Galatians 6:11-18

Galatians 6:11-18 “See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!
Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.”

Remember in the beginning of the book I wrote that Paul probably dictated all of his letters to a scribe? Since he wrote at least four of his published thirteen letters under house arrest in Rome the guards must have heard all this. They got a real education didn’t they? But, Paul signs his name to validate that the letter was genuine. And here he writes the entire last paragraph in his own hand. It is so important to him!

We are saved by grace.

We have been set free and we should use that freedom to live for Christ and serve Him!

Galatians 6:6-10

Galatians 6:6-10 “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Every action has results. If we continually take the high road, while we may not think we’re going to be rewarded for it, or we think that everyone else is doing what he or she want and seem to be getting ahead, God repays in the end.

While God can and does forgive sins, He doesn’t wipe out the consequence of the sin. If we drink too much we run the risk of having an accident or ruining our health. If we steal, we run the risk of embarrassment and jail.

Galatians 6:1-5

Galatians 6:1-5 “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.”

We’re not to judge others harshly, but help them when they slip up, knowing we will slip at times too. We’re to bear one another’s burdens. And we’re not to compare ourselves to others, but only to ourselves. Ask ourself if we have done our ideal best. This will keep us from being conceited.

Galatians 5:16-21

Galatians 5:16-21 “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Paul gives us a catalog of evil things here. Let’s look at the list.

Sexual immorality – Christianity came into a world where this was not only condoned, it was regarded as normal! It was Christianity that brought chastity into the world.
Impurity – This is what makes man unfit to come into the presence of God. It separates us from Him.
Debauchery – This word (in some translations it’s wantonness) has been defined as “readiness for any pleasure”. The people who practiced it knew no restraint. They rarely thought about what other people thought. Jezebel was described as wanton.
Idolatry – The worship of gods, which the hands of man made, or material things, which have taken the place of God.
Witchcraft –This literally means the use of drugs! And that’s because the sorcery and witchcraft so prevalent back then used poisonous drugs.
Hatred – Men who are characteristically hostile to other men. The exact opposite of the Christian virtue of love for everyone.
Strife or Discord – Rivalry, which comes from quarrelling and competing.
Jealousy – This word was originally a good one. It meant emulation: the fine desire to share nobility, to attain it when we see it. But, it degenerated to mean the desire for something someone else has.
Fits of rage – This is self-explanatory.
Self-ambition – They used to use this term for a man who sought public office, not to serve, but for what he could get out of it.
Dissension – Literally, this word means, “standing apart”. People who aren’t in harmony or agreement.
Envy – Euripides called this “the greatest of all diseases among men.” It goes beyond jealousy. It’s not that you just want what another person has, you actually begrudge the fact the other person has these things at all. He doesn’t even so much want them for himself; he just doesn’t want the other person to have them.
Drunkenness – In the ancient world this wasn’t a common vice. It was degrading to become drunk. The Greeks drank wine all the time. Children drank wine! But, they drank their wine in the proportion of three parts water to two parts wine. The Greeks, Jews and Christians would have looked down on anyone who was drunk.

Galatians 5:2-15

Galatians 5:2-12 “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”

One thing I took new from this is, Paul tells them they can’t just accept circumcision as something they should do. By accepting that it meant they accepted the whole law. They couldn’t just accept part of it.

This made me think of people who dabble in the occult, or new age. They think it’s not all bad, that they can pull some harmless or fun things out to believe or take part in. (Horoscopes for instance.) But, in some things, and I believe God and salvation are two of them, there is such a thing as only black and white, no shades of gray.

Paul says a little leaven, levens the whole lump.

The other thing I took from this section is; love is an outcome of our faith. And our faith can be measured by how much we love. And he tells us this in the next verses:

Galatians 5:13-15 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

A commentator called this Paul’s track. After flights of thought he reduces it down to something an ordinary man could understand and do. We have not become free to sin, but free not to sin. And only the Holy Spirit makes us selfless enough to love others. We can’t do it ourselves.

Galatians 4:21- 5:1

Galatians 4:21- 5:1 “Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.” Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

To devout and scholarly Jews and especially Rabbis, scripture had more than one meaning, and the literal meaning was often regarded as the least important.

Peshat would be the simple, or literal meaning
Remaz the suggested meaning
Derush the meaning evolved and deduced by investigation
Sod the allegorical meaning

The first letters of these four words, PRDS, are the consonants of the word Paradise. They said that when man had succeeded in penetrating into these four different meanings he had realized the joy of paradise. They loved playing these word games! So a Rabbi would take a simple bit of historical narrative from the Old Testament and read into it, inner meanings. These meanings would seem rather fantastic to us today, but convincing to the people back then.

The story of Sarah and Hagar in Genesis is pretty straightforward. Paul allegorizes it to illustrate his point. As a devout Jew, this is the way he had been taught, but it was also something the readers would expect and understand.

Chapter 5 verse 1 reminds us that it is the power of our love for God, not the constraint of the law that keeps us right.

Galatians 4:12 – 20

Galatians 4:12-20 “ I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!”

“Become like me for I became like you.” Paul became a gentile. He gave up all the traditions and privileges of his people. He appeals to the Galatians, telling them not to become Jews, but like himself.

In the next part we see that Paul apparently met them when he was ill. Paul talks other places about a thorn in the flesh, which God did not take away even though he prayed He would. No one knows what that thorn was, but many have speculated. Some think it was the persecution he suffered. Some think it was the temptations of the flesh, which he said he never succeeded in suppressing. Some think it was his physical appearance; bow-legged and probably with “runny eyes” (due to an eye disease prevalent back then and in that area.)

The oldest thought was that he had violent headaches and this may have tied in with the fact that when Paul first went to Galatia he had been to Pamphylia where malaria fever raged. It’s possible he contracted malaria and went to Galatia to recover. Malaria reoccurs and is accompanied by a headache that people have likened to a red-hot bar thrust through the forehead.

We’re not sure what was exactly wrong with him at this time, but apparently the Galatians didn’t treat him like a burden. They took care of him.

Paul calls them “my little children”. Very loving, very enduring. The disciple John, who was the sensitive one, used this term a lot, but this is the only time in the Bible that Paul does. Paul was yearning over his straying children. He had gone through a lot to get them to where they were and it was killing him to think they were backsliding. He couldn’t understand why someone who believed and therefore freed himself from the law would want to take on the burden of the law again.

Galatians 4:8-11

Galatians 4:8-11 “Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, we were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods: but now that we have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn we back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto we desire to be in bondage over again? We observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.”

In this passage Paul is still basing his thought on the conception that the law is an elementary stage in religion. It was ok before we knew better. It had its purpose. But, now we have come to know God and the grace of God. Then Paul corrects himself, man cannot by his own efforts know God. God reveals Himself to man. We can never seek God unless He has already found us.

He mentions days, months, seasons and years. One of the features of Jewish law was its observance of special days and seasons. In this section, days are the Sabbath of each week, months are the new moons, which are special occasions. The seasons are the great annual feasts like the Passovers or the Feast of the Tabernacles. And the years are the Sabbatic years – every 7th year.

Paul says the failure of this is it divided the days into days that are sacred or not, that belong to God or not. Kind of like people who think if they go to church on Sunday they’re covered for the whole week. (That’s God’s day – the rest are mine!)

Jesus said, “I came so that you might have life.” He didn’t say, “I came so that you might have religion.” When religion is a thing of days and times and seasons – it’s an external thing. It’s legalism. For the real Christian, every day is God’s day. We shouldn’t pull God out on just certain days.

Galatians 4:1-7

Galatians 4:1-7 “But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world: but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because we are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God”

In verse 2 where it says, “but he is under guardians and stewards until the date appointed by his father.” Until the exact, right time when Christ came, we couldn’t get at our inheritance, but when He made His sacrifice for us and we believed, we became joint heirs with Christ.

In verse 6, “And because we are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father.” Abba is the Aramaic word for Daddy. Paul believed that this instinctive cry of the heart of man was the work of the Holy Spirit.

And if our hearts cry out this way we know we are sons and all the inheritance of grace is ours. For Paul, the man who governed his life by slavery to the law was still a child. The man who had learned the way of grace had become a mature full-grown man in the Christian faith.

Galatians 3:23-29

Galatians 3:23-29 “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was put in charge of us until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

“Held in custody under the law”. In the Greek world there was a household servant. He was usually an old and trusted slave who had long been in the family and whose character was high. His sole job was to lead the child of the house to school and back home. To keep him from temptation and harm until he grew up. He didn’t teach him in school, he just got him there and set a good moral example while doing it.

This, Paul says, is the function of the law. It would lead a man to Christ. It would give him a good, moral example to follow until Christ came.

Paul goes on to say, “As many of you who have been baptized into Christ – have put on Christ.” Baptism was a Jewish rite. If a man wished to accept the Jewish faith he had to do three things. He had to be circumcised, he had to offer a sacrifice and he had to be baptized.

Ceremonial washing was very important in the Jewish faith to cleanse a person from defilement. The book of Leviticus tells us that a man who was about to be baptized cut his hair and nails and took a baptismal bath. Every part of his body had to be touched with water. He confessed his faith before 3 men who were called the fathers of baptism.

While still in the water, parts of the law were read to him, words of encouragement were addressed to him and benedictions were pronounced upon him. When he got out of the water he was a member of the Jewish faith.

By Christian baptism, Paul says: a man enters into Christ not Christianity. The early Christians looked at Baptism as something that really and truly produced a real union with Christ. Back then most baptisms were for adults. The church was brand new and spreading. Once a person was baptized and “put on Christ” Paul says there is no longer any distinction between people. No Jew, no gentile, no slave, no free, no male or female.

A Jewish male used to pray every morning a thanksgiving to God that God hadn’t made him gentile or slave or woman! Paul probably prayed that every day his entire life, until he met Christ. But, he learned that there is no room for prejudice in a Christian’s heart. We are all sons of God and one in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:19-22

Galatians 3:19-22 “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.”

A commentator said there are 300 different interpretations written about these 4 verses! And that was 50 years ago, so there are probably more now! Paul is still trying to show the superiority of grace and faith over law. He makes 3 points about the law:

1. Why introduce the law at all?

Paul says it was introduced for the sake of transgressions. It was a favorite thought of Paul’s that where there is no law there is no sin. You can’t break a law that doesn’t exist. Therefore the function of the law was to define sin. The law can and does define sin, but it can’t cure it. It’s like a doctor who makes a diagnosis –of an incurable disease.

2. Paul says the law was not given directly by God.

In Exodus 20 the law was given to Moses, but in Paul’s day the Rabbi’s believed that angels passed the law from God to Moses because they felt that God was too holy to deal with man directly. Stephen referred to this belief in Acts 7:38 and 53. So here he is saying, the law went from God, to angels, to Moses, to the people – while the promise came to Abraham directly from God.

3. Paul uses a weird phrase here: “there can be no such thing as a mediator of one and God is one.”

This is the hard part. He says it takes 2 people to make this law thing happen. One to give the laws and one to accept them. If someone breaks the law, the whole thing is undone. But, the promise depends only on one person. The promise is given and nothing anyone else can do can break or alter that promise. Grace is God’s promise. We can refuse it for ourselves, but that’s not going to change the fact that God’s grace is out there for everyone.

Then Paul asks, “Is the law against the promises of God?” And he answers, “No.”
He states in verse 22 that scripture consigned all things to sin. He’s thinking of Deuteronomy 27:26, where it said that everyone who does not conform to the words of the law is cursed. So that means that everyone is cursed because no one has kept the law.

So what is the consequence of the law? To drive everyone to grace because they realize their helplessness. Paul is, I think, redundant in this letter. He says the same thing over and over in slightly different ways. But, I think he’s doing everything in his power to have everyone understand it because it is so very important.

Galatians 3:15-18

Galations 3:15-18 “Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.”

Here we learn the way of grace is actually older then the law by 430 years.
Rabbis back then loved to take one word out of a text and write a whole theology on just that single word. Here we are reminded that Paul is a trained Rabbi and he took a single word from the Abraham story and made an argument upon it.

In Genesis 17:7-8 God told Abraham, “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee.” God says of Abraham’s inheritance, “I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee.” To make it clear, let’s change seed to descendent, which some Bible translations already did. Seed or descendent is singular.

God’s promise points to one individual, Paul argues. And that is Jesus Christ. Therefore, the way for a right relationship with God comes through Jesus.

One commentator wrote, “We can never be good enough, but if we simply abandon this hopeless struggle and bring ourselves and our sin to God, then the grace of God opens its arms to us and we are at peace with a God who is no longer a judge, but a father.”



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Galatians 3:1-9

Galatians 3:1-9“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

The Galatians were in danger of turning to the newest and latest teacher. One of the hardest things of Christian living is keeping it up day after day. In the beginning it’s new and exciting. After awhile sometimes it may get tedious. One of the greatest acts the Holy Spirit does for us is teaching us to persist.

Paul reminds the Galatians that when they received the Holy Spirit they received it by believing the gospel, not obeying the law. Most of the Galatians were not Jews and wouldn’t have even known the law. Paul points them to a man who embodied faith. Abraham.

This was the man God promised that in him all families of the earth would be blessed. Abraham pleased God. And it wasn’t because he obeyed the laws. Remember this was over 400 years before the laws! It was by taking God at His Word, trusting Him completely and abandoning all earthly things.

The Jews relied on the promise of this blessing. They were physical descendents of Abraham. But, Paul changes all that. He says the real descendent of Abraham is any person who makes the same declaration of faith as Abraham did. Therefore Christians are spiritual descendents of Abraham.



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Galatians 2: 18-21

Galatians 2: 18-21“If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

We were infected by sin because of Adam and Eve. This made us unable to keep God’s laws. There is no way we are good enough. Paul tried the law. He told us all about it in the book of Philippians. And he did a better job then most following the law. But, even Paul, strong, spiritual Paul, realized his own helplessness. He could never do for himself what Christ did for all of us.

Martin Luther was the same. He wrote, “If anyone could be saved by monkery, it is I.” He was known for being extremely hard on himself: discipline, penance, self-denial and even self-torture. Until one day he heard a voice from heaven say to him, “The just shall live by faith.”

What Paul and Martin Luther found was, I think, why the book of Galatians is called the Christian’s declaration of freedom. They could dump this incredibly heavy burden and just accept God’s mercy. They were finally free!

It changed Paul so much that the only way he could describe it, was to say he had been crucified with Christ. The man he used to be was dead and now the living power within him was nothing less than Christ Himself.

Paul took God at His Word.

We need to do that. We need to quit thinking, “yea, but”.

“Yea, but God couldn’t possibly love me as much as other people, I’m so much worse!”

“Yea, but once those other people found Christ they just moved forward with lightening speed and sometimes I only take a step or two a day – and worse – half the time those steps are backwards!”

“Yea, but, I don’t think I feel like I’m suppose to.”

You know, CS Lewis wrote, “You don’t really have to feel anything. You just have to believe it.”

Paul’s last sentence, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” – is very important. Any time we say you have to do this or that, we are trying to add to what Christ did – and that diminishes it!

If you think you can earn God’s favor, you aren’t trusting in Christ’s work. He died for the forgiveness of our sins so that we may have eternal life with God. Period!



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