of us, which is not based on the sin of another or by comparison with others but according to one’s own work.

He means let him display complete freedom in giving to him. For this is what he was hinting at by saying in all good things. Nothing, he says, is to be the disciple’s own, but everything is to be common; for he receives more than he gives, as much more as things heavenly exceed things earthly.

He says this so that hearers may share all their goods with their teachers. But if teachers practice otherwise than they teach, hearers should protest rather than share these goods. It may be clear thereby that the law is your guide rather than the person. For it will be his problem, not yours.

The meaning is this: Since previously he has been speaking to those who are spiritual about ethics . . . he now on the contrary speaks to those who are still rather weak, who are disciples yet live according to the flesh. Just as they reap spiritual gifts from their teacher, so they are called to give material gifts in return.

He adds another principle which is generally stated but is relevant to what he said above to prevent their following anything beside the gospel (that is, adding also a legalistic way of life and works). Do not err, he says, for all those things which are grounded apart from the gospel are error-prone. And he has added the force of necessity to his precept: God, he says, is not mocked. He does not say, God knows all, lest they should hope for some sort of cheap pardon for their error or for something that might be hidden. Rather God is not mocked, and Paul clarifies what will happen to those who err and those who hold fast to worldly life.

Foreseeing in the Spirit that those who ought to furnish sustenance for the necessities of life to their teacher might plead poverty . . . he adds, Make no mistake; God is not mocked.

Some Galatians, who thought that they ought to adopt the Jewish way of life, so as to observe the sabbath and undergo circumcision and do other things of this sort in their carnal understanding, could have hope in the flesh and from the flesh. Anyone, therefore, who has hope in the flesh and sows his own hope in the flesh will have a harvest from the flesh, that is, fruit from the flesh. But what fruit? Corruption, he says; for indeed the flesh is corrupted, and this is its end, that it grows corrupt and putrid. It perishes and dies. All things, then, that are of the flesh grow putrid and suffer corruption. . . . Therefore it is better to have hope in the Spirit, so that we may have hope [in what comes] from the Spirit: the hope and the fruit of the Spirit. This is what it means to sow in the Spirit—eternal life. For this present life indeed is life but not life eternal. But the one who lives here in the Spirit and acts according to the Spirit and does nothing corrupt sows for himself eternal life. And this will be his harvest, that on departing he will receive eternal life.

The one who sows with his body luxury, drunkenness and insane desires will reap what comes from these. And what is that? Punishment, vengeance, shame, ridicule and destruction. . . . For as these things themselves perish they corrupt the body with them. The fruits of the Spirit are not so but quite contrary. Consider now: If you sow merciful acts, heavenly habitations and eternal glory await you.^[1] If you sow love, a crown of honor waits for you—the blessings of angels and the athlete’s victory.

All that we say, do or think is sown in two fields, the fallen nature and the Spirit. If what comes from our hand, mouth and heart is good, it is sown in the Spirit and will produce fruits of eternal life. If it is bad, when harvested from the field of the sin nature it will produce an unsavory crop of corruption for us. . . . It should be observed that to the one who sows in the flesh is given an additional term, in his flesh. But the one who sows in the Spirit is said not to sow in his spirit but simply in the Spirit. For the one who sows good things sows not in his own spirit but in God’s, from whom he will also reap eternal life.

To sow in the spirit is to serve righteousness from faith and with love and not to heed the desires of sin, even though they arise from mortal flesh. . . . When we are under grace,^[1] we sow in tears, when desires arise from our animal body, which we resist by not consenting, so that we may reap in joy. We reap when, by the reformation of our body, no vexation or peril of temptation comes to trouble us from any physical source.

It is not enough that we do good; for our goodness will not be recognized straight away by God if we do good, but only if we do not grow weary in doing good. Many begin, many in a way persevere, yet later they give up, either tired or led astray. He justly warns them that they should not grow weary in any way, lest by their weariness they leave off what they began when they began to do well.

He gives the strongest possible imperative to well-doing: time is short. Life is quickly reaching its term. The end of the world is at hand. As we have opportunity means either while we have our own life or while there is life in this world.

On one side he exhorts them and draws them on, while on the other he drives and pushes them, saying therefore, while we have time, let us do good. For just as it is not always within our power to sow, neither is it to show mercy. For when the opportunity is taken away, however vehemently we may desire it back, we shall not have it.

By this especially he sets them free from the narrowness inherent in the Jewish code. For the whole of Jewish philanthropy was toward those of their own race. But the way of life that comes from grace takes the whole land and sea as the table of mercy, even while it also shows the greater care that is due toward one’s household.

Hence we are to work, and we are to work good and to work it to all so that there is no partiality toward persons. We are to do nothing except do good and good to all. For indeed if love edifies^[1] and every person is beloved, then every good that we work we ought to work on behalf of all. . . . However, he makes the distinction that the good that we work on behalf of all is to be worked most of all on behalf of the household of faith, that is, those who have come to believing trust in Christ and God. He comes to the climax of his argument in urging this. It was particularly germane to the Galatians. For they, by making certain additions to faith from Judaism, were not acting out of faith. They believed that they would gain fruit from works and mere ritual observance. Therefore he adds, Let us above all do good to the household of faith, because they have adopted faith in the gospel only, that is, in Christ and God.

It seems to me possible that this passage relates to an earlier statement,^[1] so that he is using the name household of faith to refer to teachers, who ought, as he says, to be supplied with all that is reckoned good by those who hear them.

Those who wanted the Galatians to be circumcised had put it about that Paul preached one way and acted another, destroying his words by his own deeds, since he who proclaimed the abolition of the law was found to be obeying the law. Because Paul could not refute their opinions in person in the sight of all (being prevented by the chains that he bore as a testimony to Christ), he acts as his own lawyer through his letter. So that no suspicion that the letter was false might arise, he himself has written it from this point right to the end, showing that the preceding part was copied by another’s hand.^[1] . . . It is not that the letters were larger (though indeed the word would bear this sense in Greek) but because the marks of his own handwriting were known to them. So when they recognized the angles and contours of his own letters, they would feel that they had encountered him. . . . Paul wrote his letter in great characters because the meaning of the characters was great and had been traced out by the Spirit of God, not merely by pen and ink.

Observe what great grief occupies that blessed soul [Paul]. . . . Having said a little about morals, he now returns to the things that were causing the greatest disturbance to his soul, saying See in what large letters I have written to you. Here he hints at nothing except that he himself wrote the whole letter, which is a sign of the greatest authenticity. For in the other epistles he may have composed, but another wrote. . . . By so large he seems to me to be indicating not the size but the poor form of the characters, all but saying, Although I do not write well, I have nonetheless been compelled to write for myself, so as to silence those who slander me.

To please in the flesh means to please human beings. For those he calls false apostles, in order that they gain the approval of the Jews or at least not elicit their hostility, were preaching Christ in such a way that they also taught the necessity of observing the law. Paul was never intimidated by his opponents. He consistently refused to keep silent about the truth. He constantly was attentive to what he was teaching and how he was living.

Caius [Julius] Caesar and Octavianus Augustus, and Tiberius, the successor of Augustus, had published laws that permitted the Jews scattered throughout the whole sphere of the Roman Empire to live by their own code and observe their ancestral ceremonies. Whoever was circumcised, therefore, even if he was a Christian, was reckoned as a Jew by the Roman authorities. But anyone who was not circumcised and by his uncircumcision proclaimed himself no Jew became liable to persecution, both from Jews and from Gentiles! So those who were leading the Galatians into evil, wishing to evade the persecution, were persuading the disciples to circumcise themselves for protection. This the apostle calls making a good show in the flesh.

The Jews were inflicting great persecution on those who seemed to be deserting their traditional observances such as circumcision. Paul’s lack of fear has been demonstrated through his composing such a letter in his own handwriting. In this way he shows that those who force the Gentiles into circumcision are operating under fear’s control, as though they were subject to the law.

The former circumcision was not inappropriate in its own time. But the law announced that Christ would come to dispense the law of freedom. Then the circumcision in the flesh would no longer be of service in the time of Christ. For through Christ came the true One^[1] of which the law was a shadow. From now on those who have been sealed with circumcision, even if they keep the whole law, would no longer gain any credit from their keeping this part of the law.^[2] . . . Nevertheless, the law is good and in its time so is circumcision, since through both we know Christ, who is the more perfect law and the more perfect circumcision.

Because of the weakness of the sin nature, Paul says, the law cannot be fulfilled. Hence the Jews keep the commands and traditions of the elders rather than God’s commands, performing neither the whole body of the law (which is impossible) nor the spirit of the law, which they did not understand.

For how can they totally keep the law while they are traveling far from Jerusalem? How can they perform the feasts; how can they offer the sacrifices; how can they be cleansed after touching impure things? No, it is obvious that they have conspired to have you circumcised in their desire to boast of having made you change. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.13.

6:13b Glorying in Your Flesh

Not only did [the Judaizers] wish to avoid persecution from the Jews, who were absolutely unwilling to let the law be given to the uncircumcised, but they desired to boast to the Jews about the number of proselytes they made.

Now indeed [the cross] appears to be a reprehensible thing, but only to the world and to unbelievers. In heaven and for believers it is the highest glory. For poverty too is reprehensible, yet it is a cause of boasting to us. Many mock simplicity, but we are disciplined by it. In this way the cross ironically is also a cause of boasting for us. Paul did not say I do not boast or I do not wish to boast but God forbid, as though he were deprecating something absurd and calling on the aid of God to set this right. But what is this boasting in the cross? That on my behalf Christ took the form of a slave and suffered what he suffered on account of me the slave, the enemy, the ingrate.

By world he means not heaven nor earth but the affairs of life, human praise, distinguished positions, reputation, wealth and all things that have a show of splendor. All such things are dead to me. Such should be the case for all Christians. Nor is he satisfied only with the former ordinary mode of dying, but he also introduces another kind of death: dying to the world itself.

When Paul writes that the cross is glory, he means obviously the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When in that mystery his body hung from the cross and in it crushed the power of this world, the whole world was crucified through him. In the cross he identified with every person in the world. In doing so, he made everything that he suffered universal, that is, he caused all flesh to be crucified in his death. Therefore I too am fixed to the cross and to the world. I means the one who was living carnally, whose thoughts were of the flesh. Such a one is now nailed to the world, that is, the worldly things in him are subjected to death.

Do you see the power of the cross, to what a height it has raised the apostle? For not only has it made all the things of the world dead to him, but it has set him far above the older way of life. What equals the strength of the cross? Paul at one time was willing to be slain and to slay others for the cause of circumcision. Now he has been persuaded by the cross to let circumcision fall to the level of uncircumcision. Now he seeks new and strange things which are above the heavens. By the new creation he means our own new way of life, both on account of what is past and what is to come. We are renewed by what is past, because our soul, having grown old in sin, has been immediately renewed by baptism. It is as if recreated again that we seek a new and heavenly way of life. We are being renewed by what is to come, because the heaven and the earth and all creation will be changed into incorruption along with our own bodies.

Paul also mentions a new creation in his letter to the Corinthians.^[1] . . . The strict meaning of new creation is the transformation of all things which will occur after the resurrection from the dead. For then the creation will be freed from sin’s burden and redeemed. Paul demonstrates that saving baptism is an image of things to come. In it we put off the old nature and put on the new. And we, ridding ourselves of sin’s burden, receive the grace of the Spirit. Yet neither the most holy baptism nor the life to come recognizes any difference between circumcision and uncircumcision. By world he means the affairs of life—honor, glory and wealth. To these he declares himself dead.

Those who pursue this new creation will enjoy peace and goodness, and truly deserve to be called by the name of the true Israel. But those who oppose it, even if they have been born of Israel and carried Israel’s name with them, have fallen away from Israel and from that name and family. For those who can truly be Israelites are those who keep this rule,^[1] abstain from the old ways and pursue what belongs to grace.

Paul means those who are truly prepared for the vision of God. These are distinguished from those who are called by this name [Israel] and in their carnal blindness refuse to see the Lord, spurning his grace, still desiring to be enslaved by temporal things.

He does not wish to be annoyed any longer by people advocating circumcision—people who would force him to write another letter. He wants the Galatians to respond quickly to his letter and get rid of their mistakes. This hard work will result in genuine rest. If, however, they show themselves to be reluctant and stubborn, refusing to change, Paul wants to be left alone. Let the Galatians spend their time and effort trying to please the Judaizers in an empty search for temporary reward.

Paul does not write these things because he is tired or demoralized. How could one chosen by God to bear and do all things for his disciples give up now? . . . Why does he say this now? To give direction to lazy Christians by helping them see how serious their situation is, to reinforce the teachings he has given and to refuse to let them abandon it.

Paul’s point is this: All that Christ experienced on the cross—the imprint of the nails, the spear thrust in his side, the other marks of the crucifixion—I bear in my own body. I too have suffered. Therefore you too ought to endure much—indeed all—adversity, since you will be with Christ if you suffer with Christ and begin by your own act, in the face of adversaries, to suffer what Christ suffered. Through these words Paul reveals what he himself was suffering, how much he shared with Christ and what we also ought to suffer if we wish to live in Christ.

Anyone who after Christ’s coming is circumcised in the flesh does not carry the marks of the Lord Jesus. Rather he glories in his own confusion. But the one who was flogged beyond what the law required, frequently was in prison, was beaten three times with rods, was once stoned and suffered all the other things that are written in his catalog of boasting^[1]—this is the one who carries on his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps also the ascetic today who keeps his body under control and subjects it to servitude so that he will not appear reprobate as he preaches to others may in some way carry the marks of the Lord Jesus on his own body.^[2]

Rejoicing in these lacerations, Paul says, I bear the marks of Christ in my own body. He readily yields to his weakness in all these misfortunes, through which the power of Christ is being perfected in virtue.^[1]

By this final word he has sealed the argument of the letter. For he does not say simply with you, as in the other letters, but with your spirit. He is leading them away from corrupted things and pointing everywhere to the benevolent work of God and reminding them of the grace that they have enjoyed. By this he is able to lead them away from the legalistic error in its entirety. For the receiving of the Spirit was not for the poverty of legalism but for righteousness according to the Spirit. . . . The concluding prayer and teaching work together, serving as a double fortress. The teaching reminds them of all the gracious benefits they have enjoyed and holds them all the more firmly in the teaching of the church. And this prayer, by invoking grace and persuading them to stand fast, does not allow their spirit to fall away.

How does the blessing refer to the letter? Not discord, not slavery to the law, not biting and railing, but the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is asked to be with your spirit. Not with the flesh only; not with the soul only. For having been made spiritual they have ceased to be cheaply embodied. In the Spirit both body and soul are embraced. The grace of the Lord Jesus is not given indiscriminately to all but to those who are ready to be called brothers by the apostle—faithful brothers and intimate brothers, as the word amen^[1] signifies in Hebrew.