1 In the freedom, then, with which Christ did make you free -- stand ye, and be not held fast again by a yoke of servitude;
And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord `is', there `is' liberty;
For ye -- to freedom ye were called, brethren, only not the freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through the love serve ye one another,
and the truth shall make you free.' They answered him, `Seed of Abraham we are; and to no one have we been servants at any time; how dost thou say -- Ye shall become free?' Jesus answered them, `Verily, verily, I say to you -- Every one who is committing sin, is a servant of the sin, and the servant doth not remain in the house -- to the age, the son doth remain -- to the age; if then the son may make you free, in reality ye shall be free.
and `that' because of the false brethren brought in unawares, who did come in privily to spy out our liberty that we have in Christ Jesus, that us they might bring under bondage,
Watch ye, stand in the faith; be men, be strong;
for sin over you shall not have lordship, for ye are not under law, but under grace.
and now, having known God -- and rather being known by God -- how turn ye again unto the weak and poor elements to which anew ye desire to be in servitude?
now, therefore, why do ye tempt God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
may we hold fast the unwavering profession of the hope, (for faithful `is' He who did promise),
`Come unto me, all ye labouring and burdened ones, and I will give you rest, take up my yoke upon you, and learn from me, because I am meek and humble in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls, for my yoke `is' easy, and my burden is light.'
Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And a willing spirit doth sustain me.
Ye may not cast away, then, your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward, for of patience ye have need, that the will of God having done, ye may receive the promise, for yet a very very little, He who is coming will come, and will not tarry; and `the righteous by faith shall live,' and `if he may draw back, My soul hath no pleasure in him,' and we are not of those drawing back to destruction, but of those believing to a preserving of soul.
`Remember, then, how thou hast received, and heard, and be keeping, and reform: if, then, thou mayest not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou mayest not know what hour I will come upon thee.
and the faith having come, no more under a child-conductor are we,
then, brethren, we are not a maid-servant's children, but the free-woman's.
Let no one, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of the coming things, and the body `is' of the Christ; let no one beguile you of your prize, delighting in humble-mindedness and `in' worship of the messengers, intruding into the things he hath not seen, being vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding the head, from which all the body -- through the joints and bands gathering supply, and being knit together -- may increase with the increase of God. If, then, ye did die with the Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? -- thou mayest not touch, nor taste, nor handle -- which are all for destruction with the using, after the commands and teachings of men,
And ye, beloved, on your most holy faith building yourselves up, in the Holy Spirit praying, yourselves in the love of God keep ye, waiting for the kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ -- to life age-during;
The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah `is' on me, Because Jehovah did anoint me To proclaim tidings to the humble, He sent me to bind the broken of heart, To proclaim to captives liberty, And to bound ones an opening of bands.
the Holy Spirit this evidencing that not yet hath been manifested the way of the holy `places', the first tabernacle having yet a standing; which `is' a simile in regard to the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which are not able, in regard to conscience, to make perfect him who is serving, only in victuals, and drinks, and different baptisms, and fleshly ordinances -- till the time of reformation imposed upon `them'. And Christ being come, chief priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands -- that is, not of this creation --
liberty to them promising, themselves being servants of the corruption, for by whom any one hath been overcome, to this one also he hath been brought to servitude,
Beloved, all diligence using to write to you concerning the common salvation, I had necessity to write to you, exhorting to agonize for the faith once delivered to the saints,
but that which ye have -- hold ye, till I may come;
Having, then, a great chief priest passed through the heavens -- Jesus the Son of God -- may we hold fast the profession,
because now we live, if ye may stand fast in the Lord;
Only worthily of the good news of the Christ conduct ye yourselves, that, whether having come and seen you, whether being absent I may hear of the things concerning you, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul, striving together for the faith of the good news,
and the Jerusalem above is the free-woman, which is mother of us all,
so that, my brethren beloved, become ye stedfast, unmovable, abounding in the work of the Lord at all times, knowing that your labour is not vain in the Lord.
for partakers we have become of the Christ, if the beginning of the confidence unto the end we may hold fast,
so, then, brethren, stand ye fast, and hold the deliverances that ye were taught, whether through word, whether through our letter;
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:-