Shaul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 16

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

In our last post, we left off in Chapter 5:26 with Sha’ul describing Flesh and Spirit. In this post, we continue to explore his Doctrine on Messianic Liberty.

Mutual Responsibility

^6:1 Brothers, suppose someone is caught doing something wrong. You who have the Spirit should set him right, but in a spirit of humility, keeping an eye on yourselves so that you won’t be tempted too.

This verse follows 5:26, which we ended with in our last post without a break in thought: ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

² Bear one another’s burdens – in this way, you will be fulfilling the Torah’s true meaning, which the Messiah upholds.

Stern writes: Here, the question is whether Yeshua instituted a new Torah different from the Torah given to Moshe at Mount Sinai. In other words, is fulfilling “the law of the Messiah” different from fulfilling the Law of Moshe? I express my negative answer in my interpretive rendering, which by its wording excludes the common, but in my opinion mistaken, a traditional Christian view that Yeshua abolished the supposedly legalistic Torah of Moshe and inaugurated in its place a “Law of Love.” Yeshua Himself reassured His hearers that He had not come to abolish the Torah (Mattityahu 5:17). However, the eternity of the Torah does allow for changes in its historical manifestation and application to society; indeed, Judaism itself provides numerous examples. Moreover, Jewish tradition includes a significant strand of expecting that when the Messiah comes, there will be a transformation of the Torah (see Acts 6:13–14, Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 7:12). Messianic Judaism’s search for common ground with non-Messianic Judaism on the subject of the Torah must be carried out in this challenging terrain of change within sameness.

³ For if anyone thinks he is something when he is really nothing, he is fooling himself. ⁴ So let each of you scrutinize his own actions. Then, if you do find something to boast about, at least the boasting will be based on what you have actually done and not merely on a judgment that you are better than someone else; ⁵ for each person will carry his own load. ⁶ But whoever is being instructed in the Word should share all the good things he has with his instructor.

Teachers of the Good News are to be supported by their fellow Believers. But Sha’ul used his entitlement only when he was confident that his doing so would not inhibit response to the Gospel itself (see Acts 18:3, 1 Corinthians 9:1–18, 2 Corinthians 11:7–12.

 

Living by the Spirit

⁷ Don’t delude yourselves: no one makes a fool of God! A person reaps what he sows. ⁸ Those who keep sowing in the field of their old nature, in order to meet its demands, will eventually reap ruin; but those who keep sowing in the field of the Spirit will reap from the Spirit everlasting life.

The law of the harvest is not only that a person reaps what he sows, whether good or bad, but that the harvest is always more significant than the planting – “thirty, sixty or a hundred times as much” (Mattityahu 13:8, 23).

⁹ So let us not grow weary of doing what is good; for if we don’t give up, we will in due time reap the harvest. ¹⁰ Therefore, as the opportunity arises, let us do what is good to everyone, and especially to the family of those who are trustingly faithful. ^[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” (Galatians 5:20–21 previously).

In our next post, we will conclude our study of Galatians, starting in chapter 6:11.

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^[1] Galatians 6:1–10.