What a graphic verse today!

“But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” Galatians 5:15

Wow!

Both verbs, “bite” and “devour,” describe some kind of a wild animal scenario! A fierce fight between beasts! And if not that, from the world of zoology … then some sort of uncivilized “cannibalism” is being depicted, from the world of anthropology! In fact, I read earlier today that “bite” (used only here in all the New Testament) was often used of a serpent’s strike, “dakno” in Greek.

Either way, strange activity for Christian brothers!

“Take heed” is “blepo,” here framed as an imperative verb. Watch out, look carefully! A direct command from the Apostle.

What a warning!

And the verb “consumed” is “analisko,” used only three times in the Bible. Essentially it means “to destroy.” (Used by James and John once, in Luke 9:54,  of “fire” actually “consuming” some people! As preached in a later Epistle: “Even so the TONGUE is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little FIRE kindleth!” James 3:5)

Seems to me …

Either the Galatians had fallen into some kind of infighting among themselves, as Paul is about to decry the “works of the flesh!” 

Or else the Judiazers had introduced a “party spirit” (factionalism) into the congregations of Galatia! (Legalism always leads to pride!)

Either way, it’s bad news.

Remember what Paul had just said, the previous verse or two?

“By love serve one another.”

So do not devour one another!

Message delivered!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Technically speaking, the “Law” of the Old Testament, telling it in its entirety, encompasses the first five Books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch! Genesis through Deuteronomy, to be more exact. And that “Torah” consists of 613 different commandments, some negative and others positive.

But Moses, at God’s Behest, homogenized that vast “Law” into (what we commonly know as the) “Ten (yes, 10) Commandments.” 

Then Jesus, God the Son,  the Christ, came to earth … and further interpreted the “Law” as consisting of (get this) only 2 Commandments! “He (a lawyer, scribe, student of the Mosaic Statutes) said unto him (Jesus), What is written in the law? how readest thou? And Jesus answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Yes, two basic commandments!

Wow!

But now the Apostle Paul, in our Galatians Text today, goes even further!

“For all the law is fulfilled in ONE WORD, even in this; Thou shalt LOVE thy neighbour as thyself.” Galatians 5:14

Is Paul here detracting from our love of God, our love for God?

Certainly not.

But he is emphasizing the fact that Christian (Holy Spirit imparted) LOVE is the answer to living for Jesus, to pursuing the godly life in Christ!

The verb “fulfilled” (spelled “pleroo”) means “completed” 2 times in our New Testament. It even means “ended” twice! And strangely so, the verb is not an aorist (past tense) … but an indicative present passive 3rd person singular! Ongoing action, durative, habitual! 

As we love (“agapao”) each other … the Law is constantly being “fulfilled,” in a particular (spiritual) sense!

Wow!

I will never covet (one of the Ten Commandments) my neighbor’s donkey … not if I love him with “1st Corinthians 13” love! Not if I hold him dear as Jesus does! 

This Text is truly earth-shaking! “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

And just who is my “neighbor?”

The word is “plesion,” a derivative of “pelas,” simply meaning “near.” The person near you … at any given time! He automatically becomes your “neighbor,” in our verse here today.

Amazing!

This is a “lifestyle changer” … when practiced as written!

I keep repeating it! “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt LOVE thy neighbour as thyself.”

On loving “oneself,” we need  no lessons! It is a given! Listen to Paul in Ephesians 5:29. “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” 

Then let us not hate (“miseo” meaning “to detest) our neighbor!

But “nourish” (spelled “ektrepho” and meaning “to go out of one’s way” to serve) him!

And “cherish” (in Greek “thalpo” meaning “to keep warm,” to foster with tender care, no cold-heartedness allowed) him or her too. 

And in so doing we will satisfy the Law … de facto! 

Amen!

Words easily defined, but hard to live!

But Scripture, nonetheless!

And our Christian duty as well!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

True, we Christians are at “liberty!”

We are no longer under the shackles of the Law!

But this fact DOES NOT mean that we can live however our flesh pleases!

We must not “abuse” our Christ given liberty, “overextending” it into areas of life labeled “sinful” or “carnal” or “fleshly” by Scripture.

So far, I have summarized Galatians 5:13, today’s Text. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh …”

But there’s more … to this little jewel of a Text … “But by love serve one another.”

That is … if I as a Christian am not under the Mosaic Law (particularly in the sense of that Law getting me into Heaven), what keeps me from living exactly “as I please.” Yes, the pronoun here is purposely emboldened and underlined!

And Paul’s last clause above supplies that answer!

LOVE is now my guiding principle as a Christian!

The LOVE that is derived by abiding in Jesus, by being filled with the dear Holy Spirit! 

Love which will demonstrate itself practically by “serving” my brothers and sisters in Christ!

Again … “By love serve one another.”

“One another,” one of slightly over a dozen times in the New Testament where we are told to be doing “something” (good and constructive) to each other … as mutual members of the Body of Christ!

Wow!

Study these sometime, very profitable!

And of course, “love” here is “agape.” Just as well say “God’s Kind of Love!” Selfless, giving, faithful, and a whole lot more adjectives too!

But “serve?”

As in “servitude?”

That’s “slavery” (again), is it not? The very state from which we have been delivered?

Yes, Paul indeed uses the verb “douleuo” here, for “serve.” (“Doulos” is the name of the very lowest slave in the whole Roman social order!)

But now we are serving voluntarily, NOT being driven by a cruel taskmaster!

Serving each other because we want to do so, not because we are compelled!

And by the way, if we should actually serve one another this way … we would not need any kind of law to retard us from pursuing selfish lives! 

Would we?

“By love serving one another” … that lifestyle, would solve all the problems at Galatia! At any other Church too, I suspect!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

And that noun, “vehemence,” means?

“A display of strong feeling, very strong!”

Extreme passion!

Even to the point of anger!

Students, in Latin “vemens” means (as it looks) “violent, forceful!”

Wow!

But that’s my word, describing Paul in today’s Bible Text, our (Galatians) Verse for the day.

Yet let’s let him (Paul) talk! “I would they were even cut off which trouble you.” Galatians 5:12, yes I am sticking with my adjective, vehement!

Someone (clearly) is “troubling” the fairly new Christians Paul left behind in the Roman District (Province) back then called Galatia. If you recall Paul earlier has mentioned these men … “But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” Back in Galatians 1:7, but there he used the Greek verb “tarasso” for “trouble.” To agitate, to cause inward commotion.

Here Paul (really, the Holy Spirit) changes words! Now it’s “anastatoo.” A stronger word, I believe. “Ana,” the prefix, suggests “between.” And “histemi” means “to stand, to establish!” These “enemies” of the Gospel desire “to subvert” the Galatians’ faith in Jesus! To “stand between” them and Jesus! One lexicon says “to uproot!” In Acts 17:6 our King James Version has “to turn upside down!” 

No wonder Paul is so righteously upset!

“I would they were even cut off which trouble you.”

Now let’s note the verb “would” as in “I would.” It is “ophelon,” It derives from “opheilo,” a word literally meaning “to owe” someone! But it also can (and does several times in the Bible) mean “to do one’s duty, to be indebted to do a thing!” 

IT IS NOT that Paul bitterly wishes harm (in selfish spite or fleshly hatred) to these false teachers, not sinfully so. BUT IT IS that Paul feels a spiritual indebtedness to defend and protect these new little “lambs” in God’s familial flock!

Paul is (if not already there, certainly nearly to the point) prepared to pray “against” these “circumcisers” who wrongly add to God’s Plan of Salvation!

But what would he pray?

He is indebted to ask for what?

“That they were even cut off!”

Here I need the help of some scholars.

This clause could mean that they would even die! “Were cut off” translates “apokopto,” as when a life is “cut short!” Yes, this is vehement!

As earlier in Galatians … “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.” Galatians 1:8, where “accursed” means “anathema!” Tantamount to: “Let him die and go to Hell Fire!”

Wow!

Furthermore, and I must say this tactfully, “prokopto” as well (often) implies some form of “self-mutilation.” One prominent authority suggests the meaning to be “castrate themselves.” And the grammar indeed allows that interpretation! “Let the circumcising knife slip and let them ‘cut themselves off,’ Paul is praying.” Now, could I ever preach that from a pulpit in a Revival somewhere? Doubtfully, but the implication (actually, definition) is valid, nonetheless.

One paraphraser (whom I cannot recommend, but is who certainly a Greek expert) words the sentence (Paul’s intent) in this fashion: “Why don’t these agitators, OBSESSIVE AS THEY ARE ABOUT CIRCUMCISION, go all the way and castrate themselves?”

Wow!

Furthermore, should this happen, this “accident” to which Paul is referring, maybe even wishing  … these men would have disqualified themselves from ever again worshipping Almighty God back at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem anyway!

At least according to the Law of Moses, which they all (these detractors who have sneaked into the Galatians churches) loved so dearly! Plain but necessary today, this Law of which I speak, the particular statute. “He that hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 23:1, irony indeed! He then could not thereafter even so much as enter the Temple, the House of God, not under the Law! 

Wow again!

Sin always “backfires” on its practitioner! Sin exacts a “price!”

Then lastly, Paul might just be saying (though Paul is generally much more emotional) that he wants these men “to leave town.” Or that he wishes the Galatians would “dismiss” them from ever coming back to Church!

The Apostle feels that the Gospel of GRACE is that important, that valuable!

And that worthy of defense!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Galatians 5:11 is today’s Text: “And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.”

At least Paul is still calling them (the Galatians) “Brethren!” Back in the early third chapter Paul had already called them “foolish!” Twice in fact!

And from today’s verse it appears that some of the “enemies” who had come to Galatia were accusing Paul of also preaching “circumcision” (as the “means” of attaining Heaven)!

What is “circumcision?” A Jewish act, to the core. A command Almighty God had given Abraham long ago. A sign of “covenant” relationship between the two. And a token of Jewish lineage/heritage ever since. “And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.” Genesis 17:11

But this form of surgery was NEVER meant as a religious act to bring eternal life to a man! That great Gift comes “by grace through faith,” preaches Paul!

But at any rate, did Paul ever preach such? “And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?”

The adverb “yet” can (and often does) mean “still!”

Maybe they meant when Paul was still lost, a religious sinner! Still a Pharisee, he (certainly) would have preached adherence to the whole of Moses” Law, including circumcision. Do they have this in mind?

Or maybe (years after Paul was saved) when he asked Timothy to be circumcised! As recorded here in Acts 16:3 … ” Him (Timotheus) would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and CIRCUMCISED him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.” (But with a Jewish Mother, Timothy)

But do remember Paul refused to have Titus (a 100% Gentile) circumcised! An earlier lesson: “But NEITHER Titus, who was with me, being a GREEK, was compelled to be circumcised: and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” Galatians 2:3-5

Liars and false accusers never worry too much with the truth, do they?

So here in today’s Text they are still at it, lying about Paul and his preaching!

By the way, the verb here for “preach” is “kerusso,” not the “proclamation” word that has generally been used in Galatians so far, which is “evangelizing!” Evangelizing (literally in Greek) means preaching “Good News!” And preaching circumcision is NOT good news, Paul believes.

Wow!

But the real (in Paul’s amazing logic) point in our Text is this: IF Paul is still preaching circumcision, WHY is he being hated by the legalists? He would then (if preaching “works”) be in their “camp!” Their ally! They certainly would not be chasing and contradicting and battling the great Apostle everywhere he went! Or everywhere he had been, Galatia being the prime example.

A longer Lesson today, folks!

But, by verse’s end … what is the “offense of the Cross?”

The noun “offense” is “skandalon” in Greek, a “stumbling block.” Yes, to strict Jews “no longer demanding circumcision” was “beyond the pale!” Beyond comprehension! They even wanted/demanded that GENTILES who had trusted Jesus be circumcised!

So they would NEVER BELIEVE the so-called “Gospel of Paul,” the Gospel of Salvation as a Gift of God’s ineffable Grace!

The verb “cease” is “katargeo,” (blending “kata” and “argeo”) which means “to render idle.” To make something “inactive!” To strip it of its power! (Perish the thought!)

Wow!

“And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.”

Think of it!

Paul actually suffered (they tried to kill him repeatedly) because of the Gospel he preached!

A Gospel freely offered to “whosoever” will!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” 1 Corinthians 9:15