FEBRUARY 16 / FEBRUARY 23, 2014
PRACTICAL INJUNCTIONS (PART I)
INTRODUCTION:
1. In the verses which are before us, and down through Verse 10 of the sixth chapter, the Apostle gives various practical instructions which are based in the previous discussions.
2. Having previously dealt with the subject of freedom from the law, both the bondage of the ceremonial law, and the curse of the moral law, Paul felt it necessary to stress that liberty does not mean license.
3. It may well be that the Judaizers were charging that Paul’s rejection of the law as a means of salvation would lead to lawlessness. Then too, the presence of leftover pagan vices in the lives of the formerly chiefly pagan Galatians may have contributed to this necessity as well.
4. Christian liberty does not encourage antinomianism or promote lawlessness.
I. THE APOSTLE CAUTIONS AGAINST THE ABUSE OF LIBERTY. (VERSE 13) There is within men the tendency to misapprehend the meaning of religious truth, however plainly the truth is set forth. This tendency is never more obvious than it is respecting the doctrine of Christian liberty. Strange as it may seem, many whose teachings are a misapplication and abuse of Christian liberty will use portions of the Galatian Epistle to support their views and practices.
A. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY IS A STATE INTO WHICH WE ARE CALLED AS CHRISTIAN. “For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty.”
1. Christian liberty is part of our Christian calling.
2. To be “called unto liberty” is to be called into a state of freedom that is quite incompatible with subjection to the institutions of the Mosaic Law. Their conscience is delivered from the yoke of bondage.
3. Their obedience even to the Divine law is not in the mercenary spirit of a slave but from the generous spirit of a son.
B. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AS HERE STATED AND DEFENDED, BY NO MEANS RELAXES OUR OBLIGATION TO RELIGIOUS AND MORAL DUTY.
1. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved unto good works. (Eph. 2:8-10)
2. We are saved from the curse of the law, but not from our obligation to walk uprightly. Jesus perfectly obeyed the moral law, and we ought to walk even as He walked. (Heb. 4:15; John 8:46; I John 2:3-6)
3. Christ, rather than freeing us from religious and moral obligation, has furnished us the strongest motive as well as the most powerful encouragement to avoid sin in all its forms, and to cultivate holiness both in temper and conduct. (I Pet. 1:15)
4. Christian liberty is a blessed state into which we are called, but we must beware of using it as an occasion of the flesh. “Flesh” here obviously signifies the depraved inclinations which are natural to men in their present state, which, though subdued, are by no means extinguished even in the regenerate. We must not give occasion to fleshly desires. (Rom. 13:14) We most certainly are not to abuse our blessed liberty so as to make it an excuse for sin. That would be to make Christ Himself the minister of sin. (Ch. 3:17)
II. THE APOSTLE EXHORTS THEM TO SERVE ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE, AND GIVES THE PROPER MOTIVATION FOR DOING SO. (VERSES 13c-15)
A. HE INSTRUCTS THE GALATIANS, INSTEAD OF MAKING AN OSTENTATIOUS DISPLAY OF THEIR LIBERTY, TO SERVE ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE. (VERSE 13c)
1. Instead of making an ostentatious display of liberty, the Apostle exhorts the Galatians, those among them who were spiritual (Ch. 6:1) to serve one another in love.
2. Nothing better demonstrates true Christian liberty than when those who are “free from the law” so far as being subjected to slavish obedience to it, with hearts full of love for God and man fulfill the great intent of the law.
B. HE ENFORCES HIS EXHORTATION BY TWO STRONG MOTIVES. (VERSES 14, 15)
1. First, he asserts that love is the fulfillment of the law. (Verse 14)
a) “The law” here clearly does not signify the Mosaic (ceremonial) law, but the law by which Christians are to regulate themselves. (I Tim. 1:5; James 1:25; 2:8)
b) He says, “By love serve one another,” for love is the sum and substance of the law to which we are subject. (See Lev. 19:18) When he says, “All the law” the obvious meaning is that the whole of the law respecting our neighbor is fulfilled by love. The law also, of course, requires love to God as well. (See Matt. 22:37-40) The point here is fully illustrated in the Roman Epistle. (Rom. 13:9)
2. A second motive he gives by declaring the evil consequences of an opposite temper and conduct. (Verse 15)
a) To allow the flesh to take occasion of their liberty so as to produce strife and debate would be disastrous. “But if you bite and devour one another, see that ye be not consumed one of another.” The language is highly figurative, but the point is well made. The new views of the Judaizers were contentious, and certain to produce disputings, raising foolish and unlearned questions that gender strife.
b) Paul’s great concern was certainly for the individual believers, but more so for the churches, that they be not consumed with bitterness and strife. How strikingly his cause for concern has been illustrated in the history of the church in every age. Strifes and debates have prevented edification within, and conversions without.
c) Let us be exceedingly careful in avoiding situations of strive, “lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
III. THE APOSTLE EXHORTS TO WALK IN THE SPIRIT AS THE BEST MEANS OF HAVING DOMINION OVER THE FLESH. (VERSES 16-18)
A. IT IS OUR DUTY AND INTEREST IN OUR STRUGGLE AGAINST SIN TO ALWAYS WALK IN THE SPIRIT, SO AS NOT TO ALLOW ANY PROVISION FOR THE FLESH. (VERSE 16)
1. By the Spirit here may be meant either the Holy Spirit Himself Who dwells in the hearts of those He has renewed and sanctified, for He does guide and assist them in the way of duty; or it may be that gracious principle which He implants in the souls of His people and which wars against the flesh, which is that corrupt principle which remains in them. (See Rom. 7:21-23) Either way, it is the Holy Spirit Who has renewed us after the inward man, and it is His leading that the renewed nature seeks to follow. (See Rom.8:1-4)
2. The Apostle gives us this one general rule, which, if duly observed, would be the most sovereign remedy against the prevalence of corruption in us, and that is to walk in the Spirit. “This I say, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.”
3. Note, the best antidote against the poison of sin is to walk in the Spirit; to be in pursuit of spiritual things; to mind the things of the soul more than the things of the body (the carnal part of our being); to commit ourselves to the guidance of the Word, wherein the Holy Spirit makes known the will of God concerning us.
4. Not only is this our best means of preservation from the lusts of our flesh, it gives good evidence that we are truly Christians. (Verse 18)
B. THERE IS IN EVERY ONE A STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT. (VERSE 17)
1. The flesh, the carnal and corrupt part of us, lusts (strives and struggles) against the spirit. It opposes all of the motions of the Spirit, and resists every thing that is spiritual.
2. On the other hand, the spirit, the renewed part of us wars against the flesh, and opposes it, so that we cannot do the things that we would. The principle of grace in us will not suffer us to do all the evil which our corrupt nature would prompt us to do. Neither can we do all the good that we would by reason of the opposing carnal nature. (See Rom. 7:15, 19)
3. In a renewed man, where there is something of a good principle, there is a struggle between the old nature and the new nature. We must ever remember with which we identify. (See Rom. 7:20-22)
C. IT IS BY OBEDIENCE TO THE SPIRIT’S LEADING THAT WE PROVE OUR LIBERATION FROM BONDAGE. (VERSE 18)
1. As the Apostle has repeatedly shown, being under law spells defeat, bondage, curse, spiritual impotence. (Ch. 3:11-13, 21-23, 25; 4:3, 24, 25; 5:1)
2. Spiritual leading is not the Spirit’s gift to a select few. Clearly, those who are led by the Spirit are the same as those who walk in the Spirit. (Verses 16, 18) They are those who have been set free (Verse 1), who belong to Christ. (Ch. 3:9)
3. Those who are being led by the Spirit are those who are sanctified, and being sanctified. This is the constant influence which the Spirit of God exercises within the hearts of God’s children. (See again Rom. 8:1-14)
IV. THE APOSTLE CONTRASTS THE WORKS OF THE FLESH WITH THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. (VERSES 19-23) He makes the two lists, first the works of the flesh, and second, the fruit of the Spirit, in explanation of the conflict in Verse 17.
A. VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH THE LUST OF THE FLESH MANIFESTS ITSELF ARE HERE SET FORTH. (VERSES 19-21) There are four groups in Paul’s list of manifest vices.
1. Sexual sins: Sins which violate the Seventh Commandment. These are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, by which are meant not only the gross acts of these sins, but thoughts, words and actions that may tend towards the great transgression. The Greek words include harlotry, prostitution, moral impurity, wantonness, and sexual vices of all kinds which prevailed in heathenism.
2. Religious sins: Sins which are against the First and Second Commandments. Idolatry (Greek eidolateria) is the worship of idols. Witchcraft (Greek pharmakia, from pharmakon, a drug; the ministering of drugs). Sorcerers monopolized the word in their magical arts, using it in connection with idolatry.
3. Personal relations: Sins against our neighbors, and which violate the royal law of brotherly love. These are hatred (enmity, hostility), variance (contention), emulation (jealousy), wrath (raging anger), strife (selfish rivalry), sedition (dissension), heresies (party factions based in dissenting opinions), envyings, and murders.
4. Sins against ourselves: drunkenness and revelings, and such like. NOTE THE STRONG WARNING! “…of the which I tell you…they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (Verse 21b)
B. IN CONTRAST TO THE WORKS OF THE FLESH WE HAVE PLACED THE SPONTANEOUS PRODUCT OF THE SPIRIT. (VERSES 22, 23)
1. It is only by means of the Spirit that the flesh can be conquered. It is the good that expels the evil.
2. In the fruit of the Spirit we have the free, voluntary, and grateful responses of a soul that has been made free. This is the natural expression of the new life.
3. True believers are known by the fruit they bear. An evil tree cannot produce good fruit, but neither can a good tree produce evil fruit.
V. THE APOSTLE ADDS GREAT INCENTIVES FOR EVERY BELIEVER TO MANIFEST THESE VIRTUES, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH WE CAN DO SO. (VERSES 24-26)
A. AGAINST SUCH THINGS THERE IS NO LAW. (VERSE 24)
B. THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST JESUS HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES. (VERSE 25)
C. IF WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, BY THE SPIRIT LET US ALSO WALK. (VERSE 25)
D. THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BY WHICH WE ARE ABLE TO WALK OUGHT TO PREVENT ANY BOASTING WHICH ONLY PROVOKES OTHERS AND CREATES ENVY. (VERSE 26)
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