Shaul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 15

Note: To examine the graphics in this series, click on them for a pop-up version.

We pause the ongoing story of Sha’ul to examine his Letter to the Galatians.

In our last post, we left off in Chapter 5:12 with Sha’ul describing Circumcision: A Matter of Law ~ Part 2. In this post, we continue to explore his Doctrine on Messianic Liberty.

Shaul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 15

¹³ For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love.

Until now, Sha’ul has been preaching freedom, but here he issues a necessary caution against antinomianism, defined as abusing freedom by turning it into license.

¹⁴ For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself:”

The whole of the Torah is summed up in one sentence, Leviticus 19:18, which Sha’ul also used in Romans 13:8–10; compare Ya’akov 1:27.

¹⁵ but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!

Factionalism (arguments or disputes) is a significant threat to the communal life of God’s people; compare v. 26 (below); Yochanan 17:21; 1 Corinthians 1:10-12, 3:1-3.

Flesh and Spirit

¹⁶ What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. ¹⁷ For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions.

This is essentially the same advice as in Romans 8:4–13. The term old nature renders the Greek sarx as “flesh.”

¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism. ¹⁹ And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity, and indecency; ²⁰ involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous, and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue ²¹ and envy; in drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you now, as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God!

Some Believers do not take these verses seriously and think they can continue in adultery, fornication, pharmakeia (a Greek word which gives us our word “pharmacy” but combines the ideas of sorcery and drug use), and the other sins enumerated here without having to pay the price. They suppose that a loving God will accept them regardless of their sins or that having once long ago professed their faith guarantees them entry to heaven. Shaul’s response is brief and severe: I warn you now, as I have warned you before, those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God! The phrase those who do such things is the Greek word prassontes (“practicing”). It is not those who fall short of perfection who are excluded from the Kingdom, for that would exclude everyone. Still, those who willfully continue to practice their sins instead of turning from them sincerely to seek God’s forgiveness (1 Yochanan 1:9). While some listed sins can be performed alone, note how many involve abuse of other people and breakdown in human relationships.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ humility, self-control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.

Fruit does not come from efforts (of legalistic rule-following) but grows naturally (out of trust).“A tree is judged by its fruit,” said Yeshua (Mattityahu 12:33–37). Arguments for the objective truth of the Gospel are necessary, yet the most convincing form of evidence is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. In some Christian circles, an unseemly argument arises in which the fruit of the Spirit is set over against the gifts of the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12:8–10), as if the one were better or more important than the other. The balanced Believer will want both the fruit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit operating in their life so that they can better serve God and their fellow human beings. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things. Or, “Against these things, there is no law,” in the sense that even legalism does not oppose them.

²⁴ Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with their passions and desires. ²⁵ Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other.^[1]

In contrast with the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of legalism and the Judaizers’ teaching is “feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue, and envy” (vv. 20–21 above).

In our next post, we will continue to explore Shaul’s Doctrine on Messianic Liberty, starting in chapter 6:1.

Click here for the PDF version.

^[1] Galatians 5:13-26.