This was the serious move of the enemy. "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. There is now much confusion of things that differ; and so, more or less, error runs through the whole of it in all its parts; but I know not anything more ruinous than this. In its positive form (katharos ( G2513) , an adjective meaning pure) it is commonly used in housing contracts to describe a house that is left clean and in good condition. Paul begins chapter 5 by stating flatly that Christ has set us free in order that we should be free. And you can't do this, and this, and this, and this, and this." "But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." The noun GALATIANS has 1 sense: 1. a New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Galatians Familiarity information: GALATIANS used as a noun is very rare. By-and-by will be fulfilled the promised earthly blessing, and power, and glory for Israel like the sand and the stars. He granted that persons might indulge in some such thoughts about him. That is, if the Holy Ghost was given as the seal of their redemption, and as the joy of the sonship, wherein they now stood, in the exercise of their nearness to God and enjoyment of His love, they cry, "Abba, Father," the very words of Christ himself (but in how different circumstances!) The law of Moses tells a man to do his duty in his own place. These things are not allowed in the kingdom of God. it has a, perhaps, a naivet about it in that it does trust.You know I've been burned so many times by trusting men, but I pray, "God, never make me jaundiced." What does Galatians 5:15 Mean? 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. But there is more for us. It, too, is commonly translated goodness. He cannot stop there but is bound to accept all the other rules and regulations as well. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage ( Galatians 5:1 ). Born and bred in the abominable idolatries of the heathen, they were strangers to the institutions of Israel. It is liberty and not law that the Christian stands in. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing ( Galatians 5:2 ). They thought that Christianity would be all the better for adopting the ancient forms and beautiful figures of the law. Christ will never own those as his who yield themselves the servants of sin. This is the only sin Paul warned the Galatians to avoid. "For if the inheritance be of law, it is no more of promise:" otherwise by the condition of law you would annul the promise. This highlights the problem of reading contemporary ideas back into Scripture. If I am walking in the Spirit, if I am walking in love, then there can be no law to regulate my life. "As we have said before, so I say now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received." It is the quality, not so much of the jealous, but rather of the embittered mind. Now, if you're trying to be justified before God or being made righteous before God by the keeping of the law, then Christ is of no effect to you. And they ate, giving over to their fleshly appetites and in so doing, the flesh dominated. If God loved us like that then the love of Christ constrains us. I just refer to it for a moment, because it adds much to the beauty of the reasoning in Galatians. You couldn't believe the things the Jehovah Witnesses believe, unless you read their screwy attitudes and ideas in their books. Plutocracy means government by the wealthy and is justified by the claim that those who have the biggest stake in the country have a logical right to rule it. The new creation is a present blessing that the soul already enjoys. Why, to feel himself a dead man. For God would not fellowship with man dominated by his flesh. To have been with the Messiah, the hearer of His words and the witness of His work, up to His departure, was ever a condition to those who were accustomed to the twelve apostles. Paul was a trained Rabbi; and that is what he is doing here. A komos was a band of friends who accompanied a victor of the games after his victory. consequences of a contrary spirit and conduct. But it was in no vain glory, in no tone of superiority, though, no doubt, it was a far fuller and higher testimony than theirs; for he adds, "privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run or had run in vain." And then concludes the chapter with a caution against pride and envy. One of the encouragements, as we know, which God furnished to Abraham was, that he should have a seed like the sand of the sea, and like the stars of the sky. 15.But if ye bite and devour one another. He will not hear of any pretended misunderstanding. David said, "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" ( Psalms 23:4 ). AN OLD STORY AND A NEW MEANING ( Galatians 4:21-31 ; Galatians 5:1 ). Was this the love the law claimed? Or I can walk after the Spirit and say, "Oh Lord, it doesn't matter. Observe the place the cross has here, not merely Christ's blood, but His death on the cross. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and joy and peace. She did what any wife would have done in those patriarchal times and sent Abraham in to her slave girl, Hagar, to see if she could bear a child on her behalf. He was an enemy stopped in sovereign grace. How impossible, therefore, to add the law to the promise! For the foundation was at stake. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ( Galatians 5:14 ). When God speaks of the seed numerous as the sand or the stars, He gives them a Jewish character of blessing. There is no law which condemns thing; like that. You'll be disappointed. Besides, we have a more daily duty: "Bear ye one another's burdens." If you're looking to that as a righteous standing before God, then you are not experiencing the grace of God in your life. So here the Christian puts on Christ, not the law or circumcision. Men of, disposition, careless and unthinking, consume othersthose of, But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another, , but if ye be biting and eating up one another. take heed that ye be not consumed one of another; that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and comfort be destroyed, which is oftentimes done this way, though a person's state and condition God-ward may be safe; or lest their church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love is the cement of it, which being loosened, threatens a dissolution; for as no civil community, either public or private, divided against itself, can stand long, so no religious one; and for want of love the Lord threatens to remove, and sometimes does remove, the candlestick out of its place. And so, it was something that was quite familiar the castration. Even when he has been scaling the highest heights of thought he always ends a letter on a practical note. And so in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to die for man's sin, in order that through Him man might be born again by the Spirit of God. When we look elsewhere we end up enslaved. He had been trained up under the most distinguished teacher the great Rabbin Gamaliel; but "when it pleased him, who had separated him from his mother's womb, and called him by his grace, to reveal his Son in him." They were happy persons while under the ministry of the apostle; as a Gospel ministry is a great happiness to any that enjoy it; for this is the way to find eternal life, to have spiritual peace and pleasure, joy and comfort, light and liberty, whereas a contrary doctrine leads to all the reverse. who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? He went simply to make the acquaintance of Peter, and abode with him how long? "Oh, well, He laid down His divinity before He died." They had so completely lost sight of the grace of Christ, the sweetness and the bloom of it, that he travailed again for them: his soul once more passed through that which had exercised him when they were converted. Salem Media Group. When they first knew him, there was no difficulty felt on this score; they heard him as an angel of God. They had followed Jesus in His earthly path of presentation to Israel. Shall we turn now to Galatians chapter five. So it came to mean work done for pay. Jewish elements were borne with in a Jew. I can say, "Well, this, these are the rules of righteous living. Usually in the New Testament eirene ( G1515) stands for the Hebrew shalowm ( H7965) and means not just freedom from trouble but everything that makes for a man's highest good. And who will venture to say that the indwelling Spirit of God fails to supply power to him who submits to the righteousness of God in Christ? Strong expressions of partisan hatred exerting itself for mutual injury. No effort, no work on your part. Thus the law pulls down what is evil, and the promise gives what is good and builds it up. We are not to suppose that a higher and more heavenly character blots out the lesser place; of this the apostle takes advantage here. But meanwhile, under the gospel, there is an express promise of the blessing of the Gentiles when God spoke of the one seed, which is Christ. "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man's covenant, yet, if it be confirmed, no man annulleth or addeth thereto." In other words: "You have gained liberty through Christ, i.e., You are above all laws as far as conscience is concerned. But the Jerusalem which is above is free and she is our mother. An undue regard to the approbation and applause of men is one great ground of the unhappy strifes and contentions that exist among Christians. But then he goes farther. (iii) Derush, the meaning deduced by investigation. "Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are." To this the apostle endeavours to persuade these Christians, and there are two considerations which he sets before them for this purpose:-- (1.) Well, "sensible" help in the meaning of an appeal to nature it is; but it is a sensible help to idolatry, not to living faith. against such there is no law ( Galatians 5:23 ). The law necessarily makes the man, and the man's doings, to be the prominent object. Romans 7 indicates that under the very law by which they are attempting to be justified there is no way, once a person sins, for the inner man to gain control of the tendencies of the flesh. There is nothing that requires more the power of grace; for even the truth itself, if severed from grace, ceases to be the truth. He intimates also how vain a thing is legalism, because those that were pleading for circumcision in no case carried out their own principle. 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