Vv. 7-10. Gop’s JUDGMENT IS UN- ERRING. THOSE WHO SOW EITHER TO THE FLESH OR TO THE SPIRIT SHALL ALIKE REAP THE HARVEST FOR WHICH THEY HAVE SOWN. BUT FAINT NOT IN WELLDOING, FOR WE SHALL IN DUE TIME REAP LIFE ETERNAL.—Ver. 7. μυκ- τηρίζεται. From its original sense of sneer this verb was applied in rhetorical language to the betrayal of covert ill-will and contempt by cynical gestures in spite of fair words. There can be no double-
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ζεται" ὃ γὰρ ἐὰν σπείρῃ ἄνθρωπος, τοῦτο καὶ θερίσει 8. ὅτι ὁ σπείρων εἰς τὴν σάρκα ἑαυτοῦ ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς θερίσει φθοράν " ὁ δὲ σπείρων εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος θερίσει ζωὴν αἰώνιον. 9. τὸ δὲ καλὸν ποιοῦντες μὴ ἐγκακῶμεν - καιρῷ γὰρ ἰδίῳ θερίσομεν,
μὴ ἐκλυόμενοι.
10, ἄρα οὖν ὡς καιρὸν ἔχομεν, ἐργαζώμεθα τὸ
ἀγαθὸν πρὸς πάντας, μάλιστα δὲ πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως.
11. Ἴδετε πηλίκοις ὑμῖν γράμμασιν ἔγραψα τῇ ἐμῇ χειρί.
12.
ὅσοι θέλουσιν εὐπροσωπῆσαι ἐν σαρκὶ, οὗτοι ἀναγκάζουσιν ὑμᾶς περιτέμνεσθαι, μόνον ἵνα τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Χριστοῦ pi’ διώκωνται.
1 μη after Χριστον KABCDEF 17, εἴς. ; after wa FGKL.
dealing with God, for He knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Ver. 8. Every action produces an effect on the character of the actor cor- responding as exactly to its motive as the fruit to the seed. If it springs from selfish desire, it stimulates the growth of evil lusts, and issues in a harvest of in- ward corruption. If, on the contrary, it be done in obedience to the spirit, it quickens spiritual growth, and issues eventually in a harvest of eternal life. The heart of man resembles a field in which he sows, by the mere exercise of his will, a future harvest of good or evil.
Ver. 9. The warnings μὴ ἐγκακῶμεν and μὴ ἐκλνόμενοι Carry on figures bor- rowed from harvest work: the former depicts husbandmen tempted to slacken their exertions by weariness of prolonged labour, the latter reapers overcome by heat and toil.
Ver. 10. καιρὸν. The last verse affirmed that there is a due season for the spiritual harvest as well as the earthly; the same analogy suggests the existence of a spiritual seedtime also, which we are bound to utilise. — τὸ ἀγαθὸν. This word varies widely in meaning, like good in English; it is applied both to the intrinsic goodness of God Himself (Matt. xix. 17), and to the mere manifestation of a kindly tem- per towards others. So also its com- pounds ἀγαθοποιεῖν, ἀγαθουργεῖν. The clause πρὸς πάντας attaches to it here the latter force : so that the goodness spoken of is goodness to others.—r. οἰκείους. Christians are here designated as the household of the faith, and in Eph. ii. 19 as the household of God.
Vv. 11-18. THE APOSTLE WRITES THE PERORATION WITH HIS OWN HAND, DENOUNCING THE MOTIVES OF THE PHARISAIC PARTY. AFFIRMING HIS OWN
ABSOLUTE RELIANCE ON THE CROSS AND THE NEW LIFE OF THE SPIRIT, AND CON- CLUDING WITH A PERSONAL APPEAL AND ΕΙΝΑΙ, BLESSING.—Ver. 11. The Greek text admits but one meaning. The use of the instrumental dative precludes the rendering, See how large a letter I write, which would require πηλίκα γράμματα: so that the verse obviously calls attention to the large letters employed by the writer from this point onwards. The statement in 2 Thess. iii. 17, that he regularly dic- tated the body of his Epistles (cf. also Rom, xvi. 22), merely attaching his sig- nature by way of attestation, explains this appeal. The size of the letters attested the difficulty which he found in writing with his imperfect sight, and the effort he was now making on their behalf proved his anxiety for the welfare of his Galatian disciples. They were evidently well aware of his infirmity, and needed no explanation of this pathetic allusion to his blindness. It may, therefore, be reasonably read in connexion with iv. 15. Probably the prolonged attack of ophthalmia which had threatened the destruction of his sight had seriously impaired it, and they who had watched his sufferings with such tender sympathy would now be quick to feel for the priva- tion which the attack had entailed u him. ἔγραψα: I write. The epistolary aorist is constantly used to denote per- sonal acts of the writer at the time (2 Cor. ix. 3, Eph. vi. 22, Col. iv. 8, Philem. 19, 21).