Galatians 6

1 overtaken. “Detected”; “caught before he could escape” (Ellicott); “so that his guilt is placed beyond a doubt” (Lightfoot). Even in such a case, show the power of the spiritual life in you by reclaiming him, remembering your own frailty.

2 the law of Christ. To “love one another” (John xiii. 34, 35).

4 then shall he have rejoicing. R.V., “then shall he have his glorying,” i.e., his own special ground of glorying.

in another. Rather, “in [comparing himself with] the other,” i.e., with his fellow, R.V., “his neighbour.” Every man’s standard of self-judgement will be absolute, not relative.

5 his own burden. A different word is here used for “burden” (R.V., “load”) from that in ver. 2. There are burdens, as of trial, anxiety, sorrow, that may be shared by others in loving sympathy; there are, again, responsibilities which cannot be transferred, belonging to a man’s own life and duty. The word in this verse is often applied to a soldier’s pack or “kit.”

6 all good things. Including means of subsistence: see 1 Cor. ix. 10. This verse appears to be a qualification or supplement of the preceding words. Each must bear his own burden, but those who are taught should help those who teach them.

7. God is not mocked.** God’s arrangements cannot be set aside. By His inevitable law, all our actions must develop their correspondent results. If we foster “the flesh”—the corrupt principles of our fallen state—we can have only “corruption,” degradation, loathomeness, spiritual death. If we cherish “the Spirit”—the higher principles of the Divinely renewed state—we shall certainly attain in due season, at the appointed harvest-time, “life”—purity, vigour, joy—“everlasting.”

10 opportunity. Opportunity imposes obligation. 11 Ye see how large a letter. “See with how large letters” (R.V.); referring probably to the size of the writing. The Epistle up to this point had been written by an amanuensis, and now he takes the pen into his own hand, and the large bold characters indicate either (1) his defective eyesight, which compelled him to shape them thus (see on iv. 15), or (2) his great earnestness, leading him to write in this emphatic way.

12 they constrain you to be circumcised. They insist on circumcision as essential to salvation. But as they neglect much of their law (13), it is clear that they only wish to escape persecution by boasting that they have induced you to be circumcised.

14. God forbid that I should glory, etc.** Far be it from me to boast in circumcision and such things; I boast only in Christ crucified. His death, making me “a new creature,” has severed me for ever from all that I, like the rest of the world, once prized and pursued.

by whom. Rather, by which; i.e., “the cross, by which.”

16 as many as walk according to this rule. All, whether circumcised or not, who are made a “new creation,” are blessed as the true “Israel of God”: op. iii. 29; Rom. ix. 7.

17 the marks of the Lord Jesus. An allusion to the branding of a slave with the owner’s mark; here referring probably to the marks of the scourgings and injuries which Paul had suffered for the sake of Christ (2 Cor. xi. 24, 25). These are perhaps put in contrast to the mark of circumcision, in which others gloried (13).

[Unto the Galatians, written from Rome.] This subscription is evidently incorrect.

“STONE walls do not a prison make.” This saying receives striking illustration in this letter, which was written by St. Paul in A.D. 62, during his first imprisonment at Rome (see Acts xxviii. 30). He wrote in another letter during his second imprisonment: “I suffer trouble as an evil-doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.” No chain could fetter Paul’s free spirit. The bird beats its wings in futile struggles against the bars of its cage, but Paul’s spirit soared far beyond even the city of Rome. Across the seas he sends his messages of encouragement and instruction to the little companies of Christians amid their pagan surroundings.

And higher still! He lives under the power of an endless life. He lifts his thoughts, and the minds of his readers, to “those shining table-lands, where God Himself is sun and moon.” The outstanding expression of this Epistle, one which occurs five times in it and nowhere else in his writings, is “heavenly places.” (See a fine chapter in Bishop Drury’s Prison-Ministry of St. Paul.)

After the beautiful words of salutation, “grace” and “peace” (i. 2), this high note is at once struck in the doxology of verses 3–12. Here is praise for the enduring things of life—“all spiritual blessings in heavenly places”; “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world”; “predestinated unto the adoption of children”; “redemption through His blood”; “the riches of His grace.” And here, too, as in the later chapters, he links up earth with heaven, duty with doctrine, which indeed is its motive-power—“that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love”; “that we should be to the praise of His glory.”

Then comes his thanksgiving for the Christians themselves (i. 13), followed by a prayer for their wisdom and enlightenment (i. 17, 18), that they may be conscious of their hope, their glorious inheritance, the resurrection power of the living Lord; and the relation of that power to the world and to the Church (i. 18–23).

The second chapter shows how that same quickening power has been manifested in the changed lives of believers themselves (verses 1–6). Justification by faith is here expressed as being “saved by grace” (8), which is the Divine side of the same truth, and again the practical duty of “good works” is enforced (10). The wideness of God’s mercy is shown in the fact that the Gentiles who were in the past regarded as “aliens” are now “brought nigh by the blood of Christ,” and are “fellow-citizens with the saints,” “a habitation of God through the Spirit” (11–19).

In the third chapter, the apostle speaks of his own ministry as a further evidence of God’s grace to himself and to the world, especially to the Gentiles (verses 1–8). It is this that gives him confidence, and encourages him again, as in i. 18–23, in the earnest prayer that they may experience the power of the Spirit, that they may know the love of Christ, and be “filled with all the fulness of God” (12–20).

Chapter iv. is a plea for unity, not uniformity, but brotherhood amid diversity, as becomes the children of the divine Father (1–6). The apostle emphasises the truth of diversities of gifts combined with unity of spirit (11–16; cp. 1 Cor. xii. 4–11, 27, 28). The remainder of this chapter, the whole of v. and vi. 1–9, consists of an enforcement of practical duties.

And then in some of the closing verses of the Epistle (vi. 10–20) he gives an inspiring trumpet-call to vigilance and activity in the Christian warfare. The struggle is no light one. Powerful spiritual enemies have to be fought (11, 12). But God’s armour is a strong defence (11, 13–17). And for those who trust not in their own strength, but look upwards to God for help (10, 18), the victory is sure (16).

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