THE

+PREACHER'S HOMILETICAL COMMENTARY.+

* * * * * * * *

+GALATIANS.+

+INTRODUCTION.+

+Character of the Galatians.+--These people were of Celtic descent.

They were the relics of a Gaulish invasion which swept over

South-eastern Europe in the early part of the third century before

Christ and poured into Asia Minor. Here the Celtic tribes maintained

themselves in independence under their native princes, until a

hundred years later they were subdued by the Romans. Their country

now formed a province of the empire. They had retained much of their

ancient language and manners; at the same time, they readily acquired

Greek culture, and were superior to their neighbours in intelligence.

Jews had settled among them in considerable numbers and had prepared

the way of the Gospel; it was through their influence that the

Judaistic agitation took so strong a hold of the Galatian Churches.

The epistle implies that its readers generally were acquainted with

the Old Testament and with Hebrew history, and that they took a

lively interest in the affairs of the Churches of Jerusalem and

Antioch. None of the New Testament Churches possesses a more strongly

marked character. They exhibit the well-known traits of the Celtic

nature. They were generous, impulsive, vehement in feeling and

language; but vain, fickle, and quarrelsome. Cæsar wrote: "The

infirmity of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their resolves,

fond of change, and not to be trusted"; and by Thierry they are

characterised thus: "Frank, impetuous, impressible, eminently

intelligent, but at the same time extremely changeable, inconstant,

fond of show, perpetually quarrelling, the fruit of excessive

vanity." Eight of the fifteen works of the flesh enumerated in chap.

v. 20, 21 are sins of _strife._ They could hardly be restrained from

"biting and devouring one another" (ch. v. 15). Like their kinsmen at

this time in the west of Europe, they were prone to revellings and

drunkenness. They had probably a natural bent towards a scenic and

ritualistic type of religion, which made the spirituality of the

Gospel pall upon their taste and gave to the teaching of the

Judaisers its fatal bewitchment.

+The authorship of the epistle.+--That it was written by St. Paul has

never been seriously doubted. His authorship is upheld by the

unanimous testimony of the ancient Church. Allusions and indirect

citations are found in the writings of the apostolic

Fathers--Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr, or whoever

wrote the _Oratio ad Græcos. The internal evidence of Pauline

authorship is conclusive by allusions to the history and by the

self-portrayal of the writer's character. No forger ever made an

imitation in which were so many secret threads of similarity, which

bore such a stamp of originality, or in which the character, the

passion, the mode of thought and reasoning, were so naturally

represented. The apostle's mental characteristics are indelibly

impressed on the letter.

+The time of writing the epistle.+--Lightfoot, in disagreement from

most earlier interpreters, maintained that this epistle was written

between 2 Corinthians and Romans--that is, during the latter part of

Paul's journey in Macedonia, or the earlier part of his sojourn at

Corinth, towards the close of the year 57 or 58 A.D. Dr. Beet comes

to the same conclusion. There is nothing in the letter itself to fix

definitely either the place or time of its composition. From chap.

i. 9, iv. 13, v. 3 we gather that St. Paul had now been in Galatia

twice; the epistle was therefore subsequent to the journey which he

took across Asia Minor in setting out on his third missionary tour

(Acts xviii. 22--xix. 1). All students are agreed that it belongs to

the period of the legalist controversy and to the second group of the

epistles. On every account one is inclined to refer the letter to the

last rather than to an earlier period of the third missionary tour.

Comparison with the other epistles of the group raises this

probability almost to a certainty and enables us to fix the date and

occasion of this letter with confidence.

+The purpose and analysis of the epistle.+--It is intensely

polemical. It is a controversial pamphlet rather than an ordinary

letter. The matter of dispute is twofold: 1. Paul's apostleship; and

2. The nature of the Gospel and the sufficiency of faith in Christ

for full salvation. This gives the order of the first two and main

parts of the epistle. A third section is added of a moral and

hortatory nature. The contents of the epistle may be thus analysed:--

I. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS.--1. The apostolic salutation (ch. i. 1-5).

2. The Galatians' defection (ch. i. 6-10).

II. PERSONAL APOLOGIA: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RETROSPECT.--The apostle's

teaching derived from God and not man, as proved by the circumstances

of: 1. His education (ch. i. 13, 14). 2. His conversion (ch. i.

15-17). 3. His intercourse with the other apostles (ch. i. 18-24, ii.

1-10). 4. His conduct in the controversy with Peter at Antioch (ch.

ii. 11-14). The subject of which controversy was the supersession of

the law by Christ (ch. ii. 15-21).

III. DOGMATIC APOLOGIA: INFERIORITY OF JUDAISM, OR LEGAL

CHRISTIANITY, TO THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH.--1. The Galatians bewitched

into retrogression from a spiritual system into a carnal system (ch.

iii. 1-5). 2. Abraham himself a witness to the efficacy of faith (ch.

iii. 6-9). 3. Faith in Christ alone removes the curse which the law

entails (ch. iii. 10-14). 4. The validity of the promise unaffected

by the law (ch. iii. 15-18). 5. Special pædagogic function of the law

(ch. iii. 19-29). 6. The law a state of tutelage (ch. iv. 1-7).

7. Meanness and barrenness of mere ritualism (ch. iv. 8-11). 8. The

past zeal of the Galatians contrasted with their present coldness

(ch. iv. 12-20). 9. The allegory of Isaac and Ishmael (ch. iv. 21-31).

IV. HORTATORY APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING.--1. Christian liberty

excludes Judaism (ch. v. 1-6). 2. The Judaising intruders (ch. v.

7-12). 3. Liberty not licence, but love (ch. v. 13-15). 4. The works

of the flesh and of the Spirit (ch. v. 16-26). 5. The duty of

sympathy (vi. 1-5). 6. The duty of liberality (ch. vi. 6-10).

V. AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13).

2. The apostle's motive (ch. vi. 14, 15). 3. His parting benediction and

claim to be freed from further annoyance (ch. vi. 16-18). (_Findlay_ and

_Sanday._)

+CHAPTER I.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Paul, an apostle.+--He puts his own name and apostleship

prominent, because his apostolic commission needs to be vindicated

against deniers of it. +Not of,+ or from, +men, but by,+ or from,

+Jesus Christ and God the Father.+ The Divine source of his

apostleship is emphatically stated, as also the infallible authority

for the Gospel he taught.

Ver. 6. +I marvel that ye are so soon removed.+--So quickly removed;

not so soon after your conversion, or soon after I left you, but so

soon after the temptation came; so readily and with such little

persuasion (cf. ch. v. 7-9). It is the fickleness of the Galatians

the apostle deplores. An early backsliding, such as the contrary view

assumes, would not have been matter of so great wonder as if it had

taken place later.

Vers. 8, 9. +Any other gospel.+--The apostle is here asserting the

oneness, the integrity of his Gospel. It will not brook a rival. It

will not suffer any foreign admixture. +Let him be

accursed.+--Devoted to the punishment his audacity merits. In its

spiritual application the word denotes the state of one who is

alienated from God by sin.

Ver. 11. +Not after man.+--Not according to man; not influenced by

mere human considerations, as it would be if it were of human origin.

Ver. 12. +But by the revelation of Jesus Christ.+--Probably this took

place during the three years, in part of which the apostle sojourned

in Arabia (vers. 17, 18), in the vicinity of the scene of the giving

of the law; a fit place for such a revelation of the Gospel of grace

which supersedes the ceremonial law. Though he had received no

instruction from the apostles, but from the Holy Ghost, yet when he

met them his Gospel exactly agreed with theirs.

Ver. 14. +Exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.+--St.

Paul seems to have belonged to the extreme party of the Pharisees

(Acts xxii. 3, xxiii. 7, xxvi. 5; Phil. iii. 5, 6), whose pride it

was to call themselves "zealots of the law, zealots of God." A

portion of these extreme partisans, forming into a separate sect

under Judas of Galilee, took the name of zealots _par excellence,_

and distinguished themselves by their furious opposition to the

Romans.

Ver. 16. +To reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him.+--The

revealing of His Son by me to the Gentiles was impossible, unless He

had first revealed His Son in me; at first on my conversion, but

especially at the subsequent revelation from Jesus Christ (ver. 12),

whereby I learnt the Gospel's independence of the Mosaic law.

Ver. 24. +They glorified God in me.+--He does not say, adds

Chrysostom, they marvelled at me, they praised me, they were struck

with admiration of me, but he attributes all to grace. They glorified

God in me. How different, he implies to the Galatians, their spirit

from yours.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-5.

_Apostolic Credentials._

+I. That apostolic credentials claim distinctively Divine

authority.+--"Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by

Jesus Christ and God the Father" (ver. 1). It must have been a

painful moment when Paul first became aware that spurious teachers

questioned the validity of his apostolic call, and a still more

painful disappointment when he discovered his Galatian converts so

readily gave credence to those who maligned him. His fears were

roused, not so much for his personal reputation as for the injury to

the religious life of his converts if they cherished suspicions as to

the Divine character of the truth they had been taught. The mischief

must be dealt with at once. He boldly and emphatically declared that

his commission was direct from God and bore the same Divine stamp as

that of the other apostles, whose authority even the false teachers

had not the temerity to deny. It has been ever the _rôle_ of the

subtle adversary of man to strive to eliminate the Divine element

from the truth and drag it down to a common human level. Truth then

loses its stability, begins to move in a flux of confused human

opinions, and the soul is plunged into bewilderment and doubt.

Whatever tends to vitiate the truth brings peril to the peace and

upward progress of the soul. The power of the teacher increases with

an ever-deepening conviction of the Divine authority of his message.

+II. That apostolic credentials recognise the oneness of the

Christian brotherhood.+--"And all the brethren which are with me"

(ver. 2). Here is the indication that St. Paul was not unduly

solicitous about his personal reputation. While insisting upon the

unquestioned Divine source of his apostleship, he does not arrogate a

haughty superiority over his brethren. He is one with them in Christ,

in the belief of and fidelity to the truth, in the arduous labours of

pioneer work, in building up and consolidating the Church, and unites

them with himself in his Christian greeting. It is the sublime aim of

the Gospel to promote universal brotherhood by bringing men into

spiritual union with Christ, the Elder Brother. Christ is the

unifying force of redeemed humanity. Ecclesiastical ranks are largely

human expedients, necessary for maintaining order and discipline. The

great Head of the Church has promulgated the unchallengeable law of

religious equality: "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are

brethren" (Matt. xxiii. 8).

+III. That apostolic credentials justify the use of a sublime and

comprehensive greeting.+--"Grace be to you and peace," etc. (ver. 3).

A greeting like this from some lips would be fulsome, or at the best

mere exaggerated politeness. But coming from one who was in constant

communion with the Source of the blessings desired, and from which

Source he had received his call to the apostleship, it is at once

dignified, large-hearted, and genuine. _Grace_ and _peace_ are

inclusive of the best blessings Heaven can bestow or man receive.

They are Divine in their origin and nature--"from God the Father and

our Lord Jesus Christ." Grace is the spontaneous outflow of Divine

love in the redemption of the race and is the more precious because

unmerited; and peace is the conscious experience of that grace in the

believing soul--peace from outward dissension and inward fret, peace

of conscience, peace with God and man. The blessings the apostle

desires God is ever eager to bestow. "Filling up our time with and

for God is the way," said David Brainerd, "to rise up and lie down in

peace. I longed that my life might be filled up with fervency and

activity in the things of God. Oh, the peace, composure, and God-like

serenity of such a frame! Heaven must differ from this only in

degree, not in kind."

+IV. That apostolic credentials are evident in the clear statement of

the great principles of the Gospel salvation.+--"Who gave Himself for

our sins, that He might deliver us," etc. (vers. 4, 5). In these

words, we have a suggestive epitome of the whole Gospel. Man is

delivered from sin and from the present evil age by the

self-sacrifice of Jesus; and this method is "according to the will of

God," and brings unceasing glory to His name. This is the Gospel in a

nutshell and involves all the grand principles of redemption the

apostle was commissioned to declare, and which he develops more

clearly in the course of this epistle. Deliverance is Divinely

provided, irrespective of human effort or merit. The Galatians in

seeking to return to legal bondage ignored the root principles of the

Gospel and imperilled their salvation. The apostle vindicated the

credentials of his high office by faithful remonstrance and plain

authoritative statement of the truth Divinely revealed to him. It is

a mark of high intellectual power to make the greatest truths clear

to the humblest mind. Christian teaching has all the more weight when

associated with irreproachable moral character.

+Lessons.+--1. _God should be gratefully recognised as the Giver of

all good._ 2. _The special endowments of one are for the benefit of

all._ 3. _It is a solemn responsibility to be entrusted with the

preaching of the Gospel._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 1. _The Power of the Gospel._--1. Free grace doth often light

upon the most unworthy, not only by giving salvation to themselves,

but making them instrumental for the kingdom of Christ, and bringing

about the salvation of others. 2. Faithful and called ministers of

Christ are to be so far from cowardly ceding, or heartless fainting

under the bold, bitter, and unjust aspersions of those who question

their calling, and thereby weaken their authority and render the

truth of their doctrine doubtsome, that they ought the more to avow

their calling against all who question it. 3. The office of an

apostle had this peculiar to itself, that the designation was not

mediately by the election and suffrages of men, as in the calling of

ordinary office-bearers, but immediately from God, so that the

function of the apostles ceased with them and did not pass by

succession to a pope or any other. 4. The false apostles, that they

might shake the truth preached by Paul and establish their own

contrary error, alleged that he was no lawful apostle. This Paul

refutes by showing he was called by Christ after He was raised from

the dead and had taken possession of His kingdom, so that his calling

had at least no less dignity and glory in it than if he had been

called by Christ when He was on earth.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 2. _The Church a Witness._--1. The more they are whom God maketh

use of to hold out the beauty of truth that we may embrace and follow

it, or the deformity and danger of error that we may fly from and

hate it, we are the more to take heed how we reject or embrace what

is pressed upon us, as there will be the more to bear witness of our

guilt and subscribe to the equity of God's judgment if we obey not.

2. We are not so to stumble at the many sinful failings which may be

in Churches, as to unchurch them, by denying them to be a Church, or

to separate from them, if their error be not contrary to fundamental

truths, or if they err from human frailty, and not obstinately and

avowedly.--_Ibid._

Ver. 3. _Christian Salutation._--1. God's gracious favour and

goodwill is to be sought by us in the first place, whether for

ourselves or others, that being a discriminating mercy betwixt the

godly and the wicked. 2. Peace is to be sought after grace, and not

to be expected before it. Peace without grace is no peace. There can

be no peace with God or His creatures, nor sanctified prosperity,

except through Jesus Christ we lay hold on God's favour and grace.

3. Grace and peace we cannot acquire by our own industry or pains.

They come from God, are to be sought from Him, and His blessing is

more to be depended on than our own wisdom or diligence. 4. They to

whom grace and peace belong are such as acknowledge Christ to be

their Lord to command and rule them, and yield subjection to Him in

their heart and life.--_Ibid._

_Grace and Peace._

I. +Grace+ is not any gift in man but is God's and in God. It

signifies His gracious favour and goodwill, whereby He is well

pleased with us in Christ.

II. +Peace+ is a gift not in God, but in us. 1. Peace of

conscience--a quietness and tranquillity of mind arising from a sense

of reconciliation with God. 2. Peace with the creatures--with angels,

with the godly, with our enemies. 3. Prosperity and good success.

III. Whereas Paul begins his prayer with grace we learn that +grace

in God is the cause of all good things in us.+

IV. The chief things to be sought after are +the favour of God in

Christ and the peace of a good conscience.+

V. As grace and peace are joined we learn that +peace without grace

is no peace.+--_Perkins._