Another Bible Commentary: Galatians

Galatia was a province in what is now modern Turkey that had been settled by Gauls. Think of the French, Swiss, Belgians, etc., living like the ancient Greeks. See Acts 16:6 and Acts 18:23. This letter is popularly thought of as “like Romans, but shorter”. Paul wrote this on his third missionary journey against Judaizers (Acts 15:24) who said that the Gentiles had to undergo circumcision and become Jews to be saved. Full converts were no longer Gentiles (Esther 8:17), and we have passages like Psalm 86:9 that say all the nations will worship the true God. The big theme is that God’s grace is better than Law and legalism. The age of a belief is meaningless since Paul had to write against errors even in the infancy of the established Church. Paul had to correct the law/grace mixture in the apostolic church immediately. Christ beats tradition every time. “Law” can be thought of as any belief system in which God responds after we initiate with our good behavior, earning, or achieving. If you give people the Law of Moses, five minutes later they worship a golden calf. If you give them grace, five minutes later they act like they’d rather have laws. Even though the Essenes wrote to the Pharisees about their incomplete Second Temple-era “works of the Law” (things like ritual purity and circumcision which distinguished Jew from Gentile, aka Aquinas’ alleged “ceremonial law”), this letter makes it clear that the Law of Moses is an all-or-nothing proposition (like in James 2:10) and that Jesus is the answer.

1:1 Paul turned the tables on those who said that he wasn’t a legitimate apostle by saying that his calling was better than theirs.

1:3 Again, we get grace and shalom up front without earning it.

1:4-5 Jesus did it all.

1:6-7 like in 2 Corinthians 11:4.

1:8 Fittingly, the Judaizers were already cursed (Galatians 3:10).

1:9 “gospel” The gospel they had accepted from Paul is that Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is what saves us (Galatians 2:16, Galatians 5:11, Galatians 6:14-15).

1:15 “set me apart from my mother’s womb” Paul referenced Jeremiah 1:5, which includes similar language and culminates in “a prophet to the nations” (which fit Paul’s new job description as the Apostle to the Gentiles).

1:18 “three years” Paul studied with the Lord the same amount of time as the original apostles did. For Paul’s visit to Jerusalem here, see Acts 9:26-28.

1:19 James the Just, son of Joseph and (half-)brother of Jesus Christ, who came to belief after the Resurrection.

1:23-24 “us…the faith” Some say that Pauline Christianity is a different religion than the original Christianity, but it’s plainly the same here.

2:1 Paul also delivered the gift we read about at length in the letters to the Corinthians given in response to the famine from Acts 11:28-30 per John 13:34-35.

2:2 “running my race in vain” to save the Gentiles.

2:4 While Jews aren’t known for proselytizing, there were exceptions among the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:15).

2:6 “favoritism” See Deuteronomy 10:17. Paul preached grace, and the rest of the apostles didn’t add anything to it.

2:10 “continue to remember the poor” See verse 1 note.

2:11-12 No church leader, including the alleged “first Pope”, is infallible. It is ironic that Peter could have claimed to have been following Paul’s advice from 1 Corinthians 8 in changing his behavior to avoid distressing weaker brothers in Christ. Saying that the men came from James means they came from the Jerusalem church which he shepherded, but their actions were unauthorized (Acts 15:24). 2 Peter 3:15-16 was written later; Peter remained a fan of Paul and his work.

2:13 Paul stood for Gentile freedom from the Law, and like many prophets, did so alone.

2:14 See Acts 15:10.

2:15-16 See Psalm 143:2.

2:17 “sinners” See verse 15. Jews considered Gentiles sinners, or “law-breakers”, by default since they were pagans lacking the Law of Moses. A Jew choosing the crucified and risen Christ for righteousness admits to being as sinful as the Gentiles. See Romans 2:25-29. Christ doesn’t promote sin, but Christ fulfilled the Law for us, died, rose, and took us with Him (Ephesians 2:6).

2:18 Paul died to the Law (verse 19), so rebuilding a relationship with the Law would be rebuilding the old life that was destroyed and saying that Christ died for nothing (verse 21). See also Hebrews 10:29.

2:19 Want to live for God? Then dying to the Law is necessary. See Romans 7:4-6 and John 3. It has been taught that the Law of Moses serves three purposes: first, to control bad behavior in the world; second, to show us our need for God’s grace; and third, to guide believers in how to live. Despite libraries full of theology books, there is no “third use of the Law” of Moses for believers. Have you ever seen someone get mad enough to say that someone is dead to them? Would someone who said that still expect them to take their advice going forward? See Acts 13:39.

Some Messianic Jews say that the “works of the Law” are only about the specific markers that make one Jewish rather than Gentile and that the Law of Moses is still God’s loving instructions to us because of our adoption. Paul allows none of that. See Romans 5:20 and Romans 7:5 (the Law increased sinning), Romans 7:4-8 (we’re dead to the Law, and apart from the Law sin is dead), Galatians 3:10 (imperfect Law-keeping is accursed), Leviticus 19:2 and Matthew 5:48 (the bar, God’s perfect holiness, is impossibly high). Under the Old Covenant, turning from sin was allegedly a way to be saved (Ezekiel 18), but we all stumble in many ways (James 3:2), and breaking one rule is the same as breaking all of them (James 2:10). Recognize that Jesus is the only way and only He fulfills the Law (Matthew 5:17). He said to give to all who ask (Matthew 5:42); we’re too weak for that, but He gives salvation to all who ask (Romans 10:13). He said to forgive perfectly (Matthew 6:14-15); we humans are too weak for that, but He forgave His killers (Luke 23:34). That’s us; He died for our sins (Isaiah 53:5, John 1:29).

2:20 Learn this verse. Many people know that Christ died for us, but few know that we also died with Him. See John 11:25 and John 17:23. He is your life (Colossians 3:4, as foreshadowed in Deuteronomy 30:20). See Hebrews 10:1-4; the Old Testament sacrifices were the same animals from Abe’s blood path in Genesis 15, a reminder (Colossians 2:17) of the one-sided deal that God made. We sinned; He died instead of us.

2:21 Christ could have ascended to Heaven after giving the Sermon on the Mount if improving our behavior were the point. Our feeble attempts at penance and restitution are insults to the finished work of Christ on the Cross (Hebrews 10:14).

3:1 “foolish” like in James 2:20, despite Matthew 5:22’s warning about questioning others’ relationship with God (Psalm 14:1). The Sermon on the Mount taught a Law that Paul just said we’re not under. Paul “clearly portrayed” their, and our, co-crucifixion with Him and our resulting death to the Law of Moses again just now in Galatians 2:19-21.

3:2 See Acts 10:43-44 and Acts 11:16-17. The Holy Spirit, and therefore salvation, is received through faith in Jesus.

3:3 More proof that “the flesh” is the way of human effort to make life successful/tolerable/make sense in contrast to the way of faith. It includes attempts to be good like the Galatians were tempted to try as well as the more obvious sins. If you’d like a refresher, see the Romans 7:18 note.

3:5 See verse 2 note.

3:6 in Genesis 15:6.

3:7 This idea was not new (Isaiah 44:5). See Matthew 3:9.

3:8 See Genesis 12:3, Genesis 18:18, and Genesis 22:18.

3:9 See John 8:39.

3:10 Paul quoted the Septuagint’s handling of Deuteronomy 27:26, and James 2:10 references that understanding of the passage as well. Notice that the problem is relying on law-keeping instead of Jesus for righteousness. If He is your life, you are free to do or not do things from the Law of Moses; think of Paul’s shape-shifting in 1 Corinthians 9:22 or Paul circumcising Timothy in Acts 16:3.

3:11 See Habakkuk 2:4.

3:12 in Leviticus 18:5.

3:13 in Deuteronomy 21:23. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and Christ died for us. The wages of sin is not falling out of fellowship with God somehow, or a smaller mansion in Heaven. Believers are done with condemnation (John 5:24, Romans 8:1).

3:14 “promise of the Spirit” See Isaiah 44:1-5 and Isaiah 59:21. Believers, children of Abraham, are recipients of “the blessing” and are therefore heirs of the universe (Romans 4:3, Galatians 4:7). We are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), and He owns everything (Matthew 28:18).

3:16 See Genesis 12:7, Genesis 13:15, and Genesis 24:7. Some modern translations say “descendants” but Seed is singular.

3:19 “because of transgressions” In Romans, Paul made it clear that the Law of Moses even increased the amount of sinning going on (Romans 5:20, Romans 7:5). The Law is a schoolmaster that teaches that humanity is dead and in need of Christ. Grace-conscious believers are often accused of being “antinomians” or opponents of the Law; its real enemies oppose the Law’s work by using it in ways it is not intended to be used. The Acts 15:20 rules resemble the much older “Noahide Laws”, and our righteousness is Jesus’, not based on our performance. The involvement of angels is derived from Deuteronomy 33:2. Moses was the “mediator” in Exodus 4:16, Leviticus 26:46, and Numbers 36:13.

3:20 In a two-sided deal (and a mediator shows there are two sides), humans have responsibilities. There was no mediator in the deal between God and a sleeping Abraham in Genesis 15 because God took all the responsibility. We sinned, and He died.

3:21 Read this verse a few times. Adam lost life, and we have it back. Humanity’s problem is being spiritually dead (Genesis 2:17); it takes zero committed sins to be a born sinner. See Isaiah 64:6; all humans were unclean. Corpses are ritually unclean (Numbers 19), so the filthy rags (really for menstrual blood, if you recall) of good deeds done by spiritual corpses (1 Corinthians 15:22) might as well be funky mummy wrappings. Jesus said we must be born again (John 3:3). We have His life and His righteousness. We really have it; it’s not just in a ledger in Heaven like some theologians would have you believe. We have an imparted righteousness along with the new life we were given. We are righteous because of our new birth under the New Covenant, not because of anything we have done or do.

3:22 “locked up” It’s like Adam and all the people he contained left the Garden for a prison camp. Being in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22, John 17:20-23) is a change of spiritual location (Ephesians 2:6). Notice that what was promised is given through faith to believers and not on account of works.

3:23 In addition to offering you a side order of being cursed along with your grace (Galatians 3:10) and increased sinning, anyone inviting you to “balance” grace with the Law is inviting you back to prison.

3:24 “guardian” also known as a tutor. The Law does show us our need for our Redeemer, so mentioning an educator in the middle of a prison metaphor still works.

3:25 See 2 Corinthians 3:11-13 and Hebrews 8:13.

3:26 “through faith” Again, belief suffices (John 3:16).

3:27 Believers are in Him (1 Corinthians 15:22, John 17:20-23, Ephesians 2:6). Even in the shower, you’re wearing Him. He’s not pants you can forget to put on; once you’re His, you’re His (Hebrews 7:25).

3:28 We are one in Christ (John 17:20-23). Christians are united as the Body of Christ and are equally saved by grace through faith, but men, women, children, elders, etc., are all given different instructions in the New Testament. Additionally, our unity does not mean someone can ask a believing man about scheduling time with “our” wife: we remain different “fleshes”. Also, since God’s children are a family, there is no such thing as cultural appropriation when it comes to Christian music (but rhythm still exists, so some of us can be advised to stay in our lane).

3:29 Again, believers are the children of Abraham. This is spelled out in Galatians 3:2,5-9,14.

4:3 “elemental spiritual forces” like the law of sin and death (Ezekiel 18:4, Leviticus 18:5) and beings like the Watchers of the nations (Deuteronomy 32:8 in the Septuagint, Daniel 10:13).

4:4-5 “But” means that the “we were” of verse 3 is over. Again, the Cross is where the New Testament really begins. The audience for Jesus’ teachings was under the Law, but we are not under the Law of Moses. See Luke 4:18. The phrase “adoption to sonship” was indicative of granting full legal standing to a successor in Roman culture. Again, it is amazing how He keeps the Law’s demands (explained in the Sermon on the Mount) of generosity to all who ask and perfect forgiveness toward us. Keep your focus on Jesus’ performance.

4:6 “Abba” is very informal. It’s not disrespectful to think of God as Daddy.

4:7 Every believer in Christ is God’s beloved child, He is fully pleased with us, and everything He has is also ours. Paul’s use of “slave” regarding himself was to show his commitment level compared to that of a hireling. Being a part of God’s work is a joy; we don’t have to work for Him as if He needed anything.

4:9 Believer, God knows you. Matthew 7:22 is not about you.

4:10-11 Read these verses if you ever think about doing anything like fasting or Sabbath observance for the purpose of righteousness. See Romans 14:5 and Colossians 2:16.

4:12 “like me…like you” Free from the Law of Moses.

4:13-16 This suggestion of eye problems (perhaps lingering – Acts 9:18) might point to Paul’s thorn in his flesh from 2 Corinthians 12. See also Galatians 6:11.

4:19 “Christ is formed in you” No, you’re not incubating a not-done-yet Jesus; Paul meant spiritual maturity as in Ephesians 4:13-14. The mature faith of someone who sees the Galatians 3:1 picture clearly is harder to sway or trick.

4:22 Again, concubines are slaves rather than wives. Looking at the totality of Scripture, things like Exodus 21:4 tell us that sexual intercourse is not constrained primarily by the sanctity of one marriage but by the prevention of fatherlessness. Again, fellows, keep it zipped up with regard to other guys’ wives, certain near-kin relations (your own or a spouse’s), animals, other dudes, blood, etc. (Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20); warmup stuff from Song of Songs/Solomon doesn’t count, since that book is set in the courtship stage, and Paul allows a lot of leeway unless something is explicitly prohibited to us as we’ll discuss in Colossians 2:20-23.

4:23 Paul refenced Genesis 21 in this section.

4:24-25 The slaves to the Law (Acts 15:24).

4:26 The existence of things like the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10) is foreshadowed in Exodus 25:40. See Hebrews 8:5 and Ezekiel 48:30-35.

4:27 in Isaiah 54:1.

4:28 For passages like Isaiah 49:6 and Psalm 86:9 to come true, the Gentiles worship God as Gentiles. One who undergoes circumcision is as Jewish (Esther 8:17) as one born into a Jewish family. See Exodus 12:43-44,48; if you get to celebrate being freed from slavery in Egypt along with your fellow Jews, you are Jewish. Genesis 17:12-14 details how outsiders joined Abraham’s “flesh” (see also Esther 8:17), but Abe was to be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:4). We are children of the promise (Genesis 18:18-19, Genesis 22:17).

4:29 The Judaizers were attacking saved people who had received the Spirit through belief (Galatians 3:2,5).

4:30 in Genesis 21:10.

5:1 Paul called trying to do historically good things for God being enslaved. You are free in Christ. He is the Truth (John 14:6) that sets you free (John 8:32). You are free from the power of Sin, you are free from the second death, you are free from the Law of Moses, etc.

5:2-5 This is less about a hypothetical loss of salvation (Matthew 28:20) than not really being Christian yet; becoming Jewish to cover all your bases reveals a lack of trust in His righteousness alone. That would be “relying” on works (Galatians 3:10-14).

5:6 Under the New Covenant, we’re circumcised in our hearts (Colossians 2:11 as promised in Deuteronomy 30:6); compare believers to Judaizers and see Jeremiah 9:25-26. Again, “faith expressing itself through love” is another case of “Believe and Love” being emphasized.

5:7 Paul used another sports metaphor. “Obeying the truth” would be believing that it’s Jesus’ race after all (Romans 5:8).

5:8 “calls you” to freedom (verse 1). Jesus won’t steer you wrong. See Romans 14:4 and Psalm 23:3.

5:10 See 2 Corinthians 2:11 and 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.

5:11 Salvation is through the Cross and the Resurrection alone, and it’s a slap in the face to human pride and achievement. See 1 Corinthians 1:18.

5:12 Paul just wished that the Acts 15:24 people would cut their own genitals off (in inspired Scripture – 2 Peter 3:16, 2 Timothy 3:16-17). See Galatians 5:14. At least what Paul said was born from love of the Gentiles. Paul’s saying that since Isaiah 49:6 was part of the Hebrews’ mission, those that didn’t like it should have opted out of their faith (see Deuteronomy 23:1) instead of interfering with us.

5:13 “the flesh” See the Romans 7:18 note for a refresher on this concept if you want. The Flesh is not the body. Also, notice that you’re free to indulge it, it’s just a bad idea since you’re a saint now. Just like in Romans 6:1-2, we don’t avoid sin because Dad will get mad (Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:14), but because we’re better than that now.

5:14 See Mark 12:31’s restatement of Leviticus 19:18. Both of those verses were addressed to Jews under the Law of Moses. See Jesus’ new commandment in John 13:34-35. Paul is not saying we’re under the Law of Moses; he says the opposite in verse 18. The fruit of the Spirit is love (verse 22), and listening to the Spirit beats the flesh.

5:15 The jealousy and pride of the flesh still leads to arguments and church splits.

5:16 The fruit of the Spirit is love (verse 22).

5:17 Read this one closely, remembering that you’re the new self and that what you really want to do is express Jesus Christ – the flesh keeps you from doing what you really want to do. If you have an internal battle about something sinful, that’s evidence of the Spirit at work. The way to distinguish Old Testament Law from New Testament behavior instructions is to ask, “What happens if I mess up?” Under Law, the wages of sin is death (Ezekiel 18:4, Romans 6:23). Under the New Covenant, your new heart and new spirit don’t like sinning; there is such a thing as being saved but miserable.

5:18 Paul has said repeatedly that Christians are not under the Law of Moses. Galatians 3 says believers have the Spirit, and Romans 8 concurs and adds that believers are led by the Spirit. Paul identified his identity within Judaism pre-salvation as fleshly in Philippians 3. We live by the Spirit. We don’t always walk by the Spirit (James 3:2), but we’re always led (Psalm 23:3). Unbelievers live by the flesh and walk by the flesh; Christians have a choice in how to walk as always-totally-forgiven-people.

5:19-21 The Law is not our moral compass. Jesus produces the fruit of the Spirit. Depending on the Indwelling Christ for your behavior is good. Obeying Sin (portrayed as an entity since Genesis 4) is what is sinful for us. Paul gave former pagans having trouble being formerly pagan instructions so they could learn to distinguish His voice from Sin’s voice. This type of “vice list” was familiar to audiences that had been exposed to Stoicism. By the mix of attributes Paul chose, he painted pagans and Judaizers with the same brush.

See 1 John 5:1. We love Jesus and those who believe in Him (and He’s not turning believers away – John 6:37). The “weightiest” law was Love. However, 1 Corinthians 5 still exists. There is a tension between loving people and allowing their behavior to influence a congregation as well as affect the reputation of the Gospel. The vice list items somehow causing loss of salvation would contradict many statements of Jesus and the salvation by grace through faith espoused in the rest of this letter. Again, it’s more a question of why would you live like the unsaved since you’re just not built for that anymore (Romans 6:1-2)? The material in this list amounts to paganism (see Exodus 32:6 for context) and offenses against church unity. Paul did not suddenly forget “the offense of the Cross” from verse 11; people who commit those sins won’t be found in the world to come because those behaviors will all go away with this fallen world. Christians are all cleaned-up former sinners by nature (1 Corinthians 6:11), so again, why live like the damned?

Starting at Galatians 5:19, we see words like adultery, porneia, uncleanness, and lasciviousness. Let’s remember that Paul’s audience consisted of former pagans and their barometer for what was wild does not match ours. Adultery involves another man’s wife. As to porneia, if the modern idea that “your genitalia are bad and want bad things” were accurate, the Bible scribes could have saved much ink and spared themselves hand cramps. When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek, there was a problem communicating about sexual immorality. The word the translators went with was porneia which provides the root word for words like pornographic. It approximately means “things hookers do”, and here’s why: in Greco-Roman culture at the time, men were allowed one wife (it kept the inheritance simple), but the husbands could go out and get access to any orifice from any gender of slave, prostitute, temple prostitute, etc. There was no judgment baked into the word, it just meant “stuff not going on with the respected, noble-born mother of your children''. Now look at 1 Corinthians 5:1. Paul was concerned about the porneia reported among them, specifically that a man in their congregation was shacked up with his father’s wife. Did any of you ever read that verse and think he was paying her? Since it’s not about hookers, where does Paul derive his prohibition of their relationship? Leviticus 18:3,7-8,24-28. Porneia here in Galatians 5:19 refers to things like temple prostitution and the pairings described in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20; things that got the Canaanites killed. This discussion is also at work wherever English translators choose “fornication” to stand for porneia which was chosen as another placeholder word for the list of universal sexual rules. Some translations correctly speak of “inordinate lust” or “evil desires” (i.e. the off-the-Leviticus-menu stuff) in Colossians 3:5 where many others just say “lust” and create the perception of many Bible contradictions. Paul warned us in Colossians 2:8 "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition..." Predictably, the Church immediately started snorting big lines of Stoicism and Platonism. The Greek philosophical behavioral ideals (not to be confused with the over-the-top Greek behavior to which the philosophies developed as a reaction) especially became the norm as the early Church distanced itself from its Jewish roots. The celibate desert ascetics that began Christian monasticism, lingering Greek philosophical ideas (like Platonism’s spirit-good-matter-bad bias against the body), an Aristotelian obsession with the telos, etc., have all affected what we read in our Bibles in English in addition to the natural changes to any word’s meaning that happen through common use.

Uncleanness or akatharsia is dirty, demonic, depraved, foul like a festering wound, etc. It’s in the Mark 7 list, too. It describes adulterers in 1 Thessalonians 4. Lasciviousness/licentiousness or aselgeia or “lewdness” in a first century context signifies being utterly amoral, feeling no shame while sinning, participating in pagan orgies, disregarding the boundaries established in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, etc., rather than mere horniness. See 2 Peter 2:13. Some translations of Jeremiah 3:23 show religious orgies like in Exodus 32:6. Some see aselgeia as a specific reference to buggery.

Lust isn’t in this list, but it comes up in sermons about these verses. In general, the Septuagint translators used “lust” to communicate covetousness to a Greek audience. To the original Greek hearers, this is a strong urge, the home-wrecking instinct, a cause of fights and murders, the origin of fraud and extortion, not mere desire. In reasonable translations of Colossians 3:5; “lust” is rendered “inordinate lust” (out-of-bounds desire, remember that Paul wrote to former orgy participants). “Lust” was even used for instances like Jesus really wanting to eat Passover. Remember that the Bible, figuratively or not, repeatedly contains descriptions of publicly stripping women as a punishment (Isaiah 47:2-3, Hosea 2, etc.), probably-involuntary nudists like Isaiah and Micah, and so forth as well as the freakier bits of Ezekiel and Song of Songs/Solomon. If you are prudish enough to hypothetically look away from reenactments of Bible scenes, the Accuser has warped the prevailing values of your culture.

To answer accusations that I am promoting filthiness, on the day I wrote this, I heard a version of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” in which the phrase “offspring of a virgin’s womb” was censored. I’m sorry, but that is ridiculously prudish. Even worse, the phrase “pleased with us in flesh to dwell” was also censored. The Incarnation is the miracle we celebrate at Christmas, and denying it was something that John the Apostle’s proto-Gnostic enemies would have done. Efforts to re-center the pendulum after it has been moved by misguided leaders obsessed with an overscrupulous morality (that I think was first whispered by the Accuser) largely regarding sex and the human body (and who largely forget “weightier” things like love and charity in a manner analogous to Matthew 23:23) will naturally seem wanton.

As to the partying at the end of the list, see Deuteronomy 14:26; drinking and non-orgy parties are okay. Paul’s issue was Dionysus/Bacchus worship. Jesus’ first miracle (John 2) was turning water into at least 120 gallons of wine for people that were already drunk by modern estimates. Don’t drink and drive (Romans 13), but “too buzzed to operate a rolling weapon” isn’t biblically drunk; Lot mistakenly fathering his own grandchildren was biblically drunk. Jesus partied (Matthew 11:19), and that’s no surprise because God ordered drinks with His sacrifice combo meals (Exodus 29:40). Nazirites wouldn’t have sworn off alcohol if abstinence were already mandatory. God calls plants good in Genesis 1 and medicinal at the end of Revelation, so drug-induced hallucinogenic idolatry is the drug prohibition. See Matthew 15:11 and 1 Corinthians 6:12. Self-control is proper use, not total abstinence.

5:22-23 Compare the attributes of Love in 1 Corinthians 13. He is the Vine, and we are but branches (John 15:5). Anything God likes, He’s doing within us (Romans 14:4, Hebrews 13:20-21, Philippians 1:6, Philippians 2:13, Jude 24). The fruit of the Spirit is soft. Looking ahead to our amazing future, trusting Him who pays double for trouble, and knowing we are already eternal beings lets us go through life happy, content, not worried, patient, secure enough to help others, lacking the need to settle scores, etc. We can radiate positivity and let anything negative pass right on through us as if we were the incorporeal spirits the Platonists and Gnostics wanted to be.

5:24 “have crucified” See Colossians 2:11. This already happened at salvation (Galatians 2:20). You don’t crucify your passions to earn your way in; you choose Him, and unity with Him includes it. You can’t crucify yourself; once you get one arm nailed down, how would you finish? The Cross worked (Hebrews 10:14); He did it all. We are free to follow the Spirit now.

5:25 “Since we live by the Spirit” (and we totally do now, thanks to Jesus), we aspire to follow the Spirit’s lead. There will be plenty of missteps this side of Heaven (James 3:2).

5:26 like the factions among the Corinthians, or the Jewish and Gentile groups we saw back in Romans.

6:1 For example, it is sometimes hard to be patient with the impatient.

6:2 See John 13:34-35.

6:3-5 See verses 12 and 13. The carrying of each other’s burdens in verse 2 looks contradictory to carrying our own load, but see Matthew 7:3. We are to love, so we are to help each other, but we are also to mind our own business in general since we all need grace.

6:6 For those keeping score, Paul had the same “the preacher deserves pay”, “stop doing pagan stuff”, and “ignore the alleged superapostles” concerns for the Galatians as he did for the Corinthians.

6:7-10 These verses are a unit. They are aimed at the purposes of saving people (Galatians 6:9, Titus 2:10) and loving each other (Galatians 2:10, John 13:34-35). It’s the lost vs. saved dynamic we saw in Romans 8 again. Whoever sows only to their flesh is an unbeliever. The Judaizers (Acts 15:24) making a mockery of the crucifixion by saying He didn’t get the job done would get theirs (Hebrews 10:29). There are still earthly consequences for believers, too; smoking crack has been known to ruin lives, but Christ never leaves us. Whoever places their faith in Jesus will be saved. Whoever sows to the Spirit by supporting a ministry that’s saving people (verse 6) is saving people, too.

6:11 “large letters” indicative of possible eye problems.

6:12 The Cross and Resurrection is enough to save us (verses 14-15). The Jews had a legal exemption from emperor worship; they had a deal in place to make a sacrifice on behalf of the emperor and pray for his well-being instead. Christianity was thought to be just another Jewish sect (Acts 24:14) at first, but the presence of large numbers of uncircumcised Gentiles made the Romans start to question their right to the exemption. Jews were incentivized to cut ties with Christians (Revelation 3:9), and after the bar Kokhba revolt, Christians were incentivized to cut ties with Jews. Lots of the historical and cultural context for the Bible was forgotten for centuries in which churchmen piously made stuff up, conflicted with each other, regurgitated Aristotelian philosophy, etc.

6:13 These guys were nothing new; see Matthew 23:15.

6:16 “Israel of God” For clarification of this expression for the Church, see Galatians 3:7, Ephesians 2:14-18, Romans 2:29, and Paul’s discussion of grafting branches into the tree in Romans 11.

6:17 The scars from beatings and stonings were better marks of His ownership than circumcision, and walking off a stoning is proof that Paul is on the right team (Mark 16:18, Luke 10:19).

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