Galatians 6

1. BRETHREN, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in 2 the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one an- 3 other’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be some- 4 thing, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, 5 and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall 6 bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that 7 teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man 8 soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap cor- 9 ruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let 10 us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. 11 Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as 12 desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they 13 should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are cir- cumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your 14 flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by 15 whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither 16 circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. 17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. 18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

THE crucifixion of the old manhood is to be the life’s work of every Christian, through the power of faith in that cross by which “the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” That thought comes over and over again in all forms of earnest presentation in the apostle’s teaching. It carries in its type a most solemn reality. The truth is, that, if a Christian, you have a double life. There is Christ, with his power, with his Spirit, giving you a nature which is pure and sinless, incapable of transgression, like his own. The new man, that which is born of God, sinneth not, can not sin. But side by side with it, working through it, working in it, indistinguishable from it to your consciousness by anything but this, that the one works righteousness and the other works transgression—there is the “old man,” “the flesh,” “the old Adam,” your own godless, independent, selfish, proud being. And the one is to slay the other! Ah, these words—crucifying, casting out the old man, plucking out the right eye, maiming self of the right hand, mortifying the deeds of the body—they are something very much deeper and more awful than poetical symbols and metaphors. They teach us this—there is no growth without sore sorrow. Conflict, not progress, is the word that defines man’s path from darkness into light. No holiness is won by any other means than this, that wickedness should be slain day by day and hour by hour. In long, lingering agony often, with the blood of the heart pouring out at every quivering vein, you are to cut right through the life and being of that sinful self; to do what the word does, pierce to the dividing asunder of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and get rid by crucifying and slaying—a long process, a painful pro- cess—of your own sinful self. A. M.

1. Be overtaken in a fault. Sins of sur- prise are particularly the sins which Paul commends to the care of Christian friends. It is by these sins of surprise that a man is rightly said to be over- taken. It is the weak soul that has fallen into sin, partly from surprise, partly from weakness, that really needs the help of fellow-Christians. And that help must be given by intimate friends, and by older or stronger Christians. And it must be given by showing a sympathy with the pain which such sins bring in their consequence, by showing a readi- ness to welcome every effort toward repentance, by eagerness to judge as favorably as it is possible to judge, by a generous forgetfulness of whatever is plainly forsaken; in short, by giving that sort of help which each man’s conscience will tell him would be best for himself in the same circumstances; not a help to think lightly of what is wrong, but a help to be braver and firmer in doing right; that help which restores self-respect, and revives hope, and unites the fallen to the company of his fellows. F. T.

Restore in meekness. In thy love, O Christian, let earnestness never fail in gentleness, and let gentleness never fail in earnestness. Do not take the earnest words of Jesus into thy mouth, unless thou hast the spirit of Jesus in thy heart. He that uses the rebuking word of Jesus when he has not the loving heart of Jesus is full of carnal zeal, even though he could add Bible texts to every harsh word of censure that he utters. We must rebuke ourselves before we rebuke others, that meekness in our heart and words may give divine help to earnestness. A. C.

2. The Christian faith contemplates each heart as having interdependencies and communications with its fellows. It calls every exclusive, oppressive, abusive, corrupting community or person to account for the lost, the neglected, the betrayed, the weaker members of the household. One half of its twofold commandment is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” If it declares in one breath that “every man shall bear his own burden,” in the next it says, “Bear ye one another’s burdens.” It predicts an infinite misery for them that tempt, betray, misguide, deprave one another—for them that form companies, clubs, societies, to make each other frivolous, profligate, dissolute. It requires all to give, not only food, clothes, and money, but the ministry of encouraging words, patient endurance, honest living, aspiring thoughts. In fact, all the pages of our Book of Faith are marked with these earnest counsels and expostulations about caring for other souls. It is always adjuring us to work for, to think for, to suffer for—and to that end to love—other people. Such is the compass of its charity. Whether it commands or forbids, its intent is the same. F. D. H.—There is many a load which only grows less by giving a lift to another. Life itself is apt to grow burdensome to the self-centered pleasure-seeker, and there are some who in resultless speculations become absorbed and exhausted. For such the best prescription is practical philanthropy. Confront the material evil, the palpable miseries around you, and try to make them less. If you succeed, and you will succeed, the happiness of others will be a balm for the healing of your own wounds, and, as you advance in the experiment, you will land on results which pure reason did not anticipate. You will find that for lessening your own sorrows it is a good plan to share the sorrows of others, and that for lessening both theirs and yours there is no method so effectual as recourse to a Saviour’s sympathy. Hamilton.

3. Too many take the ready course to deceive themselves, for they look with both eyes on the failings and defects of others, and scarcely give their good qualities half an eye, while, on the contrary, in themselves, they study to the full their own advantages, and pass over their weaknesses and defects; and, making this uneven parallel, what wonder if the result be a gross mistake of themselves! L.—4. Prove his own work. There is a particular emphasis in these words which must not be overlooked. It is his own work that a man must prove. We are sufficiently ready to examine and to pass sentence upon the works of others. We are often abroad, but are seldom at home, where our chief business lies. Like some travelers, who are well acquainted with foreign countries but shamefully ignorant of their own, we know more of others than we are willing to know of ourselves. R. W.

5. If every man is to bear his own burden, it might be asked, How can each bear the other’s? And again, if ye bear one another’s burdens, How can each have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another? The truth is, here is the very perfection of society, set down in these brief items; the perfection at once of dependence and independence, of personal and mutual responsibility and accountability. In this kingdom of heaven upon earth, formed by each one having as much at heart the welfare of others as his own, each individual is to regard all others as so many reduplicates of self, to be blessed and benefited, and every individual is to avoid throwing his own burdens upon others. Each is to prove his own work, and not leave it to be accomplished by others, and at the same time each is to help all others as often as he can find opportunity. And the opportunity to bless others is to be regarded as itself one of the greatest of blessings. G. B. C.

7. God is not mocked.** Think of the great God watching every kind of hypocrite as he tries to deceive his fellows by empty shows; as he glories in his success; as he thinks the secret is known only to himself. Can He, the infinitely pure and true, fall below man in his abhorrence of such a character? And if the blind man could once open his eye on God, seeing him in all the glory of his truth, and seeing that there is one immortal witness against him, who knows all and remembers all, could he help being withered and loathing himself? T. D. W.

That shall he reap. We are all placed in this preparatory state under a solemn course of education for immortality; we are intrusted with the formation of our own character; such as we make ourselves, such we must be for ever; and in our conduct, in our words, in our very inactivity, we are (by the law of our present nature) ceaselessly engaged in constructing that nature which is to be ours for eternity. What unutterable importance does this tremendous charge confer upon the slightest act of daily life! insignificant in itself, it swells to mighty magnitude, when it becomes an element in that accumulation of habits which constitutes the character, and thence an item in an immortal account, and in its consequences absolutely imperishable. Of a truth, life is “the seed-time of eternity,” and every hour, every minute, the seed is sown, which is to reappear in immortal fruits. W. A. B.

8. Reap corruption. The most dangerous because most attractive form of modern infidelity, pretending to exalt the beneficence of the Deity, degrades it into a reckless infinitude of mercy, and blind obliteration of the work of sin; and does this chiefly by dwelling on the manifold appearances of God’s kindness on the face of creation. Such kindness is indeed everywhere and always visible; but not alone. Wrath and threatening are invariably mingled with the love; and in the utmost solitudes of nature the existence of hell seems to me as legibly declared by a thousand spiritual utterances as that of heaven. It is well for us to dwell with thankfulness on the unfolding of the flower, and the falling of the dew, and the sleep of the green fields in the sunshine; but the blasted trunk, the barren rock, the moaning of the bleak winds, the roar of the black, perilous whirlpools of the mountain streams, the solemn solitudes of moors and seas, the continual fading of all beauty into darkness and of all strength into dust—have these no language for us? We may seek to escape their teaching by reasonings touching the good which is wrought out of all evil; but it is vain sophistry. The good succeeds to the evil as day succeeds the night, but so also the evil to the good. Gerizim and Ebal, birth and death, light and darkness, heaven and hell, divide the existence of man and his futurity. Ruskin.

Nature has no forgiveness, Providence has no forgiveness, Revelation has forgiveness only on conditions. It is of no use, it can be of no use to us either here or hereafter, to attempt to practice a deception on ourselves. We must take God as we find him, as he presents himself to us in Nature, in Providence, in the Word, and not as we would make him over to suit our own desires. Christ was full of mercy, his mission was a mission of love; but you can find nowhere in the Bible more terrific representations of the hopeless, eternal miseries of the wicked in the future life than those which are ascribed to Christ in the first three gospels. An.—If there be a life to come, then the evil deed you did is not ended by its commission, but it will still go on and on. The evil you have done to others will remain throughout eternity; the evil you have done to your own soul will spread. There is no perhaps. These are things which will be hereafter. You can not alter the eternal laws. You can not put your hand in the flame and not be burnt. You can not sin in the body and escape the sin, for it goes inward, becomes part of you, and is itself the penalty which cleaves for ever and ever to your spirit. Sow in the flesh, and you will reap corruption; yield to passion, and it becomes your tyrant and your torment; be sensual, self-indulgent, indolent, worldly, hard—oh! they all have their corresponding penalties. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” F. W. R.

9. Be not weary in well-doing. There is in this short life to every man, especially to every Christian, a holy summons to do good, and as much good as possible. For this the narrowest sphere affords abundant opportunity; as little does there lack incitement to use well the opportunity. And yet the best of us constantly run the risk of slackening their zeal in those good works, which they acknowledge as duties. The good is not always the pleasant, the convenient, the immediately practical. It seems so much more prudent, at least much quieter, to work by passive means than active. Van O.—If by “well-doing” we mean something beyond the ordinary proprieties of conduct—things of decided Christian exertion, requiring energy and patience—there is great need of the exhortation, “Be not weary.” Even the most faithful and devoted workmen, in the worthiest services, are not quite exempt from the operation of causes tending to this failure; they feel them while they resist them.

We shall reap. The laborers in the good cause must firmly stay by this assurance, standing as it does combined with a vast number of promises to the same effect—a magnificent assemblage! The main substance of the reaping will be in the field of eternity. J. F.

10. Consider well where God has placed us, our position in life, our opportunities for particular action or influence, the paths in which we move in society, the leisure that lies in our hand. To examine these carefully, and see how we can with all wisdom turn them to Christian profit, is a great matter for every one of us. If there be an earnest desire to do good, even with a sense of much unfitness, it is marvelous how fitness will grow. He who sends the opportunity and the desire will send the qualification. In general, it will be found that the best Christian work is not far from our own door, and that those are mistaken who think they can do nothing till they find some great sphere. The work of Christ’s servants is often most effectually performed when it is done nciselessly and informally, in hidden nooks of quiet homes, or walking by the wayside and yet scattering seed in the field. A master among his servants, a workman among his associates, a mother among her children, a sister among brothers, may be dropping words and radiating influences of which there shall be no report till the last great disclosure shall bring out the “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Ker.

Oh, if we but saw how the gates of opportunity open and close: how the possibilities of to-day, neglected, become to-morrow the things which God himself could not do; how unused strength wastes away and brings up behind it no other strengths; how the grace that lies about all our occasions, ready to flow upon them at the touches of our diligence, slighted, lifts itself up into the heavens, and leaves us in hardness and dearth; how, on the other hand, when used, it drops upon us like the rain, and distills like the dew; how work done makes work easier; how the voluntary use, even to exhaustion and waste, of “all that is within us,” and without us too—of soul and flesh, of love and brain, of time and strength, and hours of work and hours of prayer—will bring upon us, and through the needs thus made by our faithfulness, the gentle pressures of the infinite fullness, God’s newest, freshest grace. If we but saw such things as these, what “girding” there would be among us! what gatherings together for coöperative work! what goings up upon the land to be possessed! Come; let us live as we may. A. R.

11. At this point the apostle takes the pen from the amanuensis, and the concluding paragraph is written with his own hand. He sums up the main lessons of the Epistle in terse, eager, disjointed sentences. He writes it too in large, bold characters, that his handwriting may reflect the energy and determination of his soul. To this feature he calls attention in his words that follow: “Look you, in what large letters I write with mine own hand!” J. B. L.—It was in those large characters that he traced the words, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”; “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” F. W. R.

14. The cross.** In Scripture the cross is used literally and metaphorically. Literally, it means the instrument for capital punishment used by the Romans. Metaphorically, it means the doctrine of atonement for sin, made by the death upon it of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Literally, it signifies the most ignominious of gibbets. Metaphorically, it signifies the most glorious of truths. It is no wonder that some confusion should have arisen from the use of the same word in such very different meanings. On the one side, unbelieving Jews, identifying the metaphorical with the literal, the doctrine with the gibbet, have enlarged on the disgrace and degradation of the CRUICIFIED, and thrown it contemptuously in the teeth of his disciples. On the other side, superstitious Christians (so called), identifying the literal with the metaphorical, the gibbet with the doctrine, have elevated the material figure into the place of the spiritual truth, and enlarged on the glorious cross, the holy cross. Christianity distinguishes between the gibbet and the doctrine; degrading the gibbet as low as any Jew can desire, for it was indeed vile, even the accursed tree; and elevating the doctrine as high as any Christian can desire, for it is the saving truth of God. The doctrine is seen to be more and more glorious, as the gibbet is seen to be more and more ignominious. McNeile.

Oh, the wondrous power of the Cross! Oh, the ineffable glory of the Passion! wherein is the tribunal of the Lord, and the judgment of the world, and the power of the Crucified. For thou, O Lord, “drewest all to thee,” when the veil of the temple was rent; that figure might be changed into reality, prophecy into manifestation, and law into gospel. Thy cross is the fountain of all blessings, it is the cause of all graces, through which is given to believers strength instead of weakness, glory instead of obloquy, life instead of death. Leo.

Glory in the cross. The natural selfishness in us will glory in anything else rather than in the cross—in having its own way, in reputation, in business success, in riches, in taking the lead in fashionable distinctions; it does not wish the world to be crucified to it, for the world is the theatre of its display; it does not wish itself to be crucified to the world, for there it finds all its excitements and enjoyments. Here, then, is the perpetual and deadly conflict between man’s self-will and the spirit of the cross. F. D. H.—But the love of Christ in the soul takes the very nails that fastened him to the cross, and crucifies the soul to the world and to sin. Generally, as Plato hath it, love takes away one’s living in themselves, and transfers it into the party loved; but the divine love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner. L.

14. “The world” in the New Testament sense designates present sensible things, viewed as exercising a malignant influence over the minds of men—directly opposed to the influence which future and spiritual things should exert over them. It is plain that one man’s “world” may be very different from another man’s world. In each case it means the various earthly objects, whether persons or things, objects or events, by which the individual is surrounded. These things are here personified. This personage is crucified “to him,” i. e., in his estimation. It is as a crucified person to him—as an expiring felon on a cross, an object of aversion. And I unto the world: and I am as a crucified person in the world’s estimation, i. e., in the estimation of worldly men. I am an object of contempt and of hatred to my unbelieving countrymen and to unbelieving Gentiles. It was the mode of thinking, feeling, acting, to which the faith of the doctrine of the cross naturally led, that made him the object of the contempt and dislike of worldly men. It was this that led him to the bold avowal of doctrines disliked by the worldly, and to his active endeavors to overthrow the power of the world over the heart and mind of men. Paul’s sentiment is: In the cross I have infinitely more than the world ever gave me; and I have also what far more than compensates for its contempt and hatred. J. B.

In one sentence we see three crucifixions; and yet, under all the three, there is one and the same grand truth, one sublime principle of self-sacrificing love. There is “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is by virtue of that one only complete and sufficient sacrifice that every other self-denial gets its Christian virtue. Hence Paul says, with his overpowering and exclusive energy of thankful devotion, “God forbid that I should glory in anything but that!” Next is the crucifixion of that mixed and ever-present power of attraction and temptation called “the world.” “The world is crucified unto me.” This fascinating, terrible tempter, which tries the purity and honor of every soul, whether saved or lost, has to be so broken down, denied and killed, to all such as will be saved, that it is said to be slain on a cross. But to that end there must be yet a third crucifixion: “And I unto the world.” And all this giving up, this sacrifice of passion, of admiration, of earthly pleasure, of wrong pursuits and property, of idols in business, idols in society, idols in the house, idols in the secret ambitions and lusts of the mind—all of it is for Christ’s dear and glorious sake; by whom—by whose faith and promise and life and death, by whose inestimable gift, by whose agony and bloody sweat, by whose cross and passion—the blessed power is given, and the triumph of renunciation is gained. F. D. H.

15. A new creature. It is a figure, and but a figure; heavy though it be, like all other Scriptural figures, with deep and important meaning. It is a moral, not a physical, an alterative, not an originating act. It consists, not in originating a soul into separate nature and life, but in actuating the nature of a living soul, already originated and become sinful; in so actuating it as to effect a moral change of its nature and character, of its tempers and tastes, its inclinations and purposes, its inward and its outward habits and actions. This is a process which we can comprehend. How it begins with God and is sustained by Him, we know not; but we know how it begins and is sustained in us; even with memory, reflection, thought, feeling, purpose, action, in the great work of repentance, faith, love, and obedience. J. S. S.—Paul began the Epistle (1:4) with allusion to Christ’s death as intended to deliver us from this present evil world; and now he ends it by declaring that the cross of Christ obliterates mere worldly rudiments and fleshly distinctions in religion. There is a new creation, with a new atmosphere of motive and sympathy, a new life in the Spirit, a new hope to cheer, and a new principle to actuate, viz., faith which works by love.

16-18. To walk according to the rule of a religion in the flesh and of the world can only end in confusion. But the apostle has a benediction for as many as walk according to this rule of new creatureship. “Peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God,” as distinguished from the mere Israel after the flesh which boasted in the law. So Paul makes an end. Let who will impugn his relation to Christ, he bears “the stigmata of Jesus” in the marks of his good fight of faith, and his many afflictions. Then, breathing always the disposition befitting an apostle of the Lamb, he concludes, not with menaces or curses of the law, but with a kindly prayer for the Galatians: “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” It is the only church Epistle in which this form is used; and an emphasis lies on spirit as against the flesh. No grace can possibly come upon the flesh. It is crucified with its affections and lusts. The grace of the Lord Jesus is with our spirit, or not with us at all; and his Spirit is to bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.

This Epistle may in one sense be called obsolete. The Jewish form of a false gospel we never think of. But in other forms false gospels abound. To combat these, the Epistle to the Galatians is fresh and powerful as ever. It was a true instinct which led Martin Luther to give much of his time to the exposition of it, in order to establish the doctrine of faith; and we want it still to smite self-righteousness and religious externalism root and branch, and to teach that a man, in order to be justified, must believe in Christ, and, in order to be sanctified, must be crucified with Christ. The Epistle is full of animation, argument, and reproof; but, above all and best of all, it is full of grace. So it teaches a lesson for all time—that sinners are saved by grace, and saints are preserved by grace. D. F.