1 Christ has truly made us free: then keep your free condition and let no man put a yoke on you again.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free.
Because you, brothers, were marked out to be free; only do not make use of your free condition to give the flesh its chance, but through love be servants one to another.
And you will have knowledge of what is true, and that will make you free. They said to him in answer, We are Abraham's seed and have never been any man's servant: why do you say, You will become free? And this was the answer Jesus gave them: Truly I say to you, Everyone who does evil is the servant of sin. Now the servant does not go on living in the house for ever, but the son does. If then the son makes you free, you will be truly free.
And that because of the false brothers let in secretly, who came searching out our free condition which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might make servants of us;
Be on the watch, unmoved in the faith, and be strong like men.
For sin may not have rule over you: because you are not under law, but under grace.
But now that you have come to have knowledge of God, or more truly, God has knowledge of you, how is it that you go back again to the poor and feeble first things, desiring to be servants to them again?
Why then are you testing God, by putting on the neck of the disciples a yoke so hard that not even our fathers or we were strong enough for it?
Let us keep the witness of our hope strong and unshaking, for he is true who has given his word:
Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and become like me, for I am gentle and without pride, and you will have rest for your souls; For my yoke is good, and the weight I take up is not hard.
Give me back the joy of your salvation; let a free spirit be my support.
So do not give up your hope which will be greatly rewarded. For, having done what was right in God's eyes, you have need of waiting before his word has effect for you. In a very little time he who is coming will come; he will not be slow. But the upright man will be living by his faith; and if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who go back to destruction; but of those who have faith even to the salvation of the soul.
Keep in mind, then, the teaching which was given to you, and be ruled by it and have a change of heart. If then you do not keep watch, I will come like a thief, and you will have no knowledge of the hour when I will come on you.
But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a servant.
So, brothers, we are not children of the servant-woman, but of the free woman.
For this reason let no man be your judge in any question of food or drink or feast days or new moons or Sabbaths: For these are an image of the things which are to come; but the body is Christ's. Let no man take your reward from you by consciously making little of himself and giving worship to angels; having his thoughts fixed on the things which he has seen, being foolishly lifted up in his natural mind, And not joined to the Head, from whom all the body, being given strength and kept together through its joins and bands, has its growth with the increase of God. If you were made free, by your death with Christ, from the rules of the world, why do you put yourselves under the authority of orders Which say there may be no touching, tasting, or taking in your hands, (Rules which are all to come to an end with their use) after the orders and teaching of men?
But you, my loved ones, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and making prayers in the Holy Spirit, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for life eternal through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make the broken-hearted well, to say that the prisoners will be made free, and that those in chains will see the light again;
The Holy Spirit witnessing by this that the way into the holy place had not at that time been made open, while the first Tent was still in being; And this is an image of the present time; when the offerings which are given are not able to make the heart of the worshipper completely clean, Because they are only rules of the flesh, of meats and drinks and washings, which have their place till the time comes when things will be put right. But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things of the future, through this greater and better Tent, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this world,
Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him.
My loved ones, while my thoughts were full of a letter which I was going to send you about our common salvation, it was necessary for me to send you one requesting you with all my heart to go on fighting strongly for the faith which has been given to the saints once and for ever.
Having then a great high priest, who has made his way through the heavens, even Jesus the Son of God, let us be strong in our faith.
For it is life to us if you keep your faith in the Lord unchanged.
Only let your behaviour do credit to the good news of Christ, so that if I come and see you or if I am away from you, I may have news of you that you are strong in one spirit, working together with one soul for the faith of the good news;
But the Jerusalem on high is free, which is our mother.
For this cause, my dear brothers, be strong in purpose and unmoved, ever giving yourselves to the work of the Lord, because you are certain that your work is not without effect in the Lord.
For if we keep the substance of the faith which we had at the start, even till the end, we have a part with Christ;
So then, brothers, be strong in purpose, and keep the teaching which has been given to you by word or by letter from us.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Galatians 5
Commentary on Galatians 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
In this chapter the apostle comes to make application of his foregoing discourse. He begins it with a general caution, or exhortation (v. 1), which he afterwards enforces by several considerations (v. 2-12). He then presses them to serious practical godliness, which would be the best antidote against the snares of their false teachers; particularly,
Gal 5:1-12
In the former part of this chapter the apostle cautions the Galatians to take heed of the judaizing teachers, who endeavoured to bring them back under the bondage of the law. He had been arguing against them before, and had largely shown how contrary the principles and spirit of those teachers were to the spirit of the gospel; and now this is as it were the general inference or application of all that discourse. Since it appeared by what had been said that we can be justified only by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by the righteousness of the law, and that the law of Moses was no longer in force, nor Christians under any obligation to submit to it, therefore he would have them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and not to be again entangled with the yoke of bondage. Here observe,
Gal 5:13-26
In the latter part of this chapter the apostle comes to exhort these Christians to serious practical godliness, as the best antidote against the snares of the false teachers. Two things especially he presses upon them:-