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Gal.5:1. Stand therefore in the freedom that Christ has given us, It was not you, he says, who freed yourself, but He who gave a ransom for you. How then do you subject yourself to the rule of the law against the intention of Christ who freed you? By saying “stop,” he let it be known that they were hesitating. and do not be subjected again to the yoke of slavery. With the word “yoke” he indicates the severity of slavery in the law. And the expression “again” exposes their insensitivity, since, despite the fact that they knew from experience the severity of slavery, they again voluntarily go into it. Gal.5:2. Behold, I, Paul, say to you: if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. Instead of any proof, the apostle refers to his authority. Christ no longer brings any benefit to the circumcised because he rejects His grace and turns to the law as a benefactor, but does not believe Christ at all, as if He had not shown him any benefit. And without believing, he cannot receive benefit from the One in Whom he does not believe. Gal.5:3. Again I testify to every man who is circumcised, that he must fulfill the whole law. So that they do not think that this is being said out of enmity, he adds: I am not only expressing this to you, but also to everyone who is circumcised, that you are placing a great burden on yourselves. The provisions of the law are closely related to each other, and if you recognize a small part of the law and submit yourself to this yoke, then you submit yourself to the rule of the whole law. For circumcision requires a sacrifice and is confined to a certain day, and a sacrifice requires a place, a method of offering and purification. An unclean person cannot offer sacrifices. Purifications again require the fulfillment of other legal requirements. Do you see how he who rejects Christ not only does not receive benefit from Him, but also exposes himself to countless burdens? If the law is master, then fulfill everything, and if not, then do not accept even a particle of it. Gal.5:4. You, who justify yourselves by the law, are left without Christ, have fallen from grace, That is, you have no fellowship with Christ: you who think to be justified by the law have lost the grace that truly justifies. It is a great misfortune when you do not receive what the law promises and lose what grace gives. Gal.5:5. but we in spirit wait and hope for the righteousness of faith. We, he says, believers, do not hope to be justified by the law, but by the Holy Spirit. How? By faith. So, one must submit to the guidance of faith, then, through the influx of the Holy Spirit, receive forgiveness of sins and be rewarded with justification in baptism. Gal.5:6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has power, but faith working through love. Previously he said that circumcision is harmful, how can he now consider it indifferent? In our opinion, he speaks here of circumcision, which preceded faith; he seemed to say this: it is of no benefit to those who have entered into the New Testament if they are circumcised, and there is no harm if they are not circumcised. For everything consists in faith operating through love, that is, in faith, which must always appear active and living in love for Christ. This also indicates that although they believed, they did not grow stronger in love for Christ and, as a result, again strayed towards the law, or instructs them in love for their neighbor. And at the same time it shows that their seducers, if they had love for them, would not have dared to do this. So, learn that faith becomes active through love, that is, it is alive, and that which does not have love is inactive, just like what was said: “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Gal.5:7. You walked well: who stopped you from submitting to the truth? This is not a question, but a complaint. He says: you have achieved perfection, but what happened? Who was it who had such power that he prevented you from obeying not the truth of the Gospel, but the abolished law? Gal.5:8. This conviction is not from the One who calls you. That is, this attention to seducers is not from Christ; After all, He did not call you for this, so that you would listen to those who persuade you to become Judaizers. Gal.5:9. A little leaven leavens the whole dough. So that they don’t say: “Why do you reproach us so much (after all, we violated only one commandment) and exaggerate our guilt?” - he says that this seemingly insignificant circumstance causes significant harm. For just as leaven, even if it is small, naturally leavens and changes the whole dough, so circumcision, although it is only one commandment, draws you into Judaism in its entirety. Gal.5:10. I am confident of you in the Lord, that you will not think otherwise; I rely, he says, on you, because I know my students, I know your ability to correct. So, I hope you can improve. I also hope in the Lord, Who does not desire the death of any person. Thus, he encourages them to use their own efforts and trust in the Lord. For otherwise it is impossible to receive anything from God - unless you apply, he says, your own zeal. and the one who troubles you, no matter who he is, will bear condemnation (κρίμα). Although you, he says, will correct yourself, those who deceived you as a result will not be freed from punishment, but will be subject to judgment, no matter how great and worthy of faith they may seem. For this is what the words mean: whoever he is. And he says this so that others will not believe them. Gal.5:11. Why are they persecuting me, brothers, if I still preach circumcision? Since the slanderers said that he is a hypocrite and preaches circumcision in one place and not in another, he says: you are witnesses that the Jews are persecuting me. If I preach circumcision, why are others persecuting me? Obviously, they are persecuting me for violating their fatherly decrees. And if I preach circumcision and protect the decrees of my fathers, why are they persecuting me after that? What do they say comes from this? Did you not circumcise Timothy? Yes, but it's for a special purpose. Moreover, it is one thing to circumcise, and another to preach circumcision. After all, he did not say: “if I have been circumcised,” but: “if I preach.” For the one who preaches teaches that it should always be as absolutely beautiful, and the one who does something for special purposes does it not because it is absolutely good, but because it is useful in a given case. Then the temptation of the cross would cease. If I had preached circumcision, there would have been no temptation that the cross produces in the Jews. And it is not for any other reason that they are tempted by the preaching of the cross and do not accept it, except because it destroys circumcision and the law. Just as if I had preached circumcision, the hostility of the Jews to the cross and the temptation that it arouses in them would cease and disappear. Gal.5:12. Oh, that those who disturb you were removed! At first he called those who were subjected to deception foolish and condemned them no more than children, but he cursed the seducers themselves as terminally ill and said: oh, if only they were not only circumcised, but also completely cut up their whole body! And look, he called them “disturbers” (in Slavic “corrupting”, in Greek “forcing to leave their fatherland and freedom”), taking them into captivity. Because they actually deprived them of their freedom and, taking them away from the heavenly Jerusalem, like immigrants, they were attached to the law and to the pettiness of Judaism. Note also regarding those who castrate themselves that they incur the curse of the apostle. Gal.5:13. You are called to freedom, brethren, if only your freedom is not a reason to please the flesh, Not so, he says, we are called by Christ to become slaves of the law, but to free ourselves from the yoke of legal slavery. Then, lest anyone think that since we are free, we can do whatever we want, he corrects this and says: let freedom not be a reason for us to please the flesh, that is, carnal desires. After all, we are not freed from the yoke of the law in order to commit crimes, but so that we can walk in order even without a yoke, as is typical for those who have received a good upbringing. And we did not receive freedom in order to break the law, but in order to surpass even the law. but through love serve one another. Having removed the yoke of the law, he imposes another yoke, the yoke of love, both easier and at the same time stronger than that. It also hints that these seducers came to them out of a desire for power, for the love of power is the mother of heresies. Therefore, since covetousness has created division in you, then “serve one another through love,” and the word “serve” means intense and strong love. Turning then to moral instructions, he shows the way in which enslavement to carnal desires can be eliminated. Gal.5:14. For the whole law is contained in one word: love your neighbor as yourself. If, he says, you fully desire to fulfill the law, then do it not with circumcision, but with love, because this is the fullness of the law. Look, while presenting moral instructions, he does not forget dogmatic teaching. He grieved so much for their error. Gal.5:15. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be destroyed by one another. What he knows to be true, he expresses doubt, and the following expression: “Beware that you are not destroyed one another” is fear and warning, not condemnation. He did not simply say: “you bite” (which is characteristic of anger), but added: “you eat”, which serves as a manifestation of extreme brutality. This also indicates a corrupted teaching, and also implies intrigues against each other, predation and covetousness. And since they, in causing evil and plotting, thought only to harm others, he says: be careful that this matter does not turn against you. Gal.5:16. I say, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, Having said that biting and devouring is harmful, he also points out a cure against this, which both preserves love and is itself preserved by it, namely, so that they are spiritual. For if we are spiritual, we will love more, and if we love, we will be spiritual and then we will not commit carnal lust. Gal.5:17. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh: they oppose each other, so that you do not do what you would like. Based on these words, the Manichaeans and all similar heretics say that man consists of two opposing essences and that the apostle confirms this with real words. But no: he does not talk about essence, but calls earthly thoughts, carefree and carefree, flesh, and not the body, and spirit calls spiritual thoughts, not the soul. Earthly thoughts, he says, oppose spiritual ones, and spiritual ones oppose earthly ones. So, he recognizes the struggle of evil and good thoughts, but not of body and soul. For to will and not to desire is a matter for the reasoning soul. He adds: “You are not doing what you would like,” because the body cooperates with the soul and does not resist, and the soul clings to the body and endures everything so as not to leave it, and, torn from it, it grieves. What kind of opponents are they after this, when they have such a connection with each other? Gal.5:18. If you are led by the spirit, then you are not under the law. He who has the spirit extinguishes evil desires, but he who is free from them does not need the advice of the law and does not obey it. For what need does he who is not angry have in him who commands not to kill? And he who has no lusts, what need does he have in him who advises him not to commit adultery? The same as he said elsewhere: “the law was not made for the righteous” (1 Tim. 1:9). It also seems that he speaks in praise of the law, since it replaced the Spirit, fulfilling the duty of a leader according to its strength until a certain time. How then do you submit again to the teacher, leaving the Spirit who makes you perfect - just as if someone, being a philosopher, needed a guide? Gal.5:19. The works of the flesh are known; they are: adultery, fornication, These, he says, are works of the corrupted carnal will, among which adultery and fornication are recognized. And it is clear how different adultery is from fornication. This hints at shameless customs that he did not even dare to name. Gal.5:20. idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, discord, (temptations), heresies, Gal.5:21. hatred, murder, drunkenness, disorderly conduct and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Let those who slander the flesh tell us. Let shamelessness and adultery be sins of the body, but enmity, heresies and the like, how do they depend on the flesh? Therefore, it is clear that this is all a matter of corrupt will. If they were works of the flesh, like our natural properties, how would they deprive us of the Kingdom of God? For it is not nature, but the will that is characterized by both punishment and reward. Moreover, if passions were properties of nature, he would not say: “those who do so,” but “those who endure,” because action presupposes will. By “enmity” we mean unjust enmity. For there is also just hostility, which occurs in the name of faith and is directed against everyone who deviates from the straight path. Jealousy calls another manifestation of it (ζηλοτυπία). Because jealousy can also be good, when someone imitates someone who does good (is zealous for good). But he perfectly compared heresies with strife and disagreements, because every heresy comes from envy, and disorder - from drunkenness. After all, outrages are the impudent songs of drunken people. Therefore, he first pointed out the causes that produce this, then what comes from them. Gal.5:22. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, Bad things happen only from us. That is why he called them works of the flesh, which at the same time are performed with effort and tension. Good deeds require not only our care, but also assistance from above. Therefore, he called them the fruit of the Spirit, since the seed is given from us, that is, will, but to become its fruit depends on God. He believes the root of all blessings is, firstly, in love, and then in joy. For a lover always rejoices, even when he endures evil, because he looks upon the one who causes evil as a benefactor. But he rejoices in God, since he does and endures everything for Him, and as a result rejoices with a good conscience. And from love and joy he enjoys peace of mind, because he is not worried about thoughts and with all strangers. And if, it would seem, he is hostile to someone, then he is hostile not against the people themselves, but against their vices; he loves them as brothers, and he shows this enmity for their benefit, so that they improve. longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith, Gal.5:23. meekness, abstinence. Longsuffering, according to Scripture, apparently differs from meekness in that the long-suffering one, after long reflection, not hastily, but slowly, imposes an appropriate punishment on the sinner; but the meek forgives completely. For example, Moses, who forgave Miriam and Aaron, was called meek before all those living on earth (Numbers 12). Goodness is something more general compared to mercy (ἀγαθοδύνη). The Lord is good to everyone in general, but mercy benefits only the worthy, according to the expression: “Please, O Lord, the good” (Ps. 125:4). And he speaks not of simple faith, but of faith that moves mountains, which undoubtedly believes that what is impossible with people is possible with God. But the highest thing is abstinence not only from food, but also from everything bad. For the soul that does such things by the Spirit has no need for the instruction of the law, being itself above it, just as naturally fast horses do not need a whip. And in this case, he eliminates the law not because it is bad, but because it is lower than the wisdom given by the Spirit. Gal.5:24. But those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. As if to answer a secret question: who is as virtuous as you say? - he answers: “those who are Christ’s,” that is, those who constitute Christ’s inheritance, “crucified the flesh,” that is, they put to death their bodily thoughts. For they did not mortify themselves: by flesh you do not mean the essence of the flesh, but earthly thoughts, so that neither the passions of anger nor lust lived in them, but both were crucified and put to death. Or he generally calls passionate actions “passions,” whether they arise from anger or from lust. So, he speaks not only about killing such actions, but also the very reasons for them, that is, desires. Gal.5:25. If we live by the spirit, then we must act by the spirit. If, he says, such is the power of the Spirit, then we will live by it and be content with it. For the expression: “we must walk in the Spirit” is used instead of: let us be content with the power of the Spirit and will not seek help from the law. Gal.5:26. Let's not be vain, irritate each other, envy each other. This shows that their seducers took up this out of vanity (for this is the cause of all evil), challenging each other to dispute and strife; just as if someone said to his opponent: if you are strong, let’s measure our strength. And since envy comes from vanity, he prohibits it. You might be interested in: