Galatianschapter 5
26 verses · Paul · AD 48 or 49 · Paul's letters
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Introduction
Paul, Paul's letters, Galatians Overview.
The argument of the letter is finished, and Paul now tells the Galatians what to do with it. The chapter opens with a command about freedom and ends with a warning about pride. Between them stand two lists that many readers know by heart, the acts of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Listen for the word freedom at the start and the word Spirit through the second half. Notice that the same chapter which frees believers from the law also calls them to fulfill it by love.
Context
- Who
- Gentile believers deciding whether to undergo a permanent, public, irreversible rite.
- What
- The command to stand in Christian freedom, a final warning against circumcision, and the teaching on walking by the Spirit.
- Where
- Written to the churches of Galatia, whose members were quarreling over circumcision.
- When
- Written about AD 48 to 57, while the teachers who pressed circumcision were still at work in the churches.
- Why
- To keep the Galatians from returning to the law and to show that freedom in Christ leads to love and a life led by the Spirit.
Historical context
Circumcision carried social weight far beyond the surgery. Greeks and Romans exercised and bathed unclothed and regarded the practice as a mutilation; adopting it marked a man out permanently. It also brought a Gentile under the umbrella of Judaism, which Rome legally recognized and exempted from the imperial cult, a real practical benefit for anyone wanting a quiet life.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
That is likely part of what Paul means when he says the agitators want to avoid persecution for the cross of Christ. Attaching converts to a recognized religion made the movement safer and their own position easier.
Paul's warning is about the package, not the knife: whoever accepts circumcision as a requirement is obligated to keep the whole law. You cannot take one clause of a covenant.
The vice list that follows resembles the catalogues Greek moralists published, and includes items from sexual immorality and idolatry to enmity, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, and factions, a reminder that the works of the flesh are mostly things that break a congregation apart, not private indulgences.
The fruit of the Spirit is singular against the plural works, and ends with the note that against such things there is no law.
Significance
The Galatians were told that Christ had set them free for freedom, and that if they submitted again to a yoke of slavery Christ would be of no advantage to them. That was as strong as Paul could put it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
But freedom had a boundary. It was not an opportunity for the flesh; through love they were to serve one another, and the whole law was fulfilled in one word, love your neighbour as yourself. He adds a dry warning about biting and devouring each other.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Stand Fast: Do Not Take the Yoke Back On
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free: Entangled translates enechesthe, the language of being caught again in a harness once slipped. Bondage points straight at the Sinai covenant of chapter 4's allegory.
Galatians 5:1
“He adds "again," not because the Galatians had previously kept the law … but in their readiness to observe the lunar seasons, to be circumcised in the flesh and to offer sacrifices, they were in a sense returning to the cults that they had previously served in a state of idolatry.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 2.5.1patristic
Galatians 5:2-3
Take notice: I, Paul, tell you: Paul stakes his own authority on one point: if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Verse 3 presses the logic, for such a man is obligated to obey the whole law.
Galatians 5:2
“If ye be circumcised - By circumcision you take on you the whole obligation of the Jewish law, and consequently profess to seek salvation by means of its observances; and therefore Christ can profit you nothing; for, by seeking justification by the works of the law, you renounce justification by faith in Christ.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
obligated to obey the whole law: Circumcision was the entry into the whole covenant of Sinai. A man who took it as a condition of salvation bound himself to keep every command. The law accepts no partial obedience, as 3:10 has shown.
Galatians 5:3
“For I testify again - Probably he had stated this when he had preached the gospel to them first, and he now solemnly bears witness to the same thing again. Bloomfield, however, supposes that the word “again” here (πάλιν palin) means, on the other hand, or, “furthermore,” or, as we would say, “and again.” That he is a debtor to do the whole law - He binds himself to obey all the Law of Moses. Circumcision was the distinguishing badge of the Jews, as baptism is of Christians.”
You who are trying to be justified by the law: The verse's scope is Galatians seeking justification by law. The Wesleyan tradition reads fallen away from grace as a real forfeiture of grace by a return to law. The tradition of eternal security reads a change in the ground of standing, with salvation kept.
Galatians 5:4
“Therefore Christ is become of no effect to you - Who seek to be justified by the law. Ye are fallen from grace - Ye renounce the new covenant. Ye disclaim the benefit of this gracious dispensation.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:4
“Christ is become of no effect unto you - It is vain for you to attempt to unite the two systems. You must have the law and no Christ, or Christ and no law, for your justification. Ye are fallen from grace - From the Gospel. They had been brought into the grace of the Gospel; and now, by readopting the Mosaic ordinances, they had apostatized from the Gospel as a system of religion, and had lost the grace communicated to their souls, by which they were preserved in a state of salvation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Galatians 5:4
“Ro 7:2, "Loosed from the law," where the same Greek occurs as here. whosoever of you are justified--"are being justified," that is, are endeavoring to be justified. by the law--Greek, "IN the law," as the element in which justification is to take place. fallen from grace--Ye no longer "stand" in grace (Ro 5:2).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Galatians 5:5-6
But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit: Verse 6 states the letter's positive principle in small: neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love, pistis di agapes energoumene, faith at work in love.
faith, expressed through love: Expressed translates energoumene, faith at work and active. Love is how faith shows itself in deeds. The verse sets faith as the root and love as its working, and it answers any charge that grace breeds idleness.
Galatians 5:6
ALL ways of justification by human works and outward forms are set aside by the Apostle. In one sentence he closes up every road which is cast up by man and opens up the way of the Lord, even the way of salvation by Grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Some hope to be saved by ritualism—their hopes are struck hip and thigh by these words, "Neither circumcision avails anything." On the other hand, many are relying upon their freedom from all ceremonies and place their reliance upon a sort of anti-ritualism—they are struck by the words, "nor uncircumcision."
3 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:6
“Nor uncircumcision - With the most exact heathen morality. Availeth anything - Toward present justification or eternal salvation. But faith - Alone; even that faith which worketh by love - All inward and outward holiness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 5:6
“For in Jesus Christ - By the dispensation of the Gospel all legal observances, as essential to salvation, are done away; and uncircumcision, or the Gentile state, contributes as much to salvation as circumcision or the Jewish state; they are both equally ineffectual; and nothing now avails in the sight of God but that faith δι’ αγαπης ενεργουμενη, which is made active, or energetic, by love.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Galatians 5:6
“Thus in Ga 5:5, 6, we have the three, "faith," "hope," and "love." The Greek expresses, "Which effectually worketh"; which exhibits its energy by love (so 1Th 2:13). Love is not joined with faith in justifying, but is the principle of the works which follow after justification by faith.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
You Were Running Well: Who Cut In?
Galatians 5:7-9
You were running so well: The race turns to a question, Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth? Enekopsen is a military word for breaking up a road to stop an advancing column.
Galatians 5:7
“Translate, "Ye were running well" in the Gospel race (1Co 9:24-26; Php 3:13, 14). who, &c.--none whom you ought to have listened to [BENGEL]: alluding to the Judaizers (compare Ga 3:1). hinder--The Greek means, literally, "hinder by breaking up a road." not obey the truth--not submit yourselves to the true Gospel way of justification.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:7
“Ye did run well - The Christian life is often represented as a race; see the notes at 1Co 9:24-26. Paul means here, that they began the Christian life with ardour and zeal; compare Gal 4:15. Who did hinder you - Margin, “Drive you back.” The word used here (ἀνακόπτω anakoptō) means properly to beat or drive back. Hence, it means to hinder, check, or retard.”
the One who calls you: The persuasion the Galatians heard came from men. God, who had called them by grace, stood behind none of it. The source of a teaching is Paul's test of it.
Galatians 5:8
“This persuasion - Of the necessity of your being circumcised and obeying the law of Moses, is not of him that calleth you. I never preached such a doctrine to you; I called you out of bondage to liberty, from a galling yoke to a cheerful service. Some translate πεισμονη, obedience or subjection. This subjection of yours to the Mosaic law is opposed to the will of God, and never was preached by me.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:8
“This persuasion--Greek, "The persuasion," namely, to which you are yielding. There is a play on words in the original, the Greek for persuasion being akin to "obey" (Ga 5:7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
A little leaven: Leaven was a common figure for a small influence that spreads through a whole mass, as in 1 Corinthians 5:6. A few teachers, or a single rite, could corrupt the whole church. Paul warns against treating the error as small.
Galatians 5:9
“A little leaven--the false teaching of the Judaizers. A small portion of legalism, if it be mixed with the Gospel, corrupts its purity. To add legal ordinances and works in the least degree to justification by faith, is to undermine "the whole." So "leaven" is used of false doctrine (Mt 16:12: compare Mt 13:33).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:9
“A little leaven ... - This is evidently a proverbial expression; see it explained in the notes at 1Co 5:6. Its meaning here is, that the embracing of the errors which they had adopted was to be traced to some influence existing among themselves, and acting like leaven.”
I am confident in the Lord: Paul's confidence rests not in the Galatians' present state but through the Lord, an expectation grounded in grace working on their behalf. He turns the weight of the coming judgment onto the agitator, whosoever he be.
Galatians 5:10
“Ye will be no otherwise minded - Than I am, and ye were. But he that troubleth you - It seems to have been one person chiefly who endeavoured to seduce them. Shall bear his judgment - A heavy burden, already hanging over his head.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:10
“Some say that Paul is tacitly attacking Peter, whom he says he "opposed to his face" … but Paul would not speak with such offensive aggression of the head of the church, nor did Peter deserve to be held to blame for disturbing the church. Therefore it must be supposed that he is speaking of someone else who had either been with the apostles, or was from Judea, or was one of the believing Pharisees, or at any rate was reckoned important among the Galatians.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 3.5.10patristic
if I am still preaching circumcision: Paul answers a slander that he still preached circumcision with the fact of his own persecution: why am I still being persecuted? If Paul preached the rite, the persecution he suffered for the cross would already have stopped.
Galatians 5:11
“Why do I still suffer persecution? then is the offense of the cross ceased - The grand reason why the Jews were so offended at his preaching Christ crucified, and so bitterly persecuted him for it, was, that it implied the abolition of the law.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:11
“And I, brethren - Paul here proceeds to vindicate himself from giving countenance to the doctrines which they had advanced there. It is evident that the false teachers in Galatia appealed to Paul himself, and alleged that he insisted on the necessity of circumcision, and that they were teaching no more than he taught. On what they founded this is unknown. It may have been mere slander; or it may have arisen from the fact that he had circumcised Timothy Act 16:3, and, possibly, that he may have encouraged circumcision in some other similar cases.”
Galatians 5:11
“But if justification in any degree depended on legal ordinances, Christ's crucifixion in that degree was unnecessary, and could profit nothing (Ga 5:2, 4). Worldly Wiseman, of the town of Carnal Policy, turns Christian out of the narrow way of the Cross, to the house of Legality.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
As for those who are agitating you: The severity is Paul's own: I wish they would proceed to emasculate themselves! Apokopsontai carries a surgical edge, so the wish plays bitterly on the rite the teachers pressed. It is sharp irony more than a curse: if circumcision profits so much, the knife should go further.
Galatians 5:12
“I would they were even cut off which trouble you. These words are a solemn wish of the apostle's with respect to the false teachers, or an imprecation of the judgment of God upon them; that they might be cut off out of the land of the living by the immediate hand of God, that they might do no more mischief to the churches of Christ: this he said not out of hatred to their persons, but from a concern for the glory of God, and the good of his people.”
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:12
“It is asked how Paul, a disciple of him who said, "Bless those who curse you," … now curses those who were disturbing the churches of Galatia.… The words that he speaks are prompted not so much by anger against his opponents as by affection for the churches of God.… Nor is it any wonder that the apostle, as a man still enclosed in a frail vessel and seeing the law in his own body taking him captive and leading him into the law of sin, should have spoken like this once, when we observe such lapses to be frequent…”
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 3.5.12patristic
Freedom Is for Serving, Not Devouring
you, brothers, were called to freedom: , and Paul fences it at once: do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. The alternative is serve one another in love, douleuete, the language of slavery made voluntary and mutual.
Galatians 5:13
“Ye have been called to liberty - From sin and misery, as well as from the ceremonial law. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh - Take not occasion from hence to gratify corrupt nature. But by love serve one another - And hereby show that Christ has made you free.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:13
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty - Freedom from Jewish rites and ceremonies; see the notes at Gal 3:28; Gal 4:9, note, Gal 4:21-31, note. The meaning here is, that Paul wished the false teachers removed because true Christians had been called unto liberty, and they were abridging and destroying that liberty. They were not in subjection to the Law of Moses, or to anything else that savored of bondage. They were free; free from the servitude of sin, and free from subjection to expensive and burdensome rites and customs.”
Galatians 5:13
“The "ye" is emphatical, from its position in the Greek, "Ye brethren"; as opposed to those legalists "who trouble you." unto liberty--The Greek expresses, "on a footing of liberty." The state or condition in which ye have been called to salvation, is one of liberty.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Galatians 5:13
“The liberty we enjoy as Christians is not a licentious liberty: though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet he has not freed us from the obligation of it; the gospel is a doctrine according to godliness ( 1 Tim. vi. 3 ), and is so far from giving the least countenance to sin that it lays us under the strongest obligations to avoid and subdue it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Paul cites Leviticus 19:18, the commandment Christ named in Matthew 22:39: The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree, Love your neighbor as yourself. Love accomplishes what the law aimed at. Fulfilled, pepleroto, is a perfect tense, so love brings the law to its intended completion.
Galatians 5:14
“For all the law - Which respects our duty to our fellows, is fulfilled - is comprehended, in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. See the notes on Mat 19:19, and Rom 13:9 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:14
“For all the law is fulfilled in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself - inasmuch as none can do this without loving God, 1 John iv, 12; and the love of God and man includes all perfection.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 5:14
“Love is "the law of Christ" (Ga 6:2; Ro 13:9, 10). is fulfilled--Not as received text "is being fulfilled," but as the oldest manuscripts read, "has been fulfilled"; and so "receives its full perfection," as rudimentary teachings are fulfilled by the more perfect doctrine.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Galatians 5:14
- QuotingLeviticus 19:18“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself', the law fulfilled in one word
ConnectionsLeviticus 19:18
biting and devouring one another: The words biting and devouring, daknete and katesthiete, picture the Galatian churches turning on one another as the dispute over circumcision set neighbor against neighbor. The warning says the process ends in mutual destruction.
Galatians 5:15
“But if ye bite and devour one another,.... Another reason inducing to love is taken from the pernicious consequences of a contrary spirit and conduct. The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural.”
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:15
“But if ye bite - The word used here (δάκνω daknō), means, properly, to bite, to sting; and here seems to be used in the sense of contending and striving - a metaphor not improbably taken from dogs and wild beasts. And devour one another - As wild beasts do. The sense is, “if you contend with each other;” and the reference is, probably, to the strifes which would arise between the two parties in the churches - the Jewish and the Gentile converts.”
Works of the Flesh, Fruit of the Spirit
walk by the Spirit: So I say marks a fresh statement of the letter's answer to legalism: walk by the Spirit, peripateite pneumati, a step by step dependence. The Spirit supplies against the flesh what the law could only restrain from outside.
Galatians 5:16
“Walk in the Spirit - Get back that Spirit of God which you have grieved and lost; take up that spiritual religion which you have abandoned. Ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh - If the Spirit of God dwell in and rule your heart, the whole carnal mind will be destroyed; and then, not only carnal ordinances will be abandoned, but also the works and propensities of the flesh.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:16
“The spirit and the flesh mutually exclude one another. It is promised, not that we should have no evil lusts, but that we should "not fulfil" them. If the spirit that is in us can be at ease under sin, it is not a spirit that comes from the Holy Spirit.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit: Flesh and Spirit are opposed, antikeitai in the Greek, a term for armies drawn up against each other. So the walk of verse 16 is a daily contest.
Galatians 5:17
“The Greek is, "that ye may not do the things that ye would." "The flesh and Spirit are contrary one to the other," so that you must distinguish what proceeds from the Spirit, and what from the flesh; and you must not fulfil what you desire according to the carnal self, but what the Spirit within you desires [NEANDER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsGalatians 5:22
if you are led by the Spirit: The verb in led by the Spirit, agesthe, is passive, the believer following. Such a one is not under the law, because the Spirit produces what the law could only demand.
Galatians 5:18
"If ye are led (give yourselves up to be led) by (Greek) the Spirit, ye are not under the law." For ye are not working the works of the flesh (Ga 5:16, 19-21) which bring one "under the law" (Ro 8:2, 14). The "Spirit makes free from the law of sin and death" (Ga 5:23).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:18
“But if ye are led by the Spirit - Of liberty and love, into all holiness. Ye are not under the law - Not under the curse or bondage of it; not under the guilt or the power of sin.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 5:18
“But if ye be led by the Spirit,.... That is, of God, who is the guide and leader of his people. It is a metaphor taken from the leading of persons that are blind; as such are before conversion, and whom the Spirit of God leads in ways they knew not, and in paths they had not known: or from the leading of children, and teaching them to go; so the Spirit leads regenerate persons, and teaches them to walk by faith in Christ.”
Galatians 5:19-21
The acts of the flesh are obvious: , phanera, plain to any observer. The list closes with the strongest warning in the chapter, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19
“Now the works of the flesh - What the flesh, or what corrupt and unrenewed human nature produces. Are manifest - Plain, well-known. The world is full of illustrations of what corrupt human nature produces, and as to the existence and nature of those works, no one can be ignorant. It is evident here that the word σὰρξ sarx, “flesh,” is used to denote corrupt human nature, and not merely the body; since many of the vices here enumerated are the passions of the mind or the soul, rather than of the body.”
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:19
“Which are these - He enumerates those "works of the flesh" to which the Galatians were most inclined; and those parts of "the fruit of the Spirit" of which they stood in the greatest need. Lasciviousness - The Greek word means anything inward or outward that is contrary to chastity, and yet short of actual uncleanness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 5:19
“The identification of "the natural (Greek, 'animal-souled') man," with the "carnal" or fleshly man (1Co 2:14), shows that "the flesh" expresses human nature as estranged from God. TRENCH observes, as a proof of our fallen state, how much richer is every vocabulary in words for sins, than in those for graces.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
idolatry and sorcery: are sins of false worship. The acts of the flesh then turn to hatred, discord, rivalries and factions, sins that divide a church. Several of these fit the Galatians biting and devouring one another over circumcision.
Galatians 5:20
“Idolatry - Worshipping of idols; frequenting idol festivals; all the rites of Bacchus, Venus, Priapus, etc., which were common among the Gentiles. Witchcraft - Φαρμακεια, from φαρμακον a drug or poison; because in all spells and enchantments, whether true or false, drugs were employed. As a drug, φαρμακον, might either be the means of removing an evil, or inflicting one, etymologists have derived it from φερον ακος, bringing ease, or φερον αχος, bringing pain. So spells and incantations were used sometimes for the restoration of the health; at others, for the destruction of an enemy.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:20
“Idolatry, witchcraft - That this means witchcraft, strictly speaking, (not poisoning,) appears from its being joined with the worship of devil-gods, and not with murder. This is frequently and solemnly forbidden in the Old Testament. To deny therefore that there is, or ever was, any such thing, is, by plain consequence, to deny the authority both of the Old and New Testament.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 5:20
“It often happens that dissensions arise in the interpretation of Scripture, from which heresies, here numbered among the works of the flesh, boil over. For if "the wisdom of the flesh is at enmity with God" (and all false doctrines, being repugnant to God, are at enmity), heresies also, being at enmity with God, are consequently included among the works of the flesh.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 3.5.19-21patristic
will not inherit the kingdom of God: Paul had warned the Galatians of this on an earlier visit. Practice points to a settled habit of life. The warning keeps freedom from the law from becoming license for the flesh.
Galatians 5:21
“Envyings - see the note at 2Co 12:20. Revellings - 2Co 12:20, note; Rom 13:13, note. And such like - This class of evils, without attempting to specify all. Of which I tell you before - In regard to which I forewarn you. As I have also told you in time past - When he was with them. Shall not inherit the kingdom of God - Cannot possibly be saved; see the notes at 1Co 6:9-11. In regard to this passage, we may remark: (1) That it furnishes the most striking and unanswerable proof of human depravity.”
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:21
“But as to themselves, they hold that they shall be entirely and undoubtedly saved, not by means of conduct, but because they are spiritual by nature. For, just as it is impossible that material substance should partake of salvation (since, indeed, they maintain that it is incapable of receiving it), so again it is impossible that spiritual substance (by which they mean themselves) should ever come under the power of corruption, whatever the sort of actions in which they indulged.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Ipatristic
Galatians 5:22-23
the fruit of the Spirit is love: Fruit is singular against the plural acts of the flesh, karpos and not karpoi, one yield with nine facets. The list runs from love, joy, peace to self-control at its close. Against such things there is no law says that no legal code stands over conduct the Spirit has produced.
Galatians 5:22
“OBSERVE, "the fruit of the Spirit," for the product of the Spirit of God is one. As some fruits are easily divisible into several parts, so you perceive that the fruit of the Spirit, though it is but one, is threefold, no, it makes three times three—"love, joy, peace; longsuffering, gentleness, goodness; faith, meekness, temperance"—all one! Perhaps "love" is put first not only because it is a right royal virtue, nearest akin to the Divine perfection, but because it is a comprehensive Grace and contains all the others.”
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:22
“Love - The root of all the rest. Gentleness - Toward all men; ignorant and wicked men in particular. Goodness - The Greek word means all that is benign, soft, winning, tender, either in temper or behaviour.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 5:22
“But the fruit of the Spirit - Both flesh - the sinful dispositions of the human heart and spirit - the changed or purified state of the soul, by the grace and Spirit of God, are represented by the apostle as trees, one yielding good the other bad fruit; the productions of each being according to the nature of the tree, as the tree is according to the nature of the seed from which it sprung.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
ConnectionsGalatians 5:24, John 15:5, Matthew 3:8, Matthew 7:17
gentleness, and self-control: The list closes with gentleness and self-control. No law forbids such a life, and none is needed to drive it. The Spirit produces what the law commanded and could never supply.
Galatians 5:23
“Meekness - See the note at Mat 5:5. Temperance - The word used here, (ἐγκράτεια egkrateia), means properly “self-control, continence.” It is derived from ἐν en and κράτος kratos, “strength,” and has reference to the power or ascendancy which we have over exciting and evil passions of all kinds. It denotes the self-rule which a man has over the evil propensities of his nature. Our word temperance we use now in a much more limited sense, as referring mainly to abstinence from intoxicating drinks. But the word here used is employed in a much more extended signification.”
have crucified the flesh: Crucified is aorist, a decisive past act, though the fighting of verse 17 goes on and the passions still have to be resisted. The verse answers the list of verse 19, whose acts belong to a nature already put on the cross.
Galatians 5:24
“And they that are Christ’s - All genuine Christians have crucified the flesh - are so far from obeying its dictates and acting under its influence, that they have crucified their sensual appetites; they have nailed them to the cross of Christ, where they have expired with him; hence, says St. Paul, Rom 6:6, our old man - the flesh, with its affections and lusts, is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:24
“And they that are Christ's - True believers in him. Have thus crucified the flesh - Nailed it, as it were, to a cross whence it has no power to break loose, but is continually weaker and weaker.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Since we live by the Spirit: Live and walk use two different verbs, zomen the fact of spiritual life already given, stoichomen the orderly marching that should follow it. Stoichomen is a soldier's word for keeping rank.
Galatians 5:25
“If we live by the Spirit - If we are indeed raised from the dead, and are alive to God, by the operation of his Spirit. Let us walk by the Spirit - Let us follow his guidance, in all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 5:25
“If we live in the Spirit - See the note at Gal 5:16. The sense of this verse probably is, “We who are Christians profess to be under the influences of the Holy Spirit. By his influences and agency is our spiritual life. We profess not to be under the dominion of the flesh; not to be controlled by its appetites and desires. Let us then act in this manner, and as if we believed this.”
Let us not become conceited: The word conceited translates kenodoxoi, seekers of empty glory. It is the sin most likely to grow in a community torn over circumcision, where the rite or its refusal could become a badge.
Galatians 5:26
“Greek, "Let us not BECOME." While not asserting that the Galatians are "vainglorious" now, he says they are liable to become so. provoking one another--an effect of "vaingloriousness" on the stronger: as "envying" is its effect on the weaker.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 5:26
“Let us not be desirous of vain glory,.... Ambitious of being thought wiser, and richer, and more valuable than others; of having the preeminence in the management of all affairs, and of having honour, esteem, and popular applause from men: this may well be called vain glory, since it is only in outward things, as wisdom, riches, strength, and honour, and not in God the giver of them, and who can easily take them away; and therefore is but for a time, and is quickly gone, and lies only in the opinion and breath of men.”
Galatians 5:26
“Let us not be desirous of vain glory - Κενοδοξοι· Let us not be vain glorious - boasting of our attainments; vaunting ourselves to be superior to others; or seeking honor from those things which do not possess moral good; in birth, riches, eloquence, etc., etc. Provoking one another - What this may refer to we cannot tell; whether to the Judaizing teachers, endeavoring to set themselves up beyond the apostle, and their attempts to lessen him in the people’s eyes, that they might secure to themselves the public confidence, and thus destroy St.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: An exhortation that moves from the doctrine of freedom to the mode of standing in it, as Aquinas classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Freedom, said three times | The word freedom stands at verse 1, where Christ has set believers free, and at verse 13, where they are called to freedom. The site's exposition of verse 13 traces the same thread back to the spies of 2:4, so the chapter picks up a word the letter has carried from its narrative.This site's published exposition of Galatians 5:13, The exposition_notes row on Galatians 5:13, citing J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. | Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13 |
| The acts of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit | Verses 19 to 21 list fifteen acts of the flesh and verses 22 and 23 list nine fruit of the Spirit. The first list is plural and the second is one fruit with many parts. Augustine of Hippo notes that the first list is headed by sexual immorality and the second by love.Augustine of Hippo, Epistle to the Galatians 51, on Galatians 5:22 to 23. | Galatians 5:19, Galatians 5:20, Galatians 5:21, Galatians 5:22, Galatians 5:23 |
| Flesh against Spirit | Verse 17 sets the two in exact balance: the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. Augustine of Hippo cites the verse to show that the conflict continues in the baptized.Augustine of Hippo, On Nature and Grace 61, on Galatians 5:17. | Galatians 5:16, Galatians 5:17, Galatians 5:25 |
The structure
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter has three parts. Verses 1 to 12 command the Galatians to stand firm and give a last warning against circumcision. Verses 13 to 15 turn freedom toward love. Verses 16 to 26 set the flesh against the Spirit, list the acts of the one and the fruit of the other, and close with a call to walk in step with the Spirit.
Where the chapter stands in the letter
This chapter opens the letter's third movement, the life of the free, which runs to the end of chapter 6. Chapter 4 closed on the children of the free woman, and verse 1 draws the command from it. The warning against conceit and envy in verse 26 leads into the call to restore a fallen brother in 6:1.
The debate: fallen from grace
Verse 4 is read two ways, as the site's exposition of the verse records. John Wesley reads it of those who renounce the new covenant by seeking justification through the law (Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on Galatians 5:4). The verse stands at the center of the question of whether a believer can lose salvation. The quotations this site holds on verse 4 carry Wesley's reading, and the page settles neither reading.
The debate: the conflict of verse 17
Augustine of Hippo cites the verse to show that the flesh still resists the Spirit in the baptized (On Nature and Grace 61). Jerome reads it, in one of his senses, of the letter of Scripture struggling against its spiritual meaning (Epistle to the Galatians 3.5.17).
Keep studying
Studies28
Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament.
The form and classifications
Augustine of Hippo, Epistle to the Galatians 43, on Galatians 5:13; Jerome, Epistle to the Galatians 3.5.22, on Galatians 5:22 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Galatians, on Galatians 5:13.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament; J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Galatians; John Chrysostom, Commentary on Galatians; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.