Galatians 5:15 :

But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.

Paul observed that the Galatians had begun arguing with each other. Perhaps they were even arguing violently.

I mentioned that some people doubt the effectiveness of the Gospel of grace because they doubt it will provide the structure to control the base desires of humanity. Here we read that it is the Law that clearly fails.

Have you ever noticed that when you make a set of rules that define a system of merit that something called “competition” begins to become more common? Now God was clearly defining a legal system that defined merit from God, but somehow, humankind always seems to figure out a way to make God’s rules into a system of comparison between humans.

I have a theory about how this works. I think that because it becomes clear to us that God’s law is unattainable, we start shifting our focusing to something more positive by comparing ourselves to other people. We can feel better about our sin before God if we know that, at least, we are doing better than our neighbor.

You can see how this would quite easily produce arguments. Whenever we have pride in our own performance and start to compare our performance with those whose performance appears to be lower than ours, we can easily show our pride. If someone else disagrees with our assessment of merit it would be easy for that person to mention it. When they do it is quite natural to defend our merit. It all seems quite harmless. The fact is, this kind of arguing rips people apart. This is the kind of thing that destroys whole churches.

I think that Paul is mocking the Galatians performance under their “law gospel.” It just doesn’t work and anyone looking from the outside can easily see it.

In striking contrast to this is what Jesus actually expects. He asked us to love our neighbor as we talked about yesterday. See the problem?

Galatians 5:14 :

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Law is the outward representation of what love does to its neighbor. The Old Testament law is a set of rules that, when you follow them, show what love would act like.

The law is an amazing thing that obviously had to come from someone who was not human. Every law that humans make is either unnecessarily complicated, or lacking. It is often bound to cultural absurdities as well. God’s law He gave through Moses is so amazing in that it defines a relatively simple system that, if it could be followed, would actually make life on earth an amazing and wonderful thing.

The problem with mankind is that we just don’t have love. Listen to how John talks about it:

1 John 4:7-11 :

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

Do you see how this works? Jesus fulfills the law in us as it says “If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.” The way that we can love God and love each other is by the presence of Jesus in us living it out through us. Sure we are doing the loving also, but it is the life of Jesus that makes it possible in us. If we didn’t need the life of Jesus to love each other, then the Law would have been good enough.

The law wasn’t good enough to produce the fulfillment of it in us. That’s what the Messiah came for. He paid the price for our sin and then became our life as we have faith in that life; as we recognize that our old life was crucified with Jesus thousands of years ago.

Galatians 5:13 :

For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.

One of the things many religious people fear about the Gospel of grace is that people will sin because there aren’t any rules to stop them. Besides the fact that rules never stopped anyone from sinning before, and that rules have never saved anyone, it’s also not likely that people under grace will be more likely to sin.

We were called to be free. That means that we get to choose what we want to do. We can choose to live for our flesh. I know from experience that this is a miserable existence for a Christian and we are told in the Bible that in the end, we will be ashamed before God when we see Jesus face-to-face if we do live for selfishness here on earth.

Paul makes it clear that using freedom for selfish purposes is not what Christianity is suggesting. In fact, it is very clear that we are to use our freedom to make ourselves servants! Paul says in other places that you end up being a servant one way or another. If you choose to live for your body, then your body becomes your master. If you choose to obey Jesus and live for your brothers and sisters, you become a servant of Jesus. Most of us know from experience that the body does not make a good master. It tends toward self-destruction and harm toward others because of selfishness.

One important thing to recognize here is that we know that Paul isn’t suggesting something strange. When He tells us as believers to become servants to each other, we realize that it is something that we actually want to do. Paul knows that true Christians will really desire this. All He has to encourage and remind us to do it. That is freedom. Freedom is when we are able to do the good that we really want to do, even if it goes against our selfish desires. Paul has more to say about how it is possible for us overcome our selfish desires and accomplish our loving ones, later in the letter.

Galatians 5:12 :

I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

Paul must have been really upset when he wrote this letter. The thing that was coming against the Gospel message was very harmful to it. The words “cut themselves off” in this verse are often translated “castrate” in English. It’s pretty obvious that Paul was angry about those who were coming in harming the Gospel. Paul appears to be drawing on the imagery of circumcision here. I think you could paraphrase this verse like this:

“I wish that those who are messing you guys up would become so zealous about circumcision that they would just castrate themselves!”

I know of no other time in the Bible that Paul speaks with such anger. He has already committed the troublemakers to be accursed twice in chapter one and now this. It should be clear how important this issue is to us. The Bible leaves no room for us to treat this issue lightly. He says this problem is like yeast, that it sends people to hell, and it makes Paul so mad that He can hardly contain it. There is absolutely nothing optional or controversial about mixing the law in with Chrstianity.

God has committed Himself to punish those who cause His “little ones” to fall away with such severity that Jesus described it like this:

Matthew 18:6 :

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.

Notice that Jesus said that this treatment would be “better.” God is still the God of the Old Testament. God never changes. The difference was Jesus. He died for you and I and God recognized that. Because there are those who purposely fight against Jesus, the “God of the Old Testament” will be back to do what must be done.

Galatians 5:11 :

But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.

On our way to save ourselves, we trip over the cross. The cross is against our efforts and does not respect our desire to save ourselves. Because of this, it goes against our pride and our independent sinful nature. When we sinned in the garden (through Adam), we all gained a desire to be our own gods. When you are your own god you try to make everything for yourself and seek the help of no other. This is not how mankind was meant to operate. Listen to what Satan told Eve:

Genesis 3:4-5 :

The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Remember that this was also what perverted Satan:

Isaiah 14:13-14 :

You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”

This issue of grace and law is fundamental. It cuts to the core of mankind’s problem. It is no wonder that Paul was so upset.

It is also no wonder why those who preach the Gospel are persecuted. It is against the nature of mankind and against Satan who has decided to exalt himself. Even though there is persecution, God overcomes because He is more powerful than mankind and Satan. The faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ in order to overcome our inabilities is what defines the basis for Christianity. That is why Christianity can’t fit with any other religion. It’s not that Christians are closed minded, it’s just that they are no longer being fooled by lies about the existence of the evil one and the basic evil desire of mankind.

Some think that the presence of persecution or even hard times like we have in many Christian homes today is only a result of doing evil. Actually, some Christians today are being persecuted for promoting the Gospel. If that is you, you should feel happy right now because it is evidence that you are standing up for the cross of Jesus! Paul actually used persecution as an evidence for correct preaching. It is inappropriate for anyone to say that because you are being persecuted, God is against you. That is saying the opposite of what we read from Paul here.

God uses persecution and problems against those who are doing wrong, but it is also a sign for those who are preaching what is right. God can make it clear to each of us whether we are doing something wrong. If you are humble before God and have confessed your sin, you are right with God. God may still be strengthening your character through hardship, but persecution can also be evidence that you are preaching the true Gospel.

Galatians 5:7-10 :

You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little yeast grows through the whole lump. I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

Paul often used a foot race analogy when talking about living the Christian life. In this case, an interference was causing them to “not obey the truth.” This is the second time that Paul used the words “obey the truth” in Galatians. The first time was in Galatians 3:1. I discussed then that obeying the truth is not the same as obeying the law. It is good to note that Paul says it twice so we can see that it wasn’t a mistake. When you obey the truth, your mind and will are involved because you really believe and know what you are doing. When you follow the law, you don’t really need to know what it means. You just follow because you will get rewarded for it.

Paul refers to this legalism as yeast that grows in a lump of dough. Yeast grows fast and infects every piece of dough with a rotting influence. It also puffs up the dough. That’s very much like what legalism does. It puffs up the people to think that they are as good as Jesus because they think they can follow the law like He did.

Paul had earlier said that he was perplexed and concerned that he had wasted his efforts on the Galatians. In this part of the letter, he gains confidence that the Lord will cause them to turn around and realize what happened to them. It is a wonderful thing to be able to ask God for the salvation of someone. What an amazing thing it is to be able to pray and be heard.

Lastly, we read here that judgment will come upon those who are causing this trouble. Paul mentioned this idea in chapter one where he said that even he would be accursed if he spoke against the Gospel. Here again, Paul affirms that those who go against the Gospel will be judged. Paul used to go against it before he was saved and later was forgiven, so I am sure that Paul is not saying that those who later believe after fighting the Gospel will not get a chance. Even as Christians, we may fail to understand some of these things properly at first, but God will never go back on His promises to us. If we confess our sins in this area, He will forgive us.

Galatians 5:5-6 :

For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

God recognizes us as righteous in Jesus today, but we still wait for the final hope of righteousness to take place. It should be obvious to us that we still sin even as Christians. Our righteousness, although final in God’s eyes, has yet to be realized. That is why some of our salvation is still a hope. Until the day that we see Jesus again, we have this flesh to contend with and following the law of Moses or any other legal system for that matter, will not help us overcome this problem. Notice that Paul mentions that both Jewish law and non-Jewish effort doesn’t amount to anything in the light of what Jesus has done.

Paul tells us here that what does work is “faith working through love.” Because we still have these old sinful bodies and minds, we need some way to overcome our desire to do what is wrong. God recognizes our salvation in Christ, so should we. We need to see that our bodies are dead in Christ’s death and see that our lives are now alive in Him to do only good. That is all that is left for us to do now, but we must have faith in this fact and in all that God says about us in the Bible. It is good for us to keep our minds centered on the truth from the Bible and allow the Holy Spirit the freedom to cause us to overcome our sinful desires by the good desires that He replaces them with.

Paul goes into this subject in more detail later. Please read ahead in Galatians to learn more. You will also find more discussion in Romans.