A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.
An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.
Tying the chapter to life with God.
Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.
Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.
Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.
“Legalists in our churches today warn that we dare
not teach people about the liberty we have in Christ
lest it result in religious anarchy. The Christian who
lives by faith is not going to become a rebel. Quite the
contrary, he is going to experience the inner discipline
of God that is far better than the outer discipline of
Galatians man-made rules.”
Warren Wiersbe
“In chapter 5, Paul explains to the Galatian Christians: Through grace, Christ has set you free. Stand firm, and do not fall back into the slavery of the law. Yet do not use your freedom as an opportunity to sin. Do not give yourself over to the deeds of your carnal desires but rather to the deeds of the Holy Spirit.
When I was a teenager growing up in the country, we had great fun letting the yearling calves out of the barn after a long winter. These calves had been born the summer before, so a pen in the barn was the only world they had known. They were kept there because of the severity of the northern Indiana winters. When spring came, we would open the gates that had separated the calves from the outside world. Then the calves were free to go into the field. However, the calves didn't know what to do with their newfound freedom.
On a typical day they bucked and jumped and ran around inside the pen in excitement but wouldn't leave it. Often they would run right up to where the gate used to be and slam on the brakes. From a full gallop they planted their front feet and dropped their noses to the floor as their rumps flew up in the air, stopping exactly where they would have had to stop if the gate had been there. Then they wheeled and sprinted, tail flying, for the other side of the barn.
Afterward, not having any more nerve for the bold approach, they changed strategies and inched cautiously up to the invisible barrier as if it were a snake. When they had exhausted their supply of nerve, they jerked back as though bitten. Then they ran around again on the inside of the pen like a merry-go-round run amok, bucking, jumping, and kicking the air. It would sometimes take hours for them to get up the nerve to leave, terrified of their sudden freedom, preferring the safety of their small enclosure to the unknown openness of the pasture outside.
I have often thought how these calves were like legalists, preferring the limitations and security of a set of dos and don'ts to the frightening world of walking by faith. Why would they want to stay in the barn when freedom, sunshine, and fresh air were theirs? That is the question Paul asks of the Galatian church. Having been freed from the slavery of the law, under Paul's initial visit, why would they now want to lose their freedom and go back to the bondage of the law?
Paul answers this question in chapter 5 in three ways. First, he implores them to stand firm in their freedom in Christ (v. 1). Then, he lists six negative consequences of returning to the law (vv. 2–11). Finally, he introduces the Spirit-filled life as the power to overcome sin and evil (vv. 12–26).
Walk in the Spirit
MAIN IDEA: The Christian is freed from external control by the law to internal control by the Holy Spirit.
Freedom from the Law and Its Negative Consequences (vv. 1–12)SUPPORTING IDEA: The Christian is set free from the negative effects of the law, so don't return to it. You would have to keep the whole law perfectly, which you cannot. In Christ, only faith working through love avails anything.
5:1. Christ died to set us free from slavery to the law. Our responsibility is to stand firm and not to fall back into law and sin.
5:2. Those who return to the law face six negative consequences. First, it invalidates Christ's work on the cross for Christ will be no value to you. By submitting to circumcision, a person demonstrated that they were not fully trusting in Christ. Instead they added their own works to what Christ had done, thus invalidating the sufficiency of Christ for salvation.
5:3. The second negative consequence of returning to the law is obligation. Once a person submits to one part of the law (circumcision), he is obligated to obey the whole law.
5:4–6. The third negative consequence of returning to the law is that it removes a person from the sphere of grace. While the legalist is insecure because he cannot know if he has done enough to merit salvation, the believer is secure because he has placed his faith in Christ and will eagerly await righteousness.
When Paul says we eagerly await … the righteousness for which we hope, he is referring to one of two possibilities. On the one hand he may be referring to the righteousness that grows in us slowly, day by day, as we live by faith in him. On the other hand, he may be referring to the day when our righteousness will suddenly be complete, the day when Jesus returns (Rom. 8:8–25; Col. 1:5; 2 Tim. 4:8). Both ideas are true and are taught elsewhere in Scripture. Our salvation is past, present, and future. We have been saved by Jesus' work on the cross in the past; we are saved day by day as the Spirit works within us to bring about daily righteousness, and we will be saved when we see Jesus and receive our glorified body, freed from sin to serve him in unsullied righteousness. What truly matters is the fruit of grace which is faith expressing itself through love (Eph. 2:10; Jas. 2:14–18). To fall from grace is to fall from love. (Falling from grace is discussed more fully in “Deeper Discoveries.”)
5:7–10. The fourth negative consequence of returning to the law is that it hinders spiritual growth and development. Using the metaphor of a race, Paul states that the legalists had cut in on the Galatians' spiritual race and caused them to stumble spiritually. As a result, the Galatians were no longer obeying the truth. Turning to a yeast metaphor, Paul illustrates how quickly a little bit of legalism can contaminate a believer and, indeed, a whole church. Paul, however, expressed his confidence that the Galatians would not depart from the truth. He warned that those who are confusing them will experience God's judgment.
5:11. A fifth consequence when one retreats to legalism is the removal of the offense of the cross. Before Paul was converted, as a Pharisee, he preached circumcision. Now he is being accused of still preaching circumcision. Paul denies this accusation by pointing to the offense or stumbling block of his gospel. He omitted circumcision, and this omission was an offense to the legalists who attacked him.
5:12. The sixth and final consequence of turning to the law is anger. Paul is so angry he wishes the legalists would go the whole way and castrate themselves as did the pagan priests of the cult of Cybele in Asia Minor. This desire is not a pretty picture, but Paul is completely exasperated by these people who are preaching circumcision and sabotaging the Galatians' faith.
Freedom to Live a Life of Love (vv. 13–15)SUPPORTING IDEA: Christ gives the Christian the freedom to love others truly.
5:13–14. In verse 1, Paul states that Christian freedom is the right and privilege of every believer. Then he points out six negative consequences of falling back into slavery. Now he warns them not to use this freedom as a license to sin. Rather than liberty being used for selfishness, the true objective of their newfound freedom is love. Quoting Leviticus 19:18, Paul summarizes the law as “love your neighbor as yourself.” Always remember that we are slaves commissioned to love one another (Matt. 22:39).
5:15. As a result of the legalists, this church was divided. They were biting and devouring each other. Their church and community of faith were on the verge of destruction. Legalism treats people harshly and often leads to divisions.
SUPPORTING IDEA: Release from the law and the power to love are results of God's working in us by his Holy Spirit.
5:16. The law was powerless to help a Christian overcome these sins. We may want to please God, but our sin nature continually pulls us into disobedience (Rom. 7). The answer to this battle between the old and new nature is found in the inward ministry of the Holy Spirit. To experience victory we must live or walk (KJV) by the Spirit. As we live our lives in dependence on, and obedience to, the Holy Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (see “Deeper Discoveries”).
5:17. Now Paul demonstrates the need for the Holy Spirit's enablement. The Christian will, this side of heaven, always experience conflict between the Holy Spirit and the flesh. Here flesh is not limited to the physical dimension of man but denotes anything less than and other than God in which man places trust that belongs to God alone. Paul gives a more complete description of this conflict in Romans 7.
5:18. In summary, Paul tells us that victory over sin is not the result of living under the law. Instead, it is the result of actively yielding to the Spirit. Therefore, both the first step of salvation and its ongoing steps (sanctification, growth in holiness) are brought about within us by God's Spirit working through faith. To be saved, we must have faith in Christ. To walk in God's way, we must have faith in the Holy Spirit, for he empowers us to walk in obedience.
Contrast of the Acts of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit (vv. 19–23).SUPPORTING IDEA: The acts of the flesh symbolize spiritual death, but the fruit of the Spirit is evidence of spiritual life.
5:19. In verses 19–23, Paul contrasts the acts of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. The acts of the sinful nature are divided into four categories. First, three sexual sins are listed. Sexual immorality is a broad term covering fornication, adultery, and homosexuality. Impurity is also a broad term referring to moral uncleanness in our thought life, speech, and actions (Eph. 5:3–4). Debauchery is brazen, unashamed boldness in these sexual sins. People who become desensitized through sexual exploits can eventually lose all modesty and instead can flaunt their erotic, sinful lifestyle.
5:20–21. The second category of these sinful acts is religious sin. Paul presents idolatry and witchcraft as two religious sins. Idolatry involves bowing down to pagan gods. Witchcraft refers to the magical potions administered by sorcerers. Through these magical potions, these sorcerers were able to control the evil powers.
Now Paul lists eight societal sins. They run the gamut from hatred to the actions of discord and jealousy that result in factions. Loving others is not easy. When the flesh controls us, interpersonal problems are the result. Finally, two alcohol-related sins are listed: drunkenness and orgies. Orgies refer to drunken sexual perversions associated with Bacchus, the god of wine. Alcohol controls people and distorts their thinking. Many people, under the influence of a few drinks, have committed grievous sexual sins. Rather than being controlled by alcohol, the Christian is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). While a Christian may intermittently get pulled into these sins, those who live like this (habitually, continually) are not Christians and will therefore not inherit the kingdom of God.
5:22–23. In contrast to the “acts of the flesh” presented above, those who are obedient to the Holy Spirit produce beautiful, nourishing spiritual fruit. Notice the fruit in this passage is called the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of self-effort. This fruit the Holy Spirit produces in the life of a faithful Christian. In other passages of Scripture, we are commanded to fulfill the individual characteristics. The answer to this seeming paradox, I believe, is that only the Holy Spirit can produce the fruit; but he will not do so unless we are striving to the best of our ability for them in faithful obedience. These fruits of the Spirit are in harmony with and not opposed to the law. However, they are not produced by the law but rather by the Spirit working through the believer's faith.
The Solution to the Sinful Struggle (vv. 24–26)SUPPORTING IDEA: The Christian has died to sin and is alive to a Spirit-controlled life of righteousness.
5:24. The struggle between our flesh and our new nature is real. Yet there is more truth to help us win this battle. Paul explains that those who know Jesus Christ do not have to respond to the flesh because they have crucified the [flesh] with its passions and desires. This crucifixion refers to our identification with Christ in his death and resurrection (Gal. 2:20). When Christ died, our flesh was judged. This does not mean our propensity to sin has been eradicated or rendered inoperative. We must accept that our old nature has died with Christ and that as new people we have an increasing power to resist sin (Rom. 6:10–12).
5:25–26. In addition to the flesh that is judged, Paul reminds the Galatians that they have the Holy Spirit to strengthen them against sin. We must keep in step by following the Holy Spirit's direction and guidance. He ends our bondage to evil desires. Finally, Paul challenges the Galatians to live a life of harmony. Conceited legalism sees no need of the Spirit's help and thinks it has accomplished salvation apart from the Spirit. Instead, it leads to arguments. Paul says to stop provoking and envying each other. These negative traits point to the divisions in the church caused by the legalists. The only answer to such disharmony is love empowered by the Holy Spirit.
MAIN IDEA REVIEW: The Christian is freed from external control by the law to internal control by the Holy Spirit.
In this chapter Paul challenges us to live in freedom from the law. He gives us six excellent reasons not to live under the law (vv. 1–12). He tells us to walk in love (vv. 13–15) by the power of the Holy Spirit (vv. 13–26). He tells us how we can break free of the tyranny of sin—not that we will never sin again but that we need not be in bondage to sin.
In the book The Trapp Family Singers, the Trapp family falls into disfavor with the Nazis who are rising to power just before World War II. Therefore, they must escape from their lovely home in Austria to Switzerland. As Hitler's troops closed in on Austria, the von Trapp family escaped to a church, then to a roof, and finally to the country, where they climbed the mountains to freedom. They eventually made it to America, where they settled in Stowe, Vermont and became nationally famous for their lovely musical performances. They never lost their gratitude for the freedom they enjoyed in America. Even though they left behind a fortune in land, estates, and gold, they willingly traded it for freedom.
Like the von Trapp family, Jesus has given us escape from the bondage and tyranny of sin. Yes, we may have had to give up some things that the world considers valuable; but to enjoy spiritual freedom now and eternal reward in heaven, the exchange was well worth it.
PRINCIPLES
APPLICATIONS
Does grace promote sin? Legalists make the claim that complete forgiveness in Christ, without human effort to be “good,” will give Christians the freedom to run wild, morally. They reject grace because they believe it gives Christians a license to sin. The opposite is true, however. If one has truly understood and experienced grace, it makes him want to be more holy, not more sinful. If one has tasted the fresh fruit of grace, a still resolve to be more like Jesus is the result. Quietness comes, not chaos.
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, tells a remarkable story of the power of grace being manifested in a prison near the city of Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. Twenty years ago the Brazilian government turned the prison over to two Christians, who renamed it Humaita, and began to run it on Christian principles. With the exception of two full-time staff, inmates do all the work. Families outside the prison adopt an inmate to work with during and after the term of imprisonment. Colson heard about the prison and one day visited it. He reported:
When I visited Humaita I found the inmates smiling—particularly the murderer who held the keys, opened the gates, and let me in. Wherever I walked, I saw men at peace. I saw clean living areas, people working industriously. The walls were decorated with Biblical sayings from Psalms and Proverbs. My guide escorted me to the notorious prison cell once used for torture. Today, he told me, that block houses only a single inmate. As we reached the end of a long concrete corridor and he put the key in the lock, he paused and asked, “Are you sure you want to go in?”
“Of course, “ I replied impatiently, “I've been in isolation cells all over the world.” Slowly he swung open the massive door, and I saw the prisoner in that punishment cell: a crucifix, beautifully carved by the Humaita inmates—the prisoner, Jesus, hanging on a cross.
“He's doing time for the rest of us,” my guide said softly. (“Making the World Safe for Religion,” Christianity Today, 8 November 1993, 33).
Christ sets people free. We don't have to remain in bondage because Jesus has paid the price for our crime. Just as it would be absurd for a prisoner who has served his time to want to stay behind bars, even so it is absurd for us to remain in the penitentiary of sin. We are now free. We are released from the prison of sin. Christ has done our time for us.
Therefore, exercise your Christian liberty today. You have the freedom to say, “No,” to sin and, “Yes,” to God. That's your powerful privilege in Christ! You are no longer a slave to sin. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, he gave you the freedom to become a slave of righteousness. Disdain your old, damaging bondage to sin; celebrate your new, life-giving bondage to Christ. Everybody is somebody's slave. Whose slave are you? As a slave of Christ, your greatest joy will be the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Dear Lord, progress is so satisfying and regression so saddening. You have changed me in many, many, wonderful ways. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help me to move forward and not fall back. Make me a large, greenleafed tree filled with the fruit of your Spirit. Work in me privately so you can be seen in me publicly. In you I pray. Amen.
A. A yoke of slavery (v. 1)
Christ has freed believers from the law. Yet these Galatians were returning to a yoke of slavery. Depending on the law for life and salvation makes a work animal out of you. Someone else controls and steers your life by means of an instrument connected around your neck. You become a slave obedient to every direction. Any system—pagan idolatry or moral legalism—with rules or dos and don'ts can make slaves of its followers. It seems the false teachers were trying to get the Galatians to take up the yoke of the law. Paul countered, “Take the Spirit's gift of grace. Become what God wants to make you, not what you can make yourself. Be free from anyone's yoke. If you want to be a slave, let Christ be your master.”
The phrase “fallen from grace” is often understood to mean that the Galatian believers had lost their salvation. Two reasons lead us to reject that interpretation. First, that is not the intent of Paul's statement to the Galatian believers. Paul is not talking about our security in Christ. He is contrasting law and grace. To say that they have fallen from grace is not to say that they have fallen from salvation. For Paul, grace is the means of salvation, the way or method of salvation. His opponents advocate a different way of salvation, the method of law or good works. Paul says if you choose that way of salvation instead of the grace way, then Christ is of no benefit to you. See Ephesians 2:8–9. Grace is the only way of salvation. If we reject this truth and try to work for our salvation, Christ can do nothing more to help us. We are on our own. We have rejected the grace way for the works way. We have to try to get to heaven as best we can, because Christ and his grace do not help us when we go the works way.
This is not only true for our salvation, but it is also true in living the Christian life. Grace is God's free blessing that he gives to us as we live our daily life by faith in him and obedience to his word. When we refuse the gift of grace for daily living, we close the door to God's blessing. When the Christian thus chooses works and “falls from grace,” he does not thereby lose his salvation. He does close the door to spiritual growth and forfeits the peace and power that is his when he operates by grace. Because a Christian does not appropriate the grace God offers him for sanctification (spiritual growth) does not mean the believer loses the grace God gave him for justification (salvation). If saving grace were lost every time we turned our back on God's daily grace, everyone would be lost, because everyone, from time to time, turns his back on God's daily grace.
The second reason we reject the interpretation that the Galatian believers lost their salvation is that other passages in the Bible seem to teach rather clearly that you cannot lose your salvation. When an unclear, debatable passage like Galatians 5:6 meets a clear passage, the unclear passage must submit to the clear passage.
What are the clear passages? Jesus addresses this topic of believers' eternal security in the Gospel of John:
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never go thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (6:35–40).
“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life” (6:47).
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (10:9).
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand” (10:28–29).
Paul builds on Jesus' words when he says:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).
The issue in eternal security is not our ability to hold onto what God has given us but his ability to hold on to us. The phrase “you have fallen away from grace” should be understood, not in the sense that grace has been taken away from the Galatians, but in the sense that they have turned their backs on it. When we decide to try to live by works, we adopt a mindset that keeps us from benefiting from God's goodness. He cannot show his goodness to us when we hide from him behind the wall of legalism. In that sense, we have fallen from grace.
C. Offense of the cross (v. 11)
The word for offense is skandalon which means “that which gives offense or causes revulsion, that which arouses opposition, and object of anger or disapproval, stain, etc.” (BAGD, 753).
The cross of Christ is offensive to men. As an instrument of torture and punishment, its presence causes revulsion. Because it is associated with criminals, it causes the natural mind to wonder how it could possibly be an instrument of salvation (see Rom. 9:32–33 and 1 Cor. 1:18). The very thought of it insults human pride. How can human salvation occur without human action?
Kenneth S. Wuest points to another scandal of the cross:
The Cross was offensive to the Jew therefore because it set aside the entire Mosaic [law], and because it offered salvation by grace through faith alone without the added factor of works performed by the sinner in an effort to merit the salvation offered. All of which goes to show that the Jew of the first century had an erroneous conception of the law of Moses, for that system never taught that a sinner was accepted by God on the basis of good works (Wuest, Galatians in the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1944, 146).
Eric W. Adams gives us the bottom line: “In other words, the offense to the Jews is that there is no favoritism of Jews over Gentiles; they are equal” (Elwell, 574). The scandal of the cross brings all people together on equal terms to depend on God for salvation and to give him glory for it. It robs us of all human pride and erases all human distinctions. God cannot be yoked into the human way of doing things. God's work of salvation, work done on the cross of Christ, is scandalous.
D. Live by the Spirit (v. 16)
The Bible does not define what it means to live (literally, to walk) by the Spirit. Scripture never explicitly explains this figure of speech. Other passages in the Bible help us gain a clearer understanding of what it means. The Holy Spirit works in us to do at least four major things:
From these scriptural truths we can extrapolate several things that are true of walking/living by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit means that we:
E. The fruit of the Spirit (vv. 22–23)
We need to rethink a number of long-standing interpretations of the fruit of the Spirit. Because the word fruit is singular, commentators commonly view the nine characteristics listed under the fruit of the spirit as a unit. This would mean that all nine characteristics are always produced completely in every believer. This would be like picking a cluster of fruit from an unusual vine that always has on it a grape, banana, apple, peach, pear, plum, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry.
Like English, the Greek language does not require the “singular” idea, but has a collective sense. All Christians have areas in which they grow more rapidly and securely than in other areas. If, since becoming a Christian, a person grew rapidly in love, patience, and kindness but still struggled with self-discipline in eating, must we deny that the growth in love, patience, and kindness has anything to do with the Holy Spirit? That goes too far. The text in no way requires us to interpret the fruit that narrowly, nor does such an interpretation line up with reality.
I also doubt interpretations that make the list of nine characteristics a complete list. Instead, I think it was intended to be representative. This becomes clearer when we contrast it, as Paul does, with the acts of the flesh in verses 19–21. Does anyone believe that the fifteen acts in those verses are an exhaustive list? For example, lying is not on the list. Gluttony is missing. Materialism is not found. Murder is omitted. This is not a complete list of sinful acts.
Nor is the ninefold fruit of the Spirit a comprehensive list of character traits for the Christian. Faith and hope—two of the three great theological virtues (faith, hope, and love: 1 Cor. 13) are missing. Are they not fruit of the Spirit? Thankfulness, gratitude, forgiveness, moral purity, and humility are highly held characteristics elsewhere in Scripture but missing here. The list here includes only some of the fruit of the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit are not emotions. They are character qualities determined by how we act, not how we feel. For example, we may get angry (an emotion), but if we do not act unkindly in our anger, we may still have manifested the fruit of the Spirit. We may be deeply agitated or fearful about a life circumstance and still manifest the fruit of the Spirit. How? By not rejecting God, lashing out at people, or acting immorally but rather trusting God and doing the right thing in our agitation and fear. We are sometimes led to believe that the fruit of the Spirit equals constant emotional tranquillity. Yet we often have no control over our emotions. If we get angry, we are angry, and if we tell ourselves that we ought not to be angry, it does not always make the anger go away. We can, however, control whether we sin in our anger. That is why the Bible says, “In your anger do not sin” (Eph. 4:26). It does not say the anger is necessarily sin. It does say that we are not to let our anger (an emotion) cause us to sin (an act). As long as we act properly, we are manifesting the fruit of the Spirit.
Contemplating his coming crucifixion when the sin of the world would be placed on him, Jesus was grieved and sorrowing to the point of death in the Garden of Gethsemane. Still he did not sin. He did not forfeit the fruit of the Spirit because his sorrow and grief (emotions) did not destroy his life characteristics of love, joy, and peace. He still loved people, which is why he was willing to go to the cross when he didn't have to. He still had joy: “for the joy set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus also had peace because he knew that God was in control, that he was moving all things to a good end, and that in the end all would be well.
The fruit of the Spirit are general marks and qualities of our life that are revealed in how we act toward others, even though, from time to time, emotions might seem to crowd them out. They, however, do not or need not.
A. INTRODUCTION
C. CONCLUSION: IN THE GRIP OF GRACE
