Galatians 5:1

Xerophagies, however, (they consider) the novel name of a studied duty, and very much akin to heathenish superstition, like the abstemious rigours which purify an Apis, an Isis, and a Magna Mater, by a restriction laid upon certain kinds of food; whereas faith, free in Christ, owes no abstinence from particular meats to the Jewish Law even, admitted as it has been by the apostle once for all to the whole range of the meat-market -(the apostle, I say), that detester of such as, in like manner as they prohibit marrying, so bid us abstain from meats created by God.

He obviously means that freedom by which our mother [the church] is free, and she obviously is free by faith. For this is true freedom, to keep faith in God and to believe all God's promises. Therefore by faith Christ has brought us back to …

He had to add an exhortation that they should persevere in the same way that they had first begun to receive from him the gospel and not return to the slavery under the law. He says "stand" which is not possible for one who is …

(Chapter 5, Verse 1) Stand fast, and be not held again under the yoke of bondage. And from this it is shown that he who cleaves to the yoke of servitude does not stand. And because he who has been granted freedom by Christ has been under the yoke as long as he has had the spirit of servitude in fear, and has followed the beginnings of the Law. But when he says, stand, he exhorts firm and stable faith in Christ, so that the churches of Galatia may remain rooted in the Savior. About this, and in another place, the righteous one speaks: 'He has set my feet upon a rock' (Ps. 39:3), because it is upon Christ. So that the teachings may not be carried about by every wind and may be carried off in different directions (Eph. 4). Hence it is also said to those who are standing: 'And let anyone who stands take heed lest he fall' (1 Cor. 10:12). And in another place: 'Stand firm, act like men, be strong' (Ibid. 16:13), so that they may stand with Him whom Stephen, persevering in martyrdom, saw standing at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7), and also the one who spoke to Moses: 'But you, stand with me' (Exod. 34:2). But he calls the yoke of servitude a harsh, difficult, laborious law, which consumes its cultivators with heavy work day and night. Just as Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles: Why do you attempt to impose a heavy yoke upon the neck of the brothers, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear (Acts 15:10)? But what he has added, do not burden yourselves again, not that the Galatians were keeping the Law before; but so that the heavy yoke of idolatry, by which the Egyptian people were oppressed and plunged like lead into the Red Sea (Exodus 15), may not be repeated. According to the sense of which he had said above, How do you turn again to weak and needy elements, which you desire again to serve, observing days, and months, and times, and years? […]

Have ye wrought your own deliverance, that ye run back again to the dominion ye were under before? It is Another who hath redeemed you, it is Another who hath paid the ransom for you. Observe in how many ways he leads them away from the error of Judaism; by showing, first, that it was the extreme of folly for those, who had become free instead of slaves, to desire to become slaves instead of free; secondly, that they would be convicted of neglect and ingratitude to their Benefactor, in despising Him who had delivered, and loving him who had enslaved them; thirdly, that it was impossible. For Another having once for all redeemed all of us from it, the Law ceases to have any sway. By the word, "stand fast," he indicates their vacillation. By the word "yoke" he signifies to them the burdensomeness of such a course, and by the word "again" he points out their utter senselessness. Had ye never experienced this burden, ye would not have deserved so severe a censure, but for you who by trial have learnt how irksome this yoke is, again to subject yourself to it, is justly unpardonable.

You are not the ones, he says, who freed yourselves, but the One Who gave a ransom for you. How then after this do you subject yourselves to the lordship of the law against the intention of Christ Who freed you? By saying "stand firm," …

Above, the Apostle showed that justice is not through the Law; here he leads them back from error to a state of rectitude. First, with respect to divine matters. Secondly, with respect to human affairs (6:1). As to the first, he does two things: First, …

Stand fast therefore in the liberty - From the ceremonial law. Wherewith Christ hath made us - And all believers, free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of legal bondage.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:80%@v1-3

Stand fast therefore in the liberty,....

Stand fast, therefore - Be firm and unwavering. This verse properly belongs to the previous chapter, and should not have been separated from it. The sense is, that they were to be firm and unyielding in maintaining the great principles of Christian liberty. They had been freed from the bondage of rites and ceremonies; and they should by no means, and in no form, yield to them again. In the liberty ... - Compare Joh 8:32, Joh 8:36; Rom 6:18; Notes, Gal 4:3-

The oldest manuscripts read, "in liberty (so ALFORD, MOBERLEY, HUMPHRY, and ELLICOTT. But as there is no Greek for 'in,' as there is in translating in 1Co 16:13; 4:1, I prefer 'It is FOR freedom that') Christ hath made us free (not in, or for, a state of bondage).

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

Stand fast therefore in the liberty - This is intimately connected with the preceding chapter: the apostle having said, just before, So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, immediately adds, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Hold fast your Christian profession; it brings spiritual liberty: on the contrary, Judaism brings spiritual bondage. Among the Jews, the Messiah’s reign was to be a reign of liberty, and hence the Targum, on Lam 2:22, says: “Liberty shall be publicly proclaimed to thy people of the house of Israel, על יד משיחא al yad Mashicha, by the hand of the Messiah, such as was granted to them by Moses and Aaron at the time of the passover.” The liberty mentioned by the apostle is freedom from Jewish rites and ceremonies, called properly here the yoke of bondage; and also liberty from the power and guilt of sin, which nothing but the grace of Christ can take away.

Civilisation in the best sense merely means the full authority of the human spirit over all externals. Barbarism means the worship of those externals in their crude and unconquered state. ... The true savage is a slave, and is always talking about what he must …

They all wore tall shiny hats as if they could not lose an instant even to hang them on a peg, and they all had one eye a little off, hypnotised by the huge eye of the clock. In short, they were the slaves of …