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VERSE I.
"With freedom did Christ set us free;stand fast therefore.."
Have ye wrought your own deliverance, that ye run back again to the
dominion ye were under before? It is Another who hath redeemed you,
it is Another who hath paid the ransom for you. Observe in how many
ways he leads them away from the error of Judaism; by showing,
first, that it was the extreme of folly for those, who had become free
instead of slaves, to desire to become slaves instead of free;
secondly, that they would be convicted of neglect and ingratitude to
their Benefactor, in despising Him who had delivered, and loving him
who had enslaved them; thirdly, that it was impossible. For Another
having once for all redeemed all of us from it, the Law ceases to have
any sway. By the word,"stand fast," he indicates their
vacillation.
Ver. 1. "And be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage."
By the word "yoke" he signifies to them the burdensomeness of such a
course, and by the word "again" he points out their utter
senselessness. Had ye never experienced this burden, ye would not
have deserved so severe a censure, but for you who by trial have learnt
how irksome this yoke is, again to subject yourself to it, is justly
unpardonable.
Ver. 2. "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye receive
circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing."
Lo, what a threat! reasonably then did he anathematize even angels.
How then shall Christ profit them nothing? for he has not supported
this by argument, but only declared it, the credence due to his
authority, compensating, as it were, for all subsequent proof
Wherefore he sets out by saying, "Behold, I Paul say unto you,"
which is the expression of one who has confidence in what he asserts.
We will subjoin what we can ourselves as to how Christ shall profit
nothing them who are circumcised.
He that is circumcised is circumcised for fear of the Law, and he no
tears the Law, distrusts the power of grace, and he who distrusts can
receive no benefit from that which is distrusted. Or again thus, he
that is circumcised makes the Law of force; but thus considering it to
be of force and yet transgressing it in the greater part while keeping
it in the lesser, he puts himself again under the curse. But how can
he be saved who submits himself to the curse, and repels the liberty
which is of Faith? If one may say what seems a paradox, such an one
believes neither Christ nor the Law, but stands between them,
desiring to benefit both by one and the other, whereas he will reap
fruit from neither. Having said that Christ shall profit them
nothing, he lays down the proof of it shortly and sententiously,
thus:
Ver. 3. "Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth
circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole Law."
That you may not suppose that this is spoken from ill-will, I say
not to you alone, he says, but to every one who receiveth
circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law. The parts of
the Law are linked one to the other. As he who from being free has
enrolled himself as a slave, no longer does what he pleases, but is
bound by all the laws of slavery, so in the case of the Law, if you
take upon you a small portion of it, and submit to the yoke, you draw
down upon yourself its whole domination. And so it is in a worldly
inheritance: he who touches no part of it, is free from all matters
which are consequent on the heirship to the deceased, but if he takes a
small portion, though not the whole, yet by that part he has rendered
himself liable for every thing. And this occurs in the Law, not only
in the way I have mentioned, but in another also, for Legal
observances are linked together. For example; Circumcision has
sacrifice connected with it, and the observance of days; sacrifice
again has the observance both of day and of place; place has the
details of endless purifications; purifications involve a perfect swarm
of manifold observances. For it is unlawful for the unclean to
sacrifice, to enter the holy shrines, to do any other such act. Thus
the Law introduces many things even by the one commandment. If then
thou art circumcised, but not on the eighth day, or on the eighth
day, but no sacrifice is offered, or a sacrifice is offered, but not
in the prescribed place, or in the prescribed place, but not the
accustomed objects, or if the accustomed objects, but thou be
unclean, or if clean yet not purified by proper rules, every thing is
frustrated. Wherefore he says, "that he is a debtor to the the whole
Law." Fulfil not a part, but the whole, if the Law is of force;
but if it be not of force, not even a part.
Ver. 4. "Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified
by the Law; ye are fallen away from grace."
Having established his point, he at length declares their danger of
the severest punishment. When a man recurs to the Law, which cannot
save him, and falls from grace, what remains but an inexorable
retribution, the Law being powerless, and grace rejecting him?
Thus having aggravated their alarm, and disquieted their mind, and
shown them all the shipwreck they were about to suffer, he opens to
them the haven of grace which was near at hand. This is ever his
wont, and he shows that in this quarter salvation is easy and secure,
subjoining the words, Ver. 5. "For we through the Spirit by
faith wait for the hope of righteousness."
We need none of those legal observances, he says; faith suffices to
obtain for us the Spirit, and by Him righteousness, and many and
great benefits.
Ver. 6. "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any
thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love."
Observe the great boldness with which he now encounters them; Let him
that hath put on Christ, he says, no longer be careful about such
matters. Having before said that Circumcision was hurtful, how is it
that he now considers it indifferent? It is indifferent as to those
who bad it previously to the Faith, but not as to those who are
circumcised after the Faith was given. Observe too the view in which
he places it, by setting it by the side of Uncircumcision; it is
Faith that makes the difference. As in the selection of wrestlers,
whether they be hook-nosed or flat-nosed, black or white, is of no
importance in their trial, it is only necessary to seek that they be
strong and skilful; so all these bodily accidents do not injure one who
is to be enrolled under the New Covenant, nor does their presence
assist him.
What is the meaning of "working through love?" Here he gives them a
hard blow, by showing that this error had crept in because the love of
Christ had not been rooted within them. For to believe is not all
that is required, but also to abide in love. It is as if he had
said, Had ye loved Christ as ye ought, ye would not have deserted to
bondage, nor abandoned Him who redeemed you, nor treated with
contumely Him who gave you freedom. Here he also hints at those who
have plotted against them, implying that they would not have dared to
do so, had they felt affection towards them. He wishes too by these
words to correct their course of life.
Ver. 7. "Ye were running well; who did hinder you?
This is not an interrogation, but an expression of doubt and sorrow.
How hath such a course been cut short? who hath been able to do this?
ye who were superior to all and in the rank of teachers, have not even
continued in the position of disciples. What has happened? who could
do this? these are rather the words of one who is exclaiming and
lamenting, as he said before, "Who did bewitch you?" (Gal.
iii: 1.)
Ver. 8. "This persuasion came not of him that calleth you."
He who called you, called you not to such fluctuations, he did not
lay down a Law, that you should judaize. Then, that no one might
object, "Why do you thus magnify and aggravate the matter by your
words; one commandment only of the Law have we kept, and yet you make
this great outcry?" hear how he terrifies them, not by things present
but future in these words:
Ver. 7. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." And thus
this slight error, he says, if not cor rected, will have power (as
the leaven has with the lump) to lead you into complete Judaism.
Ver. 10. "I have confidence to you-ward in the Lord, that ye
will be none otherwise minded."
He does not say, "ye are not minded," but, "ye will not be
minded;" that is, you will be set right. And how does he know
this? he says not "I know," but "I trust in God, and invoking
His aid in order to your correction, I am in hopes;" and he says,
not merely, "I have confidence in the Lord," but, "I have
confidence towards you in the Lord." Every where he connects
complaint with his praises; here it is as if he had said, I know my
disciples, I know your readiness to be set right. I have good
hopes, partly because of the Lord who suffers nothing, however
trival, to perish, partly because of you who are quickly to recover
yourselves. At the same time he exhorts them to use diligence on their
own parts, it not being possible to obtain aid from God, if our own
efforts are not contributed.
Ver. 10. "But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment,
whosoever he be."
Not only by words of encouragement, but by uttering a curse or a
prophecy against their teachers, he applies to them an incentive. And
observe that he never mentions the name of these plotters, that they
might not become more shameless. His meaning is as follows. Not
because "ye will be none otherwise minded," are the authors of your
seduction relieved from punishment. They shall be punished; for it is
not proper that the good conduct of the one should become an
encouragement to the evil disposition of the other. This is said that
they might not make a second attempt upon others. And he says not
merely, "he that troubleth," but, "whosoever he be," in the way
of aggravation.
Ver. 11. "But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision,
why am I still persecuted?"
Observe how clearly he exonerates himself from the charge, that in
every place he judaized and played the hypocrite in his preaching. Of
this he calls them as witnesses; for ye know, he says, that my
command to abandon the Law was made the pretext for persecuting me.
"If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? for
this is the only charge which they of the Jewish descent have to bring
against me. Had I permitted them to receive the Faith, still
retaining the customs of their fathers, neither believers nor
unbelievers would have laid snares for me, seeing that none of their
own usages were disturbed. What then! did he not preach
circumcision? did he not circumcise Timothy? Truly he did. How
then can he say, "I preach it not?" Here observe his accuracy; he
says not, "I do not perform circumcision," but, "I preach it
not," that is, I do not bid men so to believe. Do not therefore
consider it any confirmation of your doctrine, for though I
circumdised, I did not preach circumcision.
Ver. 11. "Then hath the stumbling block of the cross been done
away."
That is, if this which ye assert be true, the obstacle, the
hindrance, is removed; for not even the Cross was so great an offence
to the Jews, as the doctrine that their father's customs ought not to
be obeyed. When they brought Stephen before the council, they said
not that this man adores the Crucified, but that he speaks "against
this holy place and the Law." (Acts vi: 13.) And it was of
this they accused Jesus, that He broke the Law. Wherefore Paul
says, If Circumcision be conceded, the strife you are involved in is
appeased; hereafter no enmity to the Cross and our preaching remains.
But why do they bring this charge against us, while waiting day after
day to murder us? it is because I brought an uncircumcised man into
the Temple (Acts xxi: 29. ) that they fell upon me. Am I
then, he says, so senseless, after giving up the point of
Circumcision, vainly and idly to expose myself to such injuries, and
to place such a stumbling-block before the Cross? For ye observe,
that they attack us for nothing with such vehemence as about
Circumcision. Am I then so senseless as to suffer affliction for
nothing at all, and to give offence to others? He calls it the
offence of the Cross, because it was enjoined by the doctrine of the
Cross; and it was this which principally offended the Jews, and
hindered their reception of the Cross, namely, the command to abandon
the usages of their fathers.
Ver. 12. "I would that they which unsettle you, would even cut
themselves off."
Observe how bitterly he speaks here against their deceivers. At the
outset he directed his charge against those who were deceived, and
called them foolish, once and again. Now, having sufficiently
corrected and instructed them, he turns to their deceivers. And you
should remark his wisdom in the manner in which he admonishes and
chastens the former as his own children, and as capable of receiving
correction, but their deceivers he cuts off, as aliens and incurably
depraved. And this he does, partly, when he says, "he shall bear
his judgment whosoever he be;" partly when he utters the imprecation
against them, "I would that they which unsettle you would even cut
themselves off." And he says well "that unsettle you." For they
had compelled them to abandon their own fatherland, their liberty, and
their heavenly kindred, and to seek an alien and foreign one; they had
cast them out of Jerusalem which is above and free, and compelled them
to wander forth as captives and emigrants. On this account he curses
them; and his meaning is as follows, For them I have no concern,
"A man that is heretical after the first and second admonition
refuse." ( Tit. iii: 10 ) If they will, let them not only be
circumcised, but mutilated. Where then are those who dare to mutilate
themselves; seeing that they draw down the Apostolic curse, and
accuse the workmanship of God, and take part with the Manichees?
For the latter call the body a treacherous thing, and from the evil
principle; and the former by their acts give countenance to these
wretched doctrines, cutting off the member as being hostile and
treacherous. Ought they not much rather to put out the eyes, for it
is through the eyes that desire enters the soul? But in truth neither
the eye nor any other part of us is to blame, but the depraved will
only. But if you will not allow this, why do you not mutilate the
tongue for blasphemy, the hands for rapine, the feet for their evil
courses, in short, the whole body? For the ear enchanted by the
sound of a flute hath often enervated the soul; and the perception of a
sweet perfume by the nostrils hath bewitched the mind, and made it
frantic for pleasure. Yet this would be extreme wickedness and satanic
madness. The evil spirit, ever delighting in slaughter, hath seduced
them to crush the instrument, as if its Maker had erred, whereas it
was only necessary to correct the unruly passion of the soul. How then
does it happen, one may say, that when the body is pampered, lust is
inflamed? Observe here too that it is the sin of the soul, for to
pamper the flesh is not an act of the flesh but of the soul, for if the
soul choose to mortify it, it would possess absolute power over it.
But what you do is just the same as if one seeing a man lighting a
fire, and heaping on fuel, and setting fire to a house, were to blame
the fire, instead of him who kindled it, because it had caught this
heap of fuel, and risen to a great height. Yet the blame would attach
not to the fire but to the one who kindled it; for it was given for the
purpose of dressing food, affording light, and other like ministries,
not for burning houses. In like manner desire is implanted for the
rearing of families and the ensuring of life, not for adultery, or
fornication, or lasciviousness; that a man may become a father, not
an adulterer; a lawful husband, not a seducer; leaving heirs after
him, not doing damage to another man's. For adultery arises not from
nature, but from wantonness against nature, which prescribes the use
not the misuse. These remarks I have not made at random, but as a
prelude to a dispute, as skirmishing against those who assert that the
workmanship of God is evil, and who neglecting the sloth of the soul,
madly inveigh against the body, and traduce our flesh, whereof Paul
afterwards discourses, accusing not the flesh, but devilish thoughts.
Ver. 13. "For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use
not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh."
Henceforward he appears to digress into a moral discourse, but in a
new manner, which does not occur in any other of his Epistles. For
all of them are divided into two parts, and in the first he discusses
doctrine, in the last the rule of life, but here, after having
entered upon the moral discourse, he again unites with it the doctrinal
part. For this passage has reference to doctrine in the controversy
with the Manichees. What is the meaning of, "Use not your freedom
for an occasion to the flesh?" Christ hath delivered us, he says,
from the yoke of bondage, He hath left us free to act as we will, not
that we may use our liberty for evil, but that we may have ground for
receiving a higher reward, advancing to a higher philosophy. Lest any
one should suspect, from his calling the Law over and over again a
yoke of bondage, and a bringing on of the curse, that his object in
enjoining an abandonment of the Law, was that one might live
lawlessly, he corrects this notion, and states his object to be, not
that our course of life might be lawless, but that our philosophy might
surpass the Law. For the bonds of the Law are broken, and I say
this not that our standard may be lowered, but that it may be exalted.
For both he who commits fornication, and he who leads a virgin life,
pass the bounds of the Law, but not in the same direction; the one is
led away to the worse, the other is elevated to the better; the one
transgresses the Law, the other transcends it.
Thus Paul says that Christ hath removed the yoke from you, not that
ye may prance and kick, but that though without the yoke ye may proceed
at a well-measured pace. And next he shows the mode whereby this may
be readily eftected; and what is this mode? he says, Ver. 13.
"But through love be servants one to another."
Here again he hints that strife and party-spirit, love of rule and
presumptousness, had been the causes of their error, for the desire of
rule is the mother of heresies. By saying, "Be servants one to
another," he shows that the evil had arisen from this presumptuous and
arrogant spirit, and therefore he applies a corresponding remedy. As
your divisions arose from your desire to domineer over each other,
"serve one another;" thus will ye be reconciled again. However, he
does not openly express their fault, but he openly tells them its
corrective, that through this they may become aware of that; as if one
were not to tell an immodest person of his immodesty, but were
continually to exhort him to chastity. He that loves his neighbor as
he ought, declines not to be servant to him more humbly than any
servant. As fire, brought into contact with wax, easily softens it,
so does the warmth of love dissolve all arrogance and presumption more
powerfully than fire. Wherefore he says not, "love one another,"
merely, but, "be servants one to another," thus signifying the
intensity of the affection. When the yoke of the Law was taken off
them that they might not caper off and away another was laid on, that
of love, stronger than the former, yet far lighter and pleasanter;
and, to point out the way to obey it, he adds; Ver. 14. "For
the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself."
Seeing that they made so much of the Law, he says, "If you you
wish to fulfill it, do not be circumcised, for it is fulfilled not in
circumcision but in love." Observe how he cannot forget his grief,
but constantly touches upon what troubled him, even when launched into
his moral discourse.
Ver. 15. "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that
ye be not consumed one of another."
That he may not distress them, he does not assert this, though he
knew it was the case, but mentions it ambiguously. For he does not
say, "Inasmuch as ye bite one another," nor again does he assert,
in the clause following, that they shall be consumed by each other;
but "take heed that ye be not consumed one of another," and this is
the language of apprehension and warning, not of condemnation. And
the words which he uses are expressly significant; he says not merely,
"ye bite," which one might do in a passion, but also "ye devour,"
which implies a bearing of malice. To bite is to satisfy the feeling
of anger, but to devour is a proof of the most savage ferocity.
The biting and devouring he speaks of are not bodily, but of a much
more cruel kind; for it is not such an injury to taste the flesh of
man, as to fix one's fangs in his soul. In proportion as the soul is
more precious than the body, is damage to it more serious. "Take
heed that ye be not consumed one of another." For those who commit
injury and lay plots, do so in order to destroy others; therefore he
says, Take heed that this evil fall not on your own heads. For
strife and dissensions are the ruin and destruction as well of those who
admit as of those who introduce them, and eats out every thing worse
than a moth does.
Ver. 16. "But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh."
Here he points out another path which makes duty easy, and secures
what had been said, a path whereby love is generated, and which is
fenced in by love. For nothing, nothing I say, renders us so
susceptible of love, as to be spiritual, and nothing is such an
inducement to the Spirit to abide in us, as the strength of love.
Therefore he says, "Walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the
lust of the flesh:" having spoken of the cause of the disease, he
likewise mentions the remedy which confers health. And what is this,
what is the destruction of the evils we have spoken of, but the life in
the Spirit? hence he says, "Walk by the Spirit and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh."
Ver. 17. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh, for these are contrary the one to the
other: that ye may not do the things that ye would."
Here some make the charge that the Apostle has divided man into two
parts, and that he states the essence of which he is compounded to be
conflicting with itself, and that the body has a contest with the
soul. But this is not so, most certainly; for by "the flesh," he
does not mean the body; if he did, what would be the sense of the
clause immediately following, "for it lusteth," he says, "against
the Spirit?" yet the body moves not, but is moved, is not an
agent, but is acted upon. How then does it lust, for lust belongs to
the soul not to the body, for in another place it is said, "My soul
longeth," (Ps. lxxx iv: 2.) and, "Whatsoever thy soul
desireth, I will even do it for thee," (1 Sam. xx: 4.) and,
"Walk not according to the desires of thy heart," and, "So
panteth my soul." (Ps. xlii: I.) Wherefore then does Paul
say, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit?" he is wont to call the
flesh, not the natural body but the depraved will, as where he says,
"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," (Rom. viii:
8, 9.) and again, "They that are in the flesh cannot please
God." What then? Is the flesh to be destroyed? was not he who
thus spoke clothed with flesh? such doctrines are not of the flesh,
but from the Devil, for "he was a murderer from the beginning."
(John viii: 44.) What then is his meaning? it is the earthly
mind, slothful and careless, that he here calls the flesh, and this
is not an accusation of the body, but a charge against the slothful
soul. The flesh is an instrument, and no one feels aversion and
hatred to an instrument, but to him who abuses it. For it is not the
iron instrument but the murderer, whom we hate and punish. But it may
be said that the very calling of the faults of the soul by the name of
the flesh is in itself an accusation of the body. And I admit that
the flesh is inferior to the soul, yet it too is good, for that which
is inferior to what is good may itself be good, but evil is not
inferior to good, but opposed to it. Now if you are able to prove to
me that evil originates from the body, you are at liberty to accuse
it; but if your endeavor is to turn its name into a charge against it,
you ought to accuse the soul likewise. For he that is deprived of the
truth is called "the natural man." (1 Cor. xx: 14.) and the
race of demons "the spirits of wickedness." (Eph. vi: 12.)
Again, the Scripture is wont to give the name of the Flesh to the
Mysteries of the Eucharist, and to the whole Church, calling them
the Body of Christ. (Col. i: 24.) Nay, to induce you to
give the name of blessings to the things of which the flesh is the
medium, you have only to imagine the extinction of the senses, and you
will find the soul deprived of all discernment, and ignorant of what it
before knew. For if the power of God is since "the creation of the
world clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are
made," (Rom. i: 20.) how could we see them without eyes? and
if "faith cometh of hearing," (Rom. x: 17.) how shall we hear
without ears? and preaching depends on making circuits wherein the
tongue and feet are employed. "For how shall they preach, except
they be sent?" (Rom. x: 15.) In the same way writing is
performed by means of the hands. Do you not see that the ministry of
the flesh produces for us a thousand benefits? In his expression,
"the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," he means two mental states.
For these are opposed to each other, namely virtue and vice, not the
soul and the body. Were the two latter so opposed they would be
destructive of one another, as fire of water, and darkness of light.
But if the soul cares for the body, and takes great forethought on its
account, and suffers a thousand things in order not to leave it, and
resists being separated from it, and if the body too ministers to the
soul, and conveys to it much knowledge, and is adapted to its
operations, how can they be contrary, and conflicting with each
other? For my part, I perceive by their acts that they are not only
not contrary but closely accordant and attached one to another. It is
not therefore of these that he speaks as opposed to each other, but he
refers to the contest of bad and good principles. (Compare Rom.
vii: 23.) To will and not to will belongs to the soul; wherefore
he says, "these are contrary the one to the other," that you may not
suffer the soul to proceed in its evil desires. For he speaks this
like a Master and Teacher in a threatening way.
[cheryl Ver. 18. "But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not
under the Law."
If it be asked in what way are these two connected, I answer,
closely and plainly; for he that hath the Spirit as he ought,
quenches thereby every evil desire, and he that is released from these
needs no help from the Law, but is exalted far above its precepts.
He who is never angry, what need has he to hear the command, Thou
shalt not kill? He who never casts unchaste looks, what need hath he
of the admonition, Thou shalt not commit adultery? Who would
discourse about the fruits of wickedness with him who had plucked up the
root itself? for anger is the root of murder, and of adultery the
inquisitive gazing into faces. Hence he says, "If ye are led by the
Spirit, ye are not under the Law;" wherein he appears to me to have
pronounced a high and striking eulogy of the Law, if, at least, the
Law stood, according to its power, in the place of the Spirit before
the Spirit's coming upon us. But we are not on that account obliged
to continue apart with our schoolmaster. Then we were justly subject
to the Law, that by fear we might chasten our lusts, the Spirit not
being manifested; but now that grace is given, which not only commands
us to abstain from them, but both quenches them, and leads us to a
higher rule of life, what more need is there of the Law? He who has
attained an exalted excel lence from an inner impulse, has no occasion
for a schoolmaster, nor does any one, if he is a philosopher, require
a grammarian. Why then do ye so degrade yourselves, as now to listen
to the Law, having previously given yourselves to the Spirit?
Ver. 19, 20, 21. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these; fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wrath, factions,
divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such
like: of the which I forewarn you even as I did forewarn you, that
they which practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God."
Answer me now, thou that accusest thine own flesh, and supposest that
this is said of it as of an enemy and adversary. Let it be allowed
that adultery and fornication proceed, as you assert, from the flesh;
yet hatred, variance, emulations, strife, heresies, and
witchcraft, these arise merely from a depraved moral choice. And so
it is with the others also, for how can they belong to the flesh? you
observe that he is not here speaking of the flesh, but of earthly
thoughts, which trail upon the ground. Wherefore also he alarms them
by saying, that "they which practice such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." If these things belonged to nature and not to a bad
moral choice, his expression, "they practice," is inappropriate,
it should be, "they suffer." And why should they be cast out of the
kingdom, for rewards and punishments relate not to what proceeds from
nature but from choice?
Ver. 22. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace."
He says not, "the work of the Spirit," but, "the fruit of the
Spirit." Is the soul, however, superfluous? the flesh and the
Spirit are mentioned, but where is the soul? is he discoursing of
beings without a soul? for if the things of the flesh be evil, and
those of the Spirit good, the soul must be superfluous. By no
means, for the mastery of the passions belongs to her, and concerns
her; and being placed amid vice and virtue, if she has used the body
fitly, she has wrought it to be spiritual, but if she separate from
the Spirit and give herself up to evil desires, she makes herself more
earthly. You observe throughout that his discourse does not relate to
the substance of the flesh, but to the moral choice, which is or is
not vicious. And why does he say, "the fruit of the Spirit?" it
is because evil works originate in ourselves alone, and therefore he
calls them "works," but good works require not only our diligence but
God's loving kindness. He places first the root of these good
things, and then proceeds to recount them, in these words, "Love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, temperance; against such there is no law." For who would
lay any command on him who hath all things within himself, and who hath
love for the finished mistress of philosophy? As horses, who are
docile and do every thing of their own accord, need not the lash, so
neither does the soul, which by the Spirit hath attained to
excellence, need the admonitions of the Law. Here too he completely
and strikingly casts out the Law, not as bad, but as inferior to the
philosophy given by the Spirit.
Ver. 24. "And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the
flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof."
That they might not object, "And who is such a man as this?" he
points out by their works those who have attained to this perfection,
here again giving the name of the "flesh" to evil actions. He does
not mean that they had destroyed their flesh, otherwise how were they
going to live? for that which is crucified is dead and inoperative,
but he indicates the perfect rule of life. For the desires, although
they are troublesome, rage in vain. Since then such is the power of
the Spirit, let us live therein and be content therewith, as he adds
himself, Ver. 25. "If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit
let us also walk,"
--being governed by His laws. For this is the force of the words
"let us walk," that is, let us be content with the power of the
Spirit, and seek no help from the Law. Then, signifying that those
who would fain have introduced circumcision were actuated by ambitious
motives, he says, Ver. 26. "Let us not be vainglorious,"
which is the cause of all evils, "provoking one another" to
contentions and strife, "envying one another," for from vainglory
comes envy and from envy all these countless evils.
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